brings you to France?”
“Studies,” the Norwegian replied in a rumbling bass. “I’m investigating mysteries from the past in hope of influencing my nation’s future. I’ve heard of you, Mr. Gage, and your own remarkable scholarship.”
“Curiosity at best. I’m very much the amateur savant.” Yes, I can be modest when women aren’t around. “I suspect the ancients knew something of electricity’s strange power, and we’ve forgotten what we once knew. Bonaparte almost had me shot in the garden outside the Tuileries, but decided to retain me on the chance I might be useful.”
“And my brother spared a beautiful Egyptian woman at the same time, I heard,” Pauline murmured. She’d come up behind us, smelling of violets.
“Yes, my former companion Astiza, who decided to return to Egypt to continue her studies when Napoleon talked of sending me as an emissary to America. Parting was sweet sorrow, as they say.” In truth I longed for her, yet also felt unshackled from her intensity. I was lonely and empty, but free.
“But you’re not in America,” Ellsworth said. “You’re here with us.”
“Well, President Adams was sending you three here. It seemed best to wait in Paris to lend a hand. I do have a weakness for gaming, and the little wheel is rather mesmerizing, don’t you think?”
“Have your studies helped your gambling, Mr. Gage?” Bloodhammer’s voice had a slight aggression to it, as if he were testing me. Instinct told me he was trouble.
“Mathematics has helped, thanks to the advice of the French savants I traveled with. But as I was explaining to Davie, true understanding of the odds only persuades that one must eventually lose.”
“Indeed. Do you know what the thirty-six numbers of a roulette wheel add up to, sir?”
“Haven’t thought about it, really.”
The Norwegian looked at us intently, as if revealing a dark secret. “Six hundred and sixty-six. Or 666, the Number of the Beast, from Revelations.” He waited portentously for a reaction, but we all just blinked.
“Oh, dear,” I finally said. “But you’re not the first to suggest gambling is the devil’s tool. I don’t entirely disagree.”
“As a Freemason, you know numbers and symbols have meaning.”
“I’m not much of a Mason, I’m afraid.”
“And perhaps entire nations have meaning, as well.” He looked at my companions with disquieting intensity. “Is it coincidence, my American friends, that nearly half of your revolution’s generals and signers of your Constitution were Masons? That so many French revolutionaries were members as well? That Bavaria’s secret Illuminati were founded in 1776, the same year as your Declaration of Independence? That the first boundary marker of the American capital city was laid in a Masonic ceremony, as well as the cornerstones for your capitol building and president’s house? That’s why I find your two nations so fascinating. There is a secret thread behind your revolutions.”
I looked at the others. None seemed to concur. “I frankly don’t know,” I said. “Napoleon’s not a Mason. You’re one yourself, Bloodhammer?”
“I’m an investigator, like you, interested in my own nation’s independence. The Scandinavian kingdoms united in 1363, a curious time in our region’s history. Norway has been in Denmark’s shadow since. As a patriot, I hope for independence. You and I have things to teach each other, I suspect.”
“Do we, now?” This Viking seemed rather forward. “What do you have to teach me?”
“More about your nation’s beginnings, perhaps. And something even more intriguing and powerful. Something of incalculable value.”
I waited.
“But what I wish to share is not for all ears.”
“The usual caveat.” People have a habit of talking grand, but what they really want is to milk me for what I know. It’s become a game.
“So I ask for a word with you in private, Gage, later this evening.”
“Well.” I glanced at
“Studies,” the Norwegian replied in a rumbling bass. “I’m investigating mysteries from the past in hope of influencing my nation’s future. I’ve heard of you, Mr. Gage, and your own remarkable scholarship.”
“Curiosity at best. I’m very much the amateur savant.” Yes, I can be modest when women aren’t around. “I suspect the ancients knew something of electricity’s strange power, and we’ve forgotten what we once knew. Bonaparte almost had me shot in the garden outside the Tuileries, but decided to retain me on the chance I might be useful.”
“And my brother spared a beautiful Egyptian woman at the same time, I heard,” Pauline murmured. She’d come up behind us, smelling of violets.
“Yes, my former companion Astiza, who decided to return to Egypt to continue her studies when Napoleon talked of sending me as an emissary to America. Parting was sweet sorrow, as they say.” In truth I longed for her, yet also felt unshackled from her intensity. I was lonely and empty, but free.
“But you’re not in America,” Ellsworth said. “You’re here with us.”
“Well, President Adams was sending you three here. It seemed best to wait in Paris to lend a hand. I do have a weakness for gaming, and the little wheel is rather mesmerizing, don’t you think?”
“Have your studies helped your gambling, Mr. Gage?” Bloodhammer’s voice had a slight aggression to it, as if he were testing me. Instinct told me he was trouble.
“Mathematics has helped, thanks to the advice of the French savants I traveled with. But as I was explaining to Davie, true understanding of the odds only persuades that one must eventually lose.”
“Indeed. Do you know what the thirty-six numbers of a roulette wheel add up to, sir?”
“Haven’t thought about it, really.”
The Norwegian looked at us intently, as if revealing a dark secret. “Six hundred and sixty-six. Or 666, the Number of the Beast, from Revelations.” He waited portentously for a reaction, but we all just blinked.
“Oh, dear,” I finally said. “But you’re not the first to suggest gambling is the devil’s tool. I don’t entirely disagree.”
“As a Freemason, you know numbers and symbols have meaning.”
“I’m not much of a Mason, I’m afraid.”
“And perhaps entire nations have meaning, as well.” He looked at my companions with disquieting intensity. “Is it coincidence, my American friends, that nearly half of your revolution’s generals and signers of your Constitution were Masons? That so many French revolutionaries were members as well? That Bavaria’s secret Illuminati were founded in 1776, the same year as your Declaration of Independence? That the first boundary marker of the American capital city was laid in a Masonic ceremony, as well as the cornerstones for your capitol building and president’s house? That’s why I find your two nations so fascinating. There is a secret thread behind your revolutions.”
I looked at the others. None seemed to concur. “I frankly don’t know,” I said. “Napoleon’s not a Mason. You’re one yourself, Bloodhammer?”
“I’m an investigator, like you, interested in my own nation’s independence. The Scandinavian kingdoms united in 1363, a curious time in our region’s history. Norway has been in Denmark’s shadow since. As a patriot, I hope for independence. You and I have things to teach each other, I suspect.”
“Do we, now?” This Viking seemed rather forward. “What do you have to teach me?”
“More about your nation’s beginnings, perhaps. And something even more intriguing and powerful. Something of incalculable value.”
I waited.
“But what I wish to share is not for all ears.”
“The usual caveat.” People have a habit of talking grand, but what they really want is to milk me for what I know. It’s become a game.
“So I ask for a word with you in private, Gage, later this evening.”
“Well.” I glanced at
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