Chapter 9

So far it had been a pretty successful day. There was a lot more left to be done but the plan was starting to come together. I wondered what surprise my cousin Frank had in store for me? He was Pope so maybe a blessing or something.

The other meeting seemed to be going well. It was a little different, Frank and Nic seemed to just be off in space and the girls were in rapture just listening to them spouting off Greek, Italian and Spanish names. It seems that the Vatican and Most of the Med Countries had an agreement that any treasure found was to be considered a relic and belonged to the Pope and Catholic Church. As such it was tax free and not subject to any local interference.(Bribes)

There had been a Vatican Foundation set up but until recently no official activity had happened. Bottom line Nic was asked to head up this re-started effort, it would require him to re-locate to Italy but, fortunately, there was a small Palatio available, now if he just had someone to look after his new family?"

"The reunion with Mona was still going on when Frank walked in with Nic and the girls. Frank left with the offer made open to Nic to check with Candice to see if it was even possible for him to move...

Mona was seen as the missing link here, it took about 2 tears from Candice and one whimpered plea before Mona became head of this new Italian household. 'Amazing' I said when Nic informed me.

I got some real dirty looks from Darla, now Monica too. The hugs and kisses from the Nats and Candice made up for them though. The Nats, Shauna, Marge and a new girl or three we were to get would run Nic's shop.

The old house would now serve to house new Trainees. Katya would be in command. The constant, "You knew, you rat." only lasted a few days. A tour of the vault at the bank finally silenced my co wives, or was it learning what a 'small' account really meant when they were told what the amounts were that letters had been referring to.

When they returned from the Bank, Ingrid and her 'puppy', Jerry, seemed a little awed. The 'request to set up shop here was bad enough until I told Ingrid we would need 73 more people and offices for 200.

When I told her the Vatican Investment Managers and 45 of the bank employees would be joining her she fainted. Lucky Jerry caught her before she hit the floor. Eve just gasped.

I reminded Eve that this was merely for a Swiss operation, we would need another set up in Italy for conversion of treasures Nic would be finding.

We had a special deal with the Vatican already in place. How long would it be before she could set one up. Sixty staff should do to start but we needed them to be Multi-lingual. Arabic too, since the next office was to be in Kuwait, maybe.

I did not tell her about Tel Aviv, yet, the poor girl was already hyper-ventilating.

The search for treasure was the public portion of the plan. The hidden fortune in gold, gems, jewelry, books, paintings and art work would be processed through, tax free, by the Vatican Foundation.

Certain of the funds would keep my Swiss accounts topped up, the rest used to fund new projects. Some of the treasure, over time, would be channeled back to the original families and countries they were looted from.

Whatever Nic was able to really recover from the maps and MS from the Vatican Archives just added to the Vatican Banks Wealth, minus the 10% he would receive.

For every dollar he would be searching for, the process of conversion would see $25-30 'recovered' by the Swiss operation. The articles never left the vaults.

Rare antiques were to be sold in Kuwait and Tel Aviv, no link to the Vatican would be seen. It would be a long process, but 20 to 40 more years would no longer matter to the original owners, especially those Roman, Spanish and Crusader money ships.

We estimated in addition to what was already in-hand, another 54,000 Tons of gold, 21,000 of Jade and Ivory and 12 Tons of rare Gems were still secreted around Europe, North/South America and the Middle East It would take a very long time and a lot of money to 'recover' it. We were not the only ones looking either.

When Ingrid and her 'puppy' Jerry asked to see me I did not have the faintest idea why?(Like Hell, I already had a gift ready for them.)

When they walked in holding hands I just had to beat them to the punch. As they walked closer I asked, "So when and where is the Wedding and are we all invited?"

It was a nasty thing to do when I saw tears, but it was fun, too. I handed them a Swiss bank book. "I hope you know you are not getting off not running this place. Get yourselves a nice castle with this, you won't have time for a honeymoon so make sure the office suite has a bed in it; now get to work."

"Yes Master!"

I really should tell her she was not a slave but this was really a lot of fun, I wondered if she was going get a collar and leash for the 'puppy'. Mistress Ingrid had a nice ring to it, and if the 'puppy' did not mind, no harm, no foul. I think Katya was going to give her some dogs anyway.

The very first attempt to 'sell' a small, but priceless treasure in Kuwait left a bitter taste. It was not the price so much, but the insistence that we were to use a large number of their designated 'agents' who would need to inspect the item and the buyer's demanded to pay in cash only when the article was presented.

Like they must think we were an Iraqi selling camels, not the smoking kind either. We would have to rethink that strategy.

Our jet to Ben Gurion Airport was uneventful. It was hot, muggy but not near any real fighting.

Marta became our 'man' in the field, even though a blind man could tell she was no man. I never could quite figure out if she was flirting with me or my wives, but within our initial 2 or 3 deals we were not being taken advantage of.

On one deal, she asked to have us all fly down and meet with the end buyer to discuss a long-term arrangement.

It was obvious she was up to something since no one would 'give up' a long term buyer. The dogs were always a problem to avoid the snoopy officials and the last time we just stayed aboard the plane.

Marta was told she could sell to the buyer at whatever price they would pay, we had no need to visit Tel Aviv if she did her job. If that was too much to ask, we did not need her services, nor any Tel Aviv market, thank you very much.

The idea of some quick hit markets was put on hold.

We also learned from Nic's research that the old Spanish records of ship being lost, did not include the fact that the other ships in the fleet might have dumped 1 or 200 tons of Gold overboard in order to save other ships. With 1 ton of refined gold being worth $50 Million or so that 200 ton load added up to a few shekels' today, and there were hundreds of those all recoded as losing only 1 or 2 ships.