The Tenth Cycle: A Thriller (A Rossler Foundation Mystery Book 1) (11 page)

Mark started by just looking at the data. His neatly-ordered mind could often pick out patterns just by seeing the dataset as a whole. Discerning nothing in the string of numbers that represented the locations of the stones, he turned to devising an expression of the dimensions of the stones as a circumference. Once he had the single dimension expression, he then arranged them in ten columns of ten rows each, using a right to left sequence from the first number at the top left corner, ending with 100 at the bottom right. Nothing. Then he reversed the strategy, using column one for numbers through ten and moving to the right. Performing this exercise four times, once forwards or left to right, and once backwards, that is, right to left, top to bottom and then bottom to top, nothing in the dimensions of the blocks spoke to him.

He didn’t really expect anything from the first exercise, but it was the simplest to perform, and an orderly experiment called for trying the simplest first and then moving to the complex. Classes had ended for his last semester of tenure, and nothing remained for him to do at the university except clear out his office and attend the retirement party. He filled his time instead with hour after hour of patient trial and error, parsing the dimensions to find a ratio between height and circumference and then between width and circumference and finally between height and width.

Nearly a week passed before, on Thursday afternoon, he found a pattern. He called Sarah.

“Sarah, dear, I’ve got something. When can you come over and see what it is?”

“Mark, that’s fantastic! Daniel will be so excited. We should wait for him.”

“Could he come tonight? This is definitely something deliberate, something worth being excited for.”

“I’ll call and ask him. How late can we come over?”

“Just call me when you know if he can come tonight. We’ll set a time then.”

“Okay, give me a few.”

Sarah dialed Daniel immediately. “Daniel, you’ll never believe it! Mark’s got something. He wants us to come over and see for ourselves. Could you make it tonight?”

“Let me clear it with Kingston, and I’ll let you know. But I’ll plan on being there no later than nine, if that’s okay with him.”

“Got it. Text me if that changes.”

“Okay. See you tonight sweetheart! I love you.”

“Love you, too, and I can’t wait to see you.”

Daniel wasted no time arranging the time off with Kingston, explaining that they had a breakthrough and a story might come of it after all. Kingston waved him off, saying, “Go, go. No problem, as long as you’ve turned in your column.”

“I’ll file it before I leave.”

“Fine. Get out of here, I’m busy.” Kingston went back to his keyboard. Daniel wondered if that novel was ever going to be finished, but he didn’t have time to dwell on it. He hastily proofread his column, then sent it to the editing team and left. He needed to go by his apartment to pack for the long weekend. He was fretting about the waste of time when he realized that the answer was to keep part of his wardrobe at Sarah’s. A second set of toiletries, toothbrush and razor, and let’s not forget hiking boots, and he would never have to pack for the trip again. He was whistling as he locked his apartment and put his things in the car to begin his drive. Before starting the car, he sent Sarah a text, ‘Leaving now.’

She sent a picture of a thumbs up in return. Daniel knew why he felt so light—he would get to see Sarah a whole day early and spend three whole days with her instead of just two.

Hours later, the two of them sat on either side of Mark as he showed them step by painstaking step how he had found results. He still hadn’t told them what, and they were anxious to see. Repeating his sequence, first, he ran a query to find the ratio between the height and the width of the blocks, and exported the result to an Excel file. Next, he explained that he was expressing the ratio as a percentage, then dividing it into the circumference of the respective blocks. A column of numbers appeared on the spreadsheet, and Mark waited for the other two to see it.

Sarah saw it first. “Oh my goodness! Those are Fibonacci numbers!”

Daniel thought the term was familiar, but couldn’t place it. “What’s a Fibonacci number?”

“It’s a number derived from the sum of the two previous numbers, starting from zero or one. The sequence starts, from one, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5…”

Then Daniel got it. “So the next number is 8…”

“Very good,” Mark said. “Do you notice anything else?”

This time it was Daniel who saw it. “There are only eight numbers. They repeat.”

“That’s right, and it’s amazing that we could calculate this with only one hundred examples. Despite every block being a slightly different size and shape, calculating the ratios gets us only eight different ones, and the same thing happens when we divide the circumference by the ratio as a percentage. Furthermore, the eight unique numbers that result from that calculation are all Fibonacci numbers.”

After several moments of excited chatter during which Mark described his process until Daniel’s head was whirling, Sarah brought them crashing back to reality. “But what does it mean?”

“I have a few ideas,” Mark said. “Let’s get some refreshments and I’ll run them past you.”

They found Martha in the living room reading, and persuaded her to have a drink with them, though she said it would put her right to sleep. A quick glance at his watch told Daniel it was just about bedtime for most people anyway. He made a subtle gesture to his watch, keeping his eyes on Sarah’s. Her slight nod told him she understood.

“What’s that idea you had, Mark? It’s late, Daniel and I should get going.”

“Why, just that the Fibonacci numbers have to be significant. Because of the ratios in the structure as a whole, you see. I think the builders were trying to draw our eyes to the fact that there’s an alphabet here. We can’t see all of it, because we don’t have enough data. But I’d be willing to bet that if we arranged these Fib numbers by location of the blocks they came from, we’d see something that looks random but is actually some representation of a written language.”

Daniel stared at the numbers in awe as Mark rearranged them according to the location of their blocks. It was like watching an animation of a Scrabble game, as the numbers that represented letters slid into their respective places one by one. It was easy to see that there were gaps. “We need the rest of the blocks.”

“Yes, we do. Obviously ten letters isn’t enough for an alphabet. Do you know what language this code would have been in?”

Stricken, Daniel and Sarah admitted that they hadn’t thought to question that it would be in Arabic.

“We’re going to need a linguist, aren’t we?”

Sarah and Daniel were still celebrating when they returned to her house. After one more glass of wine, they took the celebration to bed, where Daniel took great care to make sure that Sarah knew just how much he loved her. The next day, they dutifully reported to Prof. Barry that with Mark’s help, they had discovered something that could be important, though they didn’t specify what, citing their need to make sure it panned out first.

~~~

Daniel also called Raj on Friday to tell him the good news. Raj, however, as soon as he had heard enough to guess what was coming, stopped him.

“Wait! Not over a cell phone.”

“Come on, Raj, you’re kidding. No one is paying us the slightest bit of attention. Let me tell you.”

“If you want me to keep working with you on this, you’ll either go to a pay phone to call me or better yet, wait until you get here and show me.”

“But…”

“That’s the deal, my friend. Take it or leave it.”

“Okay, I’ll see you on Monday if I don’t call first.”

“That will work.”

Daniel turned to Sarah, who was lingering over her last piece of toast and a second cup of coffee.

“I think Raj has gone off his freakin’ nut.”

“Well, you said he was a little crazy. What did he say?”

“He wants to communicate only through pay phones, in case our cell phones are bugged. Or, wait until I can tell him in person. Or he won’t play anymore.”

Sarah snorted when Daniel mentioned bugged cell phones, and was now mopping up spewed coffee.

“I suppose you’d better indulge him. Do you want to go find a pay phone, or wait to see him in person? You won’t leave early to do that, will you?”

“No, sweetheart, nothing is going to tear me from your side before Monday morning. Let’s just go about our weekend, and if we happen to see a pay phone, we’ll do that.”

“That sounds lovely. What shall we do? I’ve no classes today, and I can run by my office and put a note up that office hours are canceled.”

“Super! Let’s drive out into the countryside, maybe have a walk in the woods, and a picnic. Hey, have you ever thought about…”

“Not on your life, mister. All I need is to be caught
in flagranté
in public. I’m not that adventurous.”

Daniel pretended to pout, but in truth he wasn’t all that adventurous either. It was fun to get her riled up, though. She was never more beautiful than when her color was high from laughter, embarrassment or passion. It was his mission in life to keep one of those in play at all times.

Though Daniel and Sarah found plenty to do over the weekend, they never did spot a pay phone. Admittedly, they could hardly have expected to find a pay phone in Sarah’s bedroom, where they spent the bulk of their time. Daniel couldn’t get enough of Sarah’s willing sensuality. Her soft curves welcomed his body like no other woman, ever. Sarah had shown him in every way that she was as hungry for him as he was for her. He couldn’t wait until the time when, he hoped, they would be together every day. This weekend love affair was taking a toll on his nerves.

In any case, he wasn’t able to get the discovery to Raj until Monday evening after work, by which time Raj had entered a few more of the blocks.

“Raj, why all the paranoia and spy craft stuff?”

“I have told you, my friend. Government agencies are aware of my interest in extraterrestrials, I’m sure of it. If they discover by listening to my phone conversations that I am on the verge of a breakthrough in this matter of aliens having built this pyramid, there’s no telling what they will do.”

“Raj, we don’t have any notion that aliens built it, we think it was an older, more advanced civilization that has disappeared in some way.”

“Precisely. Alien civilization.”

“Not necessarily.”

“Daniel, do not be naive. A civilization that advanced would have to have come from beyond the stars, it could not have developed in such a primitive world.”

“Okay, let’s say for the sake of argument that you’re right. Does it make any difference to our work here if we agree to disagree?”

Raj inclined his head, giving himself time to think. “No, I suppose not.”

“Then let’s do that. I won’t tell you I think you’re stark raving mad, and you won’t assume or mention aliens, and we’ll get along just fine. Agreed?”

Although a slight frown crossed Raj’s face at the phrase ‘stark raving mad’, he nodded. There would be no more talk of aliens until he could prove his theory, although he had no doubt at all.

“So, you wish me to finish as soon as possible just the passageway stones?”

“That’s right. We’re going on my hunch that the message there gives the key to what’s inside.”

“All right, then, I will do one side and then give you the report. If the other side is identical, I can just replicate the records.”

“I’d hate to miss something because our eyes are fooled by very close but not identical stones. Go ahead and do one side first, but please do the other individually. It could be important. I mean, I’d hate for one side to say, ‘Take out the 3rd stone on the thirtieth course of the pyramid to find a great treasure.’ And the other side to say, ‘Just kidding. The treasure is really behind the 4th stone of the fortieth course.”

Now Raj was laughing, his pique over Daniel not taking his extraterrestrials seriously forgotten. He continued the joke, “Or, ‘Just kidding, there’s a deadly poison in the air pocket there. Don’t do that.’”

“Yeah, that would be a real bummer,” Daniel chuckled. “Don’t do as I say, if you do, you’re done for.”

~~~

The following day, Raj appeared at Daniel’s desk with a cup of break-room coffee that he offered to Daniel. Without another word, he headed back to his own area. Daniel couldn’t understand it, it wasn’t typical Raj behavior, but he wouldn’t turn it down. Even sub-par break-room coffee was better than no coffee. His eyes were on his computer screen when he finished it, so it was a little while later, when he picked it up to throw it in the wastebasket that he realized there was a message printed on the insides of the cup. Daniel slowly rotated the cup as he read the words.

“We must not be seen meeting, but come to the Little India restaurant at eight o’clock tonight. R.”

What the heck? Had Raj found something of significance already? Daniel had told him of Mark’s process, so he could have replicated it and already have something to tell them. He sent Sarah a text, saying only ‘Call will be late, explain later.’ Raj’s paranoia was beginning to affect Daniel. He was reluctant to send anything across open airwaves that might let a listener know what he was doing at any given time. When he realized what was happening, Daniel gave a light chuckle and waved off the adrenaline that suddenly washed through him. All this cloak and dagger was becoming too easy to buy into.