The Cantor Dimension (6 page)

"Yes, I think so. It's gonna sound crazy but Eric believed it, and I saw..." Mark stopped, looking fearfully over his shoulder.

"Is anyone else here?" Chief Hunsinger asked sharply.

"No!" Mark shouted. Then he lowered his voice to a whisper. "I hope not! I don't think they can hear us here."

"Who? What did you see?" Chief Hunsinger's large, gnarled nose was inches from Mark's. Steely grey eyes bore into innocent blue ones. Mark's eyes grew wide.

"Eric believed in UFOs," he began, backing away as he spoke. "He said that one day they would come and take him away with them, up there." Mark pointed to the sky, his eyes searching as though he expected a spaceship to come swooping down at any moment. The skies held their secrets so Mark continued. "Eric wasn't afraid either. He wanted to go with them. He figured that anyone who was smart enough to travel millions of miles would be like
Star Trek
, with instant food and 'beam me up Scotty' and all that. Eric wanted to go."

Chief Hunsinger broke in. "So you think they came and got him, these spacemen?"

Mark went on as though he hadn't heard. "Last night I saw funny looking lights in the sky, too. Old man Billings wasn't lying. I saw it, too!" He sounded tortured. "What if they can hear us and come back for me 'cause I told you?"

"I don't think I'd worry about it if I were you. They usually don't visit the same place twice. Kind of like lightning," he offered, hoping to allay Mark's fears. The kid obviously believed all this.

Mark's expression grew more tortured. "I've seen lightning hit the same tree three different times!" Mark whispered, his voice laden with agony. "Three!"

Chief Hunsinger sighed. "Look, why don't you go home and take it easy. I wouldn't worry about them coming back for you. If they wanted you, they'd have taken you with Eric." Hunsinger didn't believe in UFOs but Mark clearly needed bolstering.

"You think so?" Mark pleaded.

"I know so. Go home." Chief Hunsinger couldn't help but wonder why, if Mark was so afraid, he'd pick a haunted house for a meeting place. He was glad it was quitting time. He needed a break from haunted houses and UFOs and lights in the sky.

There'd been another burglary in the vicinity as well, outside of his precinct for a change. He sent up a silent prayer of gratitude. The townspeople were becoming quite concerned over the recent rash of burglaries and they were demanding that he catch the culprit. Some of the more vocal citizens threatened to get him thrown off the police force if the crime wave wasn't quelled. Retirement paraded agreeably across the horizon and it irked Chief Hunsinger that a few discontented citizens could spoil his well-earned golden years.

Many of the town's older residents still remembered his failure to solve the Starnes' murder and they had never let him forget the stain on his otherwise perfect record. He was just a rookie back then but the blame landed squarely on his shoulders just the same. He was the only member of the police force that survived from that time.

The latest burglary had taken place in Ottawa, well outside of his jurisdiction. The pickings in Utica were slim to begin with and had about been tapped out. He'd been puzzled by the burglar's preference for this tiny farming community. LaSalle/Peru would have yielded much more loot but far be it for he to understand the mind of a petty thief. He put away his policeman's cap and headed for home - the divorced, aging man replacing the capable police chief.

Table of Contents

Brody had awakened more worried than ever about his friend Max. There was nothing he could do but keep reading, hoping for the light to come on and show him where Max had gone and how he might help his friend. The strange history of Kent continued, this time with a discourse on the Knights Templar and their connection to Kent County, particularly Temple Farm where old coins, weapons, and a bronze ring with an amethyst stone had been found.

Temple Manor in Strood is perched on the west bank of the River Medway. Founded in 1160, it was given by King Henry II - the same king involved in the Thomas Becket curse against Strood - to the Knights Templar. By 1185, the Templars had assembled a number of buildings which included a timber hall, barns, kitchens and stables. A stone building was added in 1240 which was most likely designed for the accommodation of traveling Templar dignitaries.

London had become the new headquarters for the Templars where they built a round church patterned after the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, so the county of Kent would have been teeming with Templars at that time. When King Philip of France ordered all of the Knights Templar to be arrested on Friday the 13th causing a mass execution of the Templars, those who escaped persecution went underground losing most of their lands and properties. In 1312, Pope Clement V gave the lands that had once belonged to the Knights Templar to the Knights Hospitallers, a rival group.

The Hospitallers were originally founded to care for sick and injured travelers visiting the Holy Land, but later became a religious and military group as well. The Hospitallers spawned two sub-groups, one of which was founded specifically for the care of lepers and was called the Order of St. Lazarus. The Knights who formed this group were themselves lepers. Many of the displaced Knights Templar who had not been exterminated became members of the Knights Hospitallers.

Temple Manor in Strood was lost to the Templars, eventually coming into the possession of Sir Robert Cecil, the Earl of Salisbury. When Sir Robert died he left Temple Manor to his son William, also the Earl of Salisbury.

According to the Cecil records there was a Sibble Parry, widow of the Earl of Salisbury in 1626. She was descended from William Cecil of Alterenes, who was descended from Sir Robert Cecil. We also find a mention of a Sible Parry in the will of yeoman William Henry dated 1664.

Temple Manor, which had once been in the possession of the Knights Templar and later the Earls of Salisbury, was thus also linked with the widow Sibble Parry who was mentioned in a will that also named Joane Jones and Jane Watkins. The names Sible/Sibble/Sibella/Sybilla Parry, a woman known only as Joane, and a woman named Anne Watkins were all associated with Edmond Halley the soap-boiler whose body was found dead on the shore at Temple Manor in 1684.

Through Sybilla Parry as she was most commonly known, soap-boiler Halley's son who was the astronomer Edmond Halley may have had access to Temple Manor and the secrets that lie hidden therein, left by the Knights Templar centuries earlier. Legend had it that the Templars possessed the Holy Grail, the Ark of the Covenant, a piece of the True Cross, Holy Bones, and the Shroud of Turin at various times. If there was an item of great importance, the Templars were likely to possess it. Whether they left any treasures behind at Temple Manor in Strood, perhaps buried or otherwise hidden in the buildings which survived the ages, their secrets are not forthcoming.

Eventually the Knights were persecuted again and forced to evolve and disperse, emigrating to a number of countries to escape persecution. One country of note which absorbed a large number of Templars/Hospitallers was Namibia, South Africa, where the rare Itzawisis meteorite was found.

Table of Contents

Max's notes were fascinating and Brody could see why Max had gotten sucked into the ancient history of Kent, the Knights Templar, men born with tails, Transylvanian princes, lost gypsy treasures, Charles Dickens and his fallen women, and other such bizarre tales. He was beginning to suspect that Max had traveled to Kent to see such places for himself.

Brody didn't realize how lucky he'd been. The officers had planned to ask him about the papers scattered on the floor - the Cantor papers. They'd gotten so excited when they saw how close he was to telling them everything that they'd forgotten. Even worse, Brody had inadvertently provided another nail for Max's coffin. A man who lives well in spite of his not having a steady job made Max all the more suspect. If Brody hadn't looked so innocent when he kicked at the papers the officers would have been all over them. Since Brody had read nothing of interest the night before, he hadn't given thought to the Cantor papers when the police showed up.

Brody called Max's landlady and asked when Max was paid up to and the landlady cheered noticeably at the prospect of Brody's paying the rent for him. A sour note entered her voice when Brody explained that he was only asking and wasn't necessarily planning on paying Max's rent.

Brody realized that he might need to start moving Max's belongings to his own apartment if Max didn't hurry up and return. He didn't know that the police had already broken in, leaving the door lock broken, and that Max's apartment was now ripe for theft.

Time was definitely becoming critical and Brody sat down with another stack of the Cantor papers. In spite of Brody's doubts, Max was still his friend and would remain so until proven otherwise. He began to read from a notebook with strange entries in Max's handwriting:

The CIA was after me. I hid in a house and they did not find me. Later they came again. I was running through the house searching for another place to hide, but I could not find a place. The stairs were creaking. Oh God, they'll hear me! Coggins had a barrel with a fake bottom and he was going to put me in it but I didn't fit. In the end, Coggins put me up a flue that led outside like a chimney. There was a hot air balloon hidden inside. After they'd gone I got in and floated away. I was floating away to freedom but I was too low to the ground and unfamiliar with balloons. I inadvertently landed a few blocks away. I doubted they'd find me. Then I was walking down a street and I saw them running toward me. They must have followed my escape in the balloon. Where do I turn? Nowhere. I sat on some porch stairs and waited for them. They asked about the gold. I said I had to leave it behind. They didn't believe me and arrested me.

The entry was too far-fetched to be anything other than a dream and Brody found it a bit prophetic considering that the police were looking for Max for reasons unknown. Perhaps Max was psychic, predicting his trouble with the law in his own dreams.

Brody wasn't surprised to find Coggins in the dream. Coggins was an acquaintance of Max's, a bizarre specimen of a man who seemed more suited to a room with white padded walls. Coggins believed that his phone was being tapped by the CIA for reasons that were never quite clear to Brody. Coggins also believed that his mail was being tampered with and that he was being otherwise watched, as if the CIA had nothing better to do than to spy on Coggins, a renowned "space case." That's how Brody thought of Coggins but he never shared the nickname with Max, who considered Coggins to be a friend. Brody read on, a bit disappointed not to be reading more about Kent, England.

In Europe with Dad, Grant and Parry. Grant had autographs of several famous people including Einstein and Halley. We were in the attic of a three-storey house. It was grey and dingy. Boxes and boxes of letters and other mementos were stacked in a corner. They were from the time of the war with the Nazis. I begged Dad to let me bring the boxes home. I felt an urgency to look through them. He claimed that nothing of interest was in there but I didn't believe him. I planned to take them home in spite of Dad's objections. I found a letter that he'd written to a girl, a typical teenage letter. I was laughing. Is this Dad?

Brody was surprised to find a reference to autographs from Einstein and Halley. Brody had noticed autographed photos hanging on Max's wall and assumed that they were cheap replicas. Brody assumed that Halley referred to Edmond Halley of Halley's Comet. As Max had a fascination with fossils, meteors, and such things, it made perfect sense.

Max had never mentioned a family involvement in World War II or having spent any time in Europe, though he did appear to be German. In fact, Max had never mentioned his family much at all now that Brody thought about it.

An odd feeling crept over Brody as he realized he was understanding his friend less and less as he read Max's secret papers. The individual passages were not clearly marked to be dreams, actual events, or story ideas, and the lack of identification frustrated Brody's efforts to understand what he was reading. Brody frowned and hoped that it would become clearer as he read more.

Unfortunately, the Cantor papers took a rather difficult turn for Brody who went numb at the mere mention of math.

Mathematical genius Georg Cantor proved the concept of mathematical infinity, before which it was described as 'nothing more than a figure of speech which helps us talk about limits.' Cantor's theories proved that it was possible to have an 'infinity of infinities,' a concept that was ridiculed by his peers.
Cantor was called a 'scientific charlatan' during much of his life. Before he died, he was finally acknowledged with the Sylvester Medal, one of the highest awards one can be granted in mathematics. According to the School of Mathematics and Statistics in a search rating of the top 100 biographies of mathematicians, Cantor ranks higher than Schrodinger (of Schrodinger's Cat), Boole (of Boolean logic), Ampere, Doppler, Hubble, Aristotle, Mandelbrot, Copernicus, Plato, and even Ohm.
Cantor believed that his mathematical theories were dictated to him by God, who had chosen Cantor to reveal these truths to the world. Cantor identified the 'absolute infinite' with God, even going so far as to write a letter to Pope Leo XIII on the subject.
We know that a Cantor cube is zero-dimensional, a Cantor space has the cardinality of the continuum, and that if '
a
' is a countably infinite set, the corresponding Cantor cube is a Cantor space. Therefore, one could conclude that a Cantor space is a zero-dimensional space which possesses the cardinality of the continuum.

All of the mathematical mumbo jumbo might as well be Greek as far as Brody was concerned. The only words that struck a chord were "continuum" for its connection with his favorite TV series
Star Trek
, and "Cantor cube" with its possible connection to Max's stamping the Cantor papers with a three-dimensional cube. Brody wondered if this was significant.