“Because seventeen of the monasteries are Greek. The other three are Russian, Serbian, and Bulgarian.”
Dial smiled at this. Of the seven monks beheaded at Holy Trinity, one was Russian, one was Bulgarian, and one was Greek. The fourth monk was from Turkey, which was where the Ecumenical Patriarchate was located. That meant all of the major nationalities on Mount Athos had been represented at that late-night meeting.
He wasn’t sure if that was a coincidence or not.
But he was going to keep it in mind as his journey continued.
63
If Payne and Jones had been traveling by themselves, they would have called Randy Raskin for two seats on a military flight to Izmir Air Base. Located on the western coast of Turkey, it wasn’t far from Limnos, the Greek island where Jarkko kept his yacht.
Unfortunately for them, the U.S. military frowned upon hard-drinking Finns and blondes with fake passports sneaking into a foreign country in the back of one of its planes. Therefore, the four of them were forced to find a different mode of transportation to the Aegean.
Surprisingly, it was Jarkko who came up with the solution. He was friends with a pilot in Helsinki-the same pilot who always took him south for the winter-who was more than happy to fly them to Greece for a reasonable price. And since Limnos had its own airport, they would actually get there faster than they would flying to Athens on a jet and shuttling north to the island.
Plus, a small airport with private hangars made sneaking past customs a lot easier.
Before leaving Finland, Payne bought plenty of supplies at the Kauppatori Market, everything from food to warm clothes. He had never been to Mount Athos, but he was quite familiar with the effects of altitude on air temperature. Especially at night. A brutal mission in the rugged terrain of Afghanistan had taught him that. And since the cover of darkness would aid their journey up the Holy Mountain, he made damn sure they were ready for it.
Meanwhile, Jones used Allison’s computer to download as much information about Athos as possible. He wanted to plot their mission during their long flight to Greece, so they could hit the ground running. Normally, he would have preferred a day or two to survey the topography and scout the patrol patterns on the southern tip of the peninsula. But after thinking it over, he realized that this was a race against a nameless opponent. The man who had hired Alexei Kozlov to kill Richard Byrd was seeking the same treasure they were.
One day could make all the difference between fortune and failure.
Hey, Jon,” Jones said from the back of the small jet. Jarkko was sitting in the cockpit, trading dirty jokes with the pilot, while Allison caught a nap in the front row.
“What?” Payne asked from across the aisle.
“Let’s assume that this treasure is real, that Schliemann actually found the Statue of Zeus, and it’s somehow hidden inside the mountain.”
“Okay.”
“How are we going to get it out?”
“Excuse me?”
“I mean, the damn thing is forty feet tall and covered with gold. I doubt we can carry it.”
“Speak for yourself. I’ve been eating a lot of sausage. And sausage means protein.”
Jones smirked. “I’m serious. There’s no way we can remove it by ourselves.”
“You’re assuming that it’s still in one piece. Remember, it was carried from Olympia to Constantinople and back to Greece. And when it disappeared from Constantinople, no one saw it leave. Either that was one hell of a magic trick, or they cut the throne into pieces before the trip.”
“Good point.”
“Besides, even if we find it, I don’t think we should move it. After all, it’s one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. We would be crucified if we damaged it any further.”
Jones rubbed his eyes in frustration. “What are you saying? You want to leave it there?”
Payne nodded. “That’s exactly what I’m saying. If we find it-and that’s a giant
“I vote for none of the above. I vote for us.”
“Obviously, we can make our case, quoting the ancient law of Finders-Keepers. But it will be an uphill struggle. A hell of a lot tougher than climbing a mountain in the dark.”
Jones nodded in agreement. “Okay. I’m with you on the whole throne thing. If we find it and it’s salvageable, we leave it for the experts to move. But what about the other stuff?”
“What other stuff?”
“According to legend, the Greeks removed all their treasures from Constantinople before the city was set on fire. So there’s no telling what else we might find up there.”
“I forgot all about that,” Payne teased. “Thankfully, I bought several canvas bags in Helsinki. They’re perfect for carrying supplies on the way up, and gold on the way down.”
Clive slowed his boat and pointed to a thick stretch of forest to the east of Zografou. “Buried in the trees is Kastamonitou. It’s one of the monasteries I’ve stayed at.”
Dial strained to see it on the wooded hillside. “Is it small?”
“Not at all. There are several buildings and a large
“Any treasures of note?”
“The monastery has three miracle-working icons.”
“Which means what?”
“Just as the name implies. They have three different icons that have been responsible for miracles, holy acts that have been verified by the Church.”
Dial smirked at the explanation. “Can any of them predict lottery numbers?”
“If they could, I’m sure you would have heard of the place.”
A few minutes later, they approached Docheiariou, a tenth-century monastery built along the rocky shoreline. Clive pulled his boat near a stone jetty that extended out into the waters of the Singitic Gulf, so his passengers could get a better view of the boathouse where the monks kept their fishing equipment. Behind it was a small fortress, a mix of ancient buildings and colorful chapels built on top of fortified stone walls.
“Notice the height of the windows,” Clive said as he pointed to their placement seventy feet above the ground. “This monastery was susceptible to attacks because of its position near the water, so they compensated by elevating their architecture into the air.”
“Pretty cool,” Dial admitted. “Not as high as Meteora, but still pretty cool.”
“You’ve been to Meteora?”
Dial nodded but said nothing, not wanting to talk about his investigation.
Clive read between the lines. “So
“What connection is that?”
“A monk from Mount Athos actually founded Great Meteoron in the fourteenth century. That was a turbulent time around these parts-with plenty of political upheaval. Several monks followed his lead and moved to central Greece because it was safer. Meteora was better protected than Mount Athos, because the monks could control who entered their monasteries. If they felt threatened, they pulled up their long ladders and no one could get up to them. But here, there was the constant threat of attack.”
“When the monks left, did they take any treasures with them?”
“Definitely,” Clive assured him. “Around here, two of the biggest concerns have always been thieves and fires. Over the years, both have taken their toll on this community, robbing the monks of some of their finest relics. Not so at Meteora. That place was like Fort Knox.”