Brad Thor - Blowback

Jillian turned to Harvath and said, “The Silenus manuscript. Silenus was the Greek war correspondent who spent all his time amongst Hannibal ’s different soldiers. That must be what it was.”

“Not only were there Greeks with Hannibal, but Roman spies as well. From what Dr. Ellyson learned, word of Hannibal ’s attack had been circulating for some time. It wasn’t the attack itself that the Romans were most concerned with, but rather the magic weapon the Carthaginians were said to be bringing with them; and the Romans found a way to stop this magic weapon from ever reaching Rome.”

“How?”

“The Roman spies paid some of the Carthaginian soldiers to betray Hannibal. The men responsible for guarding the magic weapon were killed as they slept, and their bodies and beasts swept off the face of the mountain by a terrible avalanche.”

“Did Ellyson ever say how the book came into his possession?” asked Harvath.

“Mais oui,” replied Marie. “Of this, the man was very proud. He told Bernard he had discovered it himself.”

“Where?” said Jillian.

“At first, he would not say. It was as if maybe he was embarrassed or something. But you have to know Bernard. There was something very special about him. He was a very powerful man, and other men were drawn to him. He was like a rock. He never judged them, and for that, they felt that they could unburden their souls to him.”

“And Dr. Ellyson?” asked Harvath. “He unburdened himself to Bernard?”

“With the help of two bottles of Chateau Margaux,” said Marie. “One night the doctor must have had a vision of Christ because he un-burdened himself of all his sins. He admitted to Bernard many things we already knew about him. He admitted the drinking, the gambling, and of course the women, but it was the thing he saved for last which was the most interesting.”

“Which was?”

“Dr. Donald Ellyson was a thief.”

“A thief?” echoed Harvath.

Marie smiled and said, “He had assembled quite a personal collection of antiquities over the years. The only ones that were of any value were the ones that were stolen.”

Harvath shook his head knowingly. It didn’t surprise him that in the frothy pool of international malfeasance, two floaters like Rayburn and Ellyson had managed to bump up against each other and had found a way to improve their shitty lot in life by throwing in together. “What did your husband think of all this?”

Marie Lavoine laughed. “Bernard found it quite amusing. The funny thing about Dr. Ellyson was that he had basically stolen from everyone else’s archeological discoveries his entire life, but the minute he made his very own find, he unequivocally forbade my husband and Maurice to steal from him.”

“Wait a second,” said Jillian. “His find? What did he find?”

“Dr. Ellyson was a better archeologist than he thought. With the help of the book in that attaché case, he found part of Hannibal ’s army.”

“Which part? Which part of the army did he find?”

“The part the Romans paid a fortune to make sure never made it to Rome.”

Neither Harvath nor Alcott could believe it. Ellyson’s find was absolutely amazing. “He found it here? In the Alps?” asked Jillian.

“Yes, somewhere near the Traversette.”

“Where exactly?”

“I don’t know. Bernard never told me. He only told me about the discovery itself.”

“How soon was this before they disappeared?” asked Harvath.

“Two weeks, maybe more. They had only just begun to excavate the site. It was located in a very deep ice chasm that was extremely difficult to get their equipment into.”

“I’m confused. You said Ellyson forbade Bernard and the other man working with him-”

“Maurice.”

“Right. Ellyson forbade your husband and Maurice from stealing objects from the site, but they did, didn’t they?” said Harvath. “That’s how the artifacts came into your possession.”

“No,” replied Lavoine. “They did not steal anything. Dr. Ellyson was extremely concerned with what he called the structural integrity of the site. An avalanche, a shift in the ice-it wouldn’t have taken much for everything to be lost.”

Jillian looked at the woman and asked, “So what did they do?”

“Dr. Ellyson catalogued everything. Very carefully, he recorded where each piece had been found, and then Bernard and Maurice helped carry them back here. The smaller artifacts were easy enough to transport; it was the bigger ones they were just starting to decide how to handle when they disappeared.”

“So Ellyson reported his find to Burnham, and that’s how he knew you had them.”

“The artifacts? No, Dr. Ellyson said the artifacts were none of Burnham’s business.”

“But Burnham was funding the expedition.”

“Ellyson didn’t care. He said Monsieur Burnham was only interested in one thing from the dig, and since that was all their agreement called for, that was all he was going to get. Anything above and beyond that, Dr. Ellyson said Monsieur Burnham had no right to.”

“And what was the one thing Burnham was interested in?” asked Jillian.

Lavoine had no idea. She just turned up her palms and shrugged her shoulders.

“How did the man claiming to be Burnham even figure out then that you had the artifacts?” asked Harvath.

“Because I told him. As I said, we haven’t had many customers since Bernard disappeared. The bank still must be paid, and I have very little money left. So, I offered Monsieur Burnham a chance to buy the artifacts from me.”

“But technically he had funded the expedition. Those would have rightfully belonged to him and his institute. What if he had gone to the police?”

“I didn’t care. I lost my husband. My life was ruined. Besides, I knew Monsieur Burnham wouldn’t want anything to do with the police. As I told you, Dr. Ellyson was very secretive and always kept the door to the room he used as an office locked. He had every copy of the key, and even I wasn’t allowed in there to clean. When he, Bernard, and Maurice failed to return, I had my neighbor help me take the door off the hinges. On the other side, there was absolutely nothing. No sign of the boxes of books and papers he had brought to the hotel with him. No computer. No attaché case, nothing. Someone had been in the hotel and had taken every single thing out of that room. Who else would have done that but Monsieur Burnham?”

“So a year passed and you decided to do what?”

“I decided to sell Monsieur Burnham the artifacts. We would fix a price and he could have them all.”

“But that’s not what happened.”

“No. He told me he didn’t have any money. Not right now, at least. He offered to give me a small deposit and pay me later, but I wouldn’t agree.”

“Smart lady,” said Harvath.

“I told him I needed all of the money right away. He became very angry, telling me they belonged to the foundation. When I told him I knew there was no foundation, he tried to make excuses. Finally, I threatened to go to the police and tell them everything I knew if he didn’t cooperate.”

“I bet he didn’t like that,” replied Harvath as he remembered what a temper Rayburn had.

“Not at all, but he was in a similar position as me. He had no choice. He could not afford to pay me, and he definitely did not want me taking the artifacts or my story to the police, so we settled on the compromise of selling everything through Sotheby’s.”

“So what’s at Sotheby’s represents everything Ellyson uncovered?”

Lavoine looked away for a moment before responding. “No. Not everything.”

“There’s more?” asked Jillian.

Lavoine tried to explain. “Even though we were dealing with Sotheby’s, I still didn’t trust Monsieur Burnham. I thought he might find a way to cheat me. I couldn’t risk everything on the first venture. Besides, Ellyson had never even told Monsieur Burnham exactly where the site was, much less what he had recovered from it. Monsieur Burnham had no idea what I had in my possession. By doing it my way, if the first sale went well, I could wait a while and then quietly go back to Sotheby’s with more.”