The Decrypter: Secret of the Lost Manuscript (Calla Cress Techno Thriller Series: Book 1) (9 page)

With fervent eyes on her, Eichel accepted her handshake.  His forceful grip nearly jolted her arm socket. 

She managed a weak smile.  “I’m looking for my friend, Allegra Driscoll.  We had an appointment to meet here yesterday.  I’m part of her delegation.”

Eichel had been carefully studying her credentials as she spoke. He shot her a quizzical look.   “You know Allegra Driscoll?” he said, more as a statement than a question.

“Yes.”

Eichel stepped back.  He tilted his head towards the doors.  “Come this way.”

She obliged, grateful to escape the frigid night.  For a day that had been tremendously sun-drenched, the clear star-speckled sky had invited an unforgiving cold front. 

Eichel led her through the museum entrance.  Even with the dim lights, Calla could not have prepared for the grand exhibitions ahead of her walk. 

The Ishtar Gate, about a minute into their stroll, commanded an audience with its majestic blue and gold tiles depicting lions and aurochs, the ancestral forms of domestic cattle.  Ordered for construction by King Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon, Calla could just imagine the respect that it once drew in ancient Babylon.  They plodded past the main Processional Way leading to the Gate and swept right through.  Their pace had slowed down, perhaps a gift from Eichel noticing her amazement at the display.

“Your first visit to the Pergamon?”

Calla’s focus had been on the exhibitions.  She’d hardly detected the dipping of her jaw.  A little embarrassed, she closed her lips.  “Coming here always seems like the first time,” she said.

Eichel unlocked a concealed door at the end of the gallery.  Calla had not noticed the hidden entrance, invisible to the untrained eye.  Through the door, a flurry of museum officials and police investigators sat at low tables examining notes and photographs.  Stuffy and crowded, Calla presumed it was the main surveillance room. 

The walls were lined with flat monitors displaying every inch of the museum. 

She recognized some of the security systems, having advised the British Museum security team on safe, unobtrusive methods of protecting displayed Italic and Etruscan antiquities.  For now, the room served as the temporary headquarters for this investigation.

The officers acknowledged Eichel’s authoritative presence and carried on about their work. 

Something must’ve gone on here yesterday.
Calla refused to believe that a simple theft had caused the commotion as Bierman had explained. 

Eichel ambled to an adjacent room before proceeding down a dimly lit stairway that led to a lower level. 

She tailed him, wondering if coming here had been a good idea, but the marvel in the next room changed her mind altogether.  

Her eyes gaped at the sight of an immense vault, the size of a high school gymnasium.  Filled to the brim, the space boasted ancient Egyptian art, sculptures from archaic Hellenistic ages, to artwork from Greek and Roman antiquity, mosaics, bronzes, jewelry and pottery. 

One wall stored Islamic works covering the entire region of Spain to India from the eighth to the nineteenth centuries and several other precious priceless items awaiting display. 

Calla breathed in the mesmerizing sight. 
If only Allegra could see this room!

She glanced around. 
When’s he going to get to the meat of the tour?

Rubbing her arms rigorously, she held them in an embrace for warmth.  “Listen, do you know where Allegra Driscoll is?”

Eichel marched ahead and halted by a worktable. 

She read the label.

PRIAM

The table itself was empty.

CHAPTER FIVE

1:15 A.M.

Berlin

“I wish I knew, Frau Cress.” Raimund faced her for the first time since entering the room. 

A perplexed look crossed Calla’s face.  “Herr Eichel, I’m really worried.  I’ve not heard a word from Allegra all day.  It’s not like her not to be in touch.  We had an appointment to meet here today.”

Eichel rested his frame against the aluminum table. 

Calla sought to get to the point.  “The hotel informed me she ordered a limousine for the Pergamon first thing this morning.”

Eichel peered past her, back the way they’d come.  When he was certain they were not being overheard, he motioned for Calla to sit down. 

She sank into one of the workstation chairs. 

“My police officers are not privy to the information I’m about to reveal.  So, I need your cooperation.”

“How well do you know Frau Driscoll?” he asked.

Calla shrugged her shoulders.  “We’re colleagues.  I’ve known her close to seven years.”  She thought for a few seconds.  “She’s a good friend.”

Eichel took a seat beside her.  He studied her face and leaned forward, his voice hovering in soft tones.  “She was here.  In fact, she was the last person to be seen with Priam’s Treasure.” He took a deliberate pause.  “And, with the Deveron Manuscript.”

“Are you saying both have gone missing?” asked Calla.

He stood up and veered to the corner of the worktable and picked up a tenth-century sculpture.  He set it down with a gentle thud.  “She came as you say.”  His hands slid into his pockets as he paced around the table.  “It was earlier. Around 6:00A.M.”  Another pause.  “I gather it was to work with the artifacts before they went on display.  We cleared her credentials yesterday.”

Eichel monitored Calla’s reaction. How much did she know?  How much would she surrender? 

Calla said nothing. 

“You work for the intelligence arm of your government, don’t you?” he said.

Calla attempted a denial.

“Don’t.  I know Allegra was with ISTF,”  his face braking into a grin.  “Do you know about the Deveron?”

He waited for her response. 

She gave none. 

“It supposedly contains formulas and scientific clues that have helped perform military miracles and wonders in history.  Your friend Allegra was here to verify those claims,” he said.

Calla was slightly amused.  Each account that she heard of the Deveron Manuscript had a completely new twist to it.  She rose with an awkward step and scrutinized Eichel’s round glasses.  “I’ve heard the rumors.  Surely today, educated people can’t believe that this document can do all you claim.  Why have these so-called formulas never been tried before?  What’s to say that a document dating what is it, six hundred years or even more, is of any value to military intelligence today?”

She sauntered along the worktable and picked up a small brass plate and examined its exquisite Islamic designs.  “Besides, aren’t you interested in finding Priam’s Treasure instead of a mythical document whose existence has not even been confirmed?”

Eichel smirked and moved over to where Calla stood.  “Come on Frau Cress, you’re a smart historian.  Even I know there’s some truth to the rumors.”

Is he fishing?

 Calla placed the item down and faced Eichel.  “What are you getting at?”

Eichel stroked his pointy chin.  “I think the document is older than most people think.”

“How old?”

He shrugged his shoulders.  “Who knows?  I’m here to investigate the disappearance of prized treasures.  I was at a dead end,”  he said smirking at her.  “I now have you and your connection to Driscoll.  Incidentally, we’ve secured Priam’s Treasure.  It's down here.  Only one item is missing.  We’re not sharing this information until we put together the pieces of this puzzle.”

Eichel’s scruffy voice coaxed for a reaction.  “Do you see?”

It was at times easier than others to follow his English.  Now that he seemed to be getting onto something, his sentences were not entirely comprehensible.

“The real crime is that both Allegra and the manuscript are missing.  They’ve been … what do you say?  Abducted from the museum?”

Calla’s pupils dilated at the realization of what he was insinuating.  She fired him a quizzical glare.  “Abducted?”

Have I misunderstood his German?
 

“You mean she’s been kidnapped?”

He tilted his head to one side.  “No.  Vaporized.  Vanished into thin air!  Take a look at this.”

He led her to the end of the vault and then through another narrow staircase behind a cement pillar.  They entered a slender doorway, hidden within the walls.  The damp, moldy room formed part of the enigmatic maze under the museum. 

Past the narrow entrance, brushes, easels, small bottles of solutions and dyes, including several other artist tools, cluttered the petite chamber.  Its minimal size suggested it served as a private work area, perhaps used for restorations.  She had never seen so many artifacts in such a small space. 

Her fascination with the room was short-lived as a new sense of trepidation swallowed her. 
Is Allegra really in danger?  What exactly could Eichel have meant by vaporized?

Eichel hesitated at the far corner of the room.  He glanced down and pointed to a hairpin.  Even in the dim light, Calla recognized it.  Allegra always wore the rhinestone, silver plated hairpin, handmade and designed to look like a blooming flower in her tasteful hair.

“Not a trace of blood, fingerprints, or even a sign of a struggle,” said Eichel. 

He crouched down.  On the floor next to the hairpin, lay a peculiar object, a tubular cylinder.  Handcrafted out of thick glass, it was transparent enough to display an empty interior. 

“We’re not sure where this came from or what it is,” he said.  “It’s a container of some sort, but we can’t open it.  It’s electronically protected.  Have you seen anything like this?”

Calla shook her head.

“A museum worker in Saint Petersburg claimed it had been sitting with the Priam artifacts for years, even though it was only discovered yesterday.”

“Where did it come from?” Calla asked.

Eichel shrugged his shoulders.  “We don’t know.  However, like I said, one gold item from Priam’s Treasure is also missing.”

Calla examined the cylinder.  “Was it looted from Berlin in 1945 with the rest of the treasure?”

Eichel let out a defeated sigh.  “My guess is that the cylinder contained the Deveron Manuscript or the culprit wanted to place it in there.”

Calla studied him closely.  For a stern police officer, probably nearing retirement, the soft eyes behind his spectacles revealed a gentler side to him.  He obviously was still looking for clues and dared not tamper with the crime scene. 

He examined the cylinder with care, sliding it back and forth with a toothpick.  “It’s locked shut.  We’ve yet to find the access code to this secure system.  It looks a little dated, but it’s as secure as they come.” 

“Let me see?”

He raised his head.  “You work in intelligence.  Isn’t this a biometric, fingerprint lock?  I thought these systems only came into existence this past decade.”

Calla knew the security program.  It had been designed by the UK government a few decades ago and patented globally.  She tunneled a hand through her loose hair, trying to keep up with the pieces of the story. 
Was Allegra involved?  If so why?

He surveyed her stumped expression.  “There’s no way the manuscript could have been taken out of the glass case.  Every inch of this cylinder is intact.  We have already conducted fingerprint tests.  There’s no proof it was there in the first place.”

Calla relaxed the muscles in her face.  “Why do you think the manuscript was with the treasure?  That makes no sense to me.”

Eichel was clearly getting to some point, and he realized he’d revealed more than he wished.  He was right about one thing.  According to Jack, these security systems were resilient.  Eichel was looking for a scapegoat.  The manuscript had been lifted from the cylinder, without any damage and according to him, no alarms had been triggered and there was no sign of forced entry.
But why is he telling me all this?

“Are you accusing Allegra of taking the manuscript?  That’s absurd! Don’t you know who she is?” she asked.

Eichel cast her a superficial sneer.  “You’re the only person who understood Allegra’s real mission here.”

Am I a suspect?

He paced around her.  “You know her well.  Therefore, we’d like to ask for your cooperation on a few things.  What was Allegra working on?  What did she discover concerning the Deveron Manuscript?  You’re a historian.  Is it connected to the antiquities of Priam?  After all, it was stolen while on Priam’s guard.”

He believes the Deveron tales.  And…is quite confident that the two items were equally valuable.

“Your documentation says you’re also a linguist.  I imagine you’re gifted in ancient hieroglyphics and symbols as those on the manuscript.  That’s why Driscoll needed you here.  You must know something,” he added.

Calla refused to be cornered.  What were her legal rights in such a situation?  She knelt beside the hairpin.  “I don’t know what you think I know.  Right now, I’m more concerned about Allegra.  Are you going to investigate her disappearance?  She could be hurt!”