The Atlantis Keystone (39 page)

“I had no idea you were in London when you called me!”

“Yes, I was; but not for long. I rushed to get the trail set. I had already planned it all so it wasn’t difficult. I went past a post office on the way and arranged to send the ‘Computers for Dummies’ library book over to your flat in Oxford with the anagram that I had added when I was on the ferry…” He fell silent for a moment. “Oh god you should know I felt guilty for not having told you about the tablet but I didn’t want to tell you straight out. I wouldn’t have blamed you if you’d gone to the police or told someone if I had. The fact that I had the tablet would have indicated to you that I was indeed the perpetrator; that I had arranged the burglary. I wanted you to think that I was completely innocent for as long as possible, so that you could help me to find the person who set me up.”

“Thanks for the confidence,” Emma said sounding offended.

“Well, if I had simply told you about it you would have had to carry my burden and it could have incriminated you too. I couldn’t send you a letter to tell you as it could have been confiscated by the police. I entered the British Library, using my normal library card, and hid the photo of the tablet in my colleague’s book. I knew roughly where the book was on the shelf so it wasn’t necessary for me to request it. The risk that someone else would look in it was slim, given its past popularity record. It was a perfect hiding place. I made a note of the reference and went over to the British Museum nearby to leave the note in the museum collection book next to the picture of the half Torpa tablet. I planned to simply write it in roman numerals but it seemed too obvious. I decided to use Linear A values, to make it more difficult and tailored to you. As I said, my aim was to make the path particularly difficult to follow and personal so that only you could find it.”

“You certainly managed to make it difficult, that’s for sure!” Erik added with a dry laugh.

“I know. I was worried at one stage that it was a bit too difficult. Did you even get my first message on page thirteen in the ‘Computers for Dummies’ book’?”

“We found the message but the anagram…. It wasn’t easy!” Emma rolled her eyes. “…But I solved it eventually!” she said proudly.

“But where have you been hiding these last couple of months?”

“I wanted to continue my work on the tablet. It was the only thing that mattered to me at that point. I felt I was very close. This I couldn’t have done if I had gone to the police. And I couldn’t remain in Oxford for obvious reasons so I decided to go away for a while, something I have done many times before as you know, but for very different reasons of an academic kind. After London I went down to France, hiding in a lorry, and then hitched a ride on a boat bound for Morocco. After that I went to Cairo and contacted one of my colleagues working on the remains of Avaris in the Nile delta, the old Hyksos capital and the city of Ahmose. That’s where I’ve spent my time since Beirut. Avaris is at the heart of everything we have found. Luckily the team there weren’t aware of the burglary or that the police were looking for me so I was able to continue my work relatively undisturbed. They’re serious academics over there and don’t really pay much attention to current affairs.”

“You said you made two phone calls in London,” Erik asked standoffish. He had been listening intently to Paul’s story, pretending to be aloof but he could not avoid wanting to hear more.

“I also called Oxford University. I told them I had to take some temporary leave of absence and asked them to contact Professor Mary Brown to cover my role while I was away. I had told Mary some of my initial thoughts which I knew would be of help to you.”

“She took over your role for both mine and Laura’s dissertation.”

“Just as I hoped! I would suspect she was rather helpful after what I told her in Athens…”

“She helped me a lot, yes but she didn’t give me any new angles on decipherment theories. For a long time you left me to panic about not making any progress on the decipherment while you were sitting there with all the cards to hand. That’s just cruel Paul. My time would have been better spent if I had the full tablet and didn’t have to worry about you!” Emma stood up and went over to the fence looking over at the old house. Erik was glad that she finally voiced her anger.

“I’m so sorry Emma. I understand why you’re furious but I needed you and Erik to help me to clear my name somehow. As it turned out, you succeeded.”

“I had no idea you were so selfish, Paul.” Emma muttered from where she was standing. “I was hoping you had a better explanation.” He remained quiet for a few moments before responding.

“You know me. I get totally caught up in my work. I wasn’t thinking straight. I had to get to the bottom of it.” Emma turned around looking at Paul with a mixture of curiosity and anger.

“Tell me more about your work on the tablet Paul,” she said looking away again.

Paul seemed to be deliberating for a moment but then obliged: “When I started to work on the decipherment it was more difficult than I imagined. The text was simply not long enough so I had to test various theories and formulae, which was very time-consuming. I had a bit of a breakthrough when we were working on the cuneiform text in Byblos. It was there I realised a certain link with the old Berber language. Then using this link I managed to develop a rather impressive Linear A dictionary which far surpasses that which is known up to now. Linear A also shares many trade-related words with ancient Egyptian, Greek, as well as Arabic which helps. It’s not yet complete but what I’ve achieved is enough to understand large parts of the, to date, un-deciphered Linear A texts on Crete.”

“That’s amazing Paul. Congratulations.” She said it with disappointment. Still, Paul looked pleased with himself. “And there’s more.”

“As if that wasn’t enough,” Erik commented absently. Paul ignored him.

“I have read Laura’s Atlantis theory in full – Laura sent it to my email address and I took the chance to open it. What you have already worked out, which I gather from Laura’s dissertation, corresponds to my conclusion.” He looked immensely selfsatisfied. “But there’s one more thing which you have not thought of or at least not focussed on.”

“What’s that…?” Emma and Erik said in one voice.

“Well, some very interesting new ideas about succession in the New Kingdom which I and the team in Avaris now lovingly refer to as ‘the tenth plague’ as it kills the significance of the first born son at a time which fits so incredibly well in with the ten plagues of Egypt.” Paul put his cup of coffee on the table and leaned back in his chair. He hesitated, unsure how to explain his findings in a comprehensible way. “I’ve come to the conclusion that the introduction of the Minoans in Egypt at the beginning of the new kingdom actually had a profound impact on the ruling power of Egypt. It changed the order of succession in the eighteenth dynasty. It became a matriarchy for generations! My colleagues at the dig in Avaris are all very excited about this.” He looked at them, waiting for their reaction. “According to what you’ve found previously, Ahmose, as the grandson of Tetisheri, was of Minoan descent and through the Donation Stele he gave more power to his sister-wife Ahmose Nefertari through the gift of the office of the ‘God’s Wife of Amun’. I’ve found through my initial readings of Linear A texts that this priesthood was formed with the Minoan priesthood as its basis. Amun’s wife is the goddess Mut; the all-powerful mother goddess – and the Egyptian equivalent of the Minoan mother goddess. A new office was instated in Egypt, driven through by Queen Tetisheri through her grandson Ahmose. It’s well-known that after that the office of God’s wife of Amun remained a great source of power until after Hatshepsut’s death many generations later. As you know, Hatshepsut was both Pharaoh and God’s wife, basically merging the two. But more importantly, I’ve found from readings of Linear A texts that it determined the order of succession in Egypt! The God’s wife of Amun determined who would become the next pharaoh of Egypt! This explains why the Egyptian pharaohs of the early new kingdom were not necessarily father and son. Remember that Hatshepsut’s father Thutmose I was not the son of the preceding pharaoh, Amenhotep I. Tutmose I was a common soldier and his entitlement to the thrown was his marriage to Hatshepsut’s mother Ahmose; the then God’s wife of Amun. This change in order of succession also explains why brother-sister marriages became common in the eighteenth dynasty. It was a way to follow the new order of succession but still remain faithful to traditional ways. The real ruling power was nevertheless with the queens.”

“You know, this actually all makes sense!” Emma said enthusiastically.

“Well, it revolutionises our way of thinking when it comes to the order of succession in ancient Egypt. It means that the queens are likely to have been even more influential than many historians of today believe. It turns our whole understanding of ancient Egyptian history upside down and it certainly gives an explanation to a lot of points which up until now have been something of a mystery. The team leader at the Avaris dig is convinced that I’m right in my conclusions, based on a couple of things they have found there.”

They were all quiet. Erik noticed that the wind was sweeping through the trees nearby. His findings would likely make Paul famous in academic circles.

“That’s very interesting,” Emma said with empathy. “By the way, did you notice the reference to ‘capital island’ on the Egyptian side of the Torpa tablet…? I suppose our tablet contains the world’s only known genuine Atlantis reference!”

“Yes, I’ve never seen such a clear reference to Atlantis ever before. From memory the tablet actually says that the capital island of defeated foreign invaders disappears under water to leave only mud… You can’t get closer to an Atlantis reference than that!”

“At least not in a text carved in 1550 BC,” Emma added before she gave Paul a dazzling smile which surpassed any smile that she had ever given Erik.

Paul stood up, walked over to Emma’s chair and squeezed her shoulders from behind, massaging them as he spoke. “You couldn’t believe how I’ve wanted to tell the world about this in the last few months but of course I couldn’t tell a soul about the tablet. God, it feels good to be able to talk about it freely!”

Emma bent her head back and looked at Paul smiling. To Erik it looked as if she had forgiven him, something he was extremely surprised about. He had certainly not forgiven him. Paul’s behaviour had cost Erik time, irritation and perhaps even a partner promotion. Although he was amused by Paul’s findings and the news about the tablet, Erik had had enough. Without a word he went inside the house. They didn’t seem to notice he had left. Unsure where to go he wandered over to the library. He sat down in the chair. In front of him on the wall was his wedding picture. Anna was smiling happily, looking ravishing in her white dress. She had been so beautiful that day. It had been the happiest day of his life. It was strange to think that Anna had worked out that his biological mother had been buried in the space in the wall. Why else had his grandmother left her that message in the old Bible:
‘You are right. The wall is hiding what you are looking for. Do not disturb her.’
How had she done it? He would never know. She had tried to tell him… Painful memories of their last day together in Thailand came back to him. He wanted Anna back, so badly. He wasn’t sure why he was crying all of a sudden but he didn’t try to stop the tears streaking his face. Emma entered the room. He stood up and wiped his cheeks with his sleeve by pretending to stretch.

“Where’s Paul?” he asked.

“He’s still outside. I wanted to talk to you.”

“What about?” He pretended to be oblivious.

She walked up to him, looking straight at him. “Erik, I love you. Paul’s return hasn’t changed that. But…” She looked over at Anna’s picture on the wall. “I understand. You still love her don’t you?”

“Emma, I will always love Anna but she’s gone and I’ve moved on. You know how I feel for you. Of course I love you! I’m yours. Forever.”

His melancholic deliberations of a moment earlier evaporated. He walked over to her and took her in his arms. The happiness that overwhelmed him came suddenly and resulted in a smile which made it almost impossible to kiss her so he decided just to hold her tightly. He didn’t intend to let go. Not even Paul’s shout of goodbye from the library door made him loosen his grip. They heard a taxi arrive and drive off. He looked at her and saw that his shirt where her head had rested had a small mascara stain.

“What’s the matter? Don’t tell me you’ve changed your mind already?” Erik asked jokingly. Emma gave him a half-hearted slap on the shoulder where her mascara was ruining his shirt.

“No, I’m just wondering why I suddenly have this strange feeling of coming home…” Her voice was thick from emotion. She didn’t elaborate but he knew that whatever it was it must be a good thing as she was smiling. He tenderly kissed away her tears. It tasted of salt. Embracing, they both looked outside to see the large white building against the clear blue sky. In the corner of his eye Erik saw movement in one of the dark tower windows, although it was probably merely a reflection of trees. It seemed less frightening now with some of its dark secrets exposed but he was sure that this wasn’t the end. There was more to that old castle than bricks and mortar. It had been his biological mother’s resting place for three decades without anyone even guessing she was there. He suspected there were other secrets hidden within it. In his mind, the events of the Stenbock family’s six hundred year old history were reverberating throughout the building, almost as if long dead relatives were all still there, trapped somewhere between life and death in an aimless existence inside the cold stone walls of Torpa. He decided he liked to keep it that way; no more walls to knock down if he could help it… unless Emma asked him of course.