The Chaos Code (19 page)

Outside, the sky was a deep blue with wisps of clouds drifting past. If there were shapes in the clouds, then it was probably just the water vapour reacting to the air currents and the temperature. If there were faces, peering in at the windows, then Matt did not notice them …

There was a limo waiting at Copenhagen to drive them from the airport into the city centre. Katherine had booked them into a large, modern hotel right in the middle of the city. It was impersonal and unremarkable and reminded Matt of where he had stayed for a day when he came to Copenhagen with his mum. It was late afternoon when they arrived, and Matt and Robin left the others to their discussions and walked through the nearby Tivoli Gardens.

In one of the buildings, there was an exhibition of holograms that fascinated Matt. They were lit by bright spotlights that enhanced the three-dimensional effect. Pictures of faces, vehicles, flowers, even a model of a dinosaur. Matt was intrigued by the way the images seemed both real and unreal at the same time. The way that light could be so clever.

‘You know,' Robin told him, ‘all the information about the image is held in every part of the hologram.'

‘So what does that mean?' he asked.

‘It means that if you break one, shatter it into pieces, then each piece will show a smaller version of the complete image. Not a fragment of the picture, but the whole thing. Order out of apparent chaos.'

They had dinner together on the terrace of one of the restaurants, overlooking the spectacular gardens as the evening drew in. It surprised Matt that Robin had a credit card.

She shrugged. ‘Makes things easier,' she said.

They lapsed into silence, looking out over the lawns and flower beds as the shadows of the trees lengthened.

‘You think we'll find the Treasure?' Matt asked.

‘I don't care about the Treasure,' Robin said. She turned to look at him, her deep blue eyes fixing on Matt. ‘Neither do you.'

‘No,' he agreed. ‘No, I just want to find Dad.'

Robin reached across the table and took his hand. ‘Me too,' she said. ‘Let's hope that we find the Treasure and that brings us a step closer to your dad. But … but just don't expect him to be waiting there with it. All right?'

Matt hadn't really expected that at all. But all the same he felt his eyes stinging with disappointment. ‘We should be getting back to the hotel.'

• • •

They had a section of the hotel to themselves, including a conference centre with several meeting rooms. Matt slept well in a huge, soft bed. When he woke the next morning, he was surprised to see how late it was. He was served breakfast in the dining room that was part of the conference centre, and Robin joined him for coffee.

‘Dad and the others are discussing what we do now,' she explained, leading him through to the largest of the meeting rooms.

They passed Katherine Feather in a seating area outside. She was deep in conversation on the phone, but smiled and waved them through into the main room. Harper and Venture were seated on either side of a large conference table. The lights were turned down low, and a map of the tiny island of Valdeholm was displayed on a plasma screen from Harper's laptop computer.

‘The population,' Harper was saying, ‘is virtually zero – just a few shepherds and fishermen and their families. But the island is apparently remarkable for having six medieval churches.' He paused to welcome Matt and Robin and gestured for them to sit down.

They found themselves seats further down the table as Harper explained that the churches were themselves out of the ordinary in that they were of a circular construction – unusual apparently for Scandinavia.

‘Not so strange if they were on Malta,' Harper went on. ‘But it does seem likely that the Knights Hospitaller
were here long enough to have some influence.' He rubbed his hands together in satisfaction. ‘I feel that the Treasure awaits us.'

‘The island may be tiny,' Robin said, ‘but it's still a very big place to have to search.'

‘They'll have left clues for those who followed them to retrieve the Treasure,' Harper said. He was exuding confidence.

‘Let's Find Treasure,' Matt said.

‘What?' Robin stared at him in surprise.

‘Just something Dad used to say,' he explained.

She nodded. ‘Of course,' she said, though there was no way she could have known that. Probably trying to make him look less daft in front of her father and Harper.

But they hadn't noticed anyway. Venture was studying the map displayed on the big screen. ‘Can you mark the churches on here?' he asked.

‘You think their positions might be important?' Harper asked.

‘Possibly.'

‘Well, you wouldn't be the first,' Harper told him. He tapped at the keyboard and the picture changed to show another map of the island, marking the locations of the six churches. The island itself was shaped like a ragged lozenge, and the churches were all close to the edge.

‘Makes sense,' Robin said. ‘They're probably close to the fishing communities.'

‘They are,' Harper agreed. ‘But even so, their distribution is interesting. Several are exactly the same distance apart. There have been several studies that have tried to discern a relationship between their positions. The most plausible explanation, so far as it goes, is that they form a pentacle.'

‘A five-pointed star,' Venture said. ‘It isn't obvious from this, and there are six churches anyway. Unless one pre- or post-dates the others by a significant period?'

‘No, it's not that simple,' Harper said with a laugh. ‘And I don't think it's very helpful either. He operated the keyboard again and a series of lines appeared, joining four of the churches to a point halfway between the other two. ‘Why these two should be different and merit a single point on the star halfway between them is not something that the theory really explains,' he said.

‘And the pentacle isn't perfect by a long way,' Robin pointed out.

‘Wouldn't it make a big difference which part of the church you drew the lines to?' Matt asked.

‘Indeed it would,' Harper agreed. ‘But each church has a Maltese Cross engraved on the floor at the centre of it's circular structure.'

‘And the lines are drawn from the middle of the crosses?' Venture asked.

‘In theory. But again it is flawed. To make the pentacle even begin to work, the professor who first suggested
a pattern had to argue that some of the churches are built in the wrong places.'

‘Which rather makes a nonsense of it,' Venture agreed. ‘You can hardly argue that the people who built them had a geometrical knowledge out of keeping with the era, if you also say they got it wrong.'

‘He makes a good stab at it though,' Harper said. ‘He argues that the churches are in fact built on older, ancient sites of worship and that the exact location of
those
sites is now lost. So the churches approximate to them, which is why the pattern is flawed.'

‘Finding excuses,' Robin said.

‘Is there any evidence of older sites?' Venture wanted to know.

Harper shook his head. ‘In fact, there is evidence only for a seventh church, which has since fallen into the sea when the cliffs collapsed. Another problem with a very flawed argument. There are other geometric theories too, but mostly based on patterns that need to include notional points out to sea or in the middle of nowhere. They are even less plausible.'

The door opened and Katherine Feather joined them. She smiled and nodded to Harper, and Matt guessed that her telephoning had been successful – whatever she had been arranging was now sorted out.

Venture was standing close to the screen, examining each of the locations of the churches in turn. ‘A Maltese Cross, in the floor of each church,' he said quietly.

‘Isn't that what firemen in the USA use as their symbol?' Katherine said.

‘That's right,' Robin replied. ‘And the St John's Ambulance Brigade.'

‘St John?' Matt said. ‘Is that significant? I mean, can it be?'

‘Oh yes,' Venture said, without turning from the map. ‘Tell them, Robin.'

‘Both organisations use it,' Robin said, ‘because the Maltese Cross was the symbol of the Knights of the Order of the Hospital of St John. The Hospitallers. The St John's Ambulance – well, that's obvious. And the knights were originally an order dedicated to medical help.' She drew a Maltese Cross on a piece of paper as she spoke, and held it up for them to see – four triangles, their points meeting in the centre.

‘And firemen?' Matt asked. ‘What's that about?'

‘The Turks threw bottles of naphtha at the knights in battle. When they were covered with it, the Turks threw firebrands and ignited it, burning the unfortunate soldiers alive. The knights who weren't on fire dragged their fellows clear and tried to help them. The first firemen. Sort of.'

‘Which is of academic interest,' Harper said, ‘but hardly helpful.'

‘I think you're wrong about that,' Venture said. He took a felt pen from a flipchart stand at the side of the
room and started to draw on the surface of the plasma screen.

Katherine gave a gasp of astonishment and got up to stop him, but Harper stopped her: ‘Wait.'

Venture was drawing a line connecting two of the churches. Although he drew it freehand, the line was perfectly straight. Then he drew lines from each of them to a point in the middle of the island, forming a triangle. Then he did the same with two more of the churches. The result looked like a bow tie.

‘Half a Maltese Cross,' he said.

‘But only half,' Harper told him.

‘And where exactly was the seventh church before it fell into the sea?'

Harper worked the keyboard, and a small X appeared just off the edge of the island. Venture was already holding his pen over the exact spot. He connected the point to the last but one of the surviving churches, and again drew a line from each of these into the middle – another inward-pointing triangle. ‘Three quarters of the cross.' ‘But that only leaves you one church,' Katherine said.

In answer, Venture drew a line from the last church into the middle of the unfinished cross. ‘We'll have to measure it out exactly,' he said. ‘But to complete the Hospitallers' symbol, the Maltese Cross, we need to use a point just here.' He drew another X on the screen, then drew lines from that point to the last church and
into the middle, completing the cross. ‘This is the point they wanted us to find,' he said tapping the pen on the X he had drawn. ‘This is the missing point in the picture. The one point we need to add ourselves in order to complete it.'

‘So?' Katherine said, still puzzled.

‘So that,' Robin told her, ‘is where the Treasure is.'

They all stared in silence for a while at the cross that Venture had drawn. Then Harper said: ‘You've ruined the screen, Julius, and I imagine the hotel will charge me for that. But it sounds as though it was well worth it.' He turned to Katherine. ‘Are all the arrangements in place?'

‘I just need to let them know the exact point where we wish to dig. Sven will sort out any problems with local landowners.'

Harper clapped his hands together in satisfied delight. ‘Then I think we should be on our way. No point in wasting any more time.' His voice was almost trembling with excitement. ‘How soon can you arrange the travel?'

A mere four hours later, in a noisy helicopter, with the island of Valdeholm just minutes away, Matt was just beginning to feel the same excitement welling up in his stomach. Was there really an ancient treasure down there, just waiting for them to come and get it?

The reach of Harper's influence was apparent as soon as they landed. Matt had guessed that they would have to
spend several more days finalising permission to dig – finding local equipment and help, organising accommodation and transport from the mainland … He could not have been more wrong.

Katherine Feather's time on the phone had obviously been well-spent. Now Matt could see what she had been doing. The pilot set the huge helicopter down on the cliffs close to where they believed the treasure was hidden. As they flew in over the sea, Matt and the others had a good view of the grassy clifftop. There was no sign of habitation at all, and normally there would be nothing to suggest anyone lived on the island. It was like looking across a huge grassy plain, except that the side of it had been sheared off and dropped away almost vertically to the sea.

But today was not a normal day for the island. Matt could see at once where they would be digging. It was a small, low hill, bulging up from the flat plain like a medieval burial mound or barrow. Clustered round it, like metal insects, were several yellow diggers and earth-movers and two off-road four-wheel-drive vehicles. Harper was serious, and he was in a hurry.

It was cold on the cliffs, despite the bright morning sunshine. The long grass was blowing in the wind which whipped round Matt's body, tugging at his coat and freezing his ears. He stood with Venture and Robin while Harper and Katherine spoke to a man in a suit who had been sitting in one of the four-wheel-drives.

After a few moments, the man in the suit nodded and walked back to his vehicle. Harper turned towards Matt and the others and gave them a thumbs-up. Everything was in place, all the paperwork was already processed. They could begin.

The man in the suit drove away. The other four-wheel-drive belonged to a man called Sven who had a neatly trimmed red beard that matched his fierce red hair. He was over six-feet tall and thin as the metal rods being hammered into position round the site. The seats in the back of his vehicle were folded down to form a low table, over which was spread a large-scale map of the area. From Katherine's directions, he had already marked on the Maltese Cross, and he told them he'd double-checked the measurements using GPS satellites before coming over from the mainland to meet them.