The Atlantis Keystone (14 page)

▪ ▪ ▪

It was afternoon. Erik had had the client meeting in the morning. It had gone well. Over lunch they had come to an agreement that Erik’s firm would help with the legal aspects of the client’s impending migration of his computer graphics business from Sweden to Cyprus. It was a reasonably sizeable engagement and Erik was very pleased with himself. After a quick gratifying phone call to his boss, he decided to do some sightseeing. As he walked around among impressive outdoor displays of ancient Greek wonders, the sun was shining and he whistled happily. He wanted to see as much of central Athens as possible in the limited amount of time he had at his disposal. He browsed the main sights around the Acropolis and the Parthenon in a few hours without entering any of the enclosed areas. By the time he reached the archaeological museum entrance, his feet were sore from blisters and it was already half past four. Knowing that the recommended time to explore the museum was two days, he realised that he would not do it justice by rushing but he nevertheless decided to enter just to be able to say he had been there. He had only got to the second room, perusing some glass-encased Mycenaean jewellery, when he heard familiar voices from a few shelves down. To his surprise, it was Paul and Mary. They were admiring the so called ‘Mask of Agamemnon’. Erik could even hear what they were saying. Rather than going up to them to say hello, he decided to take this ‘fly-on-the-wall’ opportunity and remain an anonymous bystander, pretending to take an interest in some nearby signet rings. Why on earth were they there, he wondered.

“I see what you mean”, Mary said to Paul. “The timing is certainly right, around 1600-1550 BC. Everyone knows that the ‘mask of Agamemnon’ is not actually connected to the legendary Mycenaean leader Agamemnon who was around much later, in around about the 1200s BC. Your theory does make sense. How else would the Mycenaeans have been able to get hold of all this gold, silver and bronze at this time – they were simply not advanced enough then, as far as we know.”

“Yes, and look at this one here,” Paul said as they walked over to another display unit. Erik had to do a quick diversionary manoeuvre to avoid being seen. He knew that he was easy to spot in a crowd, with his height and blonde hair. Paul continued:

“You can clearly see that these goods originate from both Egypt and Crete – their style is unmistakable. It’s also easy to see that the Mycenaeans themselves must have melted down some of the gold to make these new, less sophisticated, objects.” He signalled in the direction of the gold mask and some jewellery nearby. “The description of ‘gold, silver, and bronze’ seems to fit and with the timing and everything else, it does make sense.”

Could it be? Erik thought. ‘THE TREASURE IS IN ATHENS’. The treasure which Paul had been referring to in the book must have been this museum collection. He was hit by mild disappointment, having imagined a secret buried treasure. He vaguely remembered reading on the posters at the entrance that the collection was the so called Mycenaean shaft graves. And yes, he recalled, they were from the 16th century BC, discovered on mainland Greece, in Mycenae. Of course, he recalled, the Mycenaeans had only really started their quest to conquer parts of the Mediterranean two hundred years later, making the lavish and rich graves a bit of a mystery, as it contained items which could only have been crafted by a much more advanced civilisation. Scientists or historians had not managed to find an explanation to why all that gold had been hidden in forgotten graves on mainland Greece, which at that time was far from civilised. That was obviously the question which Paul’s theory appeared to have an answer to but Erik guessed that it was more to it than that.

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.

E
mma 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.