“Maybe we need a few extra men,” said Bodhi.
“I’d be cool with that,” said Ian. “We just need to find a place for everyone to lay low. We can’t all fit in Marguerite’s attic.”
“Let’s see if she has someone she recommends as trustworthy. I feel like these poor people are all terrified. I haven’t seen one person who has spoken a word to the men guarding the island,” said Devin.
“Me either,” said Frank. Devin nodded at the other men.
“Then that’s the plan. Let’s talk to Marguerite and see what we come up with. Call home and get us some help. This is bigger than we think.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
“Who do you want to send?” asked Cam.
“Dalton, Ben, Adam, Kiel, and Joseph,” said Luke. “It’s a good mix of skill and power.”
“I’ll get them on a flight out right now,” said Hex. He left the room, texting the men to pack their gear and head to the helipad. He’d explain as they walked.
“I think we need to go to Greece,” said Cam.
“Instead of Dalton and the others?” asked Eric.
“No. I mean, I think we need to go and meet with the Prime Minister. Speak to him, face-to-face. I want to get a sense of whether or not he knows what’s happening or if he’s screwing with the world as well.”
“Okay,” nodded Luke. “Then we go to Greece.”
“Perhaps I should go with you,” said Nicolai walking into the room. “Forgive me but I heard you were making plans to send more people. Maybe it’s time that I come out of the shadows and reappear, prove to people that I am not insane.”
“There may be a time for that, Nicolai but right now is not the time. Let’s make sure you complete the psychological evaluations by our team and then we’ll have something concrete to prove that you’re not insane.
“If all goes well, then we’ll figure out a plan to get you back to your island. If they refuse to go with our men willingly, I may need you to coax them,” said Luke.
“They won’t leave their home willingly unless they can be assured that they can go back. As I said before, our people have lived on that island for generations. There are no new residents, other than those born on the island. It will be most difficult to get them off of the island.”
“Well,” smirked Eric, “if it were easy everyone would do it.”
“I was a fool wasn’t I?” said Nicolai.
“I wouldn’t call you a fool. I’d call you an optimist. I can see where it would be important, appealing even to find out that you’re somehow related to Alexander the Great. I don’t know everything about DNA and history but I know that it seems nearly impossible to prove your relation to a man that no one has been able to find in hundreds of years,” said Cam.
“I suppose I am an optimist,” he nodded. “I always thought we were so lucky to be out on our little piece of paradise, away from the big, dirty cities. We did alright during tourist season and others would come and fish around the island. It was an idyllic life. Quiet. Peaceful. I should have known that we wouldn’t be able to keep it that way forever.
“When my father sent me to Oxford, he warned me that the outside world was nothing like what we experienced in our home. I remember meeting young men and women from highly affluent, influential families from all over the world. I was naïve enough to believe that we were equals. They didn’t see it that way.”
“They were fools, Nicolai. Those same people are now working sixty-hours a week, killing themselves in corporate jobs that yield no return to them. It makes them old before their time, takes their compassion and ideals and stomps them into the ground,” said Luke. “You live a life very similar to our own. I admire that and I admire that you’ve been trying to keep it that way. We’ll find a way to fix this before they destroy the island completely.”
“We’ve endured earthquakes, storms, fires, so much over the generations it seems unfathomable that what they’re doing could destroy the island but I know that it’s possible,” said Nicolai.
“Just out of curiosity, if you were somehow proven to be a direct descendant of Alexander, is their monetary gain? Do you have rights to land, artefacts, anything?” asked Cam.
“No,” smiled Nicolai. “It’s just a nice thing to be able to claim. There are thousands of people worldwide that are descendants of Charlemagne, or members of royal families, even Washington or Lincoln, but it doesn’t give them rights to the ancestral homes.
“In Greece, Alexander is equivalent to the Greek gods. For many, he is considered a Greek god. His story is tragic. He conquered huge swaths of land, countries, one after another all for power and then he was dead before hitting middle age.”
“Was he married?” asked Luke.
“Yes. In fact he had three wives. Roxana, whom he married in 327 BC. He married Parysatis II in 324 BC and then married Stateira in 324 BC as well. He did father one son, Alexander IV, with Roxana. He was married to all three women at one time but it’s said that he only truly loved Roxana. He had an illegitimate son name Heracles but he was killed by Alexander’s enemies. Some believe he had other children, which is where my family’s claim comes in.”
“Did his son have children?” asked Luke.
