The legacy of the dark blood

Chapter 09

Story of a crime

Due to Bernard's condition, Chris kindly offered to bring him a chair so that he could rest, while the rest of those present attended the meeting standing. After a moment when Liz was glad not to be immersed in the sinister darkness of the forest for the night, Nick approached the meeting point handing over what appeared to be the summary of his work. The agent was about to leave, but before that happened, Ulrich caught his attention.

"Hey Nick, if you haven't noticed we have company, would you mind introducing yourself?" From the gesture the officer showed, he hinted that he didn't entirely like the idea.

"Well, I'm Officer Nick Deisler," he began breathlessly, "a member of this police force for a little over eight months and a deserter, twenty-eight years old and..., I guess the rest is irrelevant.

"It's a pleasure, Nick." Bernard praised him, forgetting the events of a short while ago.

"You can keep calling me Agent Deisler, if you don't mind," he replied a bit disgusted and turned his back on the group to leave.

Liz thought that the man's attitude was overbearing and very unfriendly, totally different from what she had seen from the other members of the commando she had met so far. By then, the agent knew that the most important thing was to try to put the puzzle together; the reason for the dark blood, the cadaverous appearance of the villagers, who was the man who identified himself as "Holzmann's Executioner" in the village and what role he played, but what intrigued her most was the story of the looting by the American mercenaries who she hoped had no connection with the citizens of her country who had strayed into the area.

"Well, I think it's about time you gave us an explanation," Liz scolded Max without caring about his attitude, knowing that he was not used to hurling affronts at her as he had done with Nick, Bernard and to a certain extent with Chris. Her leader, however, remained silent.

"We'll explain everything over here," Ulrich called out to her, inviting everyone to take a place at the table. Liz was forced to leave Max alone to join her companions." Well, first of all I would like to apologize for what happened with your leader, but it is natural that either Agent Deisler, or Nick and the other officers mistook him for one of the other mercenaries. As we were informed, he was digging a grave and was in possession of some rather compromising material.

Among other items that Nick had given to Ulrich was a scroll with the famous silver statue of the queen illustrated on it, which was next to the photo of the lost original, with several ostensible differences. The illustration in 16th century paintings showed the statue with a few luxurious ornaments not seen in the photo of the original, among them a golden crown, a ring on her right hand carrying a goblet also gilded, and in her other hand a silver tray with three different colored stones: Green, Red and Blue. To the surprise of all present, the other object that was being removed by Ulrich from a plastic for evidence storage was a blue stone of a sapphire-like material, identical to the one in the illustration of the painting.

"First of all, this information should be of a confidential nature, but judging from the current situation and our losses, I recognize that a few extra hands would do us a lot of good. I suppose you were informed that the missing American citizens in our country wanted to trade this silver statue?"They claimed to have made the find in these parts, that's how we came upon this place, which everyone calls Reich der Finsternis, one of them is of course Mark Warren, grandson of Charles Warren, whom we suppose was responsible for the looting in this part of Germany shortly after the second world war.

"Since then?"Liz asked in surprise after folding her arms, "And how is it that this has come to wreak havoc up to now?

"We think that Mark Warren's marketing got the word out," Chris replied, "Although that doesn't explain how it got to a place as isolated from the continent as this.