Erik tried to recap what he knew in his mind: Paul seemed to suggest that the gold, silver and bronze treasures mentioned in the tempest stele were actually there, in the Athens archaeological museum. From Paul’s scribbles in the book Erik knew that Paul theorised that this may have been a payment from Ahmose to Egypt’s invaders, presumably the Hyksos, to make them leave Avaris and to enable him to unite upper and lower Egypt. Why on Earth would such a gift have ended up in the hands of the Mycenaeans? Erik’s head was spinning. At that moment, he temporarily lost his balance and fell into one of the displays, housing small signet rings. Luckily for him, the glass withstood the impact but the noise he made in connection with the fall attracted the attention of people around him, including Paul and Mary, who were surprised to find Erik carefully checking for any damage to the glass.
Erik did his best to act surprised when they came over but unfortunately he was not a very good actor. He was sure they had realised that he had been listening in on their conversation and felt a little bit awkward.
“What are you two doing here?” He asked with a pretend surprised voice. “I thought you would have been here millions of times before? What brings you here today?” Paul responded with simulated aloofness:
“Strange that we should bump into you! Just checking something – I seemed to remember that the Linear B artefact that I went to Athens to look at had a ‘twin’ here in the museum. We thought we’d just come over and check.” As Paul said this, Mary looked over at him with a puzzled expression on her face. Erik knew that Paul must be lying.
“Oh, which one? Is it around here?” he asked innocently.
“No it’s further in there”, Paul said and pointed in the direction of another room. “Have you enjoyed your day so far? Have you seen the Parthenon yet?”
The topic of conversation expertly changed, Erik noted. Erik briefly summarised his day and that was the end of that conversation. Paul made some excuses and they agreed to meet up later. Erik decided to spend some more time with the Mycenaean gold collection before browsing the rest of the impressive exhibition at record speed. All he wanted to do now was to get back to the hotel, maybe try out the selection of herbal bath oils in his room, have a drink at the rooftop bar and sleep before they were to meet up for dinner later that evening. That was exactly what he did.
▪ ▪ ▪
Erik continued his deliberations all through getting dressed and hailing a cab. Paul had been acting so strangely. Erik was sure he was hiding something but the way he had acted almost invited suspicion, at least in Erik’s view. If he was right about Paul’s involvement in the break-in he found it surprising that Paul could be that stupid about it all. If he really was the ‘Torpa break-in mastermind’ he had managed to keep it secret for a very long time. He had managed to fool the police, him, Emma and everyone else. It was odd to think that he would start acting carelessly now, unless he was too close to a breakthrough on Linear A to care. Cutting his deliberations short, Erik decided that the answer might be that he had imagined Paul’s strange behaviour; that he only saw what he wanted to see and read too much into what Paul said.
As he arrived at the restaurant, he made the decision to give Paul the benefit of the doubt. What proof did he really have? Nothing. Some loose comments which could be interpreted in many ways. They didn’t mean anything and certainly didn’t implicate Paul’s involvement. His recent progress in deciphering Linear A may well have been the fruit of intensive work on his side, without the keystone.
Paul and Mary had already been shown to the table as Erik joined them. The restaurant was trendy and this time with a more Italian, rather than Greek, feel to the food.
“So, did you find what you were looking for in the museum today?” Erik asked after they had ordered. Paul hesitated before answering:
“Yes, it was still where I remembered it but I’m afraid it wasn’t the right one – it wasn’t the twin of the Linear B text which I went to Athens to see. I was wrong on that one unfortunately. But it doesn’t really matter.”
Erik didn’t want to pursue that conversation any further, instead he asked: “So, any more thoughts on the text of the Torpa tablet? You were going to discuss it?”
This time Mary responded: “No, not really. We haven’t come up with anything new”.
Erik found this strange, given their conversation about the ‘treasure’ and the Mycenaean gold collection. He found it strange that they didn’t want to share this with him. Wanting the conversation to stay on the tablet he said: “Well, I’m intrigued by the whole thing, especially the link between the Torpa tablet and the ten plagues of Egypt. Mary, do you think there could be a connection there?”
“I assume you’re referring to the description of the floods, darkness, hail and smoke in the tablet?” Erik nodded so Mary continued. “Well, in my opinion it’s fairly obvious that these are describing the effects of a volcanic eruption; being the Thera eruption of course. If you’re asking me whether this was the event which gave rise to the story of the ten plagues in the bible, I’m afraid you’re asking the wrong person, although I wouldn’t deny that there might be some truth in it.” Just as Mary had said this, Paul’s mobile phone started ringing.
“You’ll have to excuse me for a minute, I need to take this unfortunately”, Paul said as he left the table heading for the door. When he was gone, Mary turned to Erik. She leaned closer. He could smell her perfume.
Looking serious, she whispered: “I have sensed your suspicion these last couple of days.”
Erik was startled by the change in her behaviour and by what she was saying. “What are you saying? Suspicion of what?”
“Of Paul.” She looked around before she continued. “I probably shouldn’t tell you this but I feel you have the right to know. What he’s told me leads me to believe that he has a source which knows more about the Torpa tablet than he would like us to believe. I know one thing for certain: he didn’t come to Athens primarily to see me; or a troublesome Linear B text, or whatever he’s told you.” Erik saw Paul coming back in and alerted Mary to change the topic. She reacted quickly, pretending that they had been talking about the bible connection all along:
“…Some argue that Ahmose and Moses was the same person. Personally, I cannot see how that could be. Ahmose was an Egyptian pharaoh who conquered the Hyksos invaders. Moses, albeit raised by the daughter of a pharaoh, was the self-proclaimed leader of the Israelites who left Egypt. Ahmose clearly stayed in Egypt.”
Paul was immediately keen to join the conversation as he sat down: “Yes, some believe the Hyksos were in fact the Israelites, or at least from that general region, so following that logic, how could Ahmose have led the Hyksos out of Egypt? But one thing is interesting; nearly all the children in the royal family of Ahmose were called ‘Ahmose’, both the girls and the boys, and Moses grew up as a member of the royal family so the name angle is certainly worthy of note. Personally, I’m inclined to believe that the Hyksos were the predecessors to the Phoenicians, which obviously does not preclude anything in terms of their origin but which firmly puts their eventual place of settlement near the Mediterranean east coast in today’s Lebanon, Syria or Israel.”
After Mary’s revelation earlier, Erik found it difficult to relax and enjoy the company of Paul. All he wanted to do was to get back to the hotel and get ready to fly back to Crete the next morning. But first he felt that he needed to be alone with Mary again, for her to explain what her suspicion was and fill him in on what Paul had told her. Unfortunately he never got a chance to. Even his attempt to suggest that they could share a taxi, as his hotel was in the general direction of the university, failed. She was seeing a friend in a bar before heading home. There was no invitation for him to join her in the bar, so Erik took a taxi back to his hotel alone – once again full of thoughts. Before they departed, he had asked for Mary’s contact details. She gave him her mobile number, which according to her was the best way to get hold of her.
TWELVE
&
nbsp; Crete, February 2006
Emma could not take any more Linear A texts. She was up to her ears with the small office where she spent most of her time, away from the relaxation and sea. She had made good progress though. She had gone through almost a third of the whole stock of ‘untranslated’ Linear A texts in only a week. She was sure that if she stopped now, everyone would be content and happy with what she had achieved.
As soon as she had made the decision to request to stop her translation exercise on Monday she felt much better. Her mood improved even further when she saw Erik’s shoes by the front door. He had come back from Athens! As she entered the house, she found him in the sun-lounger next to the pool – sleeping with a copy of the Economist on his chest. He was wearing a pair of shorts and nothing else, which seemed very optimistic considering the weather. The wind made the parasol wobble and the sun was hidden behind an enormous black cloud. Looking at him sleeping, she was once again stricken by his attractiveness, his magnetism, perfectly proportioned face and his muscular body; almost too perfect in a godlike sort of way. In addition, he was kind and a gentleman. She could not deny that she was attracted to him. Most women must be, she thought. But other than such fleeting feelings of what could only be described as physical attraction towards Erik, she knew that Paul was the man for her. That was certainly never going to change.
She was startled when he suddenly woke up.
“Hiya! You’re back! I just got in!” She hoped that he had not noticed that she had been watching him sleep for almost a minute.
“Hi! Yes, I had my meeting and saw a bit of Athens.” He stood up and gave her a quick hug. The smell of his cologne filled her nose and seemed to linger around her. She could see him shiver from the cold. They went into the living room. Erik put on a jumper.
“Did you have a good time? Did you see anything of Paul at all while you were there?”
“Yes, I had a great time and I actually saw a lot of both Paul and his colleague Mary. Athens certainly is an exciting place. How was your last couple of days?”
Emma was too bored with it even to talk about it, so after a quick comment about her progress she suggested that they cook something nice and share a bottle of wine. Erik was no star in the kitchen and neither was she. They managed to produce some over-cooked pasta and a somewhat runny Carbonara sauce.
“This sauce tastes exceptionally good with the wine”, Erik commented with a silly smile from the opposite side of the kitchen table. Emma laughed hysterically at the fact that he really seemed to enjoy the food. He had even managed to get some of it around his mouth, making him look like a naughty little boy. How she liked his company.
A bottle and a half later, plates and glasses empty, she was annoyed to find herself unsteady and dizzy. Erik, on the other hand, seemed largely unaffected, chatting away about his visit to Athens. She even lost her concentration at one stage and forgot to pay attention to what he was saying.
“…. And for that matter, I certainly had my suspicions before she told me but I was surprised to have it confirmed.”
“I’m sorry, what suspicion did you get confirmed?” She felt guilty for having lost the plot.
Erik sounded a little bit annoyed: “That Paul is hiding something. That he potentially had something to do with the theft of the tablet!”
Emma was utterly confused. This talk about suspecting Paul of the break-in; it was absurd. “Are you saying that this woman, his colleague, Mary, has confirmed to you that Paul stole the chest?”
“Well, not exactly. She said that Paul cannot be trusted and that he may have a source who knows more about the Torpa tablet than he has told us”.
“And how can she know that, may I ask? Maybe she had an ulterior motive to try to get you to think ill of Paul, or maybe you read more into what she said than you were meant to. You might even have imagined it, for all I know. I for one can’t believe any rubbish accusation like that; you and she clearly don’t know Paul at all! He’s been nothing but a friend to you. How can you dismiss him so easily? He wasn’t even in the country when the break-in happened!”
Erik looked annoyed but Emma would not take him insulting Paul after all he’d done for him. With that she stood up and left the room. For a second she wondered where she would storm off to. With the open plan living space there was no opportunity to storm out dramatically behind a slamming door, other than to go outside. In a flash, or at least after what she thought was less than a seconds’ hesitation, she decided to go upstairs and go straight to bed. She slammed the door to her bedroom but by then it had sort of lost its effect, especially when she went straight back out again, realising that the bathroom was down the hall. She hoped that at least with her display of disgust at his accusation she had made her point; that she wasn’t prepared to distrust Paul, at least not without any hard evidence. From what she had heard from Erik, the finger pointing was based on loose theories and assumptions. And who did this Mary think she was; she had never heard of any Mary.
▪ ▪ ▪
Waking up the next morning was not a pleasant experience. It was Saturday, which was nice but in addition to a banging headache and acute thirst, Emma felt awful about her behaviour towards Erik the night before. She was still convinced that any accusation in Paul’s direction was wholly unfounded – there must have been some sort of misunderstanding. She knew him too well; he would never do anything to risk his untarnished reputation and respected position as an Oxford professor. It would be so completely out of character that she felt she would need extremely strong evidence to the contrary to believe any of the accusations against him. She put on a dressing gown and went downstairs.
Paul, Ball and Laura were not expected back until that afternoon so Emma was hoping she might have the kitchen to herself for a while to ponder her thoughts. Unfortunately for her, Erik was already up and having breakfast at the kitchen table, reading a Swedish newspaper. She silently wondered how he had got hold of a Swedish paper in a remote villa on Crete but she didn’t voice her question. Instead she decided to apologise for her behaviour the night before, blaming the wine which seemed to have gone straight to her head.
“Well,” he said, “I know how you feel about Paul and I probably shouldn’t have blurted everything out the way I did. I could have given Paul the benefit of doubt but with Mary confirming my suspicion I thought you might agree with me.”
This annoyed Emma once again. “Excuse me, I’ve never met Mary! In fact, I didn’t even know of her existence until a few of days ago. For all I know, you could have made her up.” She got the desired reaction from Erik; he was irritated with this response.
“Hold on a second. Mary is a respected professor of ancient history. She even used to be a lecturer at Oxford before she transferred temporarily over to Athens two years ago.”
“I’ve been at Oxford for nearly four years and I’ve certainly never heard of a professor called Mary. What’s her surname?”
“Brown. Ring any bells? Professor Brown?”
“No actually. Well, I might not know everyone then, if you’re sure she was at Oxford.” Erik didn’t answer. Instead he walked outside to the pool with his Swedish paper, grabbing a towel on the way, taking off his T-shirt and sinking into the deck chair without uttering another word. It was once again far too cold for sunbathing but he didn’t seem to mind.
It suddenly occurred to Emma that Erik might have tried to make her angry with Paul for some reason. Although she could not understand it, she had seen indications that Erik might have feelings for her. A couple of times she had noticed it. In stark contrast with her, he was one of those popular beautiful people who could get anything they wanted. Why on earth he would even consider forming some sort of liking towards her was, for her, completely incomprehensible. Some sort of strange misdirected jealousy could have made him imagine odd things about Paul, or, even worse, he could have fabricated lies about Paul. Her general opinion of Erik was only positive but of course she didn’t know him as well as she knew Pa
ul. Erik had always been very genuine and a real gentleman. She found it hard to believe that he would do anything maliciously. But people could change for all she knew, especially in the face of jealousy.
Emma and Erik didn’t speak all day after that. It was strange to see him so gloomy. He was normally always cheery, not far away from laughing, often at his own shortcomings and mistakes. Emma very much liked that streak in him, as it made her laugh as well. She wasn’t pleased with their falling out. By reason of the uncomfortable silence, Emma felt an enormous relief when she heard a car approaching the house late afternoon. A few moments later, Laura and Ball entered, shouting hello. Erik immediately got up to greet them, without looking at Emma as he did so. Emma followed him. In Laura and Ball’s presence they both pretended as if their quarrel had never happened. The four of them sat down on the sofas to share experiences.
“Having seen the remains of the lost Minoan city on Santorini, I’m getting more and more convinced by the Crete-Atlantis theory,” Laura proclaimed excitedly. “This is after all the most accepted Atlantis theory in modern times. There are obviously still points which don’t add up but I now feel that it’s at least not an outlandish assumption to make; that Plato used the forgotten civilisation on Thera and Crete as inspiration for his story about Atlantis.”
The Atlantis Keystone Page 11
