of manuscripts and books. Hundreds of thousands of them were handwritten on either papyrus or parchment, and then rolled into scrolls and stored in bronze tubes. '
'What's the difference between the two?' asked Giordino.
'Papyrus is a tropical plant. The Egyptians made a paperlike writing material out of its stems. Parchment, also called vellum, was produced from the skins of animals, especially young calves, kids or lambs.'
'Is it possible they could have survived the centuries?' Pitt asked.
'Parchment should last longer than papyrus,' answered Rothberg. Then he looked at Pitt. 'Their condition after sixteen hundred years would depend on where they've been stored. Papyrus scrolls from Egyptian tombs are still readable after three thousand years.'
'A hot and dry atmosphere.'
'Yes. '
'Suppose the scrolls were buried somewhere along the northern coast of Sweden or Russia?'
Rothberg bent his head thoughtfully. 'I suppose the freeze would preserve them, but during the summer thaw they would rot from the dampness.'
Pitt could smell defeat looming down the road. This was one more nail in the coffin. Hope of finding the Library manuscripts intact seemed farther than ever.
Lily did not share Pitts pessimism. She had the glow of excitement on her face. 'If you had been Junius Venator, Dr. Rothberg, what books would you have saved?'
'Hard question,' Rothberg said, winking at her. 'I can only guess he might have attempted to save the complete works of Sophocles, Euripides, Aristotle and Plato for a start. And of course, Homer. He wrote twenty-four books, but only a very few have come down to us. I think Venator would have saved as many of the fifty thousand volumes on Greek, Etruscan, Roman and Egyptian history as his fleet of ships could carry.
The latter would be extremely interesting, since the Library's monumental store of Egyptian literature and religious and scientific material has all been lost. We know practically nothing about the Etruscans, yet Claudius wrote an extensive history on them that must have sat on the Library's shelves. I'd certainly have taken religious works on Hebrew and Christian laws and traditions. The revelations of these scrolls would probably knock the socks off modern biblical scholars.'
'Books of the sciences?' added Giordino.
'That goes without saying.'
'Don't forget cookbooks,' said Lily.
Rothberg laughed. 'Venator was a shrewd operator. He'd have saved a general spread of knowledge and material, including books on cooking and household hints. Something for everyone, you might say.'
'Especially the ancient geological data,' said Pitt.
'Especially that,' Rothberg agreed.
'Has anything come down on what kind of a man he was?' inquired Lily.
'Venator?'
'Yes. '
'He was the leading intellectual of his time. A renowned scholar and teacher who was hired away from one of the great learning centers of Athens to become the last of the Alexandria Library's prominent curators. He was the great chronicler of his age-We know he wrote over a hundred books of political and social commentary that covered the known world going back four thousand years. None of which has survived.'
'Archaeological researchers would have a field day with data compiled by someone who was two thousand years closer to our past,' said Lily.
'What else do we know about him?' Pitt asked.
'Not much. Venator attracted a large number of pupils who went on to become recognized men of letters and science. One student, Diocles of Antioch, mentioned him briefly in one of his essays. He described Venator as a daring innovator who struck out into areas other scholars feared to tread. Though a Christian, he saw religion more as a social science. This was the main cause behind the friction that existed between Venator and the Christian zealot Theophilos, Bishop of Alexandria. Theophilos went after Venator with a vengeance, claiming the museum and Library were hotbeds of paganism. He finally persuaded the Emperor Theodosius, a devout Christian, to burn the place. In the uproar and riots that occurred between Christians and non-Christians during the destruction, it was supposed Junius Venator was murdered by fanaticw followers of Theophilos.'
'But now we know he escaped with the pick of the collection,' said Lily.
'When Senator Pitt called with the news of your discovery in Greenland,'
said Rothberg, 'I felt as excited as a street sweeper who'd won a million-dollar lottery.'
'Can you give us any thoughts on where you think Venator hid the artifacts?' asked Pitt.
Rothberg considered for a long moment. Finally he said quietly, 'Junius Venator was not an ordinary man. He followed his own path. He had access to a mountain of knowledge. His route would have been scientifically planned, only the unknowns were left to chance. He certainly did an efficient job when you consider the relics have remained hidden for sixteen hundred years.' Rothberg threw up his hands in defeat. 'I can't offer a clue. Venator is too tough a customer to second-guess.'
'You must have some idea,' Pitt persisted.
Rothberg looked long and deeply into the flames wavering in the fireplace. 'All I can say is, Venator's burial place must be where no man would think to look.'
0758, read Ismail's watch. He flattened himself behind a small blue spruce and peered at the lodge. Wood smoke was curling from one of two chimneys while steam issued from the heater vents. Kamil, he knew, was an early riser and a good cook. He rightly reasoned that she was up and making breakfast for her guards.
He was a man of the desert and not used to the icy cold that gripped him. He wished he could stand, flail his arms and stamp his feet. His toes ached and his fingers were becoming numb inside the gloves. The agony of the cold was filling his mind and slowing his reaction time. A creeping fear fell over him, a fear that he might botch the job and die for no purpose.
