The Hunt for Excalibur (Sam Reilly Book 16) by Christopher Cartwright

Author:Christopher Cartwright
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Ashton Publishing Group
Published: 2019-03-05T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirty-Three

Guinevere sat down at an antique mahogany desk.

At the nearby sales counter, a salesperson took a copy of Sam’s driver’s license and an imprint of his credit card for security in case any of the books being examined were damaged in the process. Sam Reilly had donated various antique research books to Powell’s over the years, giving him a little more credit than most people.

A few minutes later, Lindsay brought out the original edition of the 1136, Historia Regum Britanniae. The book was made of discolored paper, bound by leather hide.

“Is there anything you particularly want to know about the book?” Lindsay inquired.

“My brother left me with this,” Guinevere said, showing a sheet of plastic the exact size of one of the book pages, with dozens of single letter-sized cutouts. “It’s a cipher key designed to match an original edition of Historia Regum Britanniae. He died unexpectedly a few years ago, and left me with this, with a note saying that this will give me the answers to what happened to him.”

“That’s weird,” Lindsay said, a wry smile forming in her parted lips. “Your brother really didn’t want to make it easy for you, did he?”

Guinevere nodded. “No. Apparently he had never heard of leaving me a letter. Instead, he’s making me jump through some pretty difficult hoops to work out what he was involved in and what happened to him.”

“All right, I’ll leave you to it. I’ll be right over there if you need anything. This looks like it might be kind of personal.”

“Thanks,” Guinevere said, and she watched Lindsay leave.

She placed the plastic cipher delicately on the first page of the book and made a note of each of the legible letters that were still visible. Guinevere finished the page and stared at the letters on the notepad.

They were all gibberish.

She turned the cipher around and tried doing it the opposite way.

Again, it all came out as gibberish.

Sam put away his wallet and took a seat next to her. “Any luck?”

Guinevere frowned. “Not yet.”

“What are you getting?”

“Nothing. Random letters. Nothing more.”

Sam pursed his lips. “Are you sure you have the right page?”

“Patrick never gave me a page. Just that I was to read Historia Regum Britanniae using the cipher.”

“All right, keep going. Try the next page.”

She tried the next three, but none of them revealed anything meaningful or even legible for that matter.

Sam said, “There must be something we’re missing.”

Guinevere nodded. “I know, but that still doesn’t alleviate the simple fact that I have no idea what clue my brother was trying to give me.”

“All right, let’s start at the beginning and read the book.”

Guinevere frowned. “We might be here all day. It’s a long book.”

“I have the time.”

“No, you don’t. I thought you had an urgent project up at the Hanford Nuclear Site, and besides, have you forgotten we’ve left poor Caliburn waiting in the car?”

Sam said, “Okay, you’re right. Let me see the beginning of the book, and maybe I’ll flick through the book and see if anything stands out.

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