1956 – Genoa - Italy
"Do you mind that's extremely delicate," The insolence of these people was intolerable. I couldn't believe those charlatans in the hotel either, they didn't believe a word I said. I wanted them to know what we discovered could change the face of humanity. They just laughed at me. Those fools. And now here I am getting onboard a grand vessel which will take me to someone who would understand the gravity of the situation.
At least there was someone I knew who could help me…
Someone who could help me understand what this all means.
I held the ring tightly thinking about what it meant. Once I reached New York this would explain to those idiots who failed to listen, why we needed to find the stone before somebody else does. Knowing about the location was one thing but understanding where lies the truth was the other.
For millennia civilizations have tried to find the answers to the existence of intelligent human life, where did we come from and from whom were we born? My team and I had the start to those answers, but those men in the hotel didn't understand the severity of my findings. I doubt they even understood what I was saying.
I stopped to take a moment looking at the grand liner.
The pier was full of people, the SS Petoria's maiden voyage was today, and it looked like everyone was here to see her set sail towards her destination in New York, from here in the lovely Mediterranean sunshine.
"Excuse me miss, are you Doctor Alexandra Knight?" A very young attractive British man from the tabloids stopped me before I got on the ship. I kind of felt like he had started out with his own money. He looked intelligent and a lot more admiring than any other reporter I had seen.
"Don't touch that." I shouted at the porter who began handling my satchel inappropriately. I turned back to the reporter.
"Yes, but now is not the time for an interview young man," I pulled up my peach-coloured dress and made my way across the platform which stretched out over the gap. I was terrified of heights and could feel myself spinning and falling, of course I wasn't spinning it was the feeling of vertigo that made me believe I was.
I took one last look at the town of Genoa and felt the burning eyes of someone watching me. I looked up as a tall man looked down at me, smiling. I turned around and could see the young paparazzi capitalist staring back at me too.
I went inside with the rest of the bustling crowd.
Seeing the inside of the hallway was quite something. From the aristocratic portraits hanging on the walls to the Italian architecture which ran down to the expensive tiled flooring. It was like walking into a palace of sorts.
"Don't push me," I said feeling the slight rush of the crowds as they came spilling into the hall.
Looking up at the ceiling was as elegant as the flooring, the white arches looked like it had been aesthetically designed by Minoletti himself.
This was irrefutably the way to travel in luxury, I thought to myself.
"Welcome to the SS Petoria," The dashing porter said. He wore a brilliant white jacket and trousers. He began walking me to my room, he looked at my ticket and could see I was staying in one of the luxury suites. He didn't ask me anything, he just began explaining about where we were.
"This luxury liner has space for 700 Tourist Class passengers, 320 Cabin Class and 215 First Class with 3 more luxury suites built – one of which is yours." He said like a guide taking me around a museum.
I had no intention of associating myself with any of the other classes, I just wanted to get where I was going, meeting as little to no people if I could. Walking along the promenade the porter pointed out various places to visit on the ship.
"Each class has its own separate dining room, lounge and social hall," the porter continued smiling, but I wasn't really focused on his words. No - my focus was on my research, these people had no idea what was coming and if I didn't get to New York, we may never be able to prevent such a cataclysmic event from happening.
"Excuse me is it much further? I feel like you're taking me the scenic way." My patience was wearing thin, it had been a long journey; from the dig site to the waste of time meeting at the hotel and now to here -and I was feeling rather tired.
"We're nearly there miss…"
"Doctor…" I corrected the insolence of the man.
"Sorry Miss Doctor, that's an unusual name," he said trying my patience.
"I'm a doctor." I said a little enraged.
"You don't look like a doctor." He japed, as this conversation was becoming tiresome. I wanted to tell this vacuous individual, that there are indeed doctors who train in fields other than the medical profession. Although to look at me now, I looked daintier than that of a hero of a 1930's film serial. This dress made me look more like I was having dinner with Pietro Badoglio, than scouring a jungle with a fedora, bullwhip and satchel.
"Very well," I said, with a sigh. I had enough of trying to get this man to see sense.
As we approached the First-Class passenger rooms, he was still talking.
"We have 563 crew members onboard, including myself who'd be happy to make your journey more comfortable, my name is Hari Vincenzo and here's the area you'll be staying miss."
He showed me the different rooms.
My First-Class ticket to New York was paid for by a Japanese collector of rare antiquities called Yuki Minosato and man called Kenichiro Namba – a couple who had made their names by finding wonderous artefacts and relics. They said they knew of a woman who would listen to what I had discovered. Minosato's office made sure my room was one of the three luxury rooms onboard the liner. Lord Milton Parker stayed in the Eagle suite, Lady Ramsay Simmonds in the Osprey suite and then yours truly in the Albatross suite. Lady Ramsay looked very similar to me, her hair was as brown as mine and her eyes were…well she had an uncanny resemblance to me.
As we walked close to her room, she came out to greet me.
"I love that satchel darlin' I could see myself having something like that you know." She said looking at probably the most expensive item I had. It was indeed valuable to me, and I wasn't going to let it out of my sight.
Arriving at my room, the porter explained that most of the important rooms on the ship were named after the avifauna of Italy.
The mild mannered but insolent porter opened the door to my room. It was furnished in some of the most exquisite Florentine paraphernalia I had ever seen.
"This will do," I said not wanting to show my overwhelming feelings towards the room as he opened the door. "Thank you," I had no coin to give him a tip. Even though I was staying in this room, I had no items of worth to show that I could afford to even stay here, unless I sold what I took from the dig site.
Even if I had money, I certainly would not give him a tip – simple reasoning for that would be for insulting my salutation and why on earth would I pay someone for just walking me to my room.
I could have walked myself. Maybe I would have gotten here much sooner, I thought.
I began feeling tired and the large bed covered in white linen in front of me looked very homely indeed. I slowly took off my white satin shoes and fell back on the bed. My eyes became heavy, and I could feel myself asleep.
The dream was intense, I saw myself at the dig site in Kwainaba, the feel of the burning sun blasted against my shoulders as I took another drink of the lukewarm water. The bodies in the dirt sort of rose from the ground as the dark brown soil tumbled off the three people we uncovered.
KNOCK.
The sound of knocking at my door awoke me from the surreal dreamscape.
KNOCK
"For heaven's sake," I said angrily opening the door. The feel of the thug's hand over my mouth was altogether frightening. He put one of my scarves as a gag in my mouth and forced me into the brown chair by the dresser. I couldn't move or do anything other than sit there.
The tall thin man I saw earlier looking down from the lido deck, walked into my room, his skin was as dark as the night – his white teeth glowed in the dimly lit room. His grey jacket had a military style to how it looked, matching the movement of the man. I tried to scream but no one could hear me through the gag. My words were mumbled, I was scared and didn't know what was going to happen to my life.
"Well, well doctor, I don't have to remind you about keeping secrets now do I, please don't get up," he said with an unwelcoming chuckle, "my name is Jasper, happy to make your acquaintance." He spoke with a deep south American accent, offering some sort of attributable curtsy. "I have to say what you said at the hotel was quite something."
It was odd, but I didn't remember seeing anyone there that matched his description or any of the hoodlums near me.
Who was this man? I thought.
"I don't need you to talk, ha, ha, I just need you to listen." Jasper said sitting down on the floral bed runner on the Four Poster Bed lighting up a cigar. His brutish men approached my satchel and undid the leather and metal clasp. The brute handed Jasper my journal. As two more brutes entered the room. I watched Jasper flicking through the journal before resting it on the bed.
"This is very comfortable; I must say doctor, you do travel in style." Jasper continued sort of springing on the bed. "It seems you have found something we would be very interested in. Do you know who we are?"
I had to confess, I had no idea who these people were and why they didn't speak up before.
"We're a group of protectors if you were, we find and hide certain artifacts, let's just say - that should remain hidden from the populace."
The people I met at the hotel were historians and a museum curator, who were these people? I thought about where I had come from and didn't recognise anyone inside the room. Could they have been watching from outside or listening in on some sort of listening device. My goodness I thought, what I have got myself in to?
"I don't want to bore you with the details about where we come from doctor, are numbers are many and we have eyes and ears everywhere." He took out a gold coin, I recognised the design. It was one of the Byzantine coins held by the Varangian elite guards.
Jasper looked around the room. "This is a lovely ship, wouldn't you say? I would hate to see anything happen to it." Although his words were calm, they contained a very chilling tone to them. I didn't know who these men were, what they wanted and even more worrying, what they were capable of, but I had a feeling I was going to find out.
"Let me tell you a story Dr. Knight, it's about a young girl and a young boy. Their names were Curiosity and Trust," Jasper took out a cigar and began lighting it. The orange glow of the cigar end emitted a slither of smoke. He got up and walked over to the drinks cabinet and began pouring himself a Ramazzotti Arzente Riserva Italian Brandy.
"One day Curiosity and Trust were playing at their home, and they caught their eye on a red jewel that sat on their mother's dresser. Trust never thought about taking the jewel which sparkled and glistened from the light in the room, enticing him to look at it more. Trust made a point of saying to Curiosity, let's leave it where it is." Jasper smiled and continued, "you see doctor, curiosity often gets the better of us and it takes us to a place most would never dream of. But we seldom allow our curiosity to keep us at bay. We think about the consequences of our actions and weigh up the outcome. " Jasper showed a hand gesture of weighing two values, as he continued his ambiguous sermon. "The consequences define the outcome of the predicament we find ourselves in, but curiosity always gets the better of us. Don't you agree, doctor?"
The last gulp of the brandy was all Jasper needed to clear his throat.
"Please, hand me the jewel." He held out a very clean hand with well-manicured fingernails.
I was indeed curious about the jewel; I had heard about what it may be able to do. Supposedly forged from the stone of Eve a fragment from the original heliotrope, it is said three exist in the world. Crafted into a perfect jewel, the precise cut of the jewel was otherworldly. Kenichiro told me one of these jewels is believed to have been seen on Sir Francis Drake.
I shook my head, but the brute searched me and found it on my possession. I thought I had hidden it in a rather private place, but these thugs had no problem crossing a ladies' boundaries.
"Come, let us go onto the lido deck, it should be quiet this time of night." Jasper commanded, having his brutish men move me into the corridor. One of the men passed Jasper the ring.
As we walked out into the corridor, there wasn't a soul around. It was as though this entire area had been vacated. The long red carpet showed no signs anyone had walked it. As we made our way onto the lido deck, the man told me to be quiet. They removed my scarf which they used as a gag and said if you say anything, these people will die, I didn't want to be responsible for the deaths of anyone, so I remained quiet walking past the four couples.
We reached the First-Class pool area and occupied three of the subsequent tables looking out into the dark night. Jasper smiled, pulling his military jacket closer around him. He took the ring from his pocket and looked at the jewel, he began chanting some incantation in the language of the Afrikaans. I had never heard the words so elegantly spoken, I recognised some of them, words like ocean, waves and oh my god, it hit me,I heard the word STORM.
The wind picked up and I could see the force blowing Jasper's coat.
The fine splash of rain fell on my face, and I saw flashes of light coming from the horizon, the rumbling of the sky began, and the waves got higher and higher almost worrying as the water splashed on the decks below. This can't be, I thought to myself, did he really make a storm appear?
The sea became a lot rougher, I began feeling sick, as the ship began to move a little more violently than before. I could see the flashing lights again in the distance and could hear the noise of the rumbling getting louder still.
What is happening? I kept thinking about what I saw, and Jasper's men began looking worried as the rain fell heavier. The noise was getting louder too, and the ship began turning and turning. It felt a little unnatural.
I snatched the ring from Jasper and ran as fast as I could. It was easy to run with no shoes on and I needed to get back to my room as the noise got louder and louder. The barefoot sprint was much quicker than the walk there.
I could now hear whimpering from the frightened children and parents in the corridor, some people were worried about the storm. My first instincts were the need to hide the ring, I thought, if this item did indeed cause that to happen, this thing was as dangerous as the stone itself. Reaching for my satchel I put the journal and the ring inside.
I ran out of the corridor and headed towards where I boarded, more and more people were running towards the social hall. I knew the perfect hiding place was nearby.
I didn't see Jasper until the last second, as he grabbed me.
He looked into my eyes with contempt.
"Unfortunately for you, this could be the end of the line and unless you give me back the ring, you may very well find yourself responsible for the lives of the other passengers onboard." The voice was even more chilling than before.
"My friend here is going to allow you to say where the ring is and then everyone can relax, you can enjoy your trip and things can go back to normal, or he's going to kill you." Jasper said emptying the contents of my satchel on the floor. He threw it on the ground.
I could feel the waves crashing at the side of the ship, passengers were being told to go to the social hall where we would wade out the storm. But there was something deep inside of me that felt unnerving, this wasn't just the storm, there was something else going to happen. I could sense it.
Thankfully the porter from before – Hari - intervened but found himself right in the middle of some very menacing men indeed.
"Come now folks," he said to us, "the captain has asked us to go to the social hall."
"Yes, of course. Do you know what is happening?" Jasper said walking up to Hari.
Now was my chance again to escape, in all the confusion I ran, barging into Jasper, knocking him into Hari. I quickly opened the door to the stairs and flew down the corridor towards the dining room at the end of the hallway. Barging past people as they could see I was scared, but I had no time to tell them what was happening. This ship was the labyrinth I didn't want to get lost in. How was I going to get off the ship?
I looked back to see if I was being pursued by my captors. Had they been watching me from the moment I left the dig site? I thought back to what had happened when my anthropological team and I discovered the bodies. There was a ring on the slave trader's finger, and the other bodies turned out to be an African man and the decay of a Romanian woman. I named the latter of the two bodies Adam and Evelyn.
"I need to get off this ship," I said looking at the lifeboats. Swimming was not my forte and jumping into the icy cold water was not something I wanted to do either. But if I didn't get off this ship my fate may be much worse.
I ran out towards the outdoor swimming pool for Tourist Class and once again straight into Hari's arms.
"Miss, I mean doctor are you okay?" He said moving me away from him at arm's length.
"You're, okay?" I asked thinking about how we last saw each other.
"Yes, they just let me go, after Lady Ramsay interrupted us. I think she may have taken your satchel though miss; I mean doctor."
I thought about Lady Ramsay taking an interest in it earlier.
"That's okay, probably looks better on her anyway."
I looked around for these protectors, to see if Hari had been followed. "C'mon Hari, we need to go."
"It's just a storm, there's no need to worry miss, I mean doctor."
He handed me my journal which I last saw was on the floor, I was extremely grateful to him for returning it.
"Look Hari, if I don't make it, you need to warn the captain, something might happen to the ship during the trip to New York."
"Doctor what the hell is going on? It is just a storm - right?!"
"Hari, there's no time. Please find my satchel and put my journal in there if you can." I handed him the journal after I wrote some sentences using a famous Arabic cipher, I grew up learning about from communiques sent around the West African Slave Traders.
This was my only proof the stone existed. I had visions of Minosato and Namba hiring a deep-sea crew in the future, and we would search the salvage if the ship capsized. Finding the original artefact would come later, discovering the maps tattooed on Adam and Evelyn may have held the location to the stone – which was an exciting discovery. However, their skin was too badly damaged to make out what it said, I had written what I could on a piece of paper, not part of my journal, but there was no clear understanding of a location. Someone had gone to extreme lengths to tattoo maps on the back of Adam and Evelyn buried at the site, but the ring could just be the key I needed.
Maybe keeping it hidden would be the wisest of choices. I thought.
We ran towards the promenade and into a couple who could see something in the distance.
"Hey molly, I think there's another ship out there." The voice of a young man in love excitedly pointed out towards the night sea. There was a ship out there, the MS Copenhagen's wording glistened from the moonlight that caught it at the right moment. The ship didn't have any lights on that I could see, and there seemed to be some electrical issues on board. Was that the lights I was seeing in the distance, flickering? I thought to myself.
I ran towards the captain's cabin, trying to find him to warn him.
Bursting into the control room I could see the instruments were going haywire and the sounds of alarms weren't making any sense.
"What the hell is 'appening?" The grey bearded Irish captain angrily said as he tried to gain control of his ship.
The sounds of screaming could be heard from outside as guests started running away from the huge ship that was torpedoing towards us.
The SS Petoria began slowing down and turning as hard as it could. The noise was absolutely deafening as the other ship hit us.
SCCRRREEEAACCHHH
The sound of metal against metal came from the starboard side. I could see sparks and fire erupting from both ships. This other ship auspiciously would be the end of the line for all of us. I began imagining what it would have been like to be aboard the titanic during its disaster.
My concentration was broken as the crowds erupted and came barging out of every part of the ship, the whole vessel was in absolute anarchy. People were being trampled on as I rescued a young girl from the uncontrollable stampede.
Time had either moved quickly or the ship was sinking quicker than I expected. I could feel my legs shaking as my body tried to go one way and my legs another. This was now the most terrifying experience of my life.
My face became covered in blood as the bullet from one of Jasper's thugs' weapons penetrated a random porters head. The thug grabbed me and threw me over his shoulder. I kicked and screamed, but nobody even looked at me, they probably thought I was being rescued.
The force of the metal railing swung and hit the thug as I fell to the ground. I could see Jasper and his cronies had no interest in pursuing me and I watched as they got off the ship. I on the other hand was heading towards the danger zone, the water was already making its way onboard and I felt like this could be the end.
Everyone was leaving, except, me as I knew where I'd hid the ring become a watery grave. This was it, now was the moment, but the sharpness of the steel rebar through my torso was too much. I hit the ground, I pulled it out watching the blood pour, looking down at the hole I needed to try and stand up and get off this ship to get medical help.
I tried running back to the lifeboats, holding my hand over my wound.
"Miss are you alright?" The guard said to me, as I climbed aboard the lifeboat.
I wasn't feeling feverish. I looked down at my hand covering my wound. But I was too scared to remove it. I kept thinking about what was happening, people seemed to know who I was. I realised they must have killed that porter because of what they thought I told him. These protectors were removing anyone who may know about the stone.
I feared Hari may have been killed. Doctor Knight needed to disappear. I thought.
"What's your name miss?" The guard said.
"My name's Evelyn," I said removing my hand to show him that I probably didn't have long left to live. But to my amazement there was nothing there, the wound had gone – completely gone.
"Evelyn are you okay?" The guard was wondering what I was doing.
I smiled amidst the panic. "Actually, I think I'm going to be just fine."
Arriving in New York a few days later.
I told the story of how I ended up here and Kenichiro was shocked and agreed Evelyn would be my new name. I saw the look in his eyes, he believed me, for once other than the psychotic madman that seemed to manipulate the weather, who may have also believed me; this man felt more alive and warming to my grand ideas and I knew that together we'd do great things in the future.
Thank you reading this chapter, let's regroup with Cassie in the next one and see how she solved the riddle and found the ring.