by Chad Brecher
Ellie gave each of the diamonds to Alex as the four huddled closely together. Alex grasped the first diamond between his index finger and thumb and positioned it in the middle of the metal rose. With a gentle push, the diamond snapped into the center of the rose. Alex subsequently held aloft the second diamond and pressed it into the middle of the second metal rose.
“You asked me why Polo left two wind roses. It came to me when Dr. Hunter was discussing the importance of longitude and latitude. Think of GPS — global positioning systems. If you know longitude and latitude, then you are never truly lost. You always know precisely where you are in the world (at least in a two-dimensional sense). Of course you would need a third coordinate for elevation if you want to be a purist, but you get the point. I think that by having two wind roses, Marco Polo left to the Bianco family a way to triangulate a location without utilizing longitude and latitude. I believe that this information was safeguarded by the Bianco family through the years. What was it that Polo said?
“The mapmakers will remember the path when the world is finally filled in.
“I believe this location has been hidden in this map.”
“Amazing!” Clay exclaimed.
“Well, how does it work?” Jonas asked.
Alex was stopped by the sound of a gun safety and a deep voice bellowing from behind them.
“Yes, Mr. Stone, tell us, how does it work?”
67
Five men dressed in black quickly crept up the stairs with guns drawn. Ellie looked at Alex with alarm as the threatening figures formed a perimeter around the four of them. She reached out blindly, her fingers momentarily probing the air until they brushed against Alex’s hand. She gripped his hand tightly and shot a severe glare at Jonas whose eyes darted around as if trying to identify a possible exit.
“Trust me,” you said. ‘We will have the library to ourselves,’” Ellie uttered with venom.
Jonas turned back with an equally severe look. “It’s your friend, Hunter. She gave us up.”
“Never. She wouldn’t.”
Clay stood tall and looked at the scene before him with a look of frustration and despair. “Quit it you two.”
They were trapped.
The men formed a semicircle around them and continued to train their semiautomatic weapons at their prisoners. Suddenly two of the armed men moved aside to allow a tall man in black to pass through their perimeter. He sauntered with a swagger of confidence, carrying a gun loosely at his side. Ellie immediately recognized him as the man from the chase through the Doge’s Palace and shuddered at the memory of him standing at the top of the marble staircase as they fled from the palace into the courtyard beyond.
The man was handsome, with tightly cropped blond hair and stubble across his cheeks and chin. His pupils were like black pearls, and when he finally halted in front of Jonas he assumed a stiff posture that exposed his military background. He nonchalantly raised his pistol, pressed the barrel against Jonas’s left temple, and smiled. When he spoke, his South African accent belied a twinge of Afrikaans streaked through it. Jonas could feel the cool tip of the barrel pressed against his skin and instinctively raised his hands to surrender.
“Before we become more familiar, would you be so kind as to hand over the pistol in your waistband? And while you are at it, the revolver in your boot.”
Jonas reached into his waistband with his right hand and pulled out the gun. He held it up by the grip and dropped it into the South African’s hand. The man promptly passed it over his shoulder to one of his waiting men. Jonas motioned to his boot for permission to bend down. The leader nodded his approval and Jonas knelt down as the man leveled the barrel of his pistol against the back of his head. Alex watched as Jonas pulled out a small revolver from the top of his right boot. He handed it to the man and rose to his feet with a look of defeat.
“Well done.” The man examined the small revolver, shrugged, and slipped it into his waistband. “You’ve been a hard bunch of monkeys to catch, but in the end, here we are.”
“What do you want from us?” Ellie asked.
“Don’t act so innocent, girl. Do you always creep around old libraries in the dark of night? I’d say that you must have caught the scent of something important. I have a patron willing to pay a generous fee for what you know.”
“You’re wasting your time,” Clay growled back.
“I’m not so sure, Dr. Clay.” The man raised his gun and pointed it at the chest of Clay. “Are you willing to bet your life on it?”
“That’s enough, Mr. Haasbroek. Put the gun away. We can discuss this in a more civil fashion, surely.”
The voice in heavily accented English came from behind the armed men, and Alex craned his neck to identify the source. He could see a tall, thin man impeccably dressed in a black suit weave through the cordon of men and approach Clay. The man appeared to be in his late sixties and had thinning hair that was slicked back across his head. As he walked, his expensive shoes tapped against the marble floor.
“Dr. Clay, I have followed your pursuit of Eden for some time. I must commend you on enlisting such capable help in deciphering this mystery. We couldn’t have done a better job ourselves. Foremost, I admire your unbridled persistence. It is a shame that we have become, unwittingly, such adversaries. This is coming most sincerely from one passionate collector to another. I would like to introduce myself. You may call me Phillip.”
“This was never about collecting,” Clay responded. “We are not talking about some antique vase or a bucket of ancient trinkets. This search is about reclaiming what we have lost and the promise of improving the world with that knowledge. You would seek to keep this knowledge in the hands of the few.”
“Do not lecture me about motives. You know nothing of us.”
“I know that the Order of Christ has been searching for the Garden of Eden for centuries and has been driven mad by it. The Order has had little compunction about using the sword to reach this destination. It is precisely from these people that Marco Polo hid the path.”
“The Order of Christ,” the old man repeated with a smile of amusement. “We do not like to go by this name any longer. This Order’s day has come and gone, diluted by centuries of patronage — reduced to an honorary degree bestowed upon people who have no understanding of the significance of this honor. We are the descendants of a visionary — Prince Henry the Navigator — who understood that there are powers and secrets hidden in the ancient world that could be unlocked through exploration. I am just one member of an organization of individuals — lawyers, politicians, bankers, academics — linked by a desire to uncover the wisdom of the ancient world…and what better knowledge to possess than the single thing that has eluded mankind since the fall — eternal life. If others must lose their lives so we can obtain this, then so be it. There are many souls that have invested their time and money in this venture, people who are betting that before they exhale their final breath, the secret Polo so selfishly hid will be finally revealed. I am here to ensure that this happens. Do not underestimate our power.”
The old man looked away from Clay and peered at Alex with intensity. “My apologies, Mr. Stone. I interrupted your very insightful explanation on the use of wind roses to decipher the Fra Mauro map. I must insist that you continue.”
Alex caught a glare from Clay and then looked at the armed men around him. “I’m sorry but that’s it. That’s all I have, I’m stuck. I haven’t figured out the rest. Maybe with some time…”
The well-dressed man nodded to the South African commander. Solomon raised his gun and directed the barrel at Alex’s chest. “Listen to the man and do what he asks.” He lowered the barrel and aimed it at Alex’s right knee. “I’m an impatient man except when it comes to torture. Then I’m an exceptionally patient man. Let’s say we start with the knees. You can still use that big brain of yours in a wheel-chair.”
Ellie cast Alex a frantic glare. “Tell him what he wants, Alex, for God’s-sake.”
Ellie felt bile shoot up her esophagus and the muscles in her neck tighten, sending pain across her chest. The explosives, the ambush! They were searching for the box all along! Ellie and Gordon were pawns in this game and this brute took Gordon away from her. She felt bitterness for Clay for exposing Gordon to this danger. This bitterness was quickly subsumed by hatred for Gordon’s killer.
“I can see it all making sense to you. Leaving the C4 for you guys back in Mosul was a nice touch, but helping to alert the insurgents to your position was, if I might say so myself, brilliant. I must admit, had I known you were in possession of the box, I might have been a bit gentler, but fate has a strange way of working itself out.” Solomon smiled devilishly. Ellie sprung forward, but was restrained by Alex.
“You sadistic son-of-a-bitch!”
“O.K., O.K.” Alex pleaded and settled Ellie down. He tried to organize his thoughts. “Give me a second.” He looked into Ellie’s eyes and tried to calm her down. “Ellie, I need your help. I need you to focus.” Alex could see the rage begin to drain from her cheeks although her hands still trembled.
“Where did we leave off? Two wind roses and triangulation of a single point I believe,” the old man offered.
Alex backed away from the Fra Mauro map to examine it from a different vantage point. He lifted up the metallic roses and reread the inscriptions on the back of each. “The inscriptions on the back of the wind roses have to be clues to where they should be placed. I’m just not sure what they mean.”
“What does it say again, Alex?” Ellie sidled up beside Alex and looked up at the map.
“It says: the First footstep.”
“First footstep…” Ellie repeated. “Maybe it refers to Marco Polo’s point of departure. He, after all, was a traveler. The Polo family crest has three birds walking. It could be Venice. Where is it on the map?”
“It’s a good thought. It could be figurative in nature. After all, the Polos left Venice by boat. I don’t know, though. Directions on the map are reversed. The top is south, the bottom north. The right of the map is east and the left is west.” Alex approached the map and pointed to an elongated landmass extending to the right of the map. “This is Europe, which would make this upside boot-shaped structure protruding into the Mediterranean Sea, Italy.” Alex seemed dissatisfied and looked down at the inscription again: the First footstep.
“There is something odd about this clue. Everything is in lower case except the word ‘First’ is capitalized. Why capitalize it?”
“You capitalize to designate something as being important,” Ellie offered.
“Is it a name? Is Polo pulling another ‘White Monk’ trick?” Clay asked.
Alex bit at his lip. He repeated ‘the First footstep’ over and over in his head in hopes of seizing upon any inkling of what Polo was hinting at.
“Riddles and more riddles. He’s like the Sphinx, Polo,” Ellie muttered.
“What do you mean?” Alex wondered.
“Oh nothing. It’s just that Polo can’t just spell it out. You always have to jump through a hurdle with him. It reminds me of story of the Riddle of the Sphinx that my father used to tell me when I was a young girl.”
“How did it go?” Alex asked.
“You know from Sophocles’s Oedipus Rex, the part when Oedipus encounters the Sphinx who demands that he answer a riddle before being allowed to pass?”
“What was the riddle?”
“Which creature in the morning goes on four feet, in the afternoon on two feet, and by night on three feet…the answer of course is man — crawling as a baby, walking on two feet as an adult, and finally, in old age with a cane.”
“That’s it. You’re a genius!” Alex exclaimed. “It’s Biblical. Who had the first footsteps of man? Who was the first man?”
“Adam,” Clay answered.
“Exactly. Marco left the clue to the first wind rose marker in his writing. After he left the service of Kublai Khan, he and his family sailed back by way of the Far East, India, and Ceylon, now known as Sri Lanka. One of the sites he writes about is called Adam’s Peak. It is a mountain in central Sri Lanka. Some people have felt that it is the actual location of the Garden of Eden. On the mountain there is a boulder with an indentation that appears to be that of a footprint. This ‘footprint’ is considered sacred by several religions. Many Buddhists believe that it is the footprint of Buddha while some Hindus believe that it is the footprint of the god Shiva. There are some Muslims and Christians who believe that this is the first footprint of Adam as he left the Garden of Eden.”
“The First footstep,” Clay repeated in awe.
Alex darted over to the book on the Fra Mauro Map. The mercenaries’ guns followed his sudden movement. He searched the index for Sri Lanka and was able to locate a number corresponding to a location on the map. Returning to his feet he approached the map again and pointed to a triangular shaped island in the left upper quadrant of the inhabited earth. Under the island was written ‘Saylam.’
“It’s there. That’s Ceylon or Saylam or as it is known today, Sri Lanka. In the middle of the island is Adam’s Peak.”
“Is this Eden then?” asked Clay.
“No this is just the first marker,” Alex answered
“Well-done,” applauded the well-dressed man. “One down. What does the inscription on the second wind rose say?”
Alex turned over the second wind rose.
“It says…’the center of the world.’ Alex interweaved his hands behind his back and studied the map hanging on the wall. He bit at his lip and began to pace before stopping momentarily in front of Ellie. She caught his eyes. He seemed to be trying to communicate something to her. She squinted, trying to decipher the message. Alex moved on. What is he up to? she wondered.
After several minutes, Alex stopped pacing and addressed the audience around him. “If you look at the Fra Mauro map you will notice that there are eight wind roses arranged along the periphery of the inhabited portions of the world.” He pointed to symbols that appeared like asterisks within circles, each with eight lines radiating from the center like rays of the sun or spokes on a wheel. “These wind roses denote the cardinal positions. If you draw lines from each of these wind roses, they all intersect in the middle of the map. This is what Polo is referring to as ‘the center of the world.’”
“Now Mr. Stone, I was pleased with you up until this point, but I am not a mere dilettante in the field and I do not appreciate being led astray. Mr. Haasbroek, our young colleague many need a little refocusing of his thoughts.”
Solomon smiled and directed the gun at Ellie.
Alex raised his hands with alarm. “O.K. I get the point. Just put the gun down.”
Phillip nodded to Solomon, who responded by lowering the barrel of the gun.
“The center of the word in medieval times was Jerusalem. It was typically in the center of the map. However, the Fra Mauro map is noteworthy for the fact that it was displaced westward. People have argued that this was done when it became obvious from years of exploration that the Eastern world was vast compared with the West. This certainly makes sense, but now one wonders if Bianco moved Jerusalem westward for another reason. If you look closely at the Fra Mauro map you can see a ninth symbol of a wind rose at the edge of the Mediterranean Sea.” Alex pointed to the symbol. “That’s Jerusalem…the eternal center of the world.”
“Now that wasn’t so bad. Was it?” asked Phillip. “I imagine you’ve already figured out how to use the wind roses or are we going to play this game again?”
Alex turned to Clay and Jonas. “I need your help.” They nodded silently and clustered around him.
Alex selected the metallic wind rose with the inscription “the center of the world” and handed it to Clay. Alex then passed the second wind rose with the inscription “t
he First footstep” to Jonas.
“Jonas, I need you to place the wind rose I gave you against Adam’s Peak on the map.” He waited as Jonas slid the metallic artifact across the canvas until it rested in the center of the triangular island of Saylam. Alex then turned to Clay and directed him to the right of the canvas. “I need you to place the second wind rose on Jerusalem.” Clay nodded and positioned the wind rose on the location of the Holy City.
Alex took several steps back from the map. He could see the faintest flicker at the edges of the petals that composed each of the wind roses.
“Now what?” Jonas asked as he impatiently held aloft the wind rose.
“We need light. Directed light.” Alex bent down and retrieved the two flashlights resting on the floor. He handed one to Ellie and kept the other for himself. He walked up to Jonas and lifted the flashlight until it was level with the diamond in the center of the wind rose. His finger found the switch on the flashlight and he pushed it forward. The diamond in the center twinkled brilliantly as the light was focused on it. Suddenly, eight thin beams of bluish light shot out from the ends of each of the petals, cutting across the canvas.
“Ellie, you need to do the same with Redmund’s wind rose,” Alex urged, his eyes ablaze with wonder.
Ellie excitedly flipped out the flashlight and brought it up to the center of the wind rose. This time eight rays of yellow light emanated from the tips of the rose petals. The two sets of lines crisscrossed the canvass, meeting at several points. The points in which the beams contacted were green except for a single point.
“Amazing,” Alex gasped.
In the lower portion of the map, one of the points in which the lines intersected glowed a brilliant crimson color.
“X marks the spot,” Alex could not help but say.
68
“What do you see?” Clay asked as he twisted his neck and tried to get distance from the map while still holding the wind compass flush against the surface of the canvas.