Hypatia's Diary by Dave Bartell

Author:Dave Bartell [Bartell, Dave]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781732862623
Published: 2020-02-28T22:00:00+00:00

After circling Darwin’s camp a couple times, Fathi called a halt to their exploration saying they had a limited supply of petrol. Tessa looked at the fuel gauge at one quarter full and drove back to the camp. They had a hundred liters in fuel cans on the roof rack, enough to get them back to Siwa with a safe margin, but not if they kept driving around in the desert.

They examined the tent and vehicle again, looking for any explanation of where Darwin had gone. They reviewed dropping him off and who else might know he was here. Finding no plausible explanation other than Darwin had wandered into the desert, they cleaned up any evidence that they had been there and headed back to Siwa.

Tessa threw herself into the passenger seat, put her feet against the dashboard and hugged her knees. Where did he go?

It doesn’t matter where he went. Our problem is he changed my diary, said the Hypatia voice.

Tessa screamed and stamped her feet against the dash. The Land Rover rocked as Fathi jumped and twisted its steering wheel.

“What?” he asked.

“Drive!” said Tessa and began to mentally inventory the copies of the diary. One of them has the correct location. The Vatican has the original Greek encrypted version and the decrypted version from Darwin. But did he deceive them too? Think.

A small oasis, literally a pool of water surrounded by thick grasses passed by her window. She watched a flock of birds rise from the grass and swirl in kaleidoscoping shapes as she worked the logical flow.

Darwin took the Vatican copy to Newcastle. Lupita deciphered the code, but she’s not a classical language expert. That means Darwin must have translated the Greek to English, and he changed it before I got my copy. But the copy Lupita gave me also had the wrong mountain...

Wait…she must have called Darwin after I visited. I would have. I’ll bet he told her to send me the copy where he changed the mountain location. So, who’s… Shit, what an idiot, Tessa. It’s in the original diary! And Lupita still has the deciphered, but untranslated, Greek version.

She smiled and sat up straight. Lupita has it,” she said aloud.

“Who” said Fathi, sitting tall to see around rocks scattered on the desert floor.

“Lupita, the lady in the UK who decrypted the diary for Darwin. She has the deciphered original,” she said.

“Oh, her. You could send Mahmoud again.”

“Good idea, but I need to confirm it’s the right transcription. I’ll have Mahmoud meet me there. How long to Siwa?”

“Less than three hours,” he said.

“Good. I could get…” she said, looking at her watch, “a flight tonight from Cairo to London and go to Newcastle by train in the morning.”

“Do you want me to go?”

“No. You wait here in case Darwin shows up. We need at least to put in a show that we are worried and looking. Tell the police he’s missing, then drive around asking questions,” she said.

“When will you be back?” he asked.

“The depends entirely on how cooperative Lupita wants to be,” she said.

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