“Almost?” Adriana asked.
“They became consumed with being more like their neighbors. As you Americans say, keeping up with the Joneses. Greed, lust, and other temptations took hold of their nation. That’s why the Brotherhood was formed. Since the time of Joshua, we have protected it. When a worthy warrior reveals himself, only then did we remove it from its hiding place.”
Sean was confused. “So wait a minute. You guys knew where it was and were responsible for giving it to people you deemed worthy throughout history.”
“Only when it was needed,” Baldwin interrupted.
“Right. Fine. So what happened? Did someone misplace it along the line or what? Seems like an awfully important relic to lose.”
Baldwin pushed back his irritation. “No. One of our forefathers returned it to its resting place and hid it so that it couldn’t be used for evil.”
“But you said that part of what you guys do is bring it out in times of need, to give it to a worthy warrior. Seems like if you’re supposed to do that, it might be handy to know where it is.”
Baldwin realized Sean made a good point, one for which he didn’t have an answer. He looked down at the floor for a moment, perplexed by the issue. “Thank you for pointing that out. Our orders now are that we do not allow anyone to find it. That is our creed and will continue to be until the end of time.”
Sean thought about pointing out their blind obedience, but he decided he’d asked enough questions on that issue.
“What about the North Koreans?” Adriana asked. “You said they want to engineer some kind of super soldiers. How do you know that? And what happened to the guys who escaped earlier?”
“We have reason to believe that one of the Chairman’s generals is going to try to overthrow the government and seize control of the country. While most of the military is loyal to the leader, if the general were to acquire the sword, his coup would be virtually guaranteed a victory.”
“So why not send a message to Dear Leader? Tell him that he’s got a rebellious general in his midst. Let him take care of the problem.” Tommy brought up a good point. Sean knew the answer, but he let Baldwin give it.
“The Chairman does not take well to messages from the outside world. I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but he tends to be a bit paranoid when it comes to that sort of thing.”
Was that sarcasm? Sean wondered. Up until that point, he was fairly certain Baldwin was a robot with no emotions, feelings, or a sense of humor.
“Were we to send him a message, he would simply ignore it,” Baldwin finished his thought.
“He’s right,” Sean agreed. “They look at anything coming in from the outside as propaganda. Wouldn’t believe it for a second.”
“So what do we do?” June asked.
“You,” Baldwin said in a sharp tone, “will do nothing. You will let us do what we have been trained to do. We will eliminate the threat and keep the sword safe.”
“Well, you guys are doing a bang-up job right now,” Sean said. “You’ve got a North Korean hit squad running loose in Europe right now.”
“And if you’d stay out of our way, we could get back to taking care of them.”
“Do you even know where they are, where they’re going?”
“We’ll know shortly.”
“And how is that?”
“We have our methods.” Baldwin snarled the last word.
The others in the room felt like they were watching two young rams butting heads.
“You still didn’t answer my question,” Adriana said. “How do you know about their plans for the super soldiers? And how did the North Koreans learn about the medallion and the other clues?”
Baldwin looked over at the man with the bandage on his head. The guy shrugged and then gave a nod.
“They had help.”
“Help?” Tommy asked. “What kind of help?”
Baldwin shifted, clearly uncomfortable with either the question or the answer. No one in the room could figure out which.
“For the better part of two decades, they’ve been searching for Excalibur. Initially, it was the former Chairman’s idea. When he learned about it and the potential it held, he spent millions scouring the globe to find it. When he died, his son took over and scrapped the entire project. Said it was a foolish errand, a wild goose chase. He wanted to spend more money on nuclear warheads and less on trying to find a mythical sword with magical powers. The general, however, was less willing to let go.”
Baldwin turned to the big screen and pressed a button on his remote again. The image of a man in North Korean military garb appeared on the screen. He had an angry scowl on his face that looked like it might have been permanent.
“This is General Ku Min-Woo. He was behind the initial search. It was he who convinced the previous Chairman to search for the sword. When the son refused to continue looking, Min-Woo started formulating a plan to seize power. He has a loyal group of followers in the army. You met some of them today.”
“We actually met them before,” Sean said.
Adriana ignored the comment and pressed on. “You said they had help. Who would help the North Koreans? Chinese? The Russians?”
Baldwin shook his head slowly. “No. They are not involved. The Chinese know better than to mess with them. The Russians might have, but they didn’t know anything about the sword.”
“Who then?” Tommy asked.
Baldwin paused, contemplating how to answer. His eyes blinked rapidly. When he spoke, it was in a grave tone. “They had help from American archaeologists.”
“What?” Tommy said. “Why would Americans help them? They’re like the weakest enemy we have. Every American knows that. Why in the world would someone do anything that could help make North Korea more powerful?”
“They didn’t do it willingly, Tommy. They were forced to.”
“So they’re prisoners?” Sean said.
Baldwin nodded, but for some reason he kept looking at Tommy. “Yes. They were captured almost twenty years ago. We believe the previous Chairman knew what they were looking for and tracked them. Once he had them… let’s just say they have ways of getting what they want out of their captives.”
“He tortured them,” June said. “Ugh, that must have been awful. For twenty years, living like slaves? I can’t imagine.”
Baldwin’s gaze never left Tommy.
It was clearly making Tommy uncomfortable. “Um, why do you keep looking at me like that? It’s kind of weird. I get it. I’m an archaeologist; the Americans who helped the General tin-boo or whatever are archaeologists. You’re creeping me out a little.”
Sean’s eyes widened as the realization hit him. He knew it before Baldwin opened his mouth to speak.
“Tommy,” Baldwin said, “the people helping the North Koreans… they’re your parents.”
Chapter 15
“What did you just say?” Tommy stared at the leader of the Brotherhood.
At first, the man’s words barely seemed real. It took a minute before they set in. When that happened, Tommy’s confusion turned to anger. His eyes blazed like bonfires, and his nose flared with every breath.
He stood up from his chair suddenly. The man behind him placed his hand on Tommy’s shoulder to force him back down, but he may as well have been a fly buzzing around a bull. Tommy swatted his hand away and shoved the man in the chest with surprising force.
The guy started to step toward Tommy, but Baldwin held up a hand — a silent order to stand down.
“You got a lot of nerve bringing up my parents. What kind of sick joke is this?” Tommy’s voice raged, booming off the walls like thunder.
Baldwin remained calm, keeping his voice low and even. “I know that it must be hard to hear. I can’t imagine the tidal wave of emotions you must be feeling. But it’s no lie. Your parents are alive, Tommy. They’ve been living in North Korea for the last two decades.”