David Golemon - Legend

"Did she leave you the route, Dr. Compton?" Jack asked.

Niles smiled and removed his glasses. "Helen is a very complex woman, Jack. She trusted no one in her search for the origins of the fossil." He rubbed the bridge of his nose and then continued. "The Padilla legend has many parts; the diary and lost maps were only a couple of the stories to come out of that time. As Helen reported to us a few years ago, she discovered that the Vatican put the clamps on the diary, a supposed map Padilla had made in case the diary was lost, and two samples of something, probably gold, which the survivor may have carried out."

"So, if she had made these discoveries in the old files, why didn't the Group move on her request?" Jack asked.

"Because in the end, even with all of her data, it was all just circumstantial, no hard evidence at all. In the end, the Padilla legend is just that, a legend, a story handed down, about which not one single fact has come to official light."

"Fifteen years ago, the Group was split as to the authenticity of the legend, even though our top anthropologist was adamant that she was dealing with fact, not just a myth. Her department was able to finally verify that Padilla did actually exist and that he was regarded as one of Pizarro's best officers. The files that were stolen also detailed the rescue of a group of doctors from Princeton and the University of Chicago from Brazil in 1942. I don't know what she could have learned from them. The team of OSS men was led by our own Senator Garrison Lee."

"As I said, it's all just a fanciful legend," Virginia said as she pushed the file away from her. "What have we learned about this fossil?" she asked.

"I'll let Heidi answer your question. Please make it quick, Doctor."

"Well," Heidi Rodriguez said as she stood and walked to the screen. "I'll try and abbreviate my conclusions, although this specimen hardly calls for an abbreviated anything. To begin with, the age of the fossil is between four hundred and eighty and five hundred and eighty years old," she said, "an accuracy measurement of plus or minus one hundred years."

"What?" Virginia asked as she stared at the image on the screen.

"Yes, our methods of dating fossils are much improved since Helen Zachary was here. But then she suspected its age anyway, because of the legend." Heidi picked up a pointer. "Now, if you will look here you can see dried and hardened tissue, more than likely cartilage of some sort along the third knuckle of each digit, even the thumb. It appears to have been scaled tissue that stretched from digit to digit and between the index finger and thumb."

"What are you saying?" Pete asked as he took a break from chewing on his pencil.

"I'm saying that the creature this hand belonged to had webbed fingers. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is fact and not legend," Heidi said, looking at Virginia.

"Helen is missing. She left for South America five weeks ago and hasn't returned, hasn't checked in." Niles held up the letter Helen had left him. "She stated in this letter that the diary was in the possession of the Archdiocese of Madrid. She also stated she had received help from a man," he looked at his notes, "a Mr. Henri St. Claire, a French money man. We indexed that name with our files, and lo and behold, the name of an old friend came up as using that particular alias once before, Colonel Henri Farbeaux."

Silence at first greeted Niles's revelation. Of all the people in the world to have turned up, none of them expected that.

"It seems Dr. Zachary has fallen in with a bad crowd," Jack said finally.

"Yes, it would seem," Niles answered. "I have a call in to our supposed new friend in France, and Ms. Serrate has agreed to pay us a visit here in the States in case she can be of assistance. I don't like the fact that his name has surfaced twice in just a matter of a few weeks. And now with Helen's disappearance, I fear she may have stumbled onto something outside of her expertise." He gave the letter to Alice. "Bring everyone up to speed on what Helen had to say."

"I'll read just the pertinent information," she said, opening the letter.

"Read it in its entirety; leave nothing out," Niles said as he sat heavily into his chair.

Alice scrutinized him a moment, then read

Dearest Niles —

I know this must be a great shock to you, but you are the only person in the world I can turn to. Hold on to your hat, I've found the route of Padilla! I have the exact location of the valley and am on my way this very day. Imagine, after all these years, the valley everyone told me did not exist, in my sights at last! I wish you were coming along, but I know it would be difficult for you for many reasons. I know I hurt you deeply, but I must ask something of you, dearest Niles. I'm afraid I have made some enemies in my quest for my Captain Padilla outside of the senator and yourself. It seems people may, just may I say, be coming after me. One of my earlier backers, a Mr. Henri St. Claire, could come after the diary or discover the trail of the papal medalists that led me to the archbishop. If you receive this letter, that means I have found trouble. I cannot give you details of my route to the site in case they track this letter to whom I left it with, but you may begin with the archbishop of Madrid. You should have no trouble from there in locating me (hopefully). The other items the legend says came out with the Padilla diary are lost forever, I tracked them through foreign-born papal medalists involved in hiding them with papal authorization

in 1874, and know for a fact that one of the items no longer exists as it was lost forever. The other is still buried at the Vatican Archives, having never left. But thanks to those old dusty files the senator had, and which I'm afraid I stole, I found the last and best piece, the diary itself, hidden in Spain.

I think of you every day, Niles. Please forgive me after all these years.

Love always,

Helen

Everyone in the room looked from one to the other. None of them looked at Niles and he seemed grateful for that small mercy. He unknotted his tie and stood.

Virginia cleared her throat as she always did when she had a point to make. "She seems to give away a lot of information for someone to track."

"No. We have the files in the Group's old facility in Arlington, so no one but us can get to them," said Niles.

"If Farbeaux is involved, that makes this…this situation delicate, to say the least. Obviously, according to his history, he would be after—" She opened the file and flipped through the pages until she found the one she wanted. She raised her glasses to her eyes and read, "The El Dorado of the Americas. Now if that is just a legend or not, it makes no difference. Between Farbeaux's making a play for whatever is there and those missing kids, I feel we must go. If we can, that is," Virginia said as she closed the file and looked at Niles expectantly.

"Jack?" Niles asked, holding his breath because he knew the auspices of the security department could veto the Event declaration for safety reasons. Niles knew he could override every voice in the room except Jack's; his was the only one Niles could not because of losses of Event personnel in the past. Jack's department was their only fail-safe to keep losses at a minimum.

"I agree, but regardless of the need you feel to hurry, we have many problems to overcome, the least of which is finding out just where in the hell it is we are going."

"I'm not as worried about that as much as what we'll find once our people get down there," Pete said as he stood.

There was a knock at the double conference room doors, and Niles's new assistant walked over to answer it. She stepped aside and a private first corporal in the red-trimmed coveralls of the Communication and Signals Department entered.