Three miles of good road, and we found a good tarmac road but single track, a few potholes bumped over, and we slowed down some, soon meeting the Vatican crew. They changed from their basic minibuses to our jeeps, kit lugged, just enough room for us all, and the police driver set off north up a dirt track – but in low gear.

  In places it was smooth going as we climbed higher, but a few times we slowed right down. But the scenery up here was great, trees and rocks, a few silver streams glimpsed, and I was sure that a hotel up here sat on a lake would be popular.

  We crested a ridge and then levelled off, and we finally came to a halt at a camp already set-up by the climbers, tents set-up, a fire going. Down from the jeeps, I could see where our tall dam would sit, off to the right in a tight gorge, the far side of the raging river seemingly just nasty rocks.

  Looking left, I found a flatter landscape aside the river and stretching out north towards the distant high mountains, and I tried to image where the lake would reach when full. Up on the left ridge I could see attractive trees and rocks, the incline not too steep, and a mile north rested a flat area, big enough for several nursing homes.

  Walking down to the climbers’ camp, they pointed out where the dam would sit, and that they would explore the area below it. I told them to be careful, no broken ankles.

  Gathering the gang, the roar of the fast brown river in our ears, I told them not to get too close to the water, and to spread out and look for shiny objects, as well as caves.

  Speech made, I led Bonza and his bright red jacket down to the water’s edge, and I knew that in the summer this river would be used for white-water rafting, just that at the moment it would be “brown shitty water rafting”.

  I glanced at where the dam would sit, and then down at my feet as I started to kick over dirt and loose small rocks. The team fanned out, and Donno’s team benefitted from tools to dig with.

  Seeing a pool of water fed from the river, perhaps six feet wide, we walked down to it whilst kicking away rocks.

  At the pool I stopped and stared in. ‘What’s that?’ I asked as I pointed.

  ‘Probably a Coke can,’ Bonza scoffed.

  I knelt, pushed up my sleeve, reached into the freezing water and touched the shiny object.

  ‘It’s glowing,’ he hissed, glancing around.

  I checked over my shoulder, the climbers far enough away, most heading south with backpacks. Moving small rocks, I found what seemed to be a gold nugget, a good size, the size of two fingers. And it was glowing.

  Taking it out, I handed it to Bonza, and it was glowing for him but less. Jacket open, I created an enclosed area, and it was definitely glowing.

  Chucking it onto the dirt, it stopped glowing.

  ‘It’s the same gold as the golden cross,’ he whispered, and I shouted for Donno, picking up the gold.

  He came rushing over.

  When he drew close I told him, ‘We found a gold nugget, and it glows when we touch it.’ I showed it to him.

  Donno began, ‘It has been in the water a long time, and has travelled far down the river, and … this could have been a small crucifix, battered by the rocks and the water.’

  ‘Look for more of these, and hide the fucking things,’ I hissed, checking over my shoulder. ‘Warn Emanuel and Joseph, and Perez, not to touch them with witnesses around.’

  He handed me back the gold nugget and rushed off.

  I faced Bonza. ‘If this is made from the same gold … then this will hurt Gabrial when he gets close to it.’

  ‘Fucking hell, we have some kryptonite!’

  I smiled. ‘Kind of, yeah.’

  ‘So make a crucifix or two, and we wear them. That way Gabby can’t pretend to be some hot chick and get close to us.’

  ‘As mad as that sounds … you may be right, but not about the hot chicks getting close to you.’

  He shot me a look. ‘I’m slim and lovely now.’

  ‘Slimmer, yes. Just avoid speaking to these chicks.’

  Moving up the river slowly, we kicked over small rocks, and Bonza rolled away larger rocks, which at least warmed us up.

  After an hour, Donno came running, out of breath, and he had a second gold nugget, about the same size as the first. And it also glowed for me, so I pocketed it quickly.

  ‘How much is that worth?’ Bonza asked as Donno left us.

  ‘Thousands, tens of thousands.’

  ‘We sell some?’

  ‘No, we make bracelets and rings from it, and we wear it. If Gabby gets close – but looking like a hot chick – it will make him shiver, like an electric shock.’

  ‘How’d you know that?’

  ‘I tested the golden cross on Lazahroz, and it fucked with him, like an electric shock’.

  ‘And if we made some into bullets?’ he posed.

  ‘It would shock Gabby for a minute, but just that. Can’t kill an angel.’

  ‘Can we make a written complaint about him, a signed petition?’

  I stared at him for a few seconds before I laughed loudly, those further up the riverbank glancing back at us.

  A few hundred yards on, and Donno again rushed back to us, a third gold nugget discovered, but this one had a square edge to it. ‘That was moulded into something, perhaps a cross, a thousand years in the river and disfigured.’

  ‘So did the river wash them out of a cave, or did someone throw them into the river?’ I posed as I peered up-stream at an area of nasty rapids.

  ‘We will only know if we find a cave below the winter high water mark,’ Donno suggested.

  ‘You keep searching, I’m going for a walk.’

  I waved over Bill and Ted, as well as two policemen dressed for the terrain, and we walked half a mile north, parallel to the river. The land to our left was flatter than that seen across the river, and good enough for hotels and villas; the hills offered trees, and there was a natural view down to the coast.

  The opposite way, north, offered a view of the distant high mountains, today shrouded in mist.

  I led the gang up a ridge and then halted, looking south and enjoying the view. ‘This would be a good spot for a hotel when the lake is full.’

  ‘Big enough,’ Bill noted as we peered around.

  ‘Trees for nature walks,’ Ted noted. ‘Some streams.’

  Moving on, we moved back towards the river, and we pressed on because we found a good track. I asked the police about the track.

  ‘People come camping, and canoeing. In summer. River is nice then.’

  We found an abandoned and rusted bike as we pushed on, and a pair of trainers, both items now very old. And we found the campsite that was used during the summer months.

  Beyond the campsite, the human trail ended and the goat trails began, hard going in places, but I led them on at a good pace, with the river in view to our right.

  Half an hour later, and now warm from the walking but with cold faces from the wind, I could see a goat trail winding around a precipice over the river. But part of the rock formation seemed chiselled, so we headed for it.

  Walking sideways in places, not much of a drop but we might fall onto sharp rocks, we edged around the goat track till we were facing the river and hidden to anyone stood back on the goat tracks we had taken.

  The river was sixty feet or more below us, but there was no chance of falling into it, we’d hit the sharp rocks first.

  Pushing on slowly, I found an odd isolated tree in a tight gorge, and behind it sat a small cave opening, just that there was no way the water ever reached all the way up here.

  I asked the police for a torch as the gang shuffled past me, and whilst negotiating around the tree I scraped past the rocks, knelt down and shone the torch. The cave entrance was big enough, so I took off my warm padded coat and knelt on it, soon crawling inside the cave, Bonza told to stay out – he was too big, the smaller police officer asked to follow me in.

  Inside, I was able to stand, and with the torch on I could see a skull. Kneeling, I examined the skull as the officer came in and added his torch light to the skull.

  ‘Old,’ he said. ‘Twenty thousand years old.’

  ‘Really?’

  ‘Brown and shiny, yes.’

  I stood and moved down the narrow cave, which opened out some, a femur bone spotted, and shinning my torch up I was greeted with blue and yellow handprints on the walls.

  The officer closed in. ‘Like Demoine cave, and one other place here, very old, before Ice Age.’

  ‘Good for tourism maybe.’

  I pressed on further into the cave, and we soon saw dull grey light, a dead bird passed, roots of trees hanging down, and the cave opened into a much larger cavern, a stream running across it. ‘Now this … will be good for tourism.’

  The officer stared wide-eyed at the large grey cavern in front of us. I led him on, the floor covered in black dirt and seemingly compacted down, as if by people, and we walked towards the far end, more blue and yellow hand prints found.

  At the far end, the light penetrated the cave from small holes above us - no need for torches, and we found two goat skulls. Turning right, we walked upright through a new cave section with a flat dirt base, till it halted and opened into a tight gorge.

  I held the rocks and leant out, looking back towards the gang and seeing Bonza in his bright red jacket. ‘Over here!’

  ‘What you doing over there?’

  ‘There’s a big cavern, small entrance.’

  ‘Can’t get over to you this way!’ he complained.

  ‘Wait there!’

  Back in the main cavern, we pressed on, plenty of light seeping in from above, and we again found a stream bisecting the cave, but this one had small pools carved out of the rocks.

  The officer noted, ‘Here they wash animal skins maybe.’

  Further on the cave turned left, and we found a brightly lit shaft going up ten metres or more, big enough for a man to climb up, just that we were not that brave.

  ‘Look!’ came a hiss from behind me.

  Shining my torch, I could see medieval knights and so rushed to them and knelt. ‘Broderic’s men. But what were they doing all the way up here? That’s the question.’

  ‘They hide treasure or they look for it?’ he posed, and we exchanged a look.

  Pressing on past the skeletons, the passageway was high enough not to duck and wide enough not to scrape the walls with our elbows. Just.

  Backtracking, we reached the small entrance and emerged into daylight, my coat back on and dusted down, and we wound back along the goat trail as I described what we had found.

  We would lose the light if we did not set off back now, so we headed back down the goat trails at a good pace, past the tourist camp and its litter, and we finally saw the jeeps in the distance, as well as Donno and the team.

  Donno came walking up to me with Emanuel, Joseph and Perez.

  I told them, ‘We found a cave, same as the Demoine Estate - twenty or thirty thousand years old, bones, animal bones, and two of Broderic’s men.’

  Donno glanced at the police as they headed down to the jeeps. ‘We find three more lumps, one had a square side.’ He handed them over. I handed one to Perez, and the gold was glowing, the same effect for Joseph and Emanuel.

  ‘What will you do with them?’ Perez asked.

  ‘Make jewellery, and we’ll each wear it, because what you don’t know is that angels don’t like this gold, it hurts them. If you have a bracelet made from this, and you shook hands with an angel in disguise, the angel would get a kind of electric shock.’

  ‘This angel, Gabrial?’ Joseph realised.

  ‘Yes, he’s our mortal enemy – us upright apes, and he nudges Stanulou into attacking the Vatican.’

  Joseph stiffened. ‘That comes as a great disappointment, to know that God’s chosen servants have such an attitude.’

  ‘We are to be tested, so they say. I say fuck that, but I don’t make the rules.’ I handed Donno back the gold and handed him mine. ‘Melt those down in secret, create bracelets for men, as soon as you can.’

  He nodded. ‘And the cave?’

  ‘I’ll draw a map for the climbers - too dangerous for you without climbers, so you start again tomorrow morning looking for gold, and … where it came from.’

  At the cars, I waved in those climbers left there, and I drew a map. They would find the cave tomorrow, and they would remove Broderic’s men for some study by the museum staff.

  About to set off back, and a climber rushed up with a gold nugget. I glanced at Donno and he took it – without me handling it, and I thanked the climber with some cash; I had avoided making it glow as we lost the daylight.

  Back at the hotel, we enjoyed hot showers after enduring the cold wind, and then enjoyed some hot food in the restaurant, telling the guests about the cave we had found and the ancient handprints.

  Bonza whispered, ‘What were Broderic’s men doing all the way up there?’

  ‘They may have found gold in the river, went further north looking for more, or they went looking for what the Followers of Mary took and moved.’

  He nodded. ‘They would have looked for it, aye, we pinched all of their goodies.’

  The Rasmussens finally arrived at the hotel, hot drinks arranged for them, and I detailed what we had found and how we had found it, and not even the twins wanted to risk an accident on the rocks.

  There was soon something of a party atmosphere in the restaurant, and I made a point of chatting with many of the guests, Pascal turning up at 8pm.

  He began, ‘We see ship in the ROV TV screen, it is definitely a ship, and expert says it is from year thirteen hundred.’

  ‘So that could be our ship, yes. How much for the diving bell?’

  ‘Three day hire, rotated divers, fifty thousand Euro.’

  ‘Expensive, but the coins could be worth a lot more than that. OK, do it. But no risks, no dead divers.’

  I informed Rolf, and he hoped that we find the coins, and that we get our money back.

  A smartly-dressed man aged around forty was brought in to me by Michelle, and he was introduced as the new deep Rock Pool Manager. He was French, had married a Corsican lady and now lived here, but his English was good.

  ‘Is it ready?’ I asked.

  ‘Pool was ready but not so pretty, so we have sand - and rock with coral, and now it look more like underwater. The rooms and café take longer, but now all done, and place to park cars.

  ‘The marine biologists test the water, how much oxygen, how many microbes and plankton, and they adjust it till right. Now many fish, some large fish, octopus, crab.

  ‘We have one PHD lady, and she will study for many years the closed environment and small animals, and now the first rock pool - it have two seal.’

  ‘Injured?’

  ‘Yes, found on beach, young. We feed them, they no bite.’

  ‘People use that rock pool in winter?’ I asked.

  ‘Yes, dry suit or two part 7mm, and it has machine to make it warmer, but just five degrees.’

  ‘And local people?

  ‘From the city, yes, and my rock pool is booked full for many weeks always.’

  ‘And summer…’

  ‘Will be big pain in ass, too many people, we need four rock pool.’

  ‘Put the prices up some in the summer,’ I suggested.

  ‘This we think to do, yes.’

  ‘Will there be diving courses off the beach?’

  ‘This why I come to ask, we can have dive hut and air tanks on the promenade?’

  ‘Yes, of course. I’ll tell them to build a quick concrete building for you, you design it. Go see Michelle, make a drawing, and we’ll get the building done in a few weeks at most.’

  Thanking me, he headed off to see Michelle.

  I explained it to Rolf.

  He responded, ‘The more features on the beach the better, we may even get a few Phase One people diving.’

  I smiled. ‘Some may have been divers when younger, yes.’

  Donno turned up at 10pm and led me outside, and he handed me two gold bracelets that I folded around my wrists. Placed on, they glowed, so I pulled down my sleeves.

  ‘Great, now make some more, and a few gold crucifix to wear on a chain, I want our reincarnated people to have them, as well as you. Good work.’

  With Donno heading off, I called Armani. ‘I found some gold in a river in Corsica, same gold that the golden cross was made from, so we’ve fashioned bracelets from it and will make gold crucifix to wear -’

  ‘They will glow!’

  ‘Yes, so we’ll need to hide them, but with these bracelets on, shaking hands with Gabrial in disguise will hurt him, the golden cross would shock him, like an electric shock.’

  ‘Ah, a weapon to use, a way to fight back, and if we were not meant to have them … we would not have them.’

  ‘That copper scroll we found in the column…’

  ‘Would cause many questions for our followers.’

  ‘Destroy it if you wish, but it was found for a reason.’

  ‘I will keep it, but hidden.’

  ‘It mentions Mary?’

  ‘It does, as the wife of Jesus but also as the saviour arriving from Jericho.’

  ‘Keep in mind … that the Israelis have the same copper scroll but won’t use it.’

  ‘I will, and they would hurt their own tourist trade.’

  ‘How are things there?’ I asked.

  ‘People are less afraid of bombs going off, we seem to have identified all the men involved, but no sign of Stanulou, and those men that wanted to make a deal had never met him but knew of him.’

  ‘A professional way to do it,’ I noted. ‘Fathers Joseph and Emanuel entered the house in Stockholm without being killed, and they sat and stared at the fire and got their old memories back, so they can move on now with some understanding.’

  ‘Here we have seen fifty-four suicides in total, and six in Ireland.’

  ‘Fewer people for me to deal with. They can rot in hell, or they could if there was a hell.’