'Prophecies,' Eno continued, grinning. 'She only one high in Vatican.'
Jason looked at Maria, puzzled.
'The Sistine Chapel,' she explained, 'Michelangelo included the Cumae Sibyl in the group of prophets around the edge of the ceiling. According to readers of Virgil, she foretold the coming of Christ; at least, the emperor Constantine thought so. She's the only pagan figure on the ceiling.'
Jason absorbed this information before saying, 'Another question: how did Alazar, the Moslem who sold whatever this is to Eco, find out about gases in an ancient Greek religious site, one that wasn't even in Greece?'
Eno shrugged. 'Arabs long know Greek culture,' the professor began before lapsing into Italian.
Jason waited impatiently for Maria to translate.
'When Rome fell to various hordes of barbarians,' she began, watching Eno, 'much of the Greco-Roman knowledge was in danger of being lost, in addition to what the Greeks and Romans had learned from the Egyptians, Babylonians, Sumerians, and whoever else. A lot of wisdom was lost forever. The Moorish traders in the Mediterranean, the Arabs along the ancient Silk Road, the Byzantine, then Ottoman emperors saved what they could use. Had it not been for them, Greek and Roman sciences-and the ancient knowledge before that-in medicine, astronomy, mathematics, would have been lost. We would not know the geometry of Euclid, Ptolemy's geography or astronomy, or Pliny's history. During the so-called Dark Ages, much was forgotten that had originated in Europe and been learned by the Muslim merchants. It was only during the crusades that some of this knowledge began to filter back west. Even then, most forms of science were bitterly opposed by the Church, hindering even further the restoration of ancient learning in the Christian world. Eno says he wouldn't be surprised if the Arabs haven't known of Baia and Cumae longer than current Western civilization. After all, the stories of Virgil and Homer, the plays of Euripides, were known and enjoyed in the Mideast while most of Europe was divided into tiny, warring principalities run by kings who could not even read their own languages. An Arab arms dealer was only passing along something adopted by his culture a long time ago.'
Jason was quiet for a few seconds. He turned to Eno. 'Any chance of the government giving us grief about going down into whatever it is in Baia?'
Eno shrugged, a man asked a question to which there was no apparent answer. 'They have it closed, but I do not know if they guard it. Entry is prohibited.'
If the country observed that law to the same degree as traffic laws, there would be no problem.
'Obviously somebody's been there. That's where the ethylene seems to have come from,' Maria observed.
'Perhaps,' Eno said. 'Many such places are closed but not guarded. This one may not be watched by the authorities, but these people you seek will be watching, I theenk.'
Jason said, 'I'll keep that in mind when Adrian and I get there.'
'Adrian, you, and I,' she added.
'Thought you were through as soon as you'd helped me with Eno here.'
'And miss a chance to observe an underground volcanic system that, with two exceptions, has been closed off from study for two thousand years?'
Chapter Thirty-two
Albergo del San Giovanni
Via Roma, Turin
The next morning
Jason's head was buried alternately in the International Herald Tribune, the New York Times, and the Washington Post's English-language newspaper distributed throughout Europe. He was sitting in the hotel's small dining room, where a buffet breakfast of breads, sausages, fruit, jams, cereals, and juices was lined up on white tablecloths. Across the table, Maria was finishing her third coffee.
Jason lowered his paper long enough to glance at the one inches away. Like an old married couple, he thought, each too engrossed in the morning's papers to engage in conversation. Just as well. Other than ecological extremists trying to kill them, exploring hell, or last night's sexual acrobatics, what did they have to talk about?
An article on the front page drew him back to the news. He read, then re-read it, then sat in silent thought for a moment. He folded the Herald Tribune's front page and shoved it over the top of Maria's paper like an invading army breaching a castle wall.
She lowered the barrier long enough to give him a peevish look. 'I thought you read that paper only for the comics.'
'It's the only one that still carries 'Calvin and Hobbes.''
'Oh, that makes a difference.'
He used the hand not holding the paper to point. 'Look at this.'
Washington -The president announced a new environmental initiative yesterday. A previously undisclosed conference is scheduled for next week.
The president and members of his cabinet will meet with leaders of various ecological and conservationists groups, such as the Sierra Club and the American Green Party, largely organizations that have been critical of the president's handling of such issues as global warming, oil exploration in Alaska, and relaxing of clean air and water standards.
A White House spokesperson said any organized group with an interest in the environment will be welcomed on a space-available basis.
As an act the same spokesperson described as 'showing good faith,' the president intends to pardon those accused of crimes in the name of conservation, such as those who are presently charged with trespassing on national forest lands by chaining themselves to trees to be cut, or blocking access to oil fields. Asked if this pardon would include violent crimes, the White House appears to be undecided.
Senator Sott (D-Mass.) described the announcement as 'A shockingly transparent and cynical effort by the environment's sworn enemy to drum up votes from those he has ignored too long.'
The exact site of the conference in Washington has yet to be announced.
Frowning like a primary school teacher accommodating one of her less bright pupils, Maria scanned the article. 'So?'
'The man's nuts,' he said. 'He'll never make peace with those people any more than you could placate a rattlesnake.'
She finally laid her paper down, regarding him with a mixture of annoyance and amusement. 'Your president is 'nuts'? And to think how many Americans got angry when we Europeans first made the observation. Do you think he is any different from any other politician? A politician would be willing to forgive and forget the biggest mass murder in your history if he thinks it will get him reelected.'
'Like Jimmy Carter trying to negotiate with Iran to free American hostages? It lost him the next election.'
She smiled. 'Perhaps now it is your role to give political advice?'
She stood, went to the buffet and selected a pear, and returned to her chair. She took a noisy, moist bite before sitting down. 'And so?'
He put the paper down, subject exhausted. 'If Adrian and I go…'
She held the pear out to him for him to sample. 'If you, Adrian, and I go.'
The fruit seemed to turn to a mellow syrup in his mouth. Like most Italian fruit, it was fresh, flavorful, and just ripe enough-So good that Jason suspected there was an official Italian fruit manufacturing agency that produced synthetic goods. He'd never sampled anything that good from Mother Nature.
He swallowed before saying, 'Your choice. Eno was right: if Cumae or Baia is a supply of the gas, somebody will be watching.'
'Is that a fact?'
Neither Jason nor Maria had seen Adrian emerge from his hiding place behind another paper in the far corner
