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Ulster took charge once they got inside. Although he wasn’t an expert in any particular field, he had a working knowledge of every historical topic imaginable. In a recent interview, he had compared himself to a family physician. He didn’t have a concentrated specialty, like a cardiovascular surgeon, who knew the inner workings of the heart better than anyone. Instead, he was more like a general practitioner, someone who knew a lot about a lot, which enabled him to jump comfortably from one field to another. Compared to Maria, who’d had limited exposure to the Maya, Ulster was an authority on Mesoamerica. He had downplayed his knowledge at breakfast to boost her confidence, but it was obvious to everyone that he was running the show.

While studying the contents of the crate in the H2, he tried to make sense of Hamilton’s ordering system. The artefacts were divided by size and stored in a display case with removable wooden slats. Large objects were packed in bubble wrap and given their own individual compartments. But smaller items, such as stone figurines and pottery shards, were relegated to plastic bags and crammed into the remaining spaces. ‘Did any of you move anything?’

Maria shook her head. ‘I examined a couple of bags to see what we were dealing with, but I put them back exactly where I found them.’

‘Did you open them?’

‘Definitely not. I didn’t think it was worth the risk.’

‘Then this is how they were arranged?’

‘Yes,’ she assured him. ‘Why?’

‘Because none of this makes sense.’

Ulster picked up a plastic bag to illustrate his point. Inside were two stone figurines that looked nothing alike. One was quite vibrant. It depicted a half-naked warrior with an elaborate headdress that had been painted in a rainbow of colours. Everything about it was loud and flashy, like a child’s toy from an ancient era. The other was a simple carved head. It was solid and subtle. No wild colours or funky designs. It had a quiet dignity that the other one lacked.

Wearing a pair of cotton archival gloves, Ulster reached into the bag and pulled out the carved head. He held it up for everyone to see. ‘This figurine is Mayan. It has a distinctive face, particularly the curvature of its nose. The carvings along the base are fairly typical of this region during the Postclassic period. That’s the era right before the arrival of the Spanish. If I had to guess, I would say this is from the fourteenth or fifteenth century.’

He handed it to Maria, who was also wearing gloves, so she could show it to Payne and Jones. They stared at it intently while Ulster removed the second figurine from the bag.

‘Now this one,’ he proclaimed, ‘is remarkably different. Everything about it — its colour, its shape, its place of origin — is dissimilar to the first. Of course, there’s a very good reason for their differences. This one isn’t Mayan. This one is Aztec.’

‘Aztec?’ she blurted. ‘Are you sure?’

He nodded. ‘I am absolutely certain. Over the years, I have worked with artwork from both civilizations, and there are some basic differences between the two. In this case, it’s pretty straightforward. These figurines are prototypical of their individual cultures.’

‘And that’s bad?’ Jones wondered.

Ulster shook his head. ‘Not bad, just confusing. For the life of me, I can’t figure out why he would have placed these items together. It makes no sense.’

Payne knew very little about the Maya, other than what he’d heard or read in the past two days, and his knowledge of the Aztec was virtually nonexistent. So he needed further clarification to make sense of the problem. ‘Both groups are from Mexico, right? But you’re saying you wouldn’t find these pieces in the same place?’

Ulster nodded. ‘Even though the Mayas and the Aztecs shared the land that is now known as Mexico, the two civilizations were bitter enemies. The only time they came together was on the battlefield. Thankfully, the two groups were separated by hundreds of miles of desert, or else they would have fought more frequently.’

‘But I thought you said … ah, never mind. You’d know better than I.’

Ulster encouraged him to continue. ‘Go on. Speak your mind.’

He shrugged reluctantly. ‘Yesterday on the phone, didn’t you say Hamilton had a theory about the Mayas and the Aztecs? Something about a shared language.’

‘Not a language, my boy, but you are correct: I did mention a theory during our conversation. I have to admit, I’m surprised that you remembered. You normally tune me out.’

‘It was a quick chat. I didn’t have time to tune you out.’

Ulster laughed. ‘Unfortunately, the theory Terrence mentioned was quite speculative. As far as I know, he never had definitive proof. He based his entire hypothesis on some shared terminology that he had discovered in the histories of both civilizations.’

Maria furrowed her brow. ‘What kind of terminology?’

Ulster explained. ‘As you probably know, the written languages of the Maya and the Aztec were radically different. The Mayan language was a mixture of phonetic symbols and logograms, which are visual characters that represent words. In later years, it evolved into a highly complex language that was used to describe their way of life in great detail. Instead of a pure alphabet, glyphs were used to correspond with nouns, verbs, adjectives and so forth. In many ways, the structure is similar to the modern languages of the Americas.’

‘What about the Aztecs?’ she asked.

‘By comparison, the Aztec language was rudimentary. It was nothing more than a series of mnemonics and logograms that weren’t meant to be read. It was a language that was meant to be told. Their codices were essentially pictographic aids for recalling events. The details and the flourishes of the story came from the orator, not from the written word itself.’

Jones frowned. ‘If that’s the case, how could they have shared terminology?’

‘The same way that a word in English can have the same meaning as a character in Mandarin Chinese. They may look nothing alike, yet the translation is similar.’

Jones scratched his head. ‘Then what’s the big deal? If two languages from halfway around the world have similarities, what’s so remarkable about shared terminology between the Aztec and the Maya? I would think it would be a bigger deal if they didn’t share similarities.’

‘You are correct. Two languages from the same region should have occasional traits in common, and the Aztec and Maya languages certainly did. But what Hamilton was suggesting went beyond terminology. During the course of his research, he came across what he called “a shared perspective” in the two languages — and that is something entirely different.’

‘A shared perspective? What does that mean?’ Maria asked.

Hundreds of examples from ancient history rushed through his head, but he knew most of them would be far too advanced for Payne and Jones. With that in mind, he chose something from modern history to illustrate his point. ‘For as long as I can remember, there has been conflict in the Middle East. Egypt, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Syria and so on — they are constantly arguing about every topic under the sun. Correct?’

Payne, Jones and Maria nodded in agreement.

‘Jonathon,’ Ulster said, ‘you have spent a lot of time in that region. If you had to wager, do you think you’ll see peace in the Middle East in your lifetime?’

‘Not a chance.’

‘Why not?’

‘There’s no middle ground for a settlement. Each country has its own set of beliefs, which prevents them from giving in.’

‘In other words, they have different ideologies.’

‘For the most part, yes.’

Ulster nodded. ‘As hard as this is to believe, those countries are less than three hundred miles apart. That’s much closer than the major cities of the Aztec and the Maya ever were. And yet the basic ideologies of those countries are so drastically different they can’t agree on anything.’