Jon shifted his gaze from the man in the lightweight suit to the window behind him, where flowing white curtains fluttered gently in the breeze. Even though he felt as if he'd left his geographic sense behind in Denmark, he had to admit that all the pieces did seem to fit. The heat, Remer's attire, the strange aromas. He wasn't keen on trusting Remer about anything, but all indications were that he was telling the truth.
'We left the morning after our… meeting,' Remer explained. 'It wasn't exactly easy to arrange a medical transport on such short notice, but we managed to get space on a charter flight.' He uttered a grunt of displeasure. 'Yet another experience you should be glad you were spared.'
'But why?' Jon asked.
Remer smiled again, raising his hand in a reassuring gesture. 'I'm getting to that. Just relax.'
Since he was lying in a hospital bed with restraints after being abducted against his will, Jon had a very hard time relaxing. For him it was no more than minutes ago that he was in the basement of the Demetrius School, watching Katherina run away as he had ordered her to do. Even though at that moment Jon didn't care what might happen to himself, the whole situation was still an outrage that made him boil with fury inside. Several days had passed, he'd been flown to a foreign country and he had no idea where Katherina was, or even whether she'd managed to elude Remer's men.
'You realize I'm never going to help you, don't you?'
'As a businessman I've learned not to use the word "never",' said Remer casually. 'Even though "never" signifies something infinite, it tends to limit the imagination and any potential we may have. As a businessman I need to keep all doors open until the last possible moment, and even then I need to have a cat-flap to come back through.' He clasped his hands behind his back, unintentionally taking on the look of a professor. 'People who say "never" end up regretting it. Did you ever think that you'd give up your job to become a bookseller? Or that your father was the leader of a bunch of gullible, intellectual hippies with magical powers? No, you didn't. Right? "Never," you would have said.'
'That's a grotesque comparison.'
'Is it?' said Remer. 'You have to admit that's what has happened, all the same, and you've actually derived some benefits from it. You've become the owner of your father's fortune, and you've acquired powers that you had no idea existed. You've even found love.'
This reference to Katherina took Jon aback. He looked at Remer. Had the man made a slight nod towards the door, or was that just his imagination? His heart began to pound. If she was here, all would be lost.
Remer must have noticed Jon's reaction because he broke out in a devilish grin.
'See, youknow you've benefited from it. So much so that you're afraid of losing what you've gained. Just imagine what the future holds for you.'
Jon glanced down at his own body. 'At the moment I'm strapped to a bed,' he stated.
'I know, I know. But that's only for your own protection.'
'Protection from what?'
'From "never".'
Remer turned and strode resolutely out of the room, pulling the door shut behind him with a metallic clank.
Jon stared at the closed door, but it revealed no new information. He let his eyes pass over the empty room, but even though he now knew where he was in the world, it did him no good.
Egypt. What was he doing in Egypt?
Whether it was a side effect from the sedation or whether the light really did disappear as quickly as it seemed, Jon wasn't sure. For him it felt like he'd merely blinked his eyes and it was dark outside. The only lamp was on the bedside table, but the light wasn't strong enough to reach the far corners of the room. The temperature had become more tolerable, but it was still high enough that he felt hot, though he wasn't sweating.
The door opened and the woman in the lab coat came in carrying a tray. Behind her came Remer, and following him were three men who appeared to be of Mediterranean origin.
'Looks like it's about time for you to have some solid food, Campelli,' said Remer, stopping at the foot of the bed. He nodded to the men, two of whom took up position on either side of Jon, while the third remained at the door. At yet another signal from Remer, the straps on Jon's arms were unfastened and the woman placed the tray on his lap.
Jon discovered that he was hungry, but he hesitated to eat the food. He glanced at the guards, who were standing a foot away from the bed and staring straight ahead.
'They don't speak Danish,' said Remer. 'And even if they did, they're loyal to the Order.' He nodded at the bowl of rice and meat on the tray. 'Eat up, and I'll tell you a bedtime story.'
There was no cutlery, so Jon used his hands as he started to eat. He began cautiously, aware of every mouthful, but the spicy lamb and rice tasted so unexpectedly good that before long he was shovelling the food into his mouth as fast as he could.
'The powers you possess know no national boundaries,' Remer began, nodding at the woman, who immediately left the room. 'That's something you may have surmised. Of course there are others besides you and me in the world, but a text still has a certain limitation because of language. There's no doubt that you could do quite a good job with a text in English, and maybe even Italian, but the effect will always be stronger in your native tongue. In order to charge the text, we need to know the language, and the better we know it, the better the instrument to achieve our goal.'
The woman came back with a tall stool that she placed behind Remer before leaving again. Remer sat down and straightened his jacket before he went on. 'It's a bit different for receivers. They're more able to use their abilities even if they don't understand the text being read. The emotions and images the text evokes are universal, independent of language, but the finer details of influencing still demands knowledge of the language.'
'So you've brought me here to Egypt to neutralize me?' asked Jon between mouthfuls of food.
Remer laughed. 'Certainly not,' he replied. 'First of all, those physical energy discharges of yours are not restricted by whether the listener understands the text or not.' He paused. 'Which is very interesting and without precedent. In fact, we think the phenomenon is simply connected to the reading because it provides a necessary catalyst.' He shook his head. 'But that's something we're going to find out over the course of the next few days.'
Jon snorted.
'Secondly,' Remer went on, ignoring Jon's reaction. 'Alexandria has always been a central location for our organization.'
'Alexandria?' Jon interjected. He tried to associate the name with something familiar, but the only thing he recalled was that it was a city on the north coast of Africa.
Remer nodded. 'It was here in Alexandria that our organization originated,' he explained. 'According to tradition, it was here that the powers that you and I possess were discovered for the very first time.'
Jon finished eating and pushed his plate aside. It was immediately removed by one of the guards, who then offered him a glass of water. Jon took it and drank.
Remer waited patiently for him to finish and then nodded to the guards. They fastened Jon's arms to the bed frame again and left the room without saying a word. When they were gone, Remer clapped his hands and rubbed them together with a look of anticipation on his face.
'Well, Campelli,' he said. 'Are you ready for your history lesson?'
Jon didn't feel the need to answer. He had no choice, after all.
'Alexandria was founded by Alexander the Great around 330 BC,' Remer began. 'The city was intended to be no less than the world centre of learning and scholarship. For that reason, the world's most famous library was built here – Bibliotheca Alexandrina. In addition to being a library, it was a mecca for scholarly studies and intellectual endeavours. Many of the individuals whom we today credit with founding various fields of study worked there, including Euclid, Heron and Archimedes.' Remer cleared his throat. 'The collection of parchments and codices grew, since arriving ships were required by law to leave behind a copy of all the written materials they had on board, as a sort of toll payment. It's thought that there were as many as 750,000 volumes, until a series of wars, plundering raids and fires destroyed this great treasure trove of books. But for more than seven hundred years Bibliotheca Alexandrina was the centre of the world for literature and learning.'