She turned out to be a wise and compassionate investigator, insisting that despite the flaws of some in its senior leadership, the Church still had much to offer the world in terms of charity, spiritual care and—when it came to the many artefacts and artworks at the Vatican—history.

And so, with Jack’s assistance—and his uncanny way of getting the truth out of even the most stubborn witness; it was said that at his questioning, witnesses went to water and instantly offered up the truth—Sister Lynda purged the Church of its corrupt elements.

And then there was the man named Sphinx, Hardin Lancaster XII, the man who, in his lust for world domination, had ordered the ringing of the bells that had felled millions and killed thousands.

He was sentenced to life in prison, to be served in an old royal jail named Erebus whose location was, and would remain, unknown.

There was also the issue of the bronzemen and silvermen. Several thousand of them were still out in the world.

An investigation was conducted into the locations of the four rings of command, the rings that enabled their wearers to command particular battalions of bronzemen.

Two of the rings had vanished with the deaths of Dion and Jaeger Eins. Pooh had the third and Easton retained the fourth.

In the end, Jack had the ring of the emperor and it overrode all of the others, allowing him to command all the automatons.

So, to kill two birds with one stone, Jack sent all of the automatons—bronze and silver—to Erebus as well. There they stood, stock still, in countless rows, absolutely filling the place.

Their one order: to make sure that Sphinx never, ever escaped.

Naturally, historians and archaeologists descended upon the superancient sites that Jack and his team had uncovered over the course of their twenty-year mission.

The Fall shaft within Mont Saint-Michel in France.

And the one within Mont Blanc.

And a third inside the blasted-open Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

The megastadium in the Red Sea was drained and its walls repaired so that it could be studied. Like many of the other sites, after a year or so, it soon became a must-see tourist destination.

Cruise ships would sail to it, allowing their passengers to peer down into the round city-sized space and take photos of the magnificent white-and-silver castle in its middle with the broken pinnacle atop it—the one Jack West had shot with the main cannon of the destroyer mounted on the aircraft carrier, both of which were still there, left in their positions for history’s sake.

It was the same with the second megastadium in the Sinai Desert. While its inner sanctums and chambers were secured, tourists were permitted to flock to it, to stand at a respectful distance near its mighty walls and look down at the spot where Jack West Jr had saved the universe.