‘Aristo, let’s adjourn for a while and have the house checked. If it is bugged and they are listening right now, they will probably know we are onto them. But we cannot change that now.’ Elli picked up her secure mobile and called her security chief.
‘Andreas, I’ve got a job for you. I want the following checked for bugs: the Valchern building and my home, the homes of Aristo, Iraklios, Katerina, Ariana, that’s Katerina’s grandmother, the home of Katerina’s parents and Vasilis’. I want it to be done today, as soon as possible. I’ll call them and tell them to expect you. I want you to do it discreetly and I want you to start from my house. Shall I expect you in the next half hour?’
‘Yes, Mrs Symitzis. No problem.’
‘Excellent. See you then.’ Elli hung up. She turned to the assembled group.
‘Let me arrange for some coffee, tea and a snack. Whatever rubbish you’ve had on the plane you must be famished. Mrs Manto.’ Mrs Manto was at the door within five seconds.
‘Could you please arrange for coffee, tea and snacks?’
‘Of course, it will be a pleasure.’
‘Could you please leave them outside on the veranda? We’ll be in the garden for a short stroll. Thanks, Mrs Manto.’
Mrs Manto took a look at Aristo and Katerina. ‘My goodness you must have not eaten a single thing for the last two days. You seem to have lost weight. You need fattening up. I’ll see what I can do.’ With that she was off to the kitchen. Aristo started to laugh.
‘We know what snack means to Mrs Manto. Thank God you didn’t say a meal, mother. That would’ve been scary, like something out of the kitchens of Henry VIII at Hampton Court Palace.’
Elli decided to round them all up to continue their discussion outside. ‘Come on everybody. Let’s continue our discussion in the garden until the house has been checked. I’m be fairly sure there will be no bugs there, especially next to the fountains and my little weir.’
They all got up and went together into the garden. Once they reached the safe spot, Elli stopped and the others did, too.
Within the hour the house had been checked for bugs and given the all-clear. Elli led them all back inside and into the library.
‘Aristo, what have you got?’ Elli pressed a button and the blinds came down bathing them in almost total darkness apart from a few of subtle lights on the walls.
Aristo connected Katerina’s mobile to the projector and pressed play. The wall opposite them came to life with the video clip from Ayia Sophia. After it ended, Aristo turned to Giorgos.
‘Giorgos we need your help here. It clearly refers to a place. Any ideas?’
Giorgos was silent for a while, deep in thought.
‘I was thinking about that as I was watching it. I would guess that the place referred to is Athens. You see during the time of Pericles, only in name was Athens a democracy. In reality it was the rule of one man, Pericles.’
Elli was reading from the Book of the Pallanians and she looked up. ‘I believe Giorgos is right. It makes sense. In this book it says that the next test will be a philosophical one, a series of dialogues.’
Giorgos, excited, started to speak. ‘Yes, it must be Athens then. And it says in the passage “where the three philosophers meet”. The only place I can think of that fits that description is the ancient cemetery of Keramikos where the tombs of Plato, Aristotle and Socrates are located next to one another. These must be the three philosophers it refers to.’
Katerina, silent till now, looked at her brother. ‘You are a genius. We should go there now. What are we waiting for?’
Giorgos raised a quizzical brow. ‘We?’
‘Yes, we. I’m coming with you.’
‘I think you are getting a taste for adventures.’
Katerina smiled. ‘I certainly am.’
They all looked at Elli.
Yes. Aristo and Giorgos, you should go there and see where that leads us.’
‘Katerina interrupted. ‘Not me? Elli, please.’
‘No, I want you to stay here. I’ve got something else in mind for you. Aristo, I know your bag is packed, but you’ll need to refresh its contents. Giorgos, go and pack. I’ll arrange for tickets for you both on tomorrow morning’s flight to Athens. We’ll discuss the second part of the inscription another time. Think about it and we’ll meet later. I want to hear your thoughts on it. But first let’s go and enjoy Mrs Manto’s spread. She will be offended if we don’t. Personally, I wouldn’t mind a bite. I haven’t eaten anything all day.’
CHAPTER 26
Athens, Greece
Present day
Under the fiery Mediterranean sun, in a quiet corner of the Athenian archaeological trail, Giorgos and Aristo were on their way to the ancient Keramikos cemetery and the tombs of the three philosophers, Plato, Aristotle and Socrates.
They reached the spot and stood there looking at the three tombs in awe of the small space that they occupied compared to their occupants’ impact on the world.
Aristo remembered his mother’s exact words. “My son, according to the Book of the Pallanians, this is the ancient language of the Pallanians who were numerous and flourished before they were crushed in the great last battle that destroyed the temple of knowledge and wisdom and had to go underground. But a selected few kept the flame of their culture and knowledge alive over the centuries. Plato was a member and so were Aristotle, Socrates and Pericles.
“Through that special implant in your palm you now have the ability to read this long-forgotten language. But to understand it you don’t just read it. You use your mind, you feel its meaning, it gets into your head and speaks to you. There are always multiple meanings underneath. Each one of us sees something different. What you do is this: you close your mind to all outside influences and corporeal things, you place your hand on the inscription and trace the words with your fingers. Just feel the words speaking to you.”
Aristo had a vision of his mother being a crazy medium goading him on to feel and see spirits and dead people and talk to them. Aristo immediately dismissed the idea from his mind.
‘Giorgos, I think this is the time to use one of those powers my mother told us about. There must be something on these tombs that we are supposed to find out. Let’s start from Plato’s. It is the first one here. But he was in a way the one that blazed the way. Socrates was his teacher, but left nothing in writing. All we know about Socrates, his philosophy and his methods, comes from what Plato wrote. There is no other proof that Socrates said any of those things himself.
‘There are some people who say he was Plato’s invention at least as far as his philosophy, his ideas and his dialectic method are concerned. A person with that name did exist at that time in Athens.’ Aristo paused. ‘And to complete the great trio of ancient Greek philosophers, and appearing as a roughly seamless generational succession, was Aristotle who was Plato’s student.’
Giorgos was sceptical, but kept silent and simply nodded. Aristo put his hand first on Plato’s tomb. Nothing happened and he was about to give up when suddenly strange characters began to appear.
Aristo, look. It’s working.’
‘I will tell you what it says.
‘You don’t need to. It’s in Greek. I can read it perfectly.’
‘What are you talking about? What Greek? Are you having me on?’
‘No, I’m not. Shall I tell you what it says?’
‘Go on then.’ Aristo expected Giorgos to say some invented gibberish and he half-closed his ears to him. And then Giorgos started talking. And Aristo caught words that he had just seen, but which were not in Greek when he saw them. He turned to look at Giorgos.
‘How is this possible?’
‘Some of that power must have rubbed off on me, eh?
‘Undoubtedly. The ability to read and understand the Pallanian language appears to manifest itself in different ways to different people. Anyway, let’s not waste time. Let’s finish it.’
Once the inscription ended Aristo turned to Giorgos.