The Atlantis Keystone (19 page)

E
mma suffered from emotions fluctuating between relief that they were safe and guilt that Erik wasn’t, that they had left him behind. For all they knew he could be dead, his corpse lying on that distant corner of the square where they had selfishly left him to fend for himself only fifteen minutes earlier. He had saved her life and risked his own by giving her his head-scarf. She tried to tell herself that she had not had a choice. Paul had been adamant that they continue, to save themselves. He had even dragged them along. As soon as they had managed to find the British Embassy, Paul had ventured out again, to try to find Erik. Both she and Laura had offered to go with him but he had refused point blank. Instead, they had entered the Embassy building and had already been equipped with a mug of strong Earl Grey tea, sandwiches and a blanket each, together with confirmation that their assumptions of what was going on were correct. The smoke they had seen was coming from the Danish Embassy which had been attacked. Laura was crying on the sofa opposite her.

“We have got to… go… back out there!” she heaved between sobs. Emma knew exactly how she felt. She could not help sensing a great hole in her own heart, numbness, emptiness, sadness combined into a lump in her stomach.

“Well, I’m sure that Erik and Paul wouldn’t have liked to risk their lives for us only to find that we then went and got killed looking for them. Let’s take Paul’s advice and stay here. I’m sure they’ll be back soon.” At that moment they were interrupted by a clerk, a young man, wanting to take their details; names, ages, travel itinerary, their reason for being in Beirut, who they were travelling with and a multitude of questions about Erik and Paul. The list went on. Emma was grateful for the interruption. It helped to divert her wondering mind. She was appreciative when the clerk promised, on Emma’s request, that they would file Erik and Paul as missing persons at the local hospital, police station and on the Embassy website.

“This can’t be good news. They should be back by now,” Laura said with an almost squeaky voice after they had eaten. They called their parents and tried without much success to get some sleep. “What can possibly be taking so long?!”

The clerk entered the room, looking serious and edgy. Emma could no longer hold back the tears, suspecting the worst.

“The Maronite Catholic church near the Danish consulate has also been attacked,” he said and continued: “I believe order was restored but I have just heard reports that a counter-demonstration of Christian protesters has gathered there, so it seems it’s not over yet.” He fell silent, as if in two minds about whether to continue. Emma could see Laura holding her breath, almost as if she was waiting for a death sentence.

“I’m afraid we need to ask you a few more questions about Paul.” This was not what they had expected and Laura demonstrably released her suspended breath.

“Why? What’s happened to him? Is he alright?” Emma asked quickly.

“We don’t know where he is but something has come to our attention which the ambassador needs to ask you about. Please come with me.” He took them to a nearby office with a pompous desk in the middle of the grand room and exquisite oil paintings decorating the walls. Emma dried her tears with her sleeve, feeling small and helpless. Behind the desk was a middle aged woman impeccably dressed and her dark hair neatly arranged in a knot. As they entered, she stood up and greeted them by shaking their hands, introducing herself.

“Please sit down”, she offered, pointing at a couple of chairs in front of her desk. They obliged. “How do you know Paul Simmons?” She asked.

“I’m sorry but I believe we have already answered these questions”, Laura replied shortly as she turned to leave.

“Wait. I know but I’m afraid we need to know more. How well do you know him and has he been acting strangely at all?”

“Paul is a respected Oxford Professor and he has been my tutor for the past four years. We are very close. He’s not been acting strangely,” Emma said, feeling more and more annoyed. “Where’s this leading? I’m afraid you’ll have to explain! Paul is missing. We have no way of contacting him. He went out to search for our
Scandinavian
friend and as far as we know they could both be dead!” Emma could not help getting increasingly upset.

“Well, if it helps, we have had no reported deaths.” She seemed to resist adding ‘so far’. “I will explain but I should warn you that what I have to tell you may be upsetting.” She paused for a few seconds and continued. “We have had a call from the Swedish police. They have released a warrant for the arrest of Mr Simmons, for his involvement in a break-in and consequential manslaughter in Sweden.”

“What, that’s rubbish! Paul was not even in the country when the break in happened. And besides, I thought they had already caught the perpetrator?” Emma was shaken by the accusations. “How do you know this?”

“The Swedish police have good grounds for the warrant. They have indeed managed to catch the perpetrator, a professional burglar, and he has named Paul Simmons, Professor at Oxford University, as his employer.”

The ambassador might as well have stabbed her in the chest and left her to bleed to death. Emma felt as if she had been caught by a chilly wind which pulled her away from the real world and into a surreal nightmare.

“He’s lying! The Paul I know would never do something like that! Someone has set him up!” As soon as she had said it, Erik’s words of warning started to ring in her ears. Erik had suspected Paul. He had sensed that Paul was up to something. She had not believed him, just as she had not believed these very real accusations from the Swedish police just now. Yet a small niggling doubt started to form in her mind. She feared she may have been wrong about Paul, blinded by her love for him. She admitted to herself that she had been foolish. As she thought about it for a moment, she wondered whether Paul may even deliberately have led them into this mess. She needed to be alone with her thoughts but the questioning continued for another half hour before the ambassador was interrupted by a written message delivered personally by the clerk. She read it and looked at them, hesitating but apparently making a decision to tell them something.

“This message concerns you, or more specifically your friend Erik.” Emma’s heart jumped at the mention of Erik. She had no idea what could have happened to him, whether he was alive, injured or where he was. She could see Laura’s eyes light up. The ambassador continued: “The good news is that he’s alive. He was found injured but has been taken to hospital and is being treated for a concussion. The note does not give any details of the severity of the injury. When things have calmed down, perhaps tomorrow, you can go to the hospital to find out more.”

It had been a long day. Both Emma and Laura were exhausted. They had been offered a room at the Embassy, an offer which they gladly accepted even though they still had their hotel room from a couple of days ago in another part of Beirut. The beds turned out to be uncomfortable but they were both grateful for the hospitality. It was simply not yet safe for westerners to wander the streets. Despite this, they were the only night-guests at the Embassy. The violence around the central district of Beirut had continued and they had not had another update. The Embassy had released a recommendation to all British nationals to leave Beirut. Emma had discussed this with Laura and they had agreed that they would both remain in the city until Erik was well enough to travel. At that point they didn’t have an idea of how long that was likely to take.

As soon as Emma’s head hit the pillow, her thoughts went to Paul. She did not have a clue where he could have escaped to. Having heard the whole story she suspected that the most likely answer was that he had left the country. Thinking back, Emma had slowly started to realise how strange Paul’s behaviour had been, in particular after Erik’s phone call with the news of the capture of the Torpa burglar earlier that day. The way he had led them straight into the danger zone was a bit peculiar but he may genuinely have been unaware of what was going on and where the riots were likely to take place. They had all been in the dark at that point and it was not unreasonable to believe that Paul had also been so. Emma pictured him, crossing the Mediterranean Sea, being chased by Swedish police officers. Europol may even have become involved to aid a European-wide search. She had no idea where he was likely to go; the UK was not an option. She speculated that he may have gone back to Crete or Athens but immediately dismissed that possibility on the basis that it would be too obvious if he knew that they were on to him. She simply could not believe he had done it; it made no sense and was very unlike him… A few minutes later, Emma fell asleep.

W
hat do you mean ‘he has not yet woken up’?” Laura was close to tears again. “Are you saying that he’s in a coma?”

“All I’m saying is that it could be another day or so until he recovers enough to gain consciousness. We see no reason why he won’t make a full recovery. It should be fairly rapid once he wakes up but that could take a little while”. The words from the doctor, in flawless English, were comforting.

“Thank you. That’s a relief.” Maybe because of the anticipation of their hospital visit, the relief upon finding out that Erik would recover fully or simply the stress of the previous day, Laura broke down in violent tears as soon as they left the hospital building.

“I… am… sorry, I just need a minute”, she said between snivels. Emma put her arm around her and led her to the hospital entrance stairs where they sat down. As an extra precaution, they both wore headscarves, both fairly modern looking. Emma’s was white with gold stripes and Laura’s a light green. The British Embassy clerk had bought them especially, a gesture which they had both been touched by. The street in front of them had a steady stream of traffic and the pavement was full of people of all ages. As they sat there on the stairs, protecting their identity for fear of attack, Emma realised how much she missed England, Paul, and their innocent existence in Oxford. She would have done anything to go back in time to before all this had happened. Maybe she should not have gone looking for the tablet. Perhaps that had been the first step in a series of events culminating in a chain reaction forcing Paul to commit a crime. No, she could not blame herself for what he had done. At that moment Emma suddenly came to a realisation, one which she should have reached much sooner.

“What’s the matter”, Laura asked, “You stirred”.

“Nothing, just hungry I guess. My stomach’s growling.” She had never been very close to Laura and it didn’t seem right to discuss Paul with her but her genuine look of concern, mixed with her teary eyes made Emma change her mind. She continued: “In fact, I just realised that ever since August last year, for nearly six months, Paul may have known what was in that chest; the Torpa chest which we glimpsed through a camera inside the space in the wall before the break-in! If our theory was right, he could have had the entire Torpa tablet, the other half of the keystone, for the last six months! He could have been working away at deciphering Linear A without telling me! He used me and kept me in the dark about any discovery that he might have made! He lied to my face! He knew how important the deciphering of Linear A was to me, yet he kept it to himself! For all I know, he might even have cracked the code by now! He committed a crime and for what? We would have got that wall opened eventually, I’m sure!” Now it was Emma’s turn to be tearful, although she felt silly crying and tried her best to stay calm. She stood up and started walking. Laura followed.

“I believe he used us all,” Laura said looking absent-mindedly in the other direction.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean that, thinking about it, he may have used me and Erik too. Why did he even ask me to choose Atlantis as the topic of my dissertation? Why did he ask me to come to Crete? The tablet clearly conveys some interesting messages. If Paul actually does possess the Torpa tablet, he would not only have had access to the keystone to decipher Linear A. He would also have been able to read the text of the other side of the tablet! He would have known what the tablet said in its entirety.”

“What makes you think that he would’ve wanted us to think about the story of the tablet?” Emma was confused.

“You probably don’t know this, and I certainly didn’t realise it until now but Paul seems to have left certain hints for us to follow. It is possible that the tablet revealed something of great interest. Because he had committed a crime to get the tablet in his possession he could of course not reveal the message to anyone. That would basically have incriminated him. Instead, he may have decided to use his students, and Erik as it turned out, to somehow work it out or to conduct research for him.” At that stage Laura had dried her tears and was almost back to her normal self. Emma had done the same but she had exchanged her sadness for anger – at Paul. They were walking slowly down a busy street without paying attention to where they were going.

“What sort of hints?”

“For starters, he left a message in a book and basically displayed it to Erik. It talked about a treasure in Athens. In Athens Erik realised that the treasure which Paul had referred to was actually the Mycenaean Gold collection at the Archaeological Museum in Athens. In the last few weeks, he has also been talking about the links between the Minoans and the Egyptians. You then found the name ‘Tetisheri’, the name of an Egyptian queen, on a Linear A item. At the same time, I was obviously working on my dissertation, reading up on Atlantis. My visit to Santorini, which revealed ancient remains from the period just before the Thera eruption, also helped to familiarise myself with the era when the tablet was likely to have been inscribed, all in line with what Paul had intended. He then made sure that Erik and I were talking and putting our theories together. I have to say, I think he succeeded in his plan – I think I have worked out what Paul wanted us to realise!”