Nine Swords

Continuing with her theory of an internal investigation, Isabella does a quick search of some of the words on the coin. The results reinforce her suspicions that this might be an internal investigation, and she decides for better or worse to share her thoughts with the group.

"Some quick research that I've done has given me a theory. The words around the edge of the coin, are part of Psalm 113. During the Renaissance this was converted into a canon, which was used to express feeling of Catholic nostalgia and a return to old religious order. This along with the Archivist's assertion that most of the missing people are Templars led me to this idea. It could be possible that someone within the Templars doesn't agree the the "forward-facing direction," and is trying to remove members and potential members that they feel don't fit with the historical roots of this organization."

This thought sent chills down her spine, as she herself didn't really fit with the historical ideal members of the Templars. As far as she was aware, no distant ancestor was a member and she was not particularly religious. If her theory was right, she could very well be a target.

"Dr. Neary is it possible to request that the Archivist look into the heritage of some of the missing Templars to see if they have connections to the organization through family or religious beliefs?"

Kleopas watched as a almost comical scene unfolded out in front of him. It started with the perky girl in a 'fashionable' short skirt come skidding into the room a look of 'I meant to do that” about her. This dramatic entrance was soon followed by Arcadius's various assumptions on couples and personal lives.

From his position Kleopas let out a chuckle, listening to the other members of the team begin to introduce themselves to one another.

Getting up from his seat and stepping through Miranda, this was accompanied by a protest from the spirit, he made his way over to the others.

“Hey folks. I'm Kleopas, or Kleo for short, I guess we all have been drafted into this assignment together am I right?”

He stood there smiling, a look of innocence on his face. He felt that he wanted to start this assignment off smoothly, hoping that acting friendly enough would mean a easier time when the bullets would inevitably begin to fly.

Truthfully the newspaper article disturbed him slightly, facts and figures about the rise in missing persons was one thing, but to have so many fellow agents be listed among them was troubling. Then there was Isabella's observation, what if agents were being culled?

“Your going to get killed” Giggled Miranda as if she could read his thoughts. In response he coughed slightly, one of their agreed signals to shut up and behave while I try not to get into trouble.

“What if the coin is not a coin but a token of some sort?” Kleopas suggested with a raised voice.

Cybella wrote:"Dr. Neary is it possible to request that the Archivist look into the heritage of some of the missing Templars to see if they have connections to the organization through family or religious beliefs?"

[[When doctor Nearly returns, she will comment that the Archivist has looked into that possibility, and did not find any connections in that regard.]]

Regardless of his ability to perceive the emotions of others, Alex could see that he embarrassed Jenn with his sudden flustered response to Elania. It wasn't intentional, in truth, he was probably as nervous on the inside as Jenn was. His feelings for Elania were known only by the two of them together, and they hadn't spoken about it recently. Maybe it scared him, feeling the way he did about her. He knew her reservations about entering a relationship, what with 15 years separating them.

Alex would apologize to Jenn later, at a more appropriate time. He wasn't about to destroy any professional relationship with his associates.

"Kleo, good to see you as well," he said, continuing on with the subject of the coin. "Are you saying it's similar to a bus token? The coin's of the Knights Templar, not us. There's a good chance that this ties back to the Crusades, perhaps the pilgrims to the Holy Land?"

Jenn had translated the Latin on the coin as soon as she looked at it, of course. While she was technically an Egyptologist, her specialization was ancient languages, and lately art and symbolism that incorporated language.... though her thesis had recently gone alarmingly south, and she was rethinking something simpler... like Septic Systems of the Old Kingdom.

Her first instinct had been to evaluate the coin as she would any artifact, trying to get a feel for the age of the item, if it was likely a reproduction or a modern creation in an old style, based on the materials used and evidence of machining or hand craftsmanship... she could probably even speculate on the type of tools used to make it. If it had seemed to be an historical artifact, or even a modern piece done in a period style, she would have tried to identify that period. It was what she was trained to do.

The woman Jenn had passed the coin to began doing web searches of the words and quickly began sharing her theories. Jenn hesitated to speak... she always hesitated to speak. With Google, no one needed esoteric specialists anymore, it seemed, and Jenn wasn't very comfortable with people anyway.

When Kleo introduced himself, she recognized him as another of her twitter acquaintances, and she offered him a quick, bright smile before dropping her gaze again.

Finally, she said, softly, "If someone presented me with an artifact in my field, the very first thing I'd ask them is where they got it and under what circumstances. How else do you know where to start looking at its significance?"

She smiled apologetically at the group if anyone paid any attention to her, "I'd also tell them that it was a modern piece, not even a reproduction. Sort of a stereotype of what someone might think a Templar relic might look like?" Then, still with a timid smile, "And maybe tell them to try that geocaching website printed on it?"

Jenn had noticed, with the Latin around the edge, there were also instructions to 'track me at www.geocaching.com'.

"I think there's some sort of serial number too, but I couldn't make it out."

Tom had not moved after the coin. A brief peek at it was all he really needed to know that Jenn would be the one to ask about this, not Tom. He was more likely to smash and destroy ancient artifacts than to investigate them and figure out anything. This was right up Jenn's alley though, as long as the coin didn't do something crazy like try to such her soul out through her nose. Enough other people had already touched it though, so Tom figured the likelihood of that happening was slim to none. Besides, the Templar weren't likely to just toss them some dangerous artifact in the middle of a meeting room at Temple Hall without telling them what they were getting into.

So instead of reaching out or trying to get a good look at the thing, he tucked his hands into his hoodie pockets and looked at the people. People were things that Tom understood more than artifacts. They were usually simple enough if you broke them down. Sure, you could be surprised later, but as long as you were willing to be surprised, that was fine. He got about as far as the man who was still chilling in his chair, apparently of the same mind as Tom, before Isabella came back with her interpretations of what the coin could mean. Tom turned a few shades paler, and he slowly turned to look at Jenn, wondering if she had put together the same things that he had.

He took a step closer to Jenn unconsciously, looking to the corners of the rooms as though he expected things to suddenly be hiding there. Then Jenn started to speak. When she got to the part about geocaching, the sharp lines that had appeared on his face fled in the wake of a hearty laugh. He even had to back up a few steps to flop backwards into a chair. "Geocaching huh?" He said, grinning like an idiot. "I guess sometimes things are just that simple." He would just file that away as a lesson to not take themselves too seriously all the time. "Can anyone make out the serial number? We could do a rubbing or get a magnifying glass or something."

Alexander nearly took a double-take. "What now?"

How could he have missed that?

The eyes see what they want.

He quickly pulled out his smartphone again, tapping in the web address. Lo and behold, there were the instructions for geocaching, the various types of treasure you could, and various other links. Finding an input bar for search parameters, he quickly tried out the code they'd been given alongside the coin and newspapers.

Nothing.

He frowned, saying to the group, "Well, there code we've been given doesn't work. What's the code on the coin?"

[[Edited for correctness]]

The stamped number on the coin is too hard to see with the bear eyes... its easy to see where the number was. the letters "TB" can be seen with careful study, five of symbols are too worn down to see with the naked eye.

Kleopas listened closely as Jen explained the probability that the coin most of the group were analyzing might just be a cheap knock off replica. He hadn't actually looked at the 'artifact' yet, so using that lull in the discussion he took a moment to analyze it himself.

“You mean it actually has the Geo-caching url address on the coin itself?” he mentioned offhandedly, looking closer at the design of the coin “I can assume that there is a log for this particular item on the website yes? Do you reckon there may be a clue of some sort there as well?”

Finishing his brief examination Kleopas stood back again. “I don't suppose those missing persons have found similar items to this whilst taking part in the game... wait actually if people use their smart phone app to look for things like this, can't we use the built in GPS hardware and trace where they are now?”

“Wooo go Kleo go!!!” announced Miranda as she materialized next to Kleopas, promptly beginning to blow raspberries and make faces at them all. “I knew you weren't stupid after all”

Kleopas sighed and prayed to a dozen different deities that no-one could see her, especially right now.
Trying to act 'normal' Kleopas shrugged to the others slightly “I'm not just a pretty face after all eh?”

“Don't be daft, your not pretty at all”

"That's a good idea Kleo. It can give us possible points to investigate this case further."

Isabella was hesitant to offer any further opinions of her own, but at this point she had already made a fool of herself, there was nothing worse she could do. Having done some work with seized illegal firearms, she had an idea for looking at the coin.

"If the tracking number has been filed off, there are a couple methods that could be used to restore it. An, acid wash for example. Given the Templars resources it's not unreasonable to think they might even have access to more sophisticated forensic methods to restore it. "

Hopefully I don't come off as a complete lunatic from this meeting

[Going forward italics will represent Isabella's internal thoughts. Edited since Cybella can't see Miranda]