"Interesting idea," Briars said. "I guess we'll have to wait and see about that one."
"But didn't you just say that Curtis gave him a half a million bucks? Why would you think he'd be hurting for money?" Ben asked.
"You saw that boat, Ben? They don't come cheap."
"Lara's right," Briars said. "It could cost as much as twenty-five thousand or more per day to run an operation like that. Aziza's money wouldn't last very long."
"I see. And Kristi?" Ben said. "Do you have a theory on her, too?"
"No," I said. "It's possible she could actually have done herself in. I suppose I can tell you now that Kristi was a blackmailer. She used her reporting skills and the entrée they bought her to find out things about people they wouldn't want anyone else to know, and then tried to extort money from them. I figured she was a sure candidate for murder. I guess I was wrong."
We all sat digesting that for a minute. "So what have you got to show us, Ben?" Briars said. "I hope it's a little more upbeat than what we've been talking about so far."
"Prepare to be cheered up. You have to promise, though, we'll work together. We could co-publish. I've already completed most of what I need. It was to be one of the stories in Past Imperfect. But that doesn't change the fact that with what we know now, and what you can do, it'll be an even bigger story."
"Do you think it's the drugs they've given him, or am I still in shock?" Briars said, turning to me. "I can't understand a word he's saying."
"Me neither," I said.
"Sorry. I'm quite excited about this. It's given me a whole new lease on life, really. As you can probably tell, I'm a little manic at the moment. Even getting stabbed can't spoil my mood. I was depressed about Ed and me. If you knew me, you'd have realized that. I eat when I'm down; the worse the situation, the more I eat. You must have had quite a time keeping enough food within my grasp, Lara." I smiled. "But then, I realized something. And it was so wonderful, it pulled me right out of the funk I've been in."
"I still don't get this," Briars said. "But whatever the doctors have given you, I want some."
"Okay, okay. Without further ado," Ben said, opening the envelope. "Have a look." He pulled out a black-and-white photograph.
"What is it?" I asked.
"It's a tablet. Black limestone. Beautiful stuff, although it's difficult, I'll grant you, to see that in this picture."
"And these lines? It looks like writing of some kind."
"It is," Ben said. "It's a Punic text, as I'm sure Briars knows. Now you need to understand, Lara, that examples of Punic script are rare. The Phoenicians are credited by some with devising a predecessor alphabet to the Roman alphabet and therefore ours. The Carthaginians would have brought that with them. But there are relatively few examples of their writing still in existence, even in the later Punic period, other than rather stilted ceremonial inscriptions, for example, on the votive stones from the tophet. I found this when I was doing some research in the Louvre many years ago, took a picture of it and then took the photo home. I spent a lot of time trying to translate the tablet, and it didn't make much sense."
"I see Qart Hadasht here," Briars said, pointing to one corner of the picture.
"Yes, you do. But don't try translating it, because, as I finally figured out, it's only half the tablet. It doesn't make sense in and of itself. But then, fast forward twenty years, and in one of those serendipitous occurrences, while I was researching my book, I found the other half in Greece. So, here it is," he said, producing a second photograph. "See, if you put the two photos together--you have to overlap them a little--presto, they fit."
"This is fantastic," Briars said. "Shall I have a go at translating it?"
"Spare yourself the effort," Ben said, handing Briars a sheet of paper. "Here's my translation. You can see it in a minute, Lara."
Briars took the piece of paper and studied it for a moment. "I can do this!" he exclaimed. "Ben, I can find it from this. I can calculate wind speeds about that time of year. We have a fairly good idea how fast those ships could travel. Maybe I could even calculate drift time, and work back from Sousse, and forward from Carthage. Oh, yes, I can find it. And we will co-publish."
"I knew you'd get it right away," Ben said. "I went and looked on your boat, Briars, one evening, without asking your permission. I told Lara I'd apologize to you, and I do. I just wasn't sure, until I saw some of your records, and that lovely sketch you have, that we were running in parallel tracks here."
"Briars may have gotten it right away, but I haven't," I said. "You're going to tell me this is a map to sunken treasure? X marks the spot?"
"It's not a map," Briars said. "It's a plaque, isn't it, Ben? This is a plaque put up by the citizens of Qart Hadasht and the Council of the Hundred and Four, which was probably the magistrature or court in Carthage, to commemorate a good deed done by someone by the name of Carthalon at a time when Qart Hadasht was threatened by Agathocles, the Greek tyrant from Syracuse.
"This Carthalon fellow left Qart Hadasht on a ship which was on some special mission. But the ship was taken over by the forces of evil. The cargo which was to be used to raise an army to support Qart Hadasht, was actually destined for a traitor. I'd guess Bomilcar, wouldn't you, Ben?"
Ben nodded. "That was my assumption, too."
"Something tells me you're going to announce that this is Zoubeeir's ship," I said.
There was a soft knock at the door, and Hedi poked his head in. "Sorry to interrupt. How are you feeling, Ben?"
"Not bad," he said. "The doctors tell me Nora didn't hit anything important, just a surface wound. I guess there are certain advantages to being somewhat rotound. I'm going to miss the desert trip, though."
"I know and I'm sorry. Speaking of that, though, we're almost ready to go, Lara. Everybody is back from the museum and the tour of the old town, the bags are outside, and the four-wheel-drive Land Cruisers are also here. We'll need to get going to make sure we get to the desert in time for the sunset."
"Okay, give us just a few more minutes. I have to hear the end of this story. Okay, you two, is it Zoubeeir's ship?"
"It could be," Briars exulted. "It absolutely could be. Look," he said pointing to the translation. "The ship was carrying a cargo of wine, oil, coins--these might all be in amphorae, or possible pitoi, another kind of terra-cotta container--and, believe it or not, a gold statue of Baal Hammon. Not only that, but this ship went down somewhere north of a place called Hadramaut, probably present-day Sousse. We know Sousse was called Hadrumetum during Roman times, and that's what the Romans regularly did. They took the old place name and Latinized it. So Hadramaut, Hadrumetum, and eventually, Sousse. You know, Ben, if I can find this ship, and the cargo matches the description of the cargo on Carthalon's ship, and if we can date some of the cargo and they come close, we will have dated an ancient shipwreck to within a year or two, probably 308 B.C.E. It's almost impossible to do, but we might just do it. Sorry, Lara, we should explain. Agathocles was threatening Carthage between 310 and 307 B.C.E., and Bomilcar, one of the generals who was supposed to be mounting Carthage's defense, launched a coup d'etat, trying to take over Carthage while it was in this rather delicate position. He was unsuccessful. Got himself executed. But the fact that both Agathocles and a traitor are mentioned in the plaque really narrows the time frame. And if we find the ship mentioned, or something that closely matches the cargo, then we've essentially done the impossible."