Rothschild took shelter under his umbrella and was about to go with him when Eddie cleared his throat. ‘Oh. Yes,’ she said, with faint irritation. ‘Markus, this is Eddie Chase. Mr Chase, Dr Markus Derrick.’
‘Nice to meet you,’ said Eddie, offering his hand.
Derrick shook it with enthusiasm. ‘Mr Chase.’ He gave Rothschild an expectant look, awaiting a more detailed introduction, but none came. ‘Okay! Please, come with me.’ The group headed across the bridge, Eddie getting wet as his travelling companion stayed beneath the umbrella. ‘So, you have come all this way to see the Pergamon altar, yes? It is a good thing Maureen is my friend; that wing of the museum will be closed to the public for some years as we build a new roof. But I can get you in. As the director of the altar’s restoration, it is a perk of the job!’ He chuckled.
They reached the glass doors leading into the cylindrical structure, which housed a lobby and visitor centre. The museum was still open, though the tourists were now mostly leaving. Derrick nodded in greeting to a security guard, who let the group through a side gate, and they headed into the building proper.
‘Now, what is this about?’ he asked. ‘Your phone call was very mysterious, Maureen. You want to examine the altar for… angels? Christian symbols? You can be sure there are none. I have looked very carefully at it for over twenty years!’
‘It might not be on it,’ said Eddie. ‘It might be hidden inside it, we don’t know. All we do know is that these angels are something to do with the Book of Revelation — and somebody’s kidnapped my wife to try to get hold of them.’
Derrick stopped in surprise. ‘Kidnapped your wife?’
Rothschild anticipated his next question. ‘He’s married to Nina Wilde.’
‘Nina Wilde? The Nina Wilde?’
‘You know her?’ Eddie asked.
‘Of course I do! We have never met, but I know of her, naturally. Menschenskind! Married to Nina Wilde. A remarkable career she has had, yes.’
Eddie took a moment of pleasure from Rothschild’s visible jealousy — whatever her issues with Nina, Derrick didn’t share them — but had more important concerns. ‘They’re forcing her to look for these angels. And we think they’ve already found one.’
‘In Rome,’ added Rothschild. Seretse had given them the news during the flight. ‘Someone broke into the Jewish catacombs in the Villa Torlonia last night. Nobody knows what they took, but they smashed a hole in a wall to get it. And murdered two security guards as they escaped.’
Derrick was shocked. ‘Murdered! Who are these people?’
‘Some sort of religious cult,’ said Eddie. ‘Their leader reckons he’s a prophet.’
‘Since they seem obsessed by the Book of Revelation, it’s reasonable to assume that the prophecies they’re interested in are of the doomsday kind,’ Rothschild said.
‘Okay,’ said Derrick, perturbed. They set off again. ‘Then you are here because the altar — or the Throne of Satan — is mentioned in Revelation?’
‘That’s right,’ Eddie replied. ‘Soon as I told the Prof about it, she knew what it meant.’
‘Mr Chase thinks Dr Wilde had already made the connection but was deliberately holding it back to buy time,’ said Rothschild. ‘Whether she did or not, she still apparently identified another site, possibly the Synagogue of Satan from Revelation — and because of that, two innocent people were killed.’
‘Don’t you bloody dare,’ Eddie warned her. ‘She’d have done everything she could to slow them down. If she hadn’t, they might already be here.’ He glanced at the museum’s visitors. ‘And even more people could get hurt.’
Derrick was becoming more alarmed by the moment. ‘There could be a danger to the public? I shall arrange more security.’
‘If we find this angel, you might not need to,’ the Englishman told him. ‘Once I’ve got it, I’m going to use it to make them let Nina go.’
‘Two points,’ said Rothschild. ‘First: even if we do find it, it’s not yours to take — it’s the property of the German government, and I doubt they’ll let you simply hand it over to some murderous cult. Second: how will you let these people know you have it? You don’t have any way to contact them.’
‘I’ll find ’em. Or they’ll find me. Either way, they’ll know I’ve got the thing. Once we figure out where it is.’
Derrick led them to a set of glass double doors with a barrier in front. He moved the obstacle aside. ‘I do not know if there really is an angel hidden inside the altar, but’ — he opened the doors wide — ‘you are welcome to look.’
Eddie followed the avuncular German through — and stopped in astonishment.
The room was a cavernous space in its own right, but its contents were what had impressed him. The far side was occupied by what he assumed was a Greek temple, wide stairs leading up between the two arms of the inspiration for the museum’s exterior. Elegant columns supported a roof bearing several statues, an opening beyond the top of the steps leading to a display room.
There was more to the temple than sheer size, though. Around its base was an elaborate frieze, larger-than-life carved figures of gods and heroes locked in combat with monstrous creatures. Sections were missing, however, pale blank stone filling the gaps.
‘Okay, wasn’t expecting this,’ Eddie said. ‘It’s pretty good.’ Rothschild made a faintly exasperated sound.
Derrick was apparently more used to British understatement. ‘It is, yes?’ He swept an arm from one side of the frieze to the other as they approached. ‘That is the Gigantomachy, the battle of the gods of Olympus — Apollo, Athena, Hecate and others — against the giants. There are more panels along both the sides.’
‘Lot of gaps in ’em,’ Eddie observed.
‘Yes, unfortunately. But there are many more pieces that we are reassembling. Some day we hope to finish the whole display.’
‘So where’s this altar, then?’ Eddie looked up the steps, assuming it would be at the top, but saw nothing.
Derrick gave him a confused look before laughing, while Rothschild struggled to contain a mocking snigger.
‘All right, what’s the joke?’ Eddie demanded.
‘This is the altar,’ said the German. He waved his hand again to encompass the whole of the massive structure. ‘All of it! The Altar of Zeus, moved brick by brick from Turkey.’
Eddie stared up at the building in dismay. ‘Buggeration. This might take longer than I thought…’
13
Eddie reached the end of the Gigantomachy frieze on the altar’s right wing, gazing up at the final panels — displaying a warrior with his face and one arm missing beside an equally incomplete horse — before turning and retracing his steps back around the structure to the same position on the left side. A tall mirror was mounted on the back wall to create the illusion that the building continued deeper into the museum; his reflection regarded him disconsolately.
There were numerous winged figures amongst the carved combatants, which he had immediately thought were angels, but Rothschild and Derrick explained during the group’s examination of the ancient temple that they were actually Greek gods such as Nike and Uranus. It was a sign of his growing concern that he hadn’t made a joke about either name. The German had assured him that the sculptures were solid slabs of marble, with nothing concealed either inside or behind them, and that they long pre-dated the birth of Christ.
‘So where is this bloody thing?’ he asked himself. The balding mirror image had no answer. With a sigh, he went back the way he had come.
The two archaeologists were at the top of the stairs, in the display room behind the facade. Eddie ascended to find them examining another frieze set out along the walls. ‘Have you found anything?’