What Rough Beast

I put it around my neck, thoroughly mystified. Ivar was holding both of his kids. He spotted my new-found bauble. He said questioningly, "Where did you get that?!! That's Thor's hammer!!"

I hesitated to tell him that Odin had given it to me personally. He'd think I was hallucinating. So, I said as casually as I could, "Oh this?? I just found it on the floor of the cave."

Ivar said enviously, "Be careful with it. It might be historically significant. Viking warriors wore Thor's Hammer to protect themselves. It was like the Christian cross."

So, I was wearing something that the king of the Norse Gods had given me. I'd think about what that meant later. My only focus right now, was on getting off the island.

Luckily, it was high tide and with all of us pushing we were able to get back afloat. We had loaded the boat with everything that we'd brought from the cave, including the melt-water and puffin eggs.

Dani wouldn't leave my side. I understood why she was so obsessed. She'd lost her father and she needed to be close to the man she loved.

I didn't care because I couldn't get enough of her. I might be a man with no name. But I had to live up to her childlike faith in me. Her cheerful attitude her obvious love and her simple innocent trust. It all made me into a much stronger person.

I backed us into the deeper part of the little cove turned and set course 45 degrees north of the setting sun. Iceland was out there somewhere and if I missed that we would certainly hit Greenland.

The only question was how far we would have to travel before we ran into somebody. We had been in a transatlantic shipping lane prior to the explosion. There had to be ships out there somewhere.

A couple of hours passed. We had gone perhaps 10 miles. The wind was blowing snow at an alarming rate. But the island was still visible through the looming fog.

Everybody was quiet. It had been a long night. Birgit was cuddling her kids and Dani was sleeping with her head on my shoulder. Neither woman remembered anything about their earlier exploits. I guess that was a blessing. The two old guys were also both asleep. They had done their duty.

Ivar and I had some thinking to do. It's easy to go with the flow when you're in the middle of a fight. It's only AFTER the adrenaline wears off that you reflect on what it all meant, and we had plenty of new information to wrap our minds around.

We had witnessed the supernatural. We knew that the legends were true. Of course, the women could never find out. It would be pointlessly cruel and self-indulgent on our part to tell them. I was certain that I was mentally tough enough to handle that secret. I hoped Ivar was.

But reason had to arm-wrestle with ego. Specifically, I had to come to grips with the fact that Dani was no longer innocent.

It blew my mind to watch the love of my life in the throes of ecstasy. But honestly, I knew that I couldn't judge her. It should have been two-thousand degrees Fahrenheit on the other side of that bridge. Instead it was a perfect Scandinavian day.

I mean seriously! The dude could control the weather. If he could manufacture his own climate, then how hard would it be to turn a virginal church girl into a wanton slut?

However, Loki was behind us now and every aspect of Dani's bedrock values and moral integrity was still intact. It was evident in everything she did and said. Nobody is that good an actor. So, I was truly confident that it'd just been a nightmare aberration.

The question left to answer though, was whether Dani still had the extraordinary sexual abilities that she'd exhibited in the mead-hall. I decided that would be an enjoyable subject to research.

A weird thing happened as I was thinking about that. It was semi-blizzarding outside. Then it was as if we drove through a curtain. Suddenly the waves and wind stopped, and it was a bright sunny day. I looked out the rear porthole and there was a thick bank of pea-soup fog behind us. The island was nowhere to be seen.

I was still trying to figure out what had happened, when an airplane rocketed past at wavetop level. It was a small, all-white, twin engine airliner with a blue stripe and the Icelandic flag on the tail. It banked left and made another pass.

I had the radio sitting next to me. It squawked into life and a tinny voice said, "This is India-Charlie-Golf Tango-Foxtrot Sif. Identify yourself."

*****

The ICG-TF Frigate Thor picked us up. We were only thirty miles off the south coast of Iceland. Nobody knew how we'd gotten there. We just appeared out of the blue on Sif's radar.

I had my suspicions. Our island had a mysterious cave called Hel, at least two Norse gods, the bridge to Asgard, and Valhalla. That isn't ordinary terrain.

So, it was probably not a feature on Google Earth. Still, I had bigger worries than speculating about whether we had visited another dimension. The absence of the priest would have to be explained.

We might have raised a bit of suspicion if we had told the authorities that the Priest had been killed by the Norse god Loki. So, instead we agreed to tell them that he had gone down with the sinking ship. It was the easiest explanation.

The Thor took us to the Icelandic Coast Guard headquarters. It was a nice building, right next to the Reykjavik airport. They split us up to interview. I knew that was an interrogation tactic.

I got an older Icelandic guy. He didn't look like he was a member of the Coast Guard. He was with a blond woman. She was just as "official" looking; and the personification of icy beauty.

They both spoke English better than I did. Which I later learned is true of everybody in Iceland, including most of the Kindergarteners.

The dude started out by asking me a routine question. He said, "What is your name."

Damn!!! Let's get right to it. I said shamefaced, "Well, that's the problem. I don't know my name."

He got the bored look that every veteran interrogator gets when he has a wise-guy in front of him. He said, "And why won't you tell us your name? What do you have to hide?"

I thought, "Here we go again!!"

I put on my most sincere face and said, "I just woke up on that ship. I have no idea how I got there, who I am, or anything about my past." Both of them looked at their watches. It was like they were trying to decide how long it would take to beat the truth out of me.

I said pleadingly, "Look, I'll do anything to find out who I am. But right now, I am a man without a past. I don't care if I turn out to be an axe murderer. I just want to get on with my life."

I added miserably, "I had the same conversation with Captain Sorensen, after I was found unconscious on his ship. He believed me."

I said, "He put me to work as a steward to pay my passage. He was a decent guy."

Then it struck me, "Do you know what happened to that ship?" They both shook their heads no.

The woman said, "We heard a distress message. But the ship's transponder is not broadcasting."

I said, trying to be helpful, "We heard a big explosion just after I launched the lifeboat."

The older guy pounced on that. He said, "Why were you entrusted to run a lifeboat when you were such a mysterious individual?" It was as if I'd just proved that I was lying by being put in charge of a lifeboat.

I said matter of fact, "They were very short staffed. So, they used me. They trusted me to carry out a simple task. Even a trained monkey can pull a lever."

I added exasperated, "Look, it's clear that you don't believe me, and I have no place to stay. Can't you at least get me to a hospital? Maybe the doctors can find out what's wrong with me and it will answer your questions"

It looked like they'd already decided that was what they were going to do. They may have even believed me. Or maybe they wanted to move on to more important matters. The older guy said, "We'll do that. But we want a complete set of finger prints."

The woman produced a scanner. It was a little bigger and thicker than an iPad. They took my fingerprints, thumb prints and hand prints. Then she said, "We are going to run this against every Interpol data base and also your FBI. You're an American, right?"

I said mildly, "I have no idea. My little friend tells me that I am. As far as I know I could be from the planet Mars." She looked a little frustrated. I realized that I'd just dodged a trap.

Landspitali University Hospital was so close to the Headquarters building that we walked there. My two newfound companions went along with me. I didn't get the impression that I was under arrest. But I DID get the impression that I was under deep suspicion.

Iceland has universal health care, so the admitting process was quick and easy. They found me a room and a neurologist to examine my head. They also added a psychiatrist. I understood. I would have done the same thing.

What was surprising was the fact that they put me in a single patient room. That is, until I noticed the plainclothes policeman loitering in the hall.

Dani appeared the following day. I was sitting fully clothed on the bed, trying to figure out how the TV worked. It was like the sun came out on a dark and dingy afternoon.

She was absolutely pure fresh beauty. But the thing I liked the best was her look of unadulterated love. Without exchanging a single word, we understood how much we meant to each other. My heart soared.

She said brightly, "I would have been here sooner, but they wouldn't let me see you. I had to ask the President of the Reykjavik Synod to intervene."

That was a first for me, "Divine intervention."

She was wearing a much tighter pair of jeans, which clearly embarrassed her. She said contritely, "I'm sorry about the way I'm dressed but I had to borrow clothing from the people who I'm staying with. This was all they had. Is it okay?"

She was asking me whether she looked too hot and sexy??! In her eyes that was a bad thing. In my eyes she was a five-one package of erotic.

Dani's body was superb. The jeans showed off her full and perfectly shaped legs, and her tight round hips. But the part that was prominently displayed were her two round jutting buns.

I smiled and said, "You're beautiful." She turned bright red with embarrassment. Her reaction further reinforced the wisdom of not sharing what I'd witnessed during her time under Loki's thrall.

She walked over and sat down on the bed next to me. She took my hand. She looked concerned. She said, "Why are you in the hospital? Did you hurt yourself."

Okay, it was time for all-in. I sighed and said, "I'm sorry but I haven't been entirely truthful with you. It's a crazy story and I didn't want you to think I'd lost my mind."

She looked both shocked and worried. I went on with, "I know I told you a story about my origins. But the truth is that I don't know who I am, or where I came from. I woke up on that ship without any memory whatsoever."

She looked horror stricken. I hastened to add, "I know a lot of things, but I have no personal memories."

I smiled and said lovingly, "I told you I was Nemo, a nobody, and it's true. I have no history. I know it's hard to believe. But that's the way it is."

I added tentatively, "I know I lied to you and I'm sorry. But I didn't know what else to do. I care for you very much and I want to make you mine."

Dani loved me. You could see it in the way her sweet face went from alarmed to protective. She said, her cute little pointed chin resolutely set, "It doesn't matter what you didn't tell me, we're together now. I'll be your lover and take care of you no matter who you are."

In her mind she was a virginal church girl. So, I was assuming she was using the word "lover" in the figurative sense, not the literal one. I smiled and said, "That's all I wanted to hear."

At which point - two men in black breezed in. They were a cliché, dark suits, polished shoes, spiffy hair-cuts, narrow faces and overbearing eyes. There was an old one and a young one. I assumed he was the apprentice asshole.

The older one said, in a voice that brooked no disagreement, "You'll have to leave Miss!"

Dani looked stricken. I was pissed. I said angrily, "Who says you can come in here and order people around? Dani stays, and YOU go."

The younger one laughed. The older one said, "Robert Parmentier, you are coming with us."

*****

It was the fingerprints. Apparently, I was a person of universal interest. I started to protest but they each grabbed an arm and physically hustled me past Dani and out of the hospital.

They loaded me in a van. I said, "Seriously??!! An unmarked white van??!! Are you guys for real??!!"

Neither of them as much as cracked a smile. I looked behind me and Dani was standing on the sidewalk her hands covering her face in anguish. I said, "You have no right to treat me like this!!"

The older asshole muttered, "You gave us that right when you signed the oath Parmentier."

I said, "What oath? Who the fuck are you guys and what the fuck are you talking about?"

I got the basics on who Robert Parmentier was on the hour drive out to Keflavik.

My family had lived in Lewes Delaware since the 1700s and they had a history of military service dating back to the 1st Delaware Regiment of the Continental Army. So naturally, every male in the family-line wore the uniform - except me. That was because I had already been recruited.

It was a little unconventional. But there is a "Company" in Langley Virginia that recruits promising kids out of college for a very special business. They came to me, not the other way around. That's the way they do things.

I was a standout student and lacrosse player at Johns Hopkins. I fit a number of their criteria for language and travel and my family was prominent in the military. Apparently, somebody noticed.

I was twenty. So, after I graduated from Hopkins, I did the usual tradecraft course at Chantilly and the advanced course in Bethesda. Then they shipped me out to a special course at their North Carolina "Farm." That was where the black-ops people learn the finer points of the business, the sort of tricks they aren't allowed to talk about.

Of course, I remembered nothing of that, since my mind was still a total blank. I was particularly upset about how I had left Dani. I said, "That woman is very important to me. You had better be good to her if you want me to cooperate."

The two of them looked at each other and the young guy laughed. He said, "Did you clear that with your wife?"

Holy shit!!! I'd never thought of that!! My heart sank.

Rather than stopping at the terminal, we drove right through the tarmac gates and were waved over to a small private jet. I thought, "Who are these guys?"

The pilots were starting the engines as the three of us went up the boarding ramp. I said, "Where are we going?"

They laughed and said, "Where do you think we're going?" I didn't have a clue. I got a better clue when, we landed at London City airport, three hours of total silence later.

A car took us along the Thames and across the Vauxhall Bridge to a building that looked like a giant Lego Block. Not a word was said the whole trip.

I was hustled through security at the U.S. Embassy and up to a conference room. There were three people in the room. Two of them were senior looking bureaucrats and the third was absolutely gorgeous, tall, model slim, long raven hair, perfect oval face and huge expressive brown eyes.

She leapt to her feet and threw herself on me. I assumed this was the wife. She said, "My God Robert!! We all thought you were dead!!" Then she went off on a long soliloquy of weeping.

I felt nothing. My mind's eye was picturing Dani standing on the sidewalk crying. My grief was inexpressible. The guy at the head of the table said imperiously, "Sit down Robert, we need to talk."

I took the nearest chair. My "wife" sat down next to me still holding my hand. I looked at her. She was a rare olive-skinned beauty; like the night compared to Dani's day.

Dani radiated happiness and sunshine. This woman was dark, mysterious, I could sense secrets. But right how she was looking at me with a predator's stare. It was an intimidatingly direct and sexual challenge.

She was exceptionally well-groomed and dressed in couture clothing. I knew what couture was, even though I still didn't know how I knew that. She was also wearing a lot of expensive jewelry.

There was evidently money involved. I didn't know whether it was hers or mine. All I could think of was the simple outfits that my little rectory cat wore.

Then I realized that I didn't even know the woman's name. I turned to her and said, "I know that you're my wife and this might be hurtful to you. So, I'm sorry for asking. But I don't know your name."

She took that statement a lot better than I would have. She said without changing expression, "Vanessa."

I gave her an embarrassed grin and said lightly, "Pleased to meet you Vanessa." She gave me a forbidding smile in return.

The guy at the head of the table interrupted. He said, "You two can renew old acquaintances after we hear what you have to say Robert. According to the Icelandic authorities you were picked up in a lifeboat off their coast. Is that correct?"

I said, "Yes sir." I wasn't sure of my situation. So, I wasn't going to elaborate.

He waited, like he thought I would have more to say. Then he proceeded with, "And you claim that you have no memory of your life prior to waking up on the vessel that lifeboat was launched from."

I said, "Yes sir." I wanted to keep the ball in his court.

He said, probing, "Then you probably can't tell us what George has done with the one-time-pad SIMs - right?"

I knew what a SIM was. SIMs are tiny chip cards used in every mobile device in the modern world. They store stuff like network location and authorization data, or encryption and security keys. But I had no idea who George was, or what he might have done with their SIMs.

I looked earnestly at both men and said, "Gentlemen, I'm sorry. But my memory starts on the day I woke up on that ship. I don't know who George is, and I don't know why his SIMs are important."

The other man made an irritated noise and said, "Listen Parmentier, those SIMs have the one-time pad encryption private key for every U.S. diplomatic mission in the world. If we lose them, we might as well publish our top-secret diplomacy and high-level military conversations in the local newspaper."

Then he added incredulously, "Do you mean to tell me that you don't know that Major General George Parmentier is your brother!!??"

He said disgusted, "We already know he took the SIMs. We've got him on camera doing it. So, you're not gaining anything by protecting him. But you ARE going to serve hard time if you don't give him up."

That was when Vanessa chose to add her two cents. She said, "Just tell them where George is Baby. I know you two were together the night he vanished. I can't believe that you were involved in the theft. Your not daring enough. But George must have shared his plans with you."

Talk about throwing your husband under the bus. It was a touching display of spousal loyalty.

I grimaced and said, "It's obvious that you don't believe me. So, do whatever you have to do to prove it; lie-detector, CAT scan, what?"

Vanessa made an irritated noise and the two men just sat back angrily, arms folded across their chests. Finally, one of them said, "This is too vital to national security. So, we are going to book you into the NHNN. They'll sort it out there. But we had better get good news."

The same white van transported me back across the Thames to Great Ormond Street and the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery. I had the identical type of private room as the one in Iceland, with my two "companions" posted-up outside the door. They must have gotten attached to me.