gold, but he wanted to verify the claim without destroying the gift. When Archimedes realized that the material’s displacement in water could be used to discern its density, he ran into the street stark naked yelling, “Eureka!” which translates to “I found it!”
The king also called on Archimedes to design weapons of war to repel a Roman siege during the Second Punic War in 214 B.C. Historians of the time recount a death ray Archimedes invented that focused the sun’s light with such intensity that it made the enemy ships in the Syracuse harbor burst into flames. His feat couldn’t be duplicated in spite of many attempts, including experiments by students from Tyler’s alma mater, MIT, and TV’s MythBusters, so it’s assumed that the claims were exaggerated.
Nonetheless, Archimedes’ reputation as an inventor and scientist was so great that even such wild assertions were given credence.
“Not only does the codex describe how to design the geolabe,” Tyler said, his excitement obvious, “but it could be the only known copy of his long-lost treatise called On Sphere-Making. It has designs for dozens of mechanisms, not just the geolabe.”
Stacy wished she could be as excited as he was, but she was more worried about how they could use the geolabe to free her sister.
“This is all very cool stuff,” Grant said, “but what in the hell does it have to do with old King Midas?”
Tyler glanced at Stacy, and she shrugged for him to answer.
“We think the geolabe somehow leads to a map-a map that will show us where the treasure of King Midas is buried.”
Stacy pointed at the laptop screen. “This line says, ‘He who controls this map controls the riches of Midas.’”
“Ah, treasure!” Grant said, rubbing his hands together. “Now we’re talking. How does it work?”
Stacy leaned back and laced her hands behind her head. “We don’t know. There are two pieces of the instructions missing.”
“Remember when we were building that Swedish modular home-entertainment center you bought?” Tyler said. “The one with the missing instruction page? Same problem.”
“It’s good we’re engineers, otherwise it would’ve taken us more than a half hour to realize we’d put it together backward.”
“In this case, the missing pieces explain how to operate the device,” Stacy said. “The first step was to get all three dials pointed to the noon position, like calibrating a scale. Solving the Stomachion told us how to do that, but now we don’t know how to proceed. The codex talks about how there are three keys to deciphering the geolabe, and that they form some kind of safeguard so that the owner of the codex wouldn’t be able to find the map without the other two keys.”
“Like a password and fingerprint scanner on the same security system,” Tyler said.
“So the first key is the instruction manual for building and calibrating the geolabe, which we think may also be a version of the mysterious Antikythera Mechanism?” Grant said.
She nodded. “Now that we have the device built and we figured out how to calibrate it, we need the other two keys to operate it.”
“And the other two keys are…?” Grant said.
Stacy highlighted another section. “This part talks about a message that’s hidden. This word is steganos, which means ‘covered,’ and this one is graphein, which means ‘writing.’”
“Steganography.”
“Literally, ‘concealed writing.’ Whatever the message is, it’s concealed, and I think I know where.”
“The wax tablet that was separated from the codex before the auction,” Tyler said. “That’s the second key.”
“Let me guess,” Grant said. “The tablet’s buyer lives in England.”
“Right. The tablet was bought by a holding company called VXN Industries, which also happens to lease an estate in Kent.”
“Think the buyer will let you take a look at it?”
“That’s what we’re hoping. Stacy and I will drive out there to make our plea in person.”
“While I look for clues in as many pubs as possible?”
Stacy liked these guys. Even in a situation as dire as this, they lightened the mood to keep their spirits up.
“You wish,” she said, joining in. She scrolled to another part of the codex. “Here’s where it mentions the third key.”
“So what’s that mean for me?”
“You’re going to the British Museum,” Tyler said.
“A museum?” Grant said, as if he’d been asked to wade through a Dumpster full of trash. “What for?”
“Orr said that the tomb of Midas is somewhere under Naples,” Stacy answered. “The codex says that the third key will be revealed by ‘the room of the ancestor of Neapolis.’ Neapolis is the Greek name for Naples.”
“Is the British Museum the best place to learn about Naples?” Grant asked.
“Not necessarily, but it does have experts on the Elgin Marbles.”
“So?”
“The Elgin Marbles are marble statues and sculptured panels that were taken from the Parthenon in the early 1800s by Lord Elgin. They’re currently on display at the British Museum.”
“I don’t follow.”
“I think Archimedes was being clever,” Stacy said. “Neapolis was originally called Parthenope, making Parthenope the ancestor of Neapolis. So when Archimedes said ‘the room of the ancestor of Neapolis,’ he could have meant ‘the room of Parthenope.’ Parthenope means ‘the virgin city,’ so we can further reduce it to ‘the room of the virgin city’ or more simply ‘the room of the virgin.’”
“I think I’ve got it,” Grant said. “The third key will be revealed by ‘the virgin’s room.’” He thought about it for another second and shook his head, “Nope. I still don’t get it.”
“The Greek word for a ‘virgin’s room’ is Parthenon. ”
Grant laughed in disbelief. “As in the temple on top of the Acropolis in Athens?”
Stacy pointed to the manuscript. “In essence it says, ‘Take the geolabe to the Parthenon. The seat of Herakles and the feet of Aphrodite will show the way.’”
“But what does that mean?”
She shrugged, both frustrated and embarrassed that she didn’t know the answer, particularly with her sister’s life on the line. “My specialty was classical literature, not architecture. That’s why we need an expert. I don’t know how or why, but the third key to finding Archimedes’ map is the Parthenon.”
EIGHTEEN
S herman Locke’s watch had been confiscated, so he didn’t know what time it was when the opening of the garage door woke him. Given that he was still full from the takeout sandwich and water they’d given him for dinner, he suspected it was the middle of the night. He rose from his cot and went to the portal in the door. The room’s single bulb had been turned off for the evening, but the crude covering over the hole left a small crack that let in a sliver of light. Sherman also discovered that it gave him a limited view of the warehouse.
He didn’t know what they were trying to keep him from seeing, but it wasn’t their faces. He’d gotten a good look at both of his captors, which wasn’t very comforting because it implied they had no intention of letting him out of here alive.
That made escape priority number one, both for him and for the girl they’d called Carol. He’d heard her cry out a few times, but the sound was muted, which meant that she’d been placed in the room farthest from his. He’d tried tapping on the wall a few times, but she hadn’t responded. Speaking to her through the cinder blocks wouldn’t work because he would have had to yell so loudly that Gaul would have heard as well.
As he peered through the crack, Sherman saw that another van had just backed into the warehouse next to the one in which he’d been abducted. He watched as two white men got out, the driver trim and dark-haired, the
