Free The Columbus Affair: A Novel by Steve Berry Page B

what he’s after.”
    The waiter returned and laid a salad before her.
    She reached for her fork.
    Brian’s hand came across the table and grabbed hers. “What you just did to your father was despicable.”
    She flushed with anger. “Let go of my hand.”
    “He’s your father. No matter what may have happened between you. To lie to him like you did is unforgivable.”
    She yanked her hand free and stood from the table. Bad enough she had some regrets, she wasn’t going to listen to a stranger berate her.
    “Go ahead,” he said. “Leave. But know this. You’re in way over your head and you’re going to end up dead.”
    No one had ever before used the word
dead
while referring to her. “Why would you say such a thing?”
    “You know nothing of who you’re dealing with. Simon found you for a specific purpose. He’s after something.”
    He motioned to the
Minerva
pages still on the table.
    “And it has something to do with that article.”
    ———
    Of all the great explorers, Christopher Columbus is the most enigmatic. His birth, his character, his career, his achievements are all mysteries. No authentic portrait exists. The ones that now grace galleries around the world were painted decades after his death and conflict in the most obvious of ways. It is known that he married in 1478 and a son, Diego, was born in 1480. Either his first wife died or Columbus took Diego and abandoned her. No one seems to know her true fate. He then had a tryst with a Castilian woman who bore him an illegitimate son, Fernando, in 1488. He was close with both of his sons all of his life. Of course, Fernando favored a Spanish origin for his father, while Diego supported an Italian ancestry. Unfortunately, nothing has survived that attests to Columbus’ birthplace. The man himself spoke little of his past and wrote nothing about it while alive. Though the time of his death is certain— May 20, 1506—the year of his birth is a matter of great debate. Columbus himself said 1447 one time, 1453 another. The best guess is somewhere between August 25 and October 31, 1451. Fernando actually searched for Columbus’ relations in Genoa, Italy, but found none. Of course, Fernando’s bias toward his Spanish homeland may have colored those investigations. History, though, owes Fernando a great debt of gratitude. At his home on the banks of the Guadalquivir River, in Seville, he amassed one of Europe’s largest libraries. He also inherited his father’s personal papers. Fernando made provisions in his will to ensure that the library and papers would survive but, despite this precaution, ownership was contested for decades until eventually the books and papers passed into the hands of the cathedral in Seville. Sadly, many thousands of originals were lost before that transfer happened. What remains, about 7,000 items, is named the Biblioteca Colombina and still exists in Spain .
    History notes that Columbus maintained a daily account of his first voyage, the Diario de a bordo , the Onboard Log . This journal was presented to Queen Isabella on his return, and the queen herself commanded a scribe to prepare an exact copy. But by 1554, both the original and the copy were gone. Fortunately, before they vanished, the copy passed through the hands of Bishop Bartolomé de las Casas who used it to produce El libro de la primera navegación, The Book of the First Navigation —or, as it’s generally known today , The Journal of Columbus . But again, there is no way to know if de las Casas’ creation is either complete or accurate. In short, no authentic, firsthand account of Columbus’ first voyage exists. Even worse, the chart Columbus used to guide his path has also been lost, that map not seen since the early 16th century .
    His youth is also entirely unaccounted for. An Italian lineage does not concur with reality since he always wrote in Castilian, not Italian. He possessed no discernible educational background, yet he was clearly schooled.