Gorgon by Greig Beck

Author:Greig Beck [Beck, Greig]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fiction, Thrillers, Suspense, Fairy Tales; Folk Tales; Legends & Mythology, Horror
ISBN: 9781743342800
Google: z20GAwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Pan
Published: 2013-01-01T11:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 20

Within fifteen minutes, they were all gathered in Hammerson’s office, and the second page of the codex was projected onto the large wall-screen. Matt and Rebecca hunched over the parchment itself, a large magnifying glass between them.

Matt nudged her. ‘You can’t read it, can you?’

Rebecca pursed her lips, then smiled. ‘Just a word here and there. Margaret’s not well. We could have spent days finding another translator, or …’ She shrugged.

‘Or do the right thing and bring it to us.’ Matt smiled back. ‘But how the hell did you get it? Not from Monti?’

Hammerson looked from Thompson to Sam from underneath lowered brows. ‘That’s what I’d like to know.’

Sam shook his head. ‘Monti had nothing else. Believe me, if he did, he would have given it up.’

The SAS soldier grinned. ‘Yeah see, that’s what happens when you blunder in and crap all over everything. You can miss the important stuff.’

Sam’s jaw jutted and Thompson snorted. He held up a hand to Sam’s glare. ‘Ease up big fella; you were right, he gave you everything he had. But what he didn’t tell you was where he got the codex page, and what else he left behind. Mr. Gianfranco Ruffino Monti happily informed us that he’d obtained the first page on the Greek black market, and…’

‘And it seems the price for the second sheet was exorbitant, but he didn’t think he needed it anyway.’ Rebecca folded her arms and paced towards Thompson. ‘He felt he had enough information to confirm there was a high-value artifact to recover in Istanbul, and sent Caresche on his mission.’ She turned and nodded for her colleague to continue.

‘That’s about it.’ Thompson half smiled at the interruption. ‘Monti just needed to be persuaded to tell us who the seller was.’

Sam folded tree trunk like arms. ‘And let me guess; you guys went over there and splashed all that Euro funny money around. Nice to have deep pockets.’

Thompson smiled grimly. ‘No money changed hands.’

Rebecca placed a hand on Thompson’s shoulder. ‘The sergeant can be very persuasive.’ She raised an eyebrow. ‘And he wouldn’t take no for an answer.’

Casey Franks winked. ‘Yep, we know how that works.’

Hammerson folded his arms and turned to Matt and Rebecca, who had resumed her seat. ‘Good. Now let’s hear again from our centurion friend. He’s been waiting nearly 2000 years to tell us something important.’

‘Sure. Just need to make sure it all checks out okay.’ Matt used forceps to drag the first page of the codex across and align it with the second – the fibers lined up perfectly. He hunched over the parchment again with the magnifying glass. ‘Looks good – the papyrus has the right amount of aluminum salts in the fibers. Also the edges line up to form a single long roll. In my opinion, it’s the real deal.’ He cleared his throat. ‘Okay, here we go . . . it picks up with the blinded priests …’

Constantine dismounted, and his Praetorian Guard formed up either side of him. I fell in behind, along with Titus and Varinius.

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