From the building next to The Tower, three individuals dressed in black jeans, black T-shirts and baseball hats raced out into the street toward three waiting motorcycles across from the building entrance.
“My god, Sam!” Nina cried, “They are robbing the museum!”
Val was nowhere to be seen. She was absent from the manager’s office.
“Stay here, Nina,” Sam shouted as he made for the door, “I don’t want you to get hurt!”
“Sam!” she yelled back at him, at first protesting, but then she realized the immediate danger and decided to rather ask the manageress about the phone call Val received. Sam raced out of the restaurant.
The bikes bolted down Chambers Street, swinging as they barely missed pedestrians. The robbers thundered their way to the junction at South Bridge. When Sam got to the museum, the security staff stopped him outside, preventing him from getting in while they waited for the police to arrive. He watched the three Ducatis round the corner and disappear, leaving only the sound of their speeding engines within earshot until that too, vanished in the distance.
“What did they steal?” Sam asked.
“As far as we can tell they did not get away with much,” one of the security guards panted. He placed his hands on his hips and caught his breath. “We stopped them from getting to the new exhibit, of course, but they got the chess pieces. Bastards.”
“The chess pieces?” Sam asked casually, hoping the guard would get lost in conversation and yield practical information.
“Aye. The Lewis chess pieces. Bastards got all eleven of ‘em. Gone. Kaput.” The guard shook his head as he stared down the street where they made their escape, as if he wished they would come back.
The police arrived at the scene and the entire building was evacuated, just in case there were more robbers in other areas of the National Museum of Scotland.
“Lewis chess pieces. Lewis. Lewis,” Sam repeated over and over as he made his way back to The Tower to meet Nina and ask her what significance they held before he forgot the name.
“Lewis. Lewis,” he came up the stairs to the restaurant, reciting the name in fear of forgetting it.
Nina was standing by the window, looking out over the street. She was elated to see that Sam had not been hurt and they sat down once more.
“What did I tell you?” she asked calmly, gloating through a sense of defeat for not thwarting the robbery after all. “Val disappears and BOOM!” For a long while, she pierced Sam’s eyes with her look of self-assurance. He said nothing. She was right, he had to concede.
“Lewis,” he said simply.
“What?”
“Lewis. Ring a bell? Lewis chess pieces?” he asked, feeling a little stupid for not knowing what they were. As if he did not feel inadequate enough by having to admit that Nina was probably correct in her assumptions of Val, he now had to feel like an illiterate fool in the Great and All-Knowing Historian’s playground.
Nina’s face sank in astonishment, knowing what they were and their significance. Now she knew why Val would go after them. Impatient and extremely curious, Sam urged, “Well? Are you going to tell me?”
“The Lewis chess pieces were discovered in the bay of Uig, so they also take the name, Uig chessmen. I think they were found on the Isle of Lewis in the early 1800’s. A full chess set carved in walrus ivory from, shit, the 12th century?” she asked herself, looking up at the ceiling to organize her thoughts.
“Alright, so why would Val have such a hard-on for them?” Sam asked.
“I’m not sure. They are presumably Viking related. It is debated that they originate from Trondheim, because the Outer Hebrides were ruled by Norway, like a lot of other Scottish isles. But…” she pursed her lips in thought, recalling what she knew about the artifacts, “…there was opposition from some lads from Iceland who claimed that the chess pieces came from Iceland.” Nina shrugged, “That’s as much as I know about them. That’s all they stole?”
“Apparently they would have gotten into other exhibitions, had it not been for the swift response of the security team of the National Museum of Scotland,” he announced majestically.
“What the hell would Val want with the chess pieces?” Nina pondered out loud, but Sam promptly hushed her, looking past her at someone.
“What?” she asked.
“Just shut up and wait. Keep your thoughts inside your pretty little head,” Sam smiled and winked, speaking in a remarkably low tone. Before Nina could question him, Val sat down next to her. Nina could almost not conceal her surprise.
“Hey! Where have you been? We want to get some dessert,” she lied confidently.
“I had to go to the Ladies restroom after I completed the phone call. It was Gunnar,” she smiled awkwardly, but she looked a lot calmer than before. Nina and Sam exchanged looks.
“What is all the hullabaloo about out here?” Val asked innocently. Sam noticed Nina’s dampened scoff and shook his head surreptitiously at her.
“The Museum got robbed right in front of us, would you believe,” Nina answered coldly, abandoning any hint to subtlety. Her dark eyes nailed Val’s for a moment, but the biker woman just turned to look out the window to the gathering crowd and police presence down in the street.
“Now we won’t be able to see the exhibit?” she asked in a tone of mild disappointment. “I was really looking forward to seeing that.”
“There will be a next time, I’m sure,” Sam said plainly and looked at the fiery stare of Nina, her patience waning rapidly. He could see that she was set on just saying it, sooner or later. Still, she held her tongue for now, as Val sat down. She kept looking toward the manager’s office, much like an unfaithful wife’s paranoia when meeting her lover in a public place. Nina turned to see what she was looking at.
“What is the matter, Val?” she asked sharply.
“Nothing,” Val replied with an unconvincing smile. “Oh my god, I have to stop drinking these,” she said as she lifted the bottled water, her second bottle, “I have to pee again.” Her tone was playful as she rolled her eyes and stood up, but Nina was not letting her out of her sight again.
“I’ll come with you. The tea and alcohol is getting the better of me too,” she said quickly and rose from her chair. Nina gave Sam a look just to let him know that she was on to the biker lady and instead of dismissing it this time, he nodded.
In the dark green restroom, adorned with wall sized mirrors and faux jade tiling, Val checked each stall to make sure she was alone with Nina, but she pretended to look for a clean toilet. Nina took the opportunity to fix her make-up, watching Val in the mirror. To her surprise, Val came straight to her and put her purse on the counter.
“I have something for you,” she smiled.
I swear to God if she takes a chess piece out of that bag, I will throw her skinny ass on the floor and put her in a headlock! Nina thought to herself, but she smiled with an expression of whimsical mystery and said, “Val… what are you up to?”
“I told you I would get you something antique, remember?” Val smiled, looking towards the door.
No fucking way. She is going to pull a goddamn chess piece out, I swear! Nina thought, and replied eagerly, “Yes, you did!”
Holding her breath, quite literally, Nina ogled the woman’s hand as it sank into her back and fumbled about inside. She could not peel her eyes from the open mouth of the handbag as Val’s hand emerged. Nina’s heart slammed hard as she prepared to take Val down physically — something she had never done before and quite honestly did not know how to execute.
Val pulled the most beautiful piece from her bag. It looked like pewter, or marcasite, an ornate flask of tarnished beauty. It bore a mesh of intricately woven silver over it, fixed to the actual container and at the top it had a small lid that fitted in the mouth of the flask. Nina’s jaw dropped. She was unfamiliar with the piece, but there was no doubt to its antiquity and value. In the woven patterns she recognized some Nordic motifs, but other than that she had no idea where it came from or to what culture it was akin.