Gold of Kings Read Online Free Page B

his time in prison had only heightened that aversion. Weak people were dangerous people. They weaseled and ratted and squealed and backstabbed and stole. “Phil, look at me.”
    â€œI specifically asked that you call me Dr. Pinter.”
    â€œWho else did you tell?”
    The scraggly beard draped around his mouth like moss hanging about a cave. “Whatever gave you that idea?”
    â€œPhil, you just said someone’s been following you. Which means one of three things. Either the opposition has ESP, which is unlikely. Or Sean ratted on us, which is impossible. Or you got greedy. I’m standing here watching you shake, Phil. And my money’s on greed.”
    The young man swallowed hard. “You don’t know, you can’t possibly imagine, how hard it is to make tenure these days. My professional life is on the line.”
    â€œTell me who else knows, Phil.”
    â€œI might have mentioned the fact in passing to a colleague at the Royal Society. But only in the strictest confidence.” Pinter fumbled in his jacket pocket and came out with a clip-on badge marked with a large blue V. He handed it over without meeting Harry’s gaze. “If anyone asks, you’re a visiting scholar. Where should I say you’re from?”
    â€œBarbados.”
    â€œNo, no, that’s ridiculous. Houston. You’re on the faculty of Rice University.”
    â€œWhatever. Slow down, Phil. People are watching. We’re going to take it easy. What happens when other people bring in first timers? They get a tour, right?” Harry kept his voice to an easy drone that echoed off the stone walls and high-vaulted ceiling. “So that’s what we’ll do. Tell me what it is I’m seeing.”
    â€œWe’re passing through the Guildhall’s main chamber. Ten centuries ago, Britain was ruled by a triad of powers. Balanced against the crown and its knights were the dual forces of the church and the guilds. The church was ruled from Rome, through the mouthpiece of the Archbishop of Canterbury. The guilds were governed by a Council of Masters, who met here. Five hundred years later, Henry the Eighth ended Roman rule over the British church. Slowly, reluctantly, the old guild system also gave way to a new form of power. One that promised a voice to the smallest and weakest of England’s citizens. This new form of earthly power was called Parliament. But in the ninth century, when it came to commerce in the British empire, the guilds ruled supreme.”
    This guy was born to lecture. Harry studied the flag-draped hall, sixty yards wide and ninety long, flanked by Corinthian columns thick as redwoods. Each stone pillar supported a huge banner depicting the royal emblem of a medieval guild—goldsmiths, silversmiths, blacksmiths, butchers, wooliers, on and on down both sides of a hall that was only a few degrees warmer than outside.
    â€œNine years ago, work was begun to shore up the Guildhall’s crumbling foundations. To the restorers’ astonishment, they discovered that this massive structure was built upon the ruins of the original Roman Coliseum, lost now for almost two thousand years. The arena’s ruins are pockmarked by caverns apparently dating from the Guildhall’s earliest days. When the restorers inspected the tombs, they discovered a trove of records and documents which we had long assumed were lost forever.”
    Harry counted six guards strolling the premises. And twice that number of cameras. Harry did the tourist thing, linking his hands behind his back and ogling in every direction. If the alarms went, the only way out of here would be in the back of a police van.
    Pinter led them toward a narrow set of stairs. The guard studiedtheir badges and opened the barrier. Pinter’s voice echoed as they descended the curved staircase. “The guild masters are a crusty, hypersensitive lot. They live in a past where their strength rivaled the