Madness of the Q by Gray Basnight

Author:Gray Basnight
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Down & Out Books

Hava neranenah

Hava neranenah

Hava neranenah ve-nismeha

Finally, she stopped and gave a nod at the distance. “You know, it’s too bad I don’t speak Greek, but Greece isn’t so far from here.”

“Don’t even think it,” Teagarden said. “If we transmit that document by any means to anyone, we become sitting ducks on this ship. We’ll both be dead before we get a glimpse of the Grand Canal. When we’re in northern Italy, there’s sure to be a private linguist who can assist.”

“There won’t be enough time to find one. You can be certain the Vatican has a PR army working overtime. The convention in Berlin starts tomorrow, and they’re probably going to label all suicides the ‘inexplicable work of god’s will.’”

“That’s what people will want to hear,” he said.

“And the believers will believe it. In time, the Vatican will publish only those passages of the Q Document that reinforce their myth. And the whole thing will fade away. We’ll be left shouting words like ‘coverup,’ and ‘conspiracy.’ Do you know what history does to people who shout those words?”

“Yeah-h-h, I know,” he said on a long exhale. “You become a Wikipedia entry or a footnote in history.”

“A minor footnote most likely,” Wharron said. “And when you look up that footnote, it says something about ‘the passionate intensity of paranoid morons.’”

Whoa.

Was she intentionally paraphrasing Yeats, whom he’d been thinking about earlier, or was it coincidental?

Well, in our own separate ways, we are both slouching toward Bethlehem.

Still considering their proximity to Greece, she said, “Professor Teagarden, what if I got sick and required an airlift?”

“I’ve got a better idea. It’s probably a dead-end, but it’s a Hail Mary and worth a try. C’mon.”

“I prefer calling it a long shot instead of Hail Mary,” she said. “Lead the way.”

They hurried to his cabin where, instead of using the phone, he swiped his cardkey on the scanner to summon the Sicily Deck porter. Before Kanakaris arrived, Teagarden keyed-in 7777 on the safe, withdrew the envelope containing the Q Document, opened it, and laid out the pages on the coffee table. Sensing his intention, Wharron picked up the page Zurbarán labeled “Fragmento Diecisiete.”

“This is the key,” she said. “It’s the one he called ‘The Holy Shit Fragment.’”

He took it from her. It was the one he felt looked vaguely familiar. The lettering seemed more like modern Greek, though he had no way of knowing for certain, and because it was so short, he assumed it was much decayed. Other longer texts were cut off by deterioration of the ancient papyrus, or by what looked like water damage, or both.

Less than two minutes after summoning the porter, there was a knock at the door. Kanakaris entered and swiped his own cardkey on the scanner in the foyer of Teagarden’s stateroom. Despite the hour, his appearance was impeccable. His white deck shoes appeared newly polished, his khaki slacks perfectly creased, and the turquoise pullover fit his tall, slender frame like a tailored glove.

The three of them exchanged pleasantries about Wharron’s seasickness and her recovery aided by the ship’s doctor.

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