The Emperor Awakes (48 page)

‘All their research was most probably at Giorgos’ house. And if it was, then I’m sure it’s all gone. They must have taken it. That’s why the laptop and my brother’s hard drive are missing. But knowing my brother, he must have had an insurance policy. He must have taken precautions.

‘He must have had backed up the files in his laptop and hard drive. And not at his house or the office. It must be some place where they would not even think to look, a safe place.’ She was thinking furiously. She turned to Vasilis. ‘Vasilis? You look as if you are miles away. Have you heard anything of what I just said?’

‘Yes, I have.’ He looked up at her, but not really seeing her, actually seeing right through her.

Katerina pressed him. ‘What is it?’

Vasilis thought back to that strange night and then it struck him. ‘There was something else. I believe that Giorgos may have found something significant. He tried to tell me. I forgot about it until now, but he started to say something when the men I had sent for to come and get their pursuer arrived and distracted us. And then it all got forgotten. Otherwise I would have reminded him and asked him about it.

‘The intruder was a Ruinand and his chums must have been the ones at Giorgos’ house looking for the small bust and his research. I would bet that Giorgos is in the Ruinands’ protective custody. And I know you are thinking it, but I believe …’

‘Don’t say it.’ Katerina cut Vasilis off. She was afraid the worst for her brother, even though she didn’t want to accept it could happen.

‘… he’s still alive. He’s much too useful to them. They should be pumping him for information as we speak.’ Vasilis saw Katerina’s expression soften, but the relief did not last long as her expression tightened again. A worrying thought crossed her mind.

‘If he’s hiding and we were searching for him we could be putting him in further danger, especially if this is part of some plan of his to throw them off the scent.’

‘It is possible.’ As Vasilis looked at Katerina he saw determination overriding emotion. When she spoke it was her common sense coming to the fore.

‘Then again, how could he be in any worse danger than he already is, that we all are, considering what happened in Crete as well?’

‘You never did tell me the whole story of what happened to you there.’

‘I told your mum. I’ll tell you some other time. There has just been too much to cope with. Anyway, the ‘hiding’ option is beginning to look more unlikely with every passing minute.’ Katerina thumbed the postcard and looked at Vasilis.

‘This postcard was his back-up plan, his plan B. We have to figure it out. It should give us all the clues we need to pick up from where Giorgos left off. I know this is what he meant for us to do and not waste precious time looking for him. We’ll worry about him later.

‘Besides we don’t know where to start and we should not be diverted from the main issue of resolving this mystery and bringing it to a successful conclusion in our side’s favour. This should be our main objective. This is bigger than any one of us even though where loved ones are involved we may want to do otherwise. By solving the mystery we help him by honouring and continuing what he has done so far too.’

Vasilis knew it was hard for Katerina to find the courage to say what she just said and he saw the sense in her words. He joined her in studying the postcard.

They looked at the back of the postcard, but again nothing jumped out at them from the text. Suddenly Katerina seemed to have thought of something and she examined the front photograph again.

‘Vasilis, take a look at this.’

With her finger she indicated some text in very small, almost illegible characters at the top right-hand corner, almost lost in the foliage in the photo. She opened a drawer and took out a magnifying glass. She could see characters that did not make any sense to her whatsoever.

Yet, there was something at the back of her mind that made her feel as if she had seen those characters before. Then she remembered.

‘Vasilis, you won’t believe me, but I know how to read this.’

‘What do you mean you can read this? How?’

‘It’s a code, an alphabet we made up with Giorgos when we were kids. We have rarely used it in years.’

‘And you remember it?’

‘I do.’ She paused. ‘To tell you the truth I don’t remember it by heart, but that’s what a key to a code is for.’ She pushed a button under her desk and part of the floor next to her desk rose, revealing a safe. She opened it and, after a brief search, found what she was looking for.

Vasilis was curious and leaned down to have a look at this code. It was one of the most complicated codes he had seen in his life. These kids should have been taken off the market and given jobs in cryptography departments of the secret services or the software industry.

Katerina had already deciphered the message. She only needed a quick look at the key to the code and her near-photographic memory did the rest. Of course it was like learning to ride a bike. You never forgot. Seeing the key to the code it triggered that part of her brain that had it stored and could do it with her eyes closed, so to speak.

‘The message on the card says “mother’s laptop -put things in the right order.” That must be the clue to the folder name or password.’

‘Katerina, maybe the document on the laptop is password-protected.’

‘Let’s get to my parents house and check mum’s laptop.’

On their way out, Dora started to say something, but Katerina gestured gently for her to stop.

‘I’m sorry, but whatever it is it will have to wait, please, Dora. I need to go out urgently.’

‘Of course, it can wait.’

‘I’ll be back later. We’ll talk then.’

* * *

At her parents’ home, her mother was baffled.

‘Katerina, darling, and Vasilis, it’s so good to see you both. Katerina, I wasn’t expecting you until later this evening. Have you come to help me with the cooking? Has my perennially workaholic daughter suddenly developed a hole in the head?’

Katerina shivered inside at the analogy with the danger they were in. Her mother was still talking. ‘You can’t have already managed to catch up with work. I even half expected you to change your mind about dinner and spend the night at the office. Has the building got tired of you and spat you out?’

Katerina always enjoyed her mother’s turn of phrase. ‘Hi, mum. Nice to see you too.’

She hugged and kissed her mother. But Katerina’s calm exterior did not work its magic on Anna. She knew her daughter too well to be fooled. She could see the signs and could sense that something was bothering her. There was an underlying impatience in her daughter’s demeanour.

‘Darling, what’s wrong?’

‘Mum, you are as bad as dad. I think you both worry too much about Giorgos and me and refuse to believe that we’ve grown up and have our problems, which we have to deal by ourselves. We won’t always have you watching our backs.’

‘You will understand when you have children of your own. It is the one job in the world you never retire from, well, obviously, until you die that is. The other side of the coin is that your children are also, hopefully, your pension. When it’s payback time, you’ll know, love.’

Katerina’s face showed her shock and Anna noticed. ‘I was joking, of course. Now you have confirmed my fears. If you have forgotten your sense of humour, something’s very wrong. Is it you or is it Giorgos?’

Vasilis smiled to himself at an exchange between parent and child taking place in every house in the country.

‘Vasilis and I are dealing with it. Mum, was Giorgos here using your laptop recently?’

‘Yes, he said he wanted to install some software, make some updates. Why?’

‘Can I have a look?’

‘Katerina, what’s all this about?’

‘I’ll tell you later.’

Anna knew better than to argue with her daughter. It was a match she could not win. She would bet against herself if she could, if a betting shop would accept her bet.

‘This way darling.’

Katerina sat at her mother’s desk and turned on the laptop. She didn’t want to go through all the files and she thought of her brother’s message. “Put the right things in order.”

The word “order” jumped out at her. Of course. It must be the Order of Vlachernae. Brilliant. Too obvious to be true. She searched for files under that name and she found the folder. She clicked to open it.

A window popped up asking for a password. She hesitated only briefly. She picked up the postcard and the magnifying glass that she had brought with her.

She saw the characters under the message, which were also in their childhood made-up alphabet that included numbers as well. There were twelve lines of code. Each one must be a password. She typed the first one and it worked. She completed all twelve lines. She was in.

She saw various sub-folders. Their names were not clear, but seemed to be in the same code as well. So if anyone came to this point would still not be any the wiser as to their content.

She deciphered the names of the sub-folders. Then she began clicking on them. Each sub-folder required a password to open. She referred back to the postcard to enter the passwords and access the folders.

There were plans, geological scans, word documents with historical research, scanned pages from books, photographs and conclusions, undoubtedly written by Giorgos and Katia.

As they were going through the material, Katerina turned to Vasilis. ‘That’s great. If he has made it so difficult to get in this means that his captors would not be able to crack the passwords so the research they’ve taken would be useless to them. Good. That should give us a head start.’

Vasilis indicated the screen. ‘Look at the dates of the satellite geological scans. They only came out yesterday. And they were done by the Valchern Corporation’s mining division. I wonder whether my mother has seen this stuff. This material is amazing. They’ve done a lot in only a few days. They’ve practically cracked the mystery of the location of that construction which could be the tomb.’

‘These subterranean scans that show the area under the Church of Ayia Napa are a bit fuzzy. It says here that’s because of a mineral interfering with the satellite instruments. I wonder whether it was placed there deliberately. However, you can still see the outline of what’s underneath. It looks very complicated. I bet once we are there the detail must be extraordinary, probably beyond what we may expect.’

Giorgos had the foresight to include a description and a plan of the wall concealing the opening to the tunnel. On one of the plans there was a red dot indicating the exact place under the castle.

Katerina turned to Vasilis who was already surfing her mind-waves and believed he could anticipate her thoughts. He saw the look they exchanged as confirmation of that. Vasilis started saying what was most probably on both their minds.

‘The tunnel must lead to that huge construction under the Church of Ayia Napa. Imagine living here all our lives and not knowing what wonders existed under our feet. The same goes for the generations that came before us. And that’s not to say there are not enough wonders above ground.

‘The Church of Ayia Napa has always been a favourite of mine. Its design is sublime and elegant. It’s at the same time weightless and with impressive gravitas pulls the eye to its perfect dimensions and mesmerising form. You know, I was baptised there and have always had a soft spot for it.

‘I was very saddened with the large damage it suffered in the earthquake of 1996. As a result its interior that had the most extraordinarily beautiful decoration and frescoes was controversially whitewashed. The Bishopric of Limassol said that they had to do that because the damage was so extensive that nothing could be saved or repaired.

‘They should have found the money to bring it back to its former glory. I bet you that they could have raised the required amount of money from the local people. And there are enough rich people who could, and I believe would, have done it.’ He paused. ‘Anyway, I’m sorry for this sermon, but I had to get it off my chest. Come on, we need to get down to the castle and check it out. It will be closing in an hour.

‘We need to leave now, if we are going to make it today. The important thing is to at least get in. As long as we are in we can hide when the castle closes until all is quiet and then go about our business.’

‘OK. Let me print out some of this stuff and let’s go.’ Katerina said and she began clicking, opening files and sending them to the printer.

‘Is it wise to have these documents with us? What if the people looking for the tomb, our friends the Ruinands, intercept us and relieve us of our precious weight?’

‘I guess you are right. Let’s take a few minutes to memorise the important stuff, especially the plans, the geological scans and parts of my brother’s notes.’

‘Alright, but let’s hurry.’

* * *

On their way out, Katerina remembered what Vasilis had told her about the other thing her brother had discovered. Before she had time to ask her mother about it, she heard Anna calling her. They were standing in the entrance hall and they both turned.

‘Katerina, wait. Giorgos gave me this for you.’

Anna handed Katerina a small package and then ran back to the kitchen. Katerina unwrapped the package. It was a small box. She opened it. Inside was a key with a number on it.