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“And is it true Francesco never left Brescia?”
“Oh, no, that is untrue. De Terzi traveled often to Milan, to Genoa, to other places too.”
“How about out of Italy? Overseas, perhaps?”
“It is possible, though I could not say where exactly. Based on some accounts, mostly secondhand accounts of stories De Terzi was said to have told, he traveled distantly between the years 1675 and 1679. Though no historian I know of will confirm that.”
“Do these stories talk about where he might have been?”
“Somewhere in the Far East,” replied Moretti. “Asia, is one speculation.”
“Why would he have gone there?”
The professor hesitated. “You must understand, this may all be fantasy. There is so little documentation to support any of this.”
“We understand,” Sam replied.
“The story goes that De Terzi could find no investors for his aircraft plan.”
“The Vacuum Ship.”
“Yes, that. He could find no one to give him money, not the government, not wealthy men here. He journeyed east hoping to find support so he might finish his work.”
“And did he?”
“No, not that I am aware of.”
“What happened when he returned in 1679?” Sam said.
“It is said he returned to Italy a changed man. Something bad had occurred during his travels, and Giuseppe did not return home. Francesco never spoke of that. Soon after, he resettled in Brescia, left the Jesuit Order, and moved to Vienna, Austria.”
“In search of investors again?”
“Perhaps, but in Vienna he found only bad luck.”
“How so?” asked Remi.
“Soon after he moved to Vienna he married, and then quickly followed a baby boy. Two years later came the big battle—the Siege and then the Battle of Vienna. Do you know of it?”
“Only vaguely.”
“The Siege lasted for two months, the Ottoman Empire fighting the Holy League: the Holy Roman Empire, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, and the Venetian Republic. In early September of 1683, the final battle was fought. Many tens of thousands of people died, including Francesco De Terzi’s wife and new son.”
“That’s awful,” Remi said. “So sad.”
“Si. It is said he was terribly heartbroken. First his brother, and then his new family, all dead. Shortly afterward, De Terzi disappeared again.”
“Where?”
Moretti shrugged. “Again, a mystery. He returned again to Brescia in October of 1685, and then died a few months later.”
“Let me ask you what may sound like an odd question,” Remi said.
“Please.”
“Are you, or anyone, absolutely certain De Terzi returned to Brecia in 1685?”
“That is an odd question. I suppose the answer would be no. I know of nothing that certifies he was buried here—or that he returned, for that matter. That part of the story is, like t