Stood in a throne room, which could have stepped straight out of ant European palace with a ginger biscuit in one hand , holding a cup of tea in fine china and watching a group of sinister looking men in dark suits drink the same in absolute silence had to be the most surreal thing that had ever happened to me .
But it was happening .
The empty cups were collected in and still standing in the same position I waited .
Fludd tapped the table lightly , not that anyone was speaking .
" The thing is Mr Tutbury , I hope you will now listen. You may well go the the Police in this country or even the states , but the thing is ...........we are the law ..........Do you understand yet "
I shrugged my shoulders
" No I don't think so " I replied , because I didn't really
Fludd raised himself again , folding his arms as he spoke
" What are people most scared of "
Again I shrugged
" I don't know , death I guess " It seemed the most sensible reply and it was the first that came to mind
Fludd clapped his hands slowly twice
He nodded before continuing
" Good .....people are scared of what they cant control , death the unknown etc "
I jumped in which I know annoyed Fludd " I don't know anything about that"
Oh but you do Mr Tutbury " replied , " Your wife is ill and you are scared because you can't do anything about it , you can't make her well "
I just scared back at him, I guess he was right there
" You would do anything to make her better , wouldn't you "
" Yes of course I would " I blurted out " But what has paintings , muslims , god all that kinda stuff got to do with me "
Fludd nodded in agreement with me
" That will all become apparent "
" I hope so " I tiredly answered , I am just a normal guy , who is pretty broke up right now , trying my best "
Fludd stood fastening his jacket button as he did and straightening his tie
" The Gideon society Mr Tutbury is an organisation devoted to world peace and has been since its founder Mr Gideon Tutbury created all this you see "
The name Tutbury focussed my attention back to him
" Tutbury " I exclaimed pointing at myself
Fludd continued
" Yes Tutbury , Gideon Tutbury , son of Joshua Tutbury "
Now he had my attention
" You mean the one from the village I live in , Five Acres "
" The very same Mr Tutbury, Gideon Tutbury formed this after breaking away from his Father in 1820 , upon the death of his Father Joshua "
" You mean from that Great Mill" my reaearch jumped into my memory
Fludd nodded again
" Yes the same "
I scratched my cheek nervously " You mean the one who had my house"
Fludd nodded again " Yes"
" Ok Fludd you now have my attention " I confirmed and he did. Then before waiting for him to continue I blurted out again " Ok I get it , I suppose I'm here because some long lost descendant of mine Joshua Tutbury did something wrong , like in the films , I move into his house and you come after me "
" Not quite Mr Tutbury " Fludd pronounced the quite very profoundly and clipped
" Ok what then "
" Mr Tutbury , you aren't related to Mr Joshua Tutbury , you just happen to have the same name . Your family in fact do originate from the same area during the time of Joshuas ownership of the mill . But you see after he died everyone wanted to say they were related to him , so they could inherit some money . The truth is only one relative survived . The others were imposters . Your ancesters changed their name to Tutbury and applied to the courts to get some of his money . Your ancestor wasn't Joshua Tutbury , in fact the nearest you got to being a Tutbury from the Great Mill was your ancestor Ned Oaker changed his name to Tutbury after burying Joshua Tutbury "
" So I'm not related at all " I wasn't sure if I should be pleased or not
" Not necessarily " Fludd continued
I was puzzled " How do you mean"
Fludd again put his palms on the table
" We have no real interest in you Mr Tutbury "
" Then why am I here "
Fludd paused for a second as if thinking
" Your wife Carol is our interest "
I snapped back " What on earth are you on about "
Fludd unbuttoned his jacket and lowered himself into his chair
" Your wife Carol's mother was a lady called Kathryn "
Yes so what " I again snapped " Don't tell me she's involved in all this "
" Mr Tutbury to cut a very long story short . Kathryn's Grandfather was Jean Roulle De Gisors "
" If you say so "
" I do .......The Gisors family fled France to New York returning in the late 1800s . The Gisors family go back a thousand years or more to the first crusade . Jean de Gisors was the Grand Master , he lived and died in Jerusalem "
I shook my head " I still don't understand .
Fludd stood again
" He passed onto his son Andre de Magasur a religious artefact . This was a six pointed star set in another star . Your wife is the direct descendant ."
I shrugged " Ok ....and "
" You may have noticed the stars painted into the painting earlier "
"Yes I recall "
" Good Mr Tutbury ......The main stars along with the others left the Holy land and arrived with the Bishop in England . Settling into the Midlands , considering this far enough north for French or Spanish Knights who might come looking for him . Magasur built a monastery with his loyal servants called the Monastery de Magdala .....Somewere in that monastery as instructed he buried the Star "
" Ok go dig it up , I'm sure you have the best archelogists in the land , go dig it up " I rather defiantly replied
Fludd appeared to smile " Well its not quite that simple , we could find it ....possibly , but that wouldn't do any good "
" Why " It seemed simple enough to me I thought
Fludd pointed all around the room
" Along with Solomon's treasures , the paintings and the stars came documented evidence , manuscripts ......these are scared in the muslim world , very few people have seen them ........the reason being is they would be a political time bomb .........It is said that when the stars are united the true faith will begin. In effect Muslim, Christian jewish and any other religion will become one and fight against hatred "
He paused , seemingly allowing me to ask any questions
" So Mr Fludd , Where are the other stars "
Fludd picked up his glass of water taking a sip , never taking his eyes off me
" They are in all the corners of the world ....The Vatican has one , Their representative is here" pointing across the table . An elderly grey haired gentleman got up and bowed " Each major religion has one and all their representatives are either around this table or in the ante room ....You see Mr Tutbury , the manuscripts state that anyone who opposes will be struck down by the Plague and wiped off the face of the earth "
I opened my mouth to speak but he continued
" Now that is where the society comes in .....over 150 years ago we as the society successfully found the plague virus and an antidote for a controllable plague ........how good is your history "
" Not bad " I replied thinking , I've had the art lesson , now I get the history lesson.
" Well lets see how good your history is Mr Tutbury, The Prussian uprising of 1850 , know anything about that ? "
" Actually Mr Fludd I do, If I remember rightly the four leaders mysteriously died it was said by a mystery agonising death , something like that anyway , I think just after they had announced they were going to overthrow the government "
" Yes , very good , very good ............we hand the final hand in that . Far better to kill four men and make it look like God's work , God's will than send an army to defeat a despot killing hundreds , thus building up more support for the revolution "
" I see " I replied , quite pleased with my history recollection
Fludd rubbed his hands , something he seemed to do a lot " You see Tutbury , God and fear come hand in hand to many ......Anyway , so back to the stars , we fully expected the stars to remain locked away , or buried and the stories surrounding them to be equally lost in manuscripts , only known to a few ........however we have had to bring plans forward shall we say "
" Plans " What now I thought
" Well not exactly plans " Fludd looked straight at me with those cold eyes , he paused for a moment then realising I wasn't going to interrupt he continued
" well maybe not plans , but a use ...you see any political despots or a sticky revolution issue we could collectively dispose of either by using biological or other means "
" You mean kill them "
" Yes, exactly so " he paused " But , lets just say Mrs Kreaney didn't help matters "
I did interrupt this time " Kreaney , President Kreaney , The American President now you are talking in riddles "
" Fludd straightened his tie again..." Yes , the JFK Airport massacre and bombings was a terrible incident , utterly terrible , but the general idea was to use our Arab colleagues " pointing in front of him to a man who had his back to me " Kill the perpetrators very quickly before they knew we were after them , gradually things would settle down and life would go on . It would be said that the perpetrators were insane radicalised , a small group after publicity for an otherwise unknown cause "
" Ok , I can see that " I replied
" You see Tutbury, Mrs Kreaney set the alarm bells ringing ringing in the Muslim world by saying that his new war against terrorism would sweep nation to nation like a crusading army to defeat terrorism . She could have chosen her words better , Arabs associate Crusaders , crusading with mass Christian killing of Muslims and then one of her colleagues praised her calling her a great Crusading leader against terrorism . Kreaney said she regretted her choice of words , but the damage was done . She had in fact mobilised the muslim world .....There was of course Iraq and Afghanistan .....But she announce she was leading a crusading army "
" So why didn't you do a role reversal , this time kill the perpetrator ....The President " I did laugh to myself at the ridiculous comment I had just said
" Fludd smiled " Actually we were too late , it didn't get the relevant agreements at the right level"
" You mean you would have killed her "
Fludd seemed not phase by my suggestion " Well yes , we preferred to have called it a prevention measure and Mr Tutbury it wouldn't have been our first world leasder "
I was about to answer but suddenly felt very nervous , realising what he was saying
" So we now have warring nations erupting up all over the place and we don't really have a military solution to stop it " Fludd held his arms out as in a so there you are manner
" So where does Carol come into this , and me " I asked still trying to figure this all out
Fludd paused , took a sip of water
" You remembered that I mentioned seven stars " he put his water glass back on the table
" Yes all over the world " I replied
" Yes , well we only have six , we as mentioned are not sure re the star in the star "
" Not like you to not control everything " I smirked with my reply
" Quite " Fludd smiled " As I mentioned the manuscripts clearly state that only the bloodline must hold the main star and only they must unite them "
So why me .....are you saying that Carol has the star "
Fludd scratched his head " No Mr Tutbury , but very publically we will announce the legend . We will say that she survived the Plague and she will as prophesised place the stars together . At the same time we will have the heads of all the religious organisations announce the true faith and of course the painting and the manuscripts will appear "
"What about Kreaney " I enquired
" President Kreaney will remain silent I assure you of that "
I jumped in " Hang on Fludd you say Carol survived the plague , are you saying you can save her ? "
Fludd nodded his head slowly
" Yes of course"
" How" I pleaded
" Well unfortunately , or fortunately depending how you look at her ....we gave it to her "
I snapped back at him " You did what "
Fludd raised both his hands and shrugged
" Yes , sorry about that , we couldn't take any chances "
I pointed at him in anger " You ...You are playing with my wife's life"
Fludd smiled
" Not playing Mr Tutbury , simply controlling , but rest assured she is perfectly stable "
" Is she here "
" Yes "
" Show me her " I demanded
Fludd answered virtually dismissively
" All in good time all in good time "