A New Relic
As Stefano lifted the bag, the cardinal’s hand rose with it.
"!"
Not only Father Stefano, but the guards flinched too, tightening their legs with a jolt of readiness. If things went wrong, they would have to subdue the cardinal on the spot.
Rrrr. Kuuuu.
"……."
Fortunately, the cardinal was sleeping so deeply that he never woke.
"……."
Carefully, Father Stefano loosened the strap and lifted the bag off the seat. At that, one of the guards rose silently and came over, carrying the bundle of documents Stefano had entrusted to him before boarding the plane. Stefano unzipped the bag and found the anti-eavesdropping device he had been using, with a USB drive and a heavy stack of papers beneath it. The documents had been wrapped with meticulous care, sealed so thoroughly that no one could pry them open.
These must be the Vatican Museum blueprints and security documents...
There were also a few of the cardinal’s personal effects tucked into the bag. Stefano quickly removed the items resting atop the papers and handed them to the waiting guard, who checked each one against his memory as if confirming its exact position before his eyes.
"Gnnng."
"!"
"!"
The two of them went rigid at the sound of the cardinal shifting in his sleep, but after a moment the steady rhythm of his breathing returned.
"Puh-huu. Kuhu."
"……."
Stefano took out the documents and hastily put the personal items back where they belonged. Once the exchange was done, he carefully set the bag down on the neighboring seat and tied the strap again.
...Done.
"Phew."
The guard who had taken the real documents had already disappeared behind the curtain in the aisle.
Sweat beaded on Father Stefano’s forehead from the strain, and when the guard returned after hiding the bag, Stefano immediately pointed at another spot. He meant that they should talk somewhere else, quietly. But the guard only smiled at him.
"Do you have something else you’d like to say?"
Stefano lowered his voice and asked carefully, but the guard ignored him and answered in a perfectly normal tone.
"Father?"
Just in case, shouldn’t we go somewhere else to talk—
But the next thing he said made Stefano realize he had worried for nothing.
"Father Stefano, I slipped sleeping pills into the drink he had earlier. He won’t wake for a long while."
"Ah... you should’ve told me sooner."
"The chamberlain is a man who does everything perfectly. Ha-ha. From here on, we’ll take care of things."
"I appreciate it."
Rrrr. Kuhu-hu.
He remained lost in a dream, unable to wake from its depths. It was a happy dream—one in which he had escaped the Vatican and was finally free.
While James was away in Korea, Colt went to Sotheby’s to meet Jake.
"Mr. Colt, the appraisal of the meteorite you entrusted to us last time is complete."
The analysis results for the meteorite he had left there the previous time had finally come in.
"It took a little longer than expected."
That was because they had pushed the meteorite matter far to the back while dealing with everything related to King Arthur’s gold coins. That was why Jake was only now calling Colt in, long after the report from the appraisal agency had arrived.
"I don’t mind if it takes a little longer, as long as it’s a good piece. Ha-ha-ha."
"I’m glad we were able to meet your expectations."
"Oh! So it was a good meteorite?"
"Of course. As expected from its weight, it contained a great deal of metal—iron, nickel, and the like—and it was also found to contain a significant mass of an unknown substance. Its excellent condition of preservation made it especially valuable."
The way a meteorite was preserved after being found also affected its valuation, and because it had only recently been brought from space—and because James had kept it in his inventory—it remained in outstanding condition.
"Hah-hah."
"The minimum auction estimate is seven million dollars."
"What?"
When he’d received the meteorite as a gift, he had been told it might fetch more than a million dollars, but seven million was a staggering sum that blew past anything he’d imagined.
"That’s only the expected auction price, so it may go for even more if bidding gets competitive."
"……."
Jim-jim. Just what are you...
Ever since he’d met James, it felt as though nothing but good fortune had been happening to him.
"Heh-heh. You really are a lucky guy."
"Pardon?"
"Nothing. Please take good care of the auction for me. Sell it for a good price."
"Of course, Mr. Colt."
On the taxi ride back to the hotel, Colt called Ho-jung.
"Ho-jung! It’s me."
"—Colt, honey."
The two of them had been spending their days wrapped in the sweet, newly rekindled romance they had recently started again.
"I just got back from Sotheby’s. They said the appraisal result for the meteorite we sent to auction would be ready today—you know, the one James gave me."
"Oh, right. So? Looks like it’ll do well?"
"Mm-hm. Thankfully, it should bring in at least some pocket change."
Colt really thought the amount was enormous, but he only said it as if it were nothing to Ho-jung.
"Pocket change?"
"They said I can expect around seven million dollars."
"……."
"That’s just the minimum, so if the bidding gets competitive, it could go even higher."
"...Colt Evans?"
"Uh... why?"
Whenever Ho-jung called his full name, Colt found himself tensing before he even realized it.
"Exactly how much money have you been making from performing in Las Vegas?"
"Well, as for the performances..."
In truth, the income he had earned while hosting the magic shows had not been all that impressive. The house he had bought with the money he’d saved in the early days was the full extent of his assets, and most of that had already been squandered on liquor and women. Even the rest of his savings had been spent on James’s car and trailer, so it was fair to say he had practically no money left from working at all.
"You didn’t do anything illegal in the United States, did you?"
"D-did something illegal?"
The fact that he had actually done bad things in America made his heart thump for no reason.
...Like drug trafficking or something.
"Do I look like the kind of guy who’d do something like that?"
Thankfully, it wasn’t drugs.
I only stole a little money, that’s all.
That little bit happened to amount to tens of millions of dollars.
"But how can seven million dollars be pocket change? No matter how you slice it, your performance income should be obvious. Honestly, I figure even if Honey had been performing for more than ten years, it’d still be hard to make over two million dollars. So what exactly did you do to make money?"
Ho-jung had sensed something strange from the very first time she met the two of them.
Those two spent money like people with a bottomless fortune.
Recently, they had even been drinking liquor that cost more than ten million won a bottle without so much as blinking. That only made her want to know more.
"Ah... we’ve just had a lot going on."
If he hadn’t gone with James to rob the Las Vegas casino, the two of them would almost certainly still be running their magic show and getting through each day one at a time. At the rate they’d been spending lately, they would have blown through everything they’d once owned in just a few months.
But there’s no way I can tell her that, even if it kills me.
"What kind of things? Let me in on it too. I’ve been dying to know."
Ho-jung was curious how her lover had become rich, and today she intended to solve that mystery.
"Um..."
For Colt, James was always a convenient excuse.
"James has a good eye for investments. I followed his lead and invested too, and thanks to that I made quite a lot."
"Then was James’s trip to the Vatican this time related to investments too?"
"Uh..."
Since James hadn’t given him any warning before heading to the Vatican, Colt didn’t know anything for certain.
"Probably? He was the one who gave me the meteorite and introduced me to Sotheby’s, after all. I’m guessing he just stopped by because of this auction lot. He probably had some business at the Vatican Museum."
He hadn’t heard anything else, but he did know about King Arthur’s gold coins.
He said each one was worth five million dollars, so maybe he went there to hand over the rest to the Vatican.
"So he met the Pope in the Vatican?"
"James and the Pope?"
The news that James had met the Pope was new to Colt.
"The photo Suzy sent showed the Pope and James together."
"……."
If he was going to meet the Pope, I should’ve gone too!
But Colt had a prior record of flat-out refusing whenever James called him.
"Colt, I need to head out to the Vatican in a hurry..."
"I’m not going. I’ve got plans with Ho-jung."
"...I wasn’t even asking you to come with me. Just stay at the hotel and don’t go causing trouble, Call-call."
"What? Jim-jim. Are you starting again?"
"Forget it! I’ll talk to you when I get back, so don’t go wandering around outside with a lot of cash on you."
"Good luck, Jim-jim. I’m free at last!"
"...If Ho-jung is crying when I get back, I’ll cut it off first and ask questions later. Okay?"
"……."
Colt remembered, pale-faced, how he had ended the call right there and then.
"Ho-jung."
"Yeah, babe?"
"You haven’t had anything sad happen lately, have you?"
"Nope."
"I hope you don’t have anything sad happen from now on, either."
"What are you talking about? Anyway, are you heading back to the hotel now? You’re not sneaking off somewhere else, are you?"
Colt had no confidence in controlling himself, and if he went outside, there was a hundred percent chance he’d end up making Ho-jung sad.
That bastard James really does what he says he’ll do.
"I’m going to hole up in the hotel. I’m definitely not going outside."
"Call-call. Good thinking. Then behave yourself and wait until I get there."
"Hurry up and come~."
Colt only wanted to protect his precious equipment, after all.
Buzz. Buzz.
While James was spending his idle days at the Vatican lodging, the phone rang.
"Oh. Jake."
"James. Did everything go well on your side?"
"Of course."
"Have you perhaps changed your mind?"
"About the Texas land deal?"
"Ha-ha. Yes. I’m calling about exactly that."
Ever since Jake had left with Father Stefano, he had been taking the full brunt of Madeleine’s fury. After telling the British Museum that he would sell them the land, he had gone off with the Vatican Museum representative instead. She called him every day, and more than once she had even shown up in person and demanded that they bring James back immediately.
"The British Museum has already prepared the relevant documents and even an international lawyer. All you need to do is sign..."
"Ah. I don’t really have any reason to stay here any longer, but they keep holding me up."
"If Father Stefano is the reason, I can contact him separately..."
"No. It’s not Father Stefano. It’s the Pope who’s keeping me here, so I can’t leave."
"...Pardon?"
"The Pope told me to stay a few more days."
"You met the Pope?"
"Yes. I did."
"...Why?"
"I don’t think I need to explain that part, either."
"...I was prying where I shouldn’t have."
"Haha. Don’t take it too hard."
"Then... if I guess correctly, will you tell me?"
"Oh. If Jake manages to guess it, I’ll have no choice but to tell you."
"……."
Jake paused for a moment, then spoke.
"James, you aren’t just in possession of another relic besides King Arthur’s gold coins, are you?"
"Oh. As expected, Jake has exceptional deductive skills."
Jake took one step farther on the strength of having gotten it right.
"Then you’ve decided to hand that item over to the Vatican."
"That’s right too! Amazing, aren’t you?"
Since he had agreed to turn over the Holy Grail and the Holy Paten, Jake’s deduction had been perfect so far.
"That’s such a shame. If you’d entrusted it to us, we could have gotten you a much better price..."
Sotheby’s was a company that operated on the commission it took from brokering auctions. The three King Arthur gold coins entered in the international auction this time, along with the two coins they had agreed to sell directly, would all bring in fees. If it had been a relic of similar value, they might have been able to charge an enormous commission, and greed had begun to rear its head.
"This time, the item’s material value is almost nonexistent, so Sotheby’s wouldn’t really have profited much anyway. Only the Vatican would treasure it."
The Holy Grail and the Holy Paten were holy relics whose value was so immense that they were, in fact, impossible to price.
"Ah, is that so?"
"If you’re still disappointed, should I send one more item to Sotheby’s auction?"
It was time for a new relic to appear.