Free The Spear of Destiny by Julian Noyce Page B

too.”
    Natalie smiled at her boss who rolled his eyes.
      “Jim?” Dennis said.
    Hutchinson picked his beer up and downed it. He banged the bottle back down onto the table.
      “Well it appears you two have made up your minds. A million euro’s eh? I must admit we could do with the money.”
     
    Natalie and Dennis were in his studio apartment where they had been since they’d got back that afternoon. It was nearly eleven o’clock and both were very tired and on strong coffee. They were expecting Hutchinson back soon. He had text messaged Natalie to say that his talk had finished and as soon as he could leave he would. At that time of night the taxi journey would take less than thirty minutes. His message had been received over an hour before.
      Dennis and Natalie had arrived back armed with every book they could buy or borrow from the nearest library with any reference to Jesus Christ in the index. Both having quickly showered they’d settled down to study. Both had a laptop each and had searched every link and pop up possible.
    Dennis was flicking through piles of mail and paper on his table in the lounge. 
      “Darling have you seen that menu for the Chinese takeaway. I’m sure it was here the other day. You can’t mistake it. It’s got a large golden dragon on the front.”
      “I think I pinned it under a fridge magnet on the side of the fridge.”
      “It’s not here.”
    Natalie came into the kitchen drying her hair with a towel.
      “Right what did I say?”
    He stopped searching to look at her.
      “I said on the side didn’t I.”
      “Oh yeah. Got it,” he said reaching for the wall mounted phone, “What do you fancy?”
      “You’re not ordering without Jim are you. Do you not want to wait.”
      “I’m not sure what time they stop delivering.”
      “Why don’t we just order one of those meals for three. At least that way we’ll get a mixture. I don’t even know if Jim likes Chinese.”
      “Everyone likes Chinese.”
    She went into the lounge and sat on the sofa whilst still drying her hair. Then she stopped.
      “Oh my God.”
    He turned with the phone pressed to his ear. She held a book up for him to see.
      “You bought a bible.”
      “Yeah we’ll need it.”
      “You bought a bible!”
      “Yes. If we’re researching Jesus Christ it seemed like the perfect answer.”
      “I suppose,” she said, “but you can be the one who reads it.”
    Dennis ignored her as the phone the other end was answered.
      “Chinese will be half an hour,” he said rejoining her in the lounge, “Okay so where do we start?”
      She grabbed the first book from the pile.
      “Anything on Jesus Christ. Why are you looking at me like that?”
      “Needle in a haystack.”
      “We’ll need to define our searches. The internet will help.”
      “Okay. So what should I look for? Seriously.”
      “Von Werner has been gravely injured. The burns to his face, neck and hands are extensive….”
      Natalie remembered back to that day standing on the ‘wavecrest’ ship when she saw Von Werner’s body brought back on board. She could still remember the blistered flesh. It still made her feel sick.
      “If he is intending to use the spear to heal himself we need to work out what he will do next. The legend of the spear states that whoever holds it will be invincible. I think we should start with the history of whoever has owned the spear. If anyone in history or legend has had any kind of miracle or anything unusual happen to them whilst the holy lance has been in their possession. What do you think? Is that a good place to start?”
      “I don’t know. I guess so. You’re the archaeologist.”
    Dennis quickly tapped in the holy lance on google. The third link on the first page included images.
      “That’s our piece,” he said. He clicked on the top link which was Wikipedia and began to read.
      “Anything?” Natalie asked after seeing his intense