Seven Ancient Wonders - Matthew Reilly [42]
Pooh Bear asked, ‘And now?’
Zoe sighed. ‘The Library is gone. Long since buried underneath modern-day Alexandria. They know where it stood—and the Egyptian Government recently built a new library not far from the old site—but the Romans did their work well. Just as they had done with Carthage a hundred years previously, the Library was removed from existence. Not a single brick, text or crypt remains.’
‘So all its scrolls were destroyed, then?’
‘Many were, but a large portion of them was spirited away from the Library in the days before the Roman invasion. The scrolls were reputedly taken to a secret location, deep in the Atlas Mountains— and to date, have never been officially found.’
When Zoe said this last sentence, she threw West and Wizard a sideways look.
‘Not everyone announces it to the world when they find something important,’ West said.
‘What—?’ Pooh Bear said, whirling to face the scrolls Wizard was rummaging through. ‘Are you telling me that those scrolls are—’
‘Ah-ha! Here it is!’ Wizard exclaimed.
He extracted an ancient scroll from a pigeonhole. It was beautifully made, with ornate rollers at each end and thick cream-coloured parchment.
Wizard unrolled it, read it.
‘Hmmm. Greek text. Handwriting matches that of other known Euclidian texts. One of the greatest mathematicians in history, Euclid. He created plane geometry, you know, a grid with an x and y axis, which we now call Euclidian Geometry. This scroll is undoubtedly written by him, and its title is simply “Instructions”. Which makes it Euclid’s Instructions, I suppose.’
‘What does it say?’ Pooh Bear asked.
Wizard scanned the scroll. ‘It just seems to restate some of Euclid’s more mundane discoveries. No reference to any ancient wonder or Golden Capstone.’
‘Damn,’ West said.
‘Bugger,’ Zoe said.
‘Wait a second . . .’ Wizard held up his hand. ‘Look at this.’
He had unfurled the scroll to its edges, revealing a small handwritten notation at the extreme bottom of the parchment, right where it met the lower roller.
Written across the bottom of the scroll were a few lines of text, not in classical Greek, but in another language: the cuneiform-like strokes of the Word of Thoth. It read:
‘Lily?’ Wizard said.
Lily scanned the ancient document for a moment, then read it aloud:
‘Base removed before the Roman invasion,
Taken to Hamilcar’s Forgotten Refuge.
Follow the Deadly Coast of the Phoenicians
To the inlet of the two tridents,
Where you will behold the easier entrance to
The sixth Great Architect’s masterwork.
The Seventh has lain there ever since.’
‘There’s that word again,’ Pooh Bear said, ‘base. Why do they call it a base?’
But West wasn’t listening. He turned to Wizard, his face alive with excitement. ‘The Callimachus Text doesn’t give the location of the Pharos Piece . . .’
‘No,’ Wizard said. ‘This scroll does. And this is the only copy. Which means—’
‘—neither the Europeans nor the Americans can possibly know where this Piece rests. Max, we’ve got a clear run at this one.’
They stared at each other in amazement.
‘Holy shit,’ West said, smiling. ‘We might just have a chance in this race.’
The Halicarnassus zoomed through the dawn, arriving at the northern coast of Libya, soaring over the frothy white line where the waters of the Mediterranean met the shores of the North African desert.
Inside it, West, Wizard and Zoe were making swift progress on Euclid’s Instructions.
‘“The Phoenicians” was another name for the people of Carthage—the trading state annihilated by Rome in the Third and last Punic War. The state of Carthage approximated modern-day Tunisia, directly south of Italy, across the Mediterranean,’ Wizard said.
‘And Hamilcar is Hamilcar Barca,’ West said, ‘father of Hannibal and commander of the Carthaginian forces in the First Punic War. I didn’t know he had a refuge, let alone a forgotten one.’
Zoe commented, ‘Hamilcar died in Spain in 228 BC, between the First and Second Punic Wars. He must have ordered the