‘While Finn may not be interested, I’m admittedly curious,’ Kate remarked as she sat down beside him. ‘We know that your father was a member of the SS Ahnenerbe and, as I understand it, they were actively hunting for the Lapis Exillis.’
‘You are, if anything, well informed. Touché.’ The derision in the German’s voice countermanded the compliment. ‘In the 1930s, my father, Friedrich Uhlemann, was teaching theoretical physics at Göttingen University. Something of a rebel, particularly given the anti-Jewish climate of the day, he was using Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity to explore the effect of gravity and light on the space–time continuum.’
‘That’s an interesting research niche,’ Kate conceded in a polite tone.
‘Heinrich Himmler, the head of the SS, thought the same thing. Greatly impressed, he placed my father in an elite interdisciplinary think tank that came to be known as the Seven.’
‘You make it sound like your old man won the Nobel Prize,’ Finn harrumphed. ‘Hell, he was just a jackbooted SS thug.’
‘How dare you! My father was a brilliant scientist!’
‘No doubt he was,’ Kate readily agreed, quick to smooth the old rooster’s feathers. ‘I assume that Heinrich Himmler ordered the Seven to find the Lapis Exillis.’
Mollified, Uhlemann nodded curtly. ‘Although Reichsführer Himmler first ordered them to find out why the Egyptians built the Sacred Axis at Thebes. Determined to solve the ancient riddle, in 1938 the Seven set sail for Egypt.’
‘But your father was a theoretical physicist …’ Kate paused. ‘What could he possibly contribute to the project?’
‘Really, my dear, you must learn to think outside the box. When Jean-Claude Jutier, the Seven’s resident archaeologist, unearthed a hieroglyphic inscription regarding a sacred stone that emitted a “blue fire”, it was my father who astutely realized that the inscription described an exothermic reaction involving a massive energy transfer. Had it not been for my father, the Seven would never have uncovered the Lost Science of ancient Egypt.’
‘I take it that the blue fire mentioned in the inscription was the Vril force.’
Uhlemann clapped his hands mockingly. ‘My, my, aren’t you the clever puss?’
Having hit his bullshit quota, Finn rolled his eyes. ‘So where the hell are the mathematical calculations and scientific equations to back up this Lost Science? Did your old man find any of those carved on a temple wall? Wait! I think I know the answer …’ He paused. Snickered. Then said, ‘There aren’t any calculations or equations. Ergo, Ivo, there isn’t a “Lost Science”.’
The old German snorted disdainfully.
‘Actually, Finn does raise a valid point.’
‘Ah! Time for a history lesson.’ Lips twisted in an ugly smile, Uhlemann folded his arms over his chest. ‘Did you know that Albert Einstein first conceived his Theory of General Relativity in 1905?’
‘Are you sure about that?’ Kate’s brow wrinkled. ‘I could’ve sworn that Einstein came out with that theory in 1915.’
‘1915 is when he first published his Theory of General Relativity. But the idea for it was here –’ Uhlemann pointed to his white-haired noggin – ‘in his head ten years earlier in 1905. The problem was that in order to disseminate this revolutionary scientific theory to the world, Einstein had to first learn tensor calculus.’
‘Okay, I’ll bite,’ Finn said, jumping back into the fray. ‘What the hell is tensor calculus?’
When Uhlemann made no reply, Kate said, ‘Unlike the calculus that we learned in high school, which deals with change and motion in three-dimensional Euclidian space, tensor calculus deals with the same problems of change and motion, but in a curved space. In his Theory of General Relativity, Einstein stated that matter, or gravity, causes the space–time continuum to actually curve.’ As the daughter of an astrophysicist, Kate had a clear advantage in the science department. ‘The easiest way to think of it is to imagine a heavy bowling ball, which represents the Sun. If you put the bowling ball on a trampoline, which represents the space–time continuum, then –’
‘I get it,’ Finn interjected. ‘The bowling ball causes the trampoline to warp in the same way that matter creates a curve in the space–time continuum.’
Physics lesson concluded, the German continued the history lesson. ‘In order for Einstein to scientifically explain what he had already conceived and perfectly understood in his mind, he had to spend ten years learning the mathematics that would enable him to publish his theory. The ancient Egyptians were no different. They had the science here.’ Again, Uhlemann pointed to his head.
‘And even if they had wanted to write down the equations, higher mathematics didn’t exist in ancient Egypt,’ Kate pointed out. ‘Euclid didn’t invent geometry until the third century BC and it wasn’t until the tenth century that the Arab polymath Alhazan made the link between algebra and geometry. Which then enabled Newton to invent calculus in the seventeenth century.’
‘How ironic that you should mention the great mathematician Alhazan. Did you know that Abu Ali Alhazan was a member of the Dar ul-Hikmat, the Egyptian House of Knowledge?’
A bewildered look on her face, Kate shook her head. ‘Um, sorry, but I’m unfamiliar with that.’
‘Forcing me to retract what I earlier said about you being well informed,’ Uhlemann derided, proving, yet again, that he was a mean fuck. ‘A prestigious university, the Egyptian House of Knowledge was founded in the eleventh century by the Fatamid Caliphate as a centre for Arabic scholarship. More importantly, it housed a magnificent library with a vast collection of ancient texts. As fate would have it, a disreputable Cairo antiquarian hoping to curry favour with the Nazi high command gave the Seven one of the library’s most valuable manuscripts. Although scribed in the tenth century, it was based on ancient Egyptian texts that had been destroyed centuries before. To the Seven’s delight, the Ghayat al-Hakim proved to be the missing link that they so desperately sought.’
Kate’s eyes opened wide. ‘Do you mean that the Ghayat al-Hakim contained a blueprint for the Sacred Axis at Thebes?’
‘My dear, your powers of deduction are truly remarkable.’
‘Can the sarcasm and answer the damned question,’ Finn impatiently growled, ready to grab the old dude by his scrawny neck and hurl him across the mausoleum.
‘In response to Doctor Bauer’s very clever query, yes, the Ghayat al-Hakim, or “Goal of the Wise”, was an instruction manual that detailed how the ancient Egyptians built their Vril Generator at Thebes using the Lapis Exillis.’
‘Okay. Now how about fast-forwarding to the part where Himmler Meister tries to use the Vril force to build weapons of mass destruction.’
White brows drew together in an annoyed frown. ‘The Seven was never involved in weapons research.’
Finn didn’t buy that for one instant. ‘If your old man wasn’t interested in weaponizing the Vril force, what the hell was he planning to do with it, make a big blue campfire?’
‘If you must know, my father theorized that the blue light associated with the Vril force could be used to create a closed time-like curve.’
‘A CTC!’ Like a snapped rubber band, Kate’s head instantly whipped in Uhlemann’s direction. ‘Do you actually mean that the Seven wanted to generate the Vril force so they could time travel?’
64
Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris
0321 hours
‘You needn’t look so shocked, Doctor Bauer. As you undoubtedly know, the existing laws of physics don’t preclude time travel.’