David Golemon - Legend

Yes, Dr. Compton, Europa is online.

"Good, Europa, identify last three queries, Compton, Niles, Director Department 5656."

Yes, Dr. Compton, formulating, the female voice answered. Last three queries made by Director Compton to Europa at Nellis complex were: Question number one, Number of the four papal medalists still alive on North and South American continents in 1874; question number two, What was name of recipient? And question number three, What, you mean the information was erased from the old Cray system?

"Okay, Europa, thank you. Librarian, have you located said files?"

Yes, Dr. Compton, the HAL-like voice answered.

"Answer to first query, how many papal medal recipients were still alive on North and South American continents in 1874?" Niles asked as his palms started to sweat.

Searching , Librarian answered as the small screen flashed to Niles's right.

Niles shifted impatiently, hoping this hadn't been a wild-goose chase.

According to Royal Canadian death records, the general census of citizens of Mexico, the official census of Brazil, and the state and territorial records of the United States, one member was still alive in 1874, Librarian answered.

Niles read the duplicate printed answer on the screen with renewed hope; it was the same answer that Europa had given back at Nellis, so the file might just be intact after its initial transcription into the new system. "Question. What was the last name of recipient?"

Searching, Dr. Compton , Librarian answered.

"I guess this is it, huh?" Ryan asked. He, too, felt nervous and leaned closer to the monitor.

"It could be life or death for a lot of people lost down there in the Amazon," Niles said as he bit his lower lip, waiting for the much slower computer than Europa to disgorge the wanted information. Suddenly the voice activated and the monitor flashed to life with a green glow.

Name of remaining recipient; Keogh, Myles Walter; occupation, United States Army; born: 1840, County Carlow, Ireland; recipient ofearlier-described papal honors and veteran of the Battalion of St. Patrick's for armed service to the Vatican.

The name that Librarian had said was familiar; Niles was sure he had heard it before. So was Ryan. "Hey, that name, it sounds—" blurted the lieutenant.

"Question," Niles said, cutting off Ryan as he slowly sat back in his chair. In a low voice, almost as if he was afraid to ask the question, "Date and place of death?"

Searching.

Niles stared at the liquid crystal screen and waited, Ryan planted only inches from his shoulder.

Death occurred at present-day Crow Agency, Montana, United States, June 25, 1876.

Niles felt his heart start to sink. "Question. What was the unit Keogh served with, and the historical name of the location of death?"

Searching , Librarian said in its flat and insane-sounding voice.

As the answer came on screen, Niles lowered the volume of the speakers as history came flooding back in on him, burying all hopes of finding the map if it had been with Myles Keogh when he died. The map was indeed, as Helen had said in her letter, lost forever.

"Jesus Christ, we're fucked," Jason Ryan muttered as he looked at the screen.

Printed out on the monitor was Librarian's answer to his last two inquiries.

Place of death: Valley of the Little Bighorn, Montana, U.S. Territory. Captain Myles Keogh served with operational line unit, Company I, Seventh United States Cavalry.

Niles was linked by conference call from the center in Arlington, three thousand miles away, as the team at Nellis gathered for his briefing on what he and Ryan had just learned from Librarian. Jack and Virginia were at the conference table, along with Pete Golding. Alice sat in her regular seat beside Niles's empty chair.

"Okay, Pete, Virginia, did you get a chance to check my facts from this morning?" Niles asked.

"Yes," Virginia said as she picked up her notes. "Without looking at your research as you requested, we started our own track on the papal medalists, and came up with the exact same information when it dead-ended on the date of Helen's theft."

"May I ask what it is you are talking about?" Jack asked.

"I'm sorry, Jack. Let me get you up to speed. The Padilla diary, as we all know, has been stolen from the archdiocese in Madrid. We have a pretty good idea who took it, but the map seemed a dead end until we linked it to a Spanish priest who, in 1874, has been a papal medalist and a veteran of St. Patrick's Battalion. I won't go into it all here, but suffice it to say in Professor Zachary's letter to me, this was the way to uncover the facts of the map's whereabouts. We linked it to other veterans at that time with whom the Vatican had direct contact, men who could be trusted, and, to make a long story short, we believe we have traced the map to our own country. But just where and to who it was sent has become a major problem," Niles related mechanically over the speakerphone.

The director took the next ten minutes to explain the bad news about the map. The four people around the conference table shook their heads, knowing the odds of the map's being their salvation was now a moot point.

"I started making phone calls from here and I managed to contact descendants of Keogh, who currently live in New York State. Nobody has or ever heard of such a map. Whatever he had taken with him to the Little Bighorn were not among his personal articles returned to his family. His body was disinterred from the battlefield and moved to New York, and was buried with nothing other than his papal medals and uniform," Niles said. "The medals were returned because they were still on his person at the time after the battle by General Alfred Terry's column. He was also known to have had a large cross at the time that the regiment left Fort Abraham Lincoln in the Dakota Territory. This fact is mentioned in several memoirs, not only by other officers, but even in an account of Libby Custer's, the general's widow. She had personally given Keogh a package that was forwarded to him from New York by courier before the ill-fated campaign began. She even said it was a large, gaudy-looking thing that belonged on a wall and not around a man's neck."

"What do you think, Niles? Is that cross something the Vatican may have entrusted to Keogh," asked Virginia.

"I do."

"And records of items recovered at the Little Bighorn or Indian accounts of pillaged material at the site has never made mention of a large cross?" Jack asked.

"I asked Alice to get into the National Parks Service database. Alice, you have anything?" Niles asked.

"We are currently waiting on the most current archeological listings that were conducted by the National Parks Service. They have been unearthing so much since the big brush fire in the 1980s. They just conducted the last field hunt only five weeks ago, and have not published their findings yet," Alice said, taking a breath. "But the odds are good that some warrior may have taken the cross, since that item was very familiar to them, unlike the papal medals the captain was known to have worn."

"I see. Let me know when you get the information on the dig," Niles said. "Now, I want all historical divisions, and I mean everyone, combing through what we have on the Little Bighorn in case we uncover something about the missing map. Just in case it's found and is still in Montana, I want you, Jack, to head there right now. Take someone who knows something about the Battle of the Little Bighorn because I'm afraid I have the American History Department split in two helping Latin American Studies. Besides, we have to get stepping ahead of this thing or those kids down there may die."