The Strangers On The Trains ( Part 14)

"The bottle of red can wait Tony. First, tell me why you want to know about the Seal of Solomon?”

“It’s a case I’m working on. You know, for friends of ours!”

That was the code word.” Friends of mine” would have meant another organisation, “Friends of Ours” meant MI6.

James nodded.

“Okay, so why would OUR friends be interested in an old myth?”

Fat Tony chose his words carefully.

“Well, there’s this lady that employs me who works for OUR friends. She’s trying to find out about the Seal of Solomon. She thinks it may be connected to a number of train crashes. Is that possible?”

“Depends if you believe in the existence of said item.”

Tony finished off the second bottle and handed it to James.

“Now where is that red you were talking about.”

James went to the kitchen and returned with two bottles of Merlot. Tony’s face lit up like a candle.

“Lovely, thanks James.”

James took out two new crystal glasses and poured the red. He gave Tony a glass and left the bottle on the table beside him.

“So what do you need to know?”

“Fuck me James; I want to know everything about this bloody thing.”

“Not easy. First we have to talk about Solomon himself and, trust me, there’s a lot to talk about.”

Fat Tony dismissed the comment, waiving his hand across his face.

“Come on James, he’s just some bloke in the Bible who built a temple and was very wise. Yeh?”

James smiled at the complete ignorance of the man in front of him.

“You do realise that he is, apart from the main man, the most important and influential person in all religions?”

“No.”

“Well, let me enlighten you my fat friend. Not only does he feature in the Bible, in which, some believe, he WROTE at least three major parts of it. But he is regarded by the Jewish and Muslim faith as a MAJOR Prophet. So yes, he a Mister big as far as religion goes.”

Fat Tony held up his hand.

“Whoa James. Before I get a bit pissed. Is it okay to record what you’re telling me? I’ll forget otherwise.”

“Sure.”

Tony took a small Dictaphone out of his pocket and set it down on the table between the two of them. He pressed record.

“Okay. Let’s crack on.”

James took a large mouthful of the Merlot and stood up. He was now in full lecture mode.

“Apart from the Bible, there isn’t a great deal of solid, reliable evidence that King Solomon actually existed. Yet he is known and worshipped by most religions. In the Jewish faith he is revered as a Prophet and a really Major one at that. They adore him because according to the Jewish scriptures he was responsible for building the first temple in Jerusalem. And, once again, according to these scriptures, Solomon wrote three books of the Bible, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs, which is also known as the Songs Of Solomon. In early editions of the Bible it included another book called the Book of Wisdom, once again this is known as The Wisdom Of Solomon. Some also say that he may have written some of the Psalms. His story is told in the book of Kings and even Jesus himself mentions Solomon in the books of Matthew and Luke. It doesn’t get much better than that.”

Fat Tony wasn’t impressed.

“Okay so he was some kind of Prophet, three thousand years ago. So what?”

James Conroy was in full flow.

“It’s not only the Jewish faith that revere him, but the Muslim faith as well. He’s mentioned seventeen times in the Quran, which is believed by its follower to be “the word of God”. Almost a quarter of the world’s population are Muslim. They believe Solomon to have supernatural powers. It’s said that he could command the wind.”

Tony interrupted. He lifted his massive bulk from the chair and farted.

“See, I can do that.”

James ignored him and carried on.

“So we have the Christian, Jewish and Muslim faiths all believing in Solomon as a great Prophet or leader who may have had supernatural powers. Did you also know that the masons believe and honour him?”

“What, the old secret handshake brigade?”

“Yep, they have very strong beliefs about King Solomon; their ceremonial rituals are based upon different stages of the building of Solomon’s Temple.

Fat Tony was keen to interrupt.

“Excuse me James, but if this guy is so important how comes the only reason I’ve heard of him is through bloody Sunday school.”

Conroy laughed.

“Read Lord of The Rings, seen the film?”

“Yeh both.”

“Well then, you and tens of millions of other people around the world should know the story very well. In the film there was a character called Saruman. He was the one that had the battle with Gandalf. In some languages Solomon is pronounced as Sulayman or Saruman. He is portrayed as a figure that has great power and wisdom but has become corrupted by evil. Exactly the same legend as King Solomon. He was all powerful but became corrupted by it and eventually turned away from the Lord. And the film is all about a Ring of Power. Sound familiar?”

Tony started on the second bottle of Merlot.

“So the Seal of Solomon is a magic ring?”

“That’s what the legend says. A ring with Supernatural powers that has the Star of David on it. According to an ancient scripture called The Testament of Solomon, to help him build his Temple he enslaved certain Demons. One of these Demons, called Ornais, rebelled and was difficult to control. Solomon needed something very powerful to help him command Ornais and asked the Archangel Michael for help. Michael gave him a magic ring. This ring had the power to command all demons and was known as the Seal.”

“And you believe all this nonsense?”

James sat down and drank his wine.

“I’m not saying I do or I don’t. Just giving you the facts that are written down. All of this stuff can be found on the internet.”

“Sounds like a load of old bollocks to me.”

“Okay, let’s just for a moment take a giant leap of faith. Let’s say this Ring exists. Whoever has it would have great power, but with that power would also come great danger because other people would stop at nothing to get their hands on it.”

James re-filled his glass and passed the bottle to Fat Tony. He was anxious to find out more about Tony’s employer.

“So, this friend of ours, what exactly is she investigating and why should she think that the Seal of Solomon is involved?”

“Well, I was brought in to be the leg man on the case. You know, go around ask questions find out what I can about certain things.”

“Connected with certain train crashes?”

“Yeh, she’s looking at train crashes in the UK and seeing if there is a link between any of them. I don’t know why and you know me James, I don’t really want to know why, don’t get involved is my motto. But she found out that both her predecessors died in mysterious circumstances. One in a house fire and the other one went a bit nuts and topped himself. He was obsessed with the letters SOS. She had her flat broken into, nothing stolen, but the letters SOS was written all over her kitchen. She tried to find out what they stood for and found an old file written by the guy who went nuts. It was called the Seal Of Solomon. It looks like he was also trying to find out as much about it as possible. So she asks me to help her find out about it and I thought of you. Cos you’re bloody brilliant at this sort of thing. There you go, you now know everything that I know.”

“Maybe I should have a chat with this lady?”

“Might be a good idea. I’ll set up a meet. Now James, I’m a bit hungry. I noticed a pub as I went through the little town, how about I buy us a nice lunch?”