The Tenth Cycle: A Thriller (A Rossler Foundation Mystery Book 1) (8 page)

Sarah woke, realizing slowly that the restraints holding her still were Daniel’s arms, and that they were sleeping curled into each other, with her head on his shoulder and her leg thrown over his. Her body tingled as full memory returned. Could their lovemaking have been as good as she remembered? Waves of memory-induced pleasure washed through her, making her wriggle even closer to him. When he spoke, a bubbling laugh forced its way to her throat.

“Woman, are you trying to kill me? Be still, or you’ll face the consequences.”

She wriggled in his arms again, hoping the consequences would be what she thought he meant.

Afterward, Sarah climbed into the shower behind him just as he was washing his hair. With strict admonishment about where it was permissible to touch, they managed to get out of the shower with no more consequences, as she was now calling their lovemaking. Daniel could hardly believe that his whole world had changed overnight. It was brighter, somehow, and Sarah was more carefree. His heart constricted every time she smiled or laughed. He felt like a rooster, wanting to crow his triumph to the world. Instead, he kissed Sarah whenever he caught her within arm’s-length.

“Sweetheart, I’ve got an idea,” he said, after they’d had coffee and bagels at his favorite coffee shop. “How would you feel about a road trip? My grandparents live less than two hours from here. I think you’d like Grandpa; he’s a retired archaeologist. I’d like to run some of this past him, get his take on it. And Grandma would love you. What do you say?”

“I guess that would be okay. Where do they live? Would we just go for the day?”

“They live in New Jersey, and the name of the town always cracked me up. Little Egg Harbor Township. You need a legal-sized envelope if you’re going to mail something, just from the length of that name. Did you bring anything to walk in, or just those crazy red sandals?”

“I’ve got my hiking boots in the car. I never know when you’re going to drag me out on a muddy trail,” she laughed.

“Let’s stay overnight then.” Forestalling her first protest, he said, “I promise they won’t think it’s an imposition. I don’t visit often enough, and they’re likely to tie us up to keep us from leaving anyway.”

Sarah’s family was the same way. Rolling her eyes at his hyperbole, she said, “At least call them and warn them we’re coming.”

~~~

They both avoided the topic of mathematics on the drive, knowing it would be the main topic of conversation with Nicholas, instead exchanging memories of their families and tacitly knitting their lives together. Daniel wasn’t certain how Sarah felt about forever, but he was already committed. It may be too soon to talk of marriage, though.

Thinking along these lines, he didn’t realize it was coming out of left field when he reached for her hand across the console. 

“Sarah, last night was…it was incredible. Thank you.”

“No, thank
you
, trust me,” she laughed. “I can’t believe I could keep my hands off you as long as I did. Think of all that wasted time.”

“I don’t know, I guess I thought, I mean, what if it was too soon? I didn’t want to insult you or scare you away.”

“Daniel, I’m not as easily scared as you might think. What did you think, I’m an orchid or something that would turn brown if you touched me?”

He turned his head to face her fully. “A priceless jewel, far out of my league.”

For a long minute, she gazed back at him, searching his eyes for irony. There was nothing to say to that, it was so sweet. She leaned forward and kissed him. Then, unable to stand the tension that was suddenly between them, whispered, “Watch the road, honey, or we won’t get another chance.”

~~~

When they arrived in Egg Harbor, both of the old people met them at the door. Bess enfolded Sarah in a hug, which Sarah returned with as much affection as she received. Nicholas slapped Daniel on the back and offered his opinion.

“You sure know how to pick ‘em, boy. You told us she was smart, but you didn’t say she was beautiful!”

“I did, too!” Daniel defended himself.

Bess sided with him, saying, “Oh, yes he did, you old coot. He just didn’t have the ability to do her justice.”

Sarah was blushing furiously, and Nicholas took her arm. “Don’t let us intimidate you, honey, we’re just pullin’ Danny’s leg.”

“Danny. Oh, that’s so cute, he never told me he went by Danny.”

“Well, he doesn’t now, and I may be in trouble for telling you. But that’s what we called him as a boy. Danny boy.”

After lunch, the young couple and Nicholas settled in the living room to discuss their progress since Daniel had last called and updated his grandpa. Daniel started by relating the change of focus after the Zacharias lecture, but was soon deep into the side information that was proving intriguing. After he talked about the Bible code, and ruefully admitted he was looking into the Edgar Cayce visions regarding Atlantis, Sarah chimed in with her flood story findings. At this, Nicholas perked up. He had some information to share.

“How much has Daniel told you about my research?” he asked.

“Only that your specialty is in the Native American and ancient tribes of the desert Southwest,” Sarah answered. “And something about the mystery of the sudden disappearance of the Anasazi from the Mesa Verde site.”

“True, true. But here’s something he may not know. Were you aware that the Hopi have a tradition of a flood destroying the Third World, and the more righteous people being saved by Spider Grandmother, who sealed them into hollow reeds to ride out the destruction?”

“No, that’s fascinating! I’ve found flood stories from the Far East to the Mediterranean, but I never would have thought to look for them in a desert environment.”

“Perhaps I should tell you more about the geography of the region. It was once covered by a vast inland sea, which, come to think of it, could have been the remnant of the flood the Hopi remember. All that’s left now is the Great Salt Lake, in Utah.”

“Of course! Actually, I’m from Colorado, and I knew that. Just didn’t think of it.”

“So, where does all that leave you in your research?” Nicholas asked.

“We’re going to focus on the message. We spent the last week trying to make sense of the why of it. But I think that if we could only decipher the message, the why and even the how should become clear.”

Nicholas thought for several moments, then agreed. “That sounds sensible. How are you going to proceed?”

“Sarah has a friend whose specialty is the history of mathematics and how numeracy developed in parallel civilizations. We’re going to ask him if he wants to help, and see if he can spot a pattern in the mathematical coincidences in measurements of the Great Pyramid. I think there’s probably a link with the astronomy, too,” he added.

“Without a doubt,” Nicholas agreed. The three talked all afternoon, stopping only for Sarah to help Bess with dinner.

~~~

They were about to put dinner on the table when Sarah, prattling on about Daniel and his quirky sense of humor, said, “I just love him! He’s adorable.”

Bess put her hand to her mouth, and tears started in her eyes. “Oh, honey, I hope you do. He loves you, you know.”

“I know he’s fond of me.”

“No, dear, he loves you. Head over heels, completely smitten, trust me, I know Daniel. Didn’t you know it too?”

Sarah’s voice went quiet, her heart too full to spare much oxygen for speaking. “I didn’t. But I’m so happy to know it now. I can’t imagine life without him.”

Bess hugged her. “Well, hopefully you won’t have to. Has he said anything at all about his feelings?”

“A little. There hasn’t been much time. We only last night… Never mind. TMI.”

“TMI?”

“Too much information.”

Bess laughed, delighted. “I’ll have to remember that one. You keep me posted, honey. If he doesn’t do the right thing soon enough for you, just let me know. I’ll take care of it.”

Now it was Sarah’s turn to laugh. “I’m glad you’re on my side. But I’m not sure what ‘the right thing’ is just yet. Let’s give it some time.”

“Your call, dear. Any time you say, I’m ready, willing and able to light a fire under that boy.”

Sarah burst out laughing, to Bess’s bewilderment. In the living room, the object of Sarah’s affection tilted his head, a silly grin spreading across his face to hear her laugh. Daniel was delighted that Sarah and his grandma were getting along so well. Little did he suspect that at that moment, Sarah was explaining their texting shorthand to Bess, who laughed even though talking by typing into a phone had never made much sense to her. Why didn’t they just talk?

Meanwhile, Daniel and his grandfather were working to put into some kind of logical order the points Daniel wanted to show to Mark Simms. He decided it was best to go from the simple to the complex, pointing out relationships between them where he could, although Simms would probably spot them immediately.

Therefore, he started with Pi. One of the facts about the Great Pyramid concerned the ratio between its perimeter and its height being two Pi. Taken by itself, it was easily dismissed as coincidence. However, as they had already discussed exhaustively, taken with all the other mathematical references, maybe it wasn’t. The trouble was that at the time of the purported building of the Great Pyramid, the value of Pi had not been precisely determined. The earliest written approximations of the value were in fact over fifteen hundred years later, in Egypt and Babylonia respectively.

Daniel couldn’t help but wonder if that date would have been extended dramatically if the builders of the Great Pyramid had left any records about it. Whatever the case, the fact remained that the value of Pi is so ingrained in the sciences that it was probably the most widely-known mathematical expression in the world, even among the general public. Musing about this fact, and about it being found in such diverse disciplines as cosmology, fractals, thermodynamics and even electromagnetism, Daniel unconsciously voiced a joke he had employed back in high school.

“Pi are square, but I like round pies better.”

His grandfather’s groan brought him back to the task at hand.

“Sorry, Grandpa, that was an accident. I’m trying to cut down.”

“I think we’ve exhausted the subject of Pi, unless Bess has one of her famous cherry rhubarb creations for supper. Shall we move on? What’s next?”

Before he could go on, Bess called them to come to dinner, and the discussion was tabled for the moment. Daniel’s eyes sought Sarah as soon as he arrived in the same room with her. Finding her with high color in her cheeks and more beautiful than ever, he went to her and kissed her cheek.

“Is it that hot in the kitchen? You look a little, I don’t know, flushed maybe.”

Sarah shook her head at him, and refused to meet his eyes. His grandmother looked a little odd, too, gazing fondly at him as if he had said or done something special. Were the women in his life ganging up on him? He pulled Sarah’s chair out for her and helped her seat herself, causing her to remark that he might be the last gentleman in the world. At that, Nicholas cleared his throat and ostentatiously pulled out Bess’s chair. Bess rolled her eyes at him as he leaned over her. “Thank you, darling.”

~~~

After dinner and clearing away the dinner dishes, Bess declared that she was tired of being left out of the deep scientific discussions that were going on and threatened to show home movies of Daniel if he didn’t agree to some other entertainment. That was enough to get Daniel’s compliance. Nothing could have been more embarrassing than home movies, unless his mother had sent a copy of that picture of him as a baby, lying flat on his back with nothing on but a pair of socks and looking every inch the male that he was. Nope, even a rousing game of pinochle beat that. Some hours later, the grandparents were ready for bed. Daniel told them to go right ahead, but that he and Sarah would sit up for a while longer. Bess gave Sarah what seemed to be a significant look, making her blush. Daniel wondered if Sarah had been telling tales out of school.

Once Nicholas and Bess had closed their bedroom door and were safely out of earshot, Daniel started tickling Sarah, demanding to know what she had told his grandmother. Gasping and laughing, trying to get away from his unremitting assault, Sarah denied telling Bess anything. She wasn’t ready to tell Daniel she loved him, unsure whether she could do so before he had declared himself or not. A look of bitterness crossed her face as she thought of her ex-fiancé. Daniel, misinterpreting it, stopped tickling immediately and put his arms around her.

“What’s wrong, sweetheart?”

“Nothing, dear. A passing thought, nothing to do with us. So, are we really going to sleep apart?”

“Yes, unless you want Grandma asking when the wedding is planned.”

“Oh. Yes, I guess that would be awkward.”

“It’s only tonight, hon. We’ll drive home tomorrow, and we have tomorrow night, if you want to.”

“Yes, please. Goodnight, Danny.”

“I can’t believe you just called me Danny.” She was already halfway down the hall, and now ran for her door as if her life depended on it, with Daniel in hot pursuit. Giggling, she closed the door just as he reached her, but then opened it again for a goodnight kiss that curled his toes. It was going to be a long night.