Return of the Real Italian Alphas Read Free Page B

show me what you have found out.”
    The two men stepped over to another part of the room where a rather modern-looking desk and computer were located.  Rico flipped the switch to turn it on, and poured each of them a glass of Merlot while they waited for the old dinosaur of a computer to boot up.
    “You spent millions of dollars to buy this place, even more to update it, several more finding more of that ore we found in the labyrinth, and a ton on producing bullet casings out of the stuff, and you didn’t get yourself a brand new computer?” asked Gabriel as he stared pointedly at the thing.
    “I’m used to this one,” Rico excused himself with a smirk as he sat down and quickly pulled up the file he wanted to show him. “Here we go, these are all the possibilities, from first to last in order of likelihood.”
    “Good, then let’s go to the last one first instead of the other way around,” Gabriel teased him.
    “You want to go look in the Amazon rainforest?” Rico scoffed. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t that where you pretty much just came from?”
    “Pretty much,” Gabriel agreed with a nod. “And where my children still reside.”
    “Yeah, boss, and I’m sure you miss them like crazy by now,” said Rico with a sad sigh. He took a large drink of his wine, then said, “Like I said, we intend to begin in the pyramid. After we eliminate that possibility or, if we get really lucky, find the thing, we’re looking at a few temples in Greece, the Coliseum, or maybe even the Vatican itself. Then of course, some folks think it might be in Jerusalem, but I tend to doubt it. The Templar Knights clearly had a hand in both the creation and the hiding of the object. But the real key is in its name: Gordral’s Lance. Apparently, Sir Gordral was a well-known knight around these parts during the Third Crusade, when the lance was supposedly forged. But he wasn’t fighting against the same enemy as the others. His target was the werewolves. Back then, they were much more open about their existence, and he deemed them to be more evil even than the non-Christian element they were trying to eradicate. He believed they were spawned from the Devil himself.”
    “What nonsense,” Gabriel sneered. “I’ve been a wolf for a long time now, and I’ve never seen any Devil.”
    “Of course not, but you must consider the source,” Rico reminded him. “He made us a weapon either way.”
    “So, you think we ought to look in Greece for an object made during the Crusades by a member of the church? In a temple erected for a pagan god?”
    “Only if it was stolen by them for some reason,” Rico explained. “There are conflicting reports concerning just such an occurrence.”
    “No, I think you’re looking at this thing the wrong way,” said Gabriel. “We know that the Christians of that time believed that the reason werewolves and other creatures of the night wouldn’t go into a church had to do with something spiritual, when in fact it has a lot more to do with the stones from which those buildings were made and the metal bits incorporated into them. If I were Gordral, I would make certain to put my prized weapon somewhere beyond the reach of the creatures I was trying to end.”
    “Such as in an old church or cathedral? But Jerusalem has many, and that’s where the man resided for most of his life when he wasn’t out hunting down the werewolves he so abhorred.”
    “What else do we know about Gordral?” Gabriel asked, rubbing his chin in thought.
    “In his later life, he was called back to Rome to serve as an archbishop in one of the churches there. He ended up being caught devirginizing the nuns and excommunicated. He was put to death a few months later for his crimes against the church.”
    “It seems to me that Jerusalem is hardly where the lance is to be found,” Gabriel pointed out. “To follow the lance, would it not make the most sense to follow Gordral?”
    “You’re right, of course, but