The Atlantis Keystone (35 page)

“I believe she was getting some wine,” Emma said. It was by pure luck that we found her. Britt-Marie nodded slowly in silence.

They thanked the ambulance staff and were instructed how to treat the head wound and resulting concussion. On Britt-Marie’s insistence, they had concluded that there was no need for her to travel to hospital. The journey would likely make her headache worse and her condition was not very bad. Therefore, Britt-Marie remained in Mrs Stenbock’s bed, left in the care of Erik and Emma. Erik silently thanked god that he had not managed to shoot her with the rifle.

“Now have a rest. Read something.” He found a couple of magazines in the bedside table drawer and put them next to her on the bed. “At some stage we need to talk. We are very confused about all this. You need to explain what happened.”

“I’m sorry….”

“Don’t worry about it. Just focus on having a rest!”

As they left the room, Erik grabbed her rucksack. It was surprisingly heavy. They returned to where they had sat earlier that day – the library. Erik left the door ajar in case Britt-Marie needed them. It was late, almost eleven o’clock but they both knew that if they went to bed they would not be able to sleep. He was physically tired and a bit shaken but the adrenaline was still pumping furiously in his veins. Emma was overwhelmed by the whole event. She had not said anything since they had left Britt-Marie. Erik lit the fire in silence, letting her calm down. She was sitting in her favourite chair with a cup of hot chocolate that he had prepared for her. It was a worrying sign that she was staring at thin air like a zombie. It had been the discovery of the lifeless person on the floor in the tunnel that had pushed her over the edge. Before then she had been fine, dealing with the whole situation arguably better than him.

“Are you alright?” he asked when he had managed to get the fire going.

“I think so…” She sipped from her mug and looked at him. “I thought it was Paul down there in the tunnel. It was just that seeing Paul’s T-shirt in there brought it all back… and then when I heard the steps, well…”

“I don’t blame you for jumping to conclusions. It’s understandable under the circumstances. It could have been Paul.”

“It’s not that. It was…when I heard the gun shots…I thought…I thought it was you! I thought you were dead and I felt as if my whole world had fallen apart. You are so sweet Erik. The way you handled everything down there…”

He smiled. “You were pretty impressive yourself.”

“I was more scared than I let on, I have to confess,” she said. Erik was going to confess the same but then decided not to. He didn’t want her to think that he was a vulnerable coward, even though he probably was.

“I really don’t understand what Britt-Marie was doing there. She could have asked me to borrow the keys to the house. There would be no need for her to creep around like this, or maybe she wasn’t. She may not have seen that it was us and fled to escape an encounter with more burglars. But then she should have told me she was still here.” Erik sighed. “I don’t know. It just doesn’t make sense.”

“There’s no point in speculating. We can talk to her in the morning.”

“We may not have to wait that long.” Erik suggested with a sneaky smile. “Let’s have a look in her rucksack. It could give us some answers.”

“No, don’t. It’s her personal possessions. We can’t just rummage through without permission.”

“She broke into our house. She trespassed on our property. She may be a close friend of the family but she doesn’t work here anymore.” Britt-Marie was almost like a mother to him but at that point he was angry with her. “She has no right to be in here without telling us. If she’d asked if she could borrow the keys I would have gladly let her but she didn’t even mention it. I think we need to know what’s going on. The way I see it, I have the right to look in her bag. I should really have called the police, she could have killed us but I didn’t because she’s a friend. Instead, I’m checking her bag now!” He walked over to the desk and opened the zipper to the large compartment. It was full of things including a torch, a raincoat, a knife and a plastic bag from the local supermarket with something in it. He emptied the rucksack out on to the desk next to him. The plastic bag landed with a thud. He turned his attention to that first. He doubted that it contained her weekly shopping. Emma leaned over in anticipation. As he opened it he could not believe his eyes. He had seen something similar once before, in the museum in Heraklion. He wasn’t sure how to react. His heart was beating faster. He looked up at Emma, savouring the moment. With a small grin on his face, he said as calmly as he could: “Emma, I have some news!”

“What? What is it? Show me!” She stood up and walked over to look. Her face had taken on a new glow and she was smiling widely in response to his grin. She had her suspicions. “Is it what I think it is? Is it?” He didn’t say anything but simply opened the plastic bag again, just enough to enable her to see.

“Oh my god! It really is! It’s the other half of the tablet!” She was jubilant, ecstatic. She sat down but was up again almost instantly. She could not sit still, dancing around as if she was performing some sort of ancient ritual. He laughed with her. He had never seen her so excited, which was in stark contrast to a few minutes ago. Somehow Britt-Marie had got hold of the tablet. He had no idea how but he was grateful nevertheless for Emma’s happiness. Her search, which had resulted in their meeting and indirectly Paul’s criminal act and his grandmother’s death, had come to an end. He gave her a look which he hoped would tell her how he felt about her. She stopped dancing and stood in front of him, suddenly serious. He could see she was tired.

“Would it be alright if I slept in your room tonight?” she asked as if she had been able to read his mind. “Frankly, I wouldn’t like to be alone right now.”

“Of course, my bed is big enough for two…” he said without hesitation.

▪ ▪ ▪

They had both been tired when they went to bed the night before and had forgotten to pull down the blinds in Erik’s bedroom. As a result the sun rise filled the room with an orange mist. Emma was lying on one side of the bed. She turned around and expected to see Erik next to her but she was surprised to find him on the floor, sleeping like a baby. She had been so tired that she had not noticed earlier. She smiled to herself. He was certainly a gentleman. She was grateful for that, although it had not been necessary. She would not have minded him there, on her side in the bed. In fact, she thought it would have been rather pleasant with a strong pair of arms around her and his warm body next to hers. His naked body as he walked into the lake the previous summer entered her mind once again. It was a pleasant thought that was soon replaced by memories of the upsetting events of the previous night.

Her mind wandered. The thought of the tablet made her heart jump. They had found it! Before going to bed, Erik had told her that as a precaution he had placed it in the family safe downstairs behind a painting in one of the reception rooms. He had told her the code for it. It was still very early in the morning but she couldn’t contain herself; she had to look at it. She got up, put on her dressing gown and slippers and walked downstairs without waking Erik. It was still in the plastic bag when she opened the safe. With great care she carried the tablet upstairs to the guest bedroom which she had used previously. It had a small desk upon which she placed the artefact. As protection she used some rather unsuitable knitted gloves which she had brought with her in case the Swedish spring weather surprised them with a late winter. She carefully took the tablet out of the plastic bag, turning it so that the Egyptian hieroglyphic side was up. She was excited. For the first time she would be able to read the entire text! A message from more than three thousand five hundred years ago was about to be revealed!

Before starting the translation she decided to get her transcript of the other side of the tablet. It would help in seeing the context. With a pen in her hand and a note pad at the ready, she began. Egyptian hieroglyphs were not something she normally struggled with. She had translated many texts in the past, mainly as part of her coursework, and she had always achieved top marks. This time it was different. The text was partly damaged and some of the symbols were completely incomprehensible.

It took longer than expected to get through the first column of text and it required some degree of imagination to work out the various symbols but eventually she had a complete sentence:

“The rage of the gods caused the rain to come down with violent fury. The darkness lasted for several [days] and the gods expressed their discontent by producing vigorous storms, with powerful winds and hail unleashed from the sky. The temples and pyramids were flooded by a wall…”

She could not contain her excitement. This was describing the events surrounding a natural disaster. It must’ve been the effect on Egypt of the Thera Volcanic eruption, as they had discussed in January on Crete, she speculated. She could simply not see any other possibility. She had always wondered why there were so few records of this in Egypt but this was clearly an example of one. Granted, it was still not adding much over and above the existing Stele of Ahmose but reading this together with the next part of the known half of the tablet, it was clear that what was described was a Tsunami as well, which could have been caused by the volcanic eruption. It stated:

“…of water which swept in over the land with godly force. Smoke was clouding the sky. By day, the darkness was persisting with no [torch] being lit and by night a pillar of fire could be seen in the [west]. With his council, His Majesty descended in his boat to observe the devastation of the victors…”

So far so good. ‘A wall of water’; a clear reference to a tsunami. She thought she heard something and looked over at the door. She jumped. Erik was in the door watching her.

“Have you not learnt how to knock? How long have you been standing there?” she said teasingly with a smirk.

“About a minute. Good morning to you too!” He returned her smile. “I wanted to check that you’re alright. I heard noises. But you were so focussed I didn’t want to disturb you.” He was wearing only underpants, his perfectly formed body in full view. “I think we need to go and check on Britt-Marie. I’m a bit worried. After all, we were given the responsibility for her care and we have ignored her since last night.”

Emma was suddenly concerned. “Oh god, you’re right. Let’s go down there now.” In all the excitement over the tablet she had almost forgotten about Britt-Marie. They got dressed quickly and went downstairs. It was nine o’clock in the morning and they suspected that Britt-Marie, who had always been a morning person, had already woken up. Erik knocked on the slightly ajar door. There was no reply. They exchanged looks and Erik opened it fully with a worried expression on his face. She was not there. The bed was empty. Perfectly made but empty. The room bore no trace of Britt-Marie. It was as if she had never been there the night before.

“She must have gone home.”

Erik was relieved. She was well enough to get up and get out of there. Emma would have wanted to continue her translation exercise but other matters were more urgent. They had to get over to her to see to that she was alright and to talk to her about what had happened. Having put the tablet back in the safe and after a quick breakfast they got into the car. Emma was half expecting to see a crashed car in a ditch or an accident scene; worried that Britt-Marie had not been fit to drive. Then she realised that as far as she knew Britt-Marie had not had a car with her the night before. How on earth had she managed to leave the house without a car? It was too far to walk. She didn’t share her thoughts with Erik. In any event, by the time they arrived at Britt-Marie’s house, it was clear that she had not had to worry. Britt-Marie was there, wearing gardening gloves, pruning the roses in the front garden. She had removed the bandage that the doctor had put around her head and had managed to largely hide the wounds with her hair. She waved at them as they parked up as if nothing out of the ordinary had taken place the previous night.

“Come on in! Let’s have some tea!” She was walking towards them, taking off her gloves. “My parents are in town shopping at the moment.” They followed her to the kitchen where they sat down whilst Britt-Marie put the kettle on for tea. She magically produced some home-made buns and cookies which she placed on the kitchen table, together with mugs. When it was all set, she sat down opposite them. “I assume you have come here to talk about what happened last night? I thought you would bring my rucksack by the way; have you seen it?”

Erik looked awkward when he replied: “Yes, we picked up your rucksack. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring it now. It was very inconsiderate of me.”

“Don’t worry Erik, the contents belong to you now, and I’m happy for it!”

“Well, it’s actually the contents of your bag that we wanted to ask you about.” Up until then, Britt-Marie had been calm and collected. At Erik’s words she jumped up and picked up the kettle which had started to boil. As she poured the water she glanced at Emma, as if to evaluate what she knew about the rucksack.

“What do you mean?”

“You know what I mean, Britt-Marie.” For some reason Erik raised his voice. “You had the tablet! You gave it to Paul! As far as I know you might’ve killed my biological mother as well! How else did you get this in your possession?”

At this, Britt-Marie first looked at them with eyes filled with guilt, walked to the nearest chair and then sat down. She slowly put her elbows on the table and put her face in her hands. She started to cry; heavy sobs, almost as if she was coughing. It was several minutes before she had recovered enough to respond.