Prime (Chess Team Adventure, #0.5)

She felt closer to an understanding of what was going on, but there were still too many unknowns. “Did the Iraqis find something that can decode the manuscript?”


“Oh, good heavens, no. And if they did, they wouldn’t know what to make of it. I’m afraid the ruse in Iraq was necessary to draw you out into the open. You see, I knew the CIA would be very interested in any discovery relating to the world’s most famous unsolved code…interested enough to send their best person out to investigate, though I had no idea who that person would be. There are many so-called ‘experts’ with pet theories about the Voynich code, but I needed the very best.”

There was an infallible logic to the answer, and that appealed to Sasha, but it hardly justified what had been done to her. “You had all those people killed, just so you could get me here?”

Her host glanced nervously at Rainer, but then his expression hardened. “Maybe I haven’t made myself clear to you, Ms. Therion. I get what I want, no matter the cost.”

She swallowed. “I understand.”

“Good.” He put his hands on his hips and looked around the room as if to collect his thoughts.

“So what do you want? From me, I mean.”

The man gestured again at the computer. “The object in those photographs was discovered last year in a crypt in the Yunnan Province of China—just a few hundred miles from here, actually. As you can see, the artifact has markings on it that are identical to those found in the Voynich manuscript. It’s badly damaged of course, but there are eight definite matches, and another fourteen probable matches, to Voynich script. I’m sure you, of all people, understand how significant that is.”

She stared at the computer screen as it continued to cycle through the images of the strange object. “What exactly is it?”

“That is one of the questions I am hoping that you will be able to answer. Our best theory is that it is an antique code machine.”

Sasha pondered that. The existence of a machine designed to facilitate enciphering or deciphering was not beyond the realm of possibility, but it seemed unlikely in this instance for the simple reason that the Voynich script remained so unique. If it had been produced using a machine, then surely other documents would have been found utilizing the elaborate—and still impossible to decrypt—substitution alphabet.

More unknowns.

Then she realized that the function of the device didn’t matter nearly as much as the simple fact of its existence. It was tangible proof that the Voynich manuscript could be deciphered…it was meant to be deciphered.

By her.

Sasha felt as if someone had wiped her mental chalkboard clean. All the uncertainty surrounding her abduction, the actions and motives of her captors, even her ultimate fate when all of this was done…all of those variables had been erased.

“I need to see this machine. The real thing, not just pictures. Can you arrange that?”

The man regarded her with a taut expression, as if it was he that now harbored uncertainties about the situation. “Ms. Therion, because I want you to be able to solve this problem for me, I’m going to be straightforward with you.

“The sealed crypt in which this object was found, was infected with a particularly nasty strain of proto-bacteria—an organism very similar to the bacteria responsible for bubonic plague. The first people to enter were exposed and died in a matter of minutes.”

“There’s a connection between the manuscript and the plague?” Sasha recalled her earlier conversation with Daniel Parker. The document that had prompted the Agency to send her to Iraq in the first place, had suggested just such a link, but following Rainer’s act of treachery, she had assumed it to be just so much window dressing to sell the deception.

“There is…let’s call it a circumstantial connection. Archaeological sites contain all kinds of strange things—bacteria, fungi, viruses, even prions, which have been hidden away for thousands of years. Investigating those ancient mysteries is my specialty, though in this case, my motives are…” He trailed off as if realizing he’d said more than he intended. “I tell you this only because you need to understand that you can’t interact directly with the artifact. It’s here, in the facility, but it is still hot. Any attempt to decontaminate it would probably destroy it completely. Bio-safety level-four protocols are in effect. The closest you will be able to get to it is in a full environment suit.”

Sasha nodded in agreement without even considering the pre-condition. She didn’t care about the safety considerations; she was here for just one thing. The Voynich manuscript was a mystery that seemed unsolvable, a variable that kept the equation from balancing.

But she would solve it, and when she did, it would transform chaos into order.





FIFTEEN


Washington, D.C.