Part 14 (1/2)
Gone were the formal dress and the spartan flight coveralls. Terah was dressed for business in her fitted pants, black boots, and silky blouse. Her flowing hair was back to her usual, if not natural, dark red color with streaks of highlights. Gone with the blond hair was the cosmetic tint that made her naturally olive skin look pale. The reading gla.s.ses only emphasized the history professor side of her many personalities, but her ponytail said female athlete not lady librarian. Her long bangs gave her green eyes a smoky look.
Biel's portable a.n.a.log computer-he called it a laptop Difference Engine-clacked and clicked away as Rucker, Chuy, Deitel, and Lysander sat like schoolboys.
Terah clicked the b.u.t.ton for the first slide on the projector and the bespectacled, soft-chinned, spa.r.s.ely mustached mouse-face of the Reichsfuhrer-SS filled the screen.
Rucker booed. Chuy growled.
”Here's what we know so far,” Terah said. ”As Lysander has told you, Himmler has sent n.a.z.i spook squads all over searching for artifacts and magical icons from the ancient world-everywhere from Tibet to Haiti and all over the Near East, North Africa, and Scandinavia. They believe these artifacts to have power, and that they can shape the destiny of their Thousand Year Reich.”
Hitler has his own fascination with artifacts of power, but he's really obsessed with the Spear of Destiny. He wants to harness it and other magicks in a way no one has been able to.
The next slide was a painting of the crucifixion, at the moment recounted in the Gospel of St. John that a Roman soldier pierced Jesus' heart with his spear.
”The Spear of Destiny is the pilum used to stab Jesus Christ as he died on the cross. The pilum is the foot-long iron or steel element attached to a wooden shaft. Only the pilum survived the ravages of age,” she said, clicking to pictures and drawings of various Roman military spears.
”Supposedly, he who wields the Spear of Destiny cannot be defeated, and he who carries it masters the power of life and death. Or, according to some translations, the power of life over death.”
”Same difference?” Chuy asked.
”Maybe. The translations conflict. Anyway, it's in line with Hitler's own narcissistic, megalomaniacal delusions-he believes he was chosen by destiny to lead the German people to mastery of the world.”
Rucker and Chuy looked at Deitel, who just shrugged and said, ”What? My family voted Christian Democrat. Back when we had elections.”
”Continuing: the Spear of Destiny, notably, is not even mentioned in the four Synoptic Gospels-only St. John. John 19:34 ' . . . one of the soldiers pierced his side with a lance, and immediately there came out blood and water.' ”
”Not just blood, huh?” Rucker asked. ”Or is that fuzzy in translation?”
”No, 'blood and water.' It's very specific. And it's very specific that He was already dead,” she said. ”The Roman soldier in question was historically, and inaccurately, referred to as 'Longinus' in the noncanonical Gospel of Nicodemus.”
She saw Rucker's confused expression.
”From the Apocrypha,” she said.
His expression didn't change.
”The collection of works excluded from the Bible by the early church at the Council of Nicea.”
Nothing.
”Oh, Jesus Christ. Read a d.a.m.n book, already. Not every answer is in Popular Mechanics,” Terah said, looking death at Rucker.
”Children,” Lysander said admonis.h.i.+ngly.
Terah closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She couldn't let him get to her like this.
”So,” Chuy said, ”Hitler thinks this spear was imbued with magic powers because it touched the heart of Christ and was washed in His blood?” He crossed himself. ”That's peculiar, because the Christ died as a man, and nothing more than a man, before he rose from the dead after three days.”
Terah nodded.
”Hitler is not the only one who thinks it has power. The spear has become a holy relic in the eyes of many Christians,” she said. ”Church fathers, holy men, and madmen throughout history have sought its power.”
She went on to say that over the centuries, the story became its own legend. ”Longinus” was made a minor saint in the Roman Catholic tradition.
”Now whether you believe in Jesus Christ the messiah and the son of G.o.d, or simply in the historical Jesus who was a revolutionary rabbi put to death for crimes against the temple elders, the fact is, there is extra-biblical historical proof that Pontius Pilate did order the execution of a young rabbi named Jesus in what we now call 33 A.D. And there is an extra-biblical account of how this rabbi was stabbed by a Roman soldier before he was taken off the cross,” she said, slides of ancient historical texts in the original Greek, Latin, and Hebrew ill.u.s.trating her point.
The next slide showed a collage of photos, sketches, and paintings of various spear tips.
”The first historical reports of the spear tip are by Ca.s.siodorus in the early sixth century and Gregory of Tours in the mid-sixth century,” Terah said. ”Also, around 520 A.D., Flavius Magnus Aurelius Ca.s.siodorus Senator, a Roman statesman and writer, said he saw the Spear of Destiny in Jerusalem. The Catholic Encyclopedia says St. Antonius toured the holy places of Jerusalem and claims he saw it and the crown of thorns Jesus was forced to wear.”
Rucker raised his hand. Terah shook her head.
”Sometime later the spear was secreted out of Jerusalem when the city was captured by the Persians under King Khosara II. The Church's agent, Nicetas, took it to Constantinople and secured it in the Church of Hagia Sophia.”
Rucker, pouring coffee, said, ”So we're off to the Ottoman Empire?”
”Not even close. If it was the original, it disappeared for a while-and several claimants later popped up,” Terah said.
”What?” Rucker asked.
”There have been several artifacts that were claimed to be the true Spear of Destiny,” she said.
She clicked another slide-showing a thirteenth century painting of the French monarch.
”The first was the so-called French spear. It was enshrined in Sainte Chapelle in Paris until the French Revolution. Republican forces seized it from the royalists and deposited it in the Bibliotheque Nationale, where it resided until five years ago,” she said.
”The Surete suspected German agents stole it in 1923, killing twelve employees of the Bibliotheque Nationale, five Paris policemen, and four soldiers at a border crossing. The crime scene was an abomination.”
The next slide was from the French national police files. Chuy retched. Deitel, a medical doctor, almost followed suit.
Another slide: St. Peter's Cathedral in Rome.
”Then there is the Vatican lance. This was said to have likewise ended up in Constantinople, where it fell into the hands of the Turks. According to Pastor's History of the Popes, Sultan Bayazid II sent it to Innocent VIII in 1492. Even at the time, the authenticity of this spear was in doubt, and although the eighteenth century pope Benedict XIV suggested the Vatican spear matched historical drawings of the Spear of Destiny, and it's kept in St. Peter's Cathedral, the Church makes no claim to its authenticity.”
”So we're not going to the Vatican or Paris, either?” Deitel said.
”Hold that thought. Needless to say, the Vatican believes but cannot prove that in 1922-mere months after they seized power in Germany-n.a.z.i agents broke into the cathedral, took the spear, and killed four altar boys, two priests, and a night watchman.”
Terah's slide showed crime scene photos ”borrowed” from the Vatican Guards' investigations office. The victims were hung from the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, eviscerated.
”My G.o.d,” Chuy said, and crossed himself again. ”Was all this ritualistic slaughter tied to the spear?”
”We don't know. Maybe. Or it may have been how the thieves got their kicks.”
The next slide showed the propaganda pictures of the Austrian people welcoming regular German army and Waffen-SS troops into their cities.
”Now, you're all familiar with the Anschluss, the annexation of Austria into the Third Reich on March 12, 1924. But guess what Hitler's first act was the next day?” Terah asked.
”Arresting art school administrators,” Rucker said.
”Hunting for the prost.i.tute who gave him syphilis,” Chuy said.