‘Was it long?’
‘An hour, at least.’
‘Really? Time disappeared.’
‘And?’
‘I crossed my arms in the sarcophagus, like those mummies we’ve seen.’
‘ Mon dieu, General.’
‘I heard and saw…’ He shook his head as if to clear it. ‘Or did I?’ He swayed.
The mathematician grasped his arm to hold him up. ‘Heard and saw what?’
He blinked. ‘I had a picture of my life, or I think it was my life. I’m not even sure if it was the future or the past.’ He looked around, whether to be evasive or to tease us, I know not.
‘What kind of picture?’
‘I… it was very strange. I won’t speak of this, I think. I won’t
…’ Then his eyes fell on me. ‘Where’s the medallion?’ he abruptly demanded.
He took me by surprise. ‘It’s lost, remember?’
‘No. You’re mistaken.’ His grey eyes were intent.
‘It went down with L’Orient, General.’
‘No.’ He said it with such conviction that we looked at each other uneasily.
‘Would you have some water?’ Monge asked worriedly.
Napoleon shook his head as if to clear it. ‘I will not go in there again.’
‘But, General, what did you see?’ the mathematician pressed.
‘We will not speak of this again.’
All of us were uncomfortable. I realised how much the expedition relied on Bonaparte’s precision and energy, now that I’d seen him dazed. He was imperfect as a man and a leader, but so commanding, so dominant in purpose and intellect, that all of us had unconsciously surrendered to him. He was the expedition’s spark and its compass. Without him, none of this would be happening.
The pyramid seemed to be looking down on us mockingly, the perfect peak.
‘I must rest,’ Napoleon said. ‘Wine, not water.’ He snapped his finger and an aide ran to fetch a flask. Then he turned to me. ‘What are you doing here?’
Had he lost all his senses? ‘What?’ I was confused by his confusion.
‘You came with a medallion and a promise to make sense of this. You’ve claimed to have lost the one and haven’t fulfilled the other. What is it I felt in there? Is it electricity?’
‘Possibly, General, but I have no instrument to tell. I’m as baffled as anyone.’
‘And I am baffled by you, a suspected murderer and an American, who comes on our expedition and seems to be of no use and yet is everywhere! I’m beginning to not trust you, Gage, and it is not comfortable being a man I don’t trust.’
‘General Bonaparte, I have been working to earn your trust, on the battlefield and here! It does no good to make wild guesses. Give me time to work on these theories. Jomard’s ideas are intriguing, but I’ve had no time to evaluate them.’
‘Then you will sit here in the sand until you do.’ He took the flask and drank.
‘What? No! I have studies in Cairo!’
‘You’re not to return to Cairo until you can come back and tell me something useful about this pyramid. Not old stories, but what it is for and how it can be harnessed. There’s power here, and I want to know how to tap it.’
‘I want nothing less! But how am I to do that?’
‘You are a savant, supposedly. Discover it. Use the medallion you pretend to have lost.’ Then he stalked away.
Our little group watched him in stupefaction.
‘What the devil happened to him in there?’ Jomard said.
‘I think he hallucinated in the dark,’ Monge said. ‘Lord knows I wouldn’t stay in there alone. Our Corsican has guts.’
‘Why did he focus on me?’ His antagonism had shaken me.
‘Because you were at Abukir,’ the mathematician said. ‘I think the defeat is gnawing on him more than he will admit. Our strategic future is not good.’
‘And I’m to camp out here staring at this structure until it is?’
‘He’ll forget about you in a day or two.’
‘Not that his curiosity isn’t warranted,’ Jomard said. ‘I need to read the ancient sources again. The more I learn of this structure, the more fascinating it seems.’
‘And pointless,’ I grumbled.
‘Is it, Gage?’ asked Monge. ‘There’s far too much precision for pointlessness, I think. Not only too much labour, but too much thought. In doing more calculations just now, another correlation occurred to me. This pyramid is indeed a mathematical plaything.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘I will need to check my guess against Jomard’s figures, but if we extrapolate the pyramid’s slope to its original peak, a bit higher than it is now, and compare its height to the length of two of its sides, I believe we arrive at one of the most fundamental numbers in all mathematics: pi.’
‘Pi?’
‘The ratio of a circle’s diameter to its circumference, Gage, is considered by many cultures to be sacred. It’s about twenty-two parts to seven, or 3.1415… the number has never been completely computed. Still, every culture has tried to come as close as they can. The ancient Egyptians came up with 3.160. The pyramid’s ratio of height to two of its sides appears to come very close to that number.’
‘The pyramid stands for pi?’
‘It was built, perhaps, to conform to the Egyptian value of that number.’
‘But again, why?’
‘Once more we butt up against ancient mysteries. But it’s interesting, is it not, that your medallion included a diameter inside a circle? Too bad you lost it. Or did you?’
Interesting? It was a revelation. For weeks I’d been journeying blindly. Now I felt like I knew definitely what the medallion was pointing to: the pyramid behind me.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
I reluctantly stayed as ordered to help Jomard and Monge make more measurements of the pyramids, sharing the tent they’d staked a short distance from the Sphinx. After having promised a quick return, I was uneasy being such a distance from Astiza and the medallion, especially with Silano in Cairo. But if I ignored Napoleon’s very public command I risked being arrested. Besides, I felt I was getting closer to the secret. Perhaps the medallion was a map to another passageway in the big heap of stone. Then there was October 21 ^ st, a date I’d plucked off the lost ancient calendar that might or might not have any accuracy or significance, and was still two months away. I didn’t know how any of this fit together, but maybe the savants would turn up another clue. So I sent a message to Enoch’s house, explaining my predicament and asking that he get word to Yusuf’s harem of my delay. At least I knew what I should be looking at, I added. I simply lacked clear understanding of what I should be looking for.
My temporary exile from the city was not entirely bad. Enoch’s house was confining and Cairo noisy, while the empty silence of the desert was a respite. A company of soldiers bivouacked in the sand to protect us against roaming Bedouin and Mamelukes, and I told myself that staying here a couple nights might actually be the safest thing for Astiza and Enoch, since my absence should deflect attention from them. Silano had hopefully accepted my story that the medallion was at the bottom of Abukir Bay. I’d not forgotten poor Talma, but proof of his killer, and revenge, would have to wait. In short I pretended, as humans are wont to do, that the worst was for the best.
As I’ve said, there are three large pyramids at Giza, and all three have small passageways and chambers that are empty. Kephren’s pyramid is still covered at its top by the kind of limestone casing that at one time gave all
