The Last Odyssey (Sigma Force #15) - James Rollins Page 0,37
my presence.” He cast a scolding look at the priest. “I think I remember someone once telling me that young men think old men fools, and old men know young men to be.”
Gray could not help but smile. The guy even talked like Vigor.
Monsignor Roe turned his attention back to those on his screen. “You’ll also have to forgive if I’m a bit didactic. I’ve been teaching for four decades and I think I can’t help it when I’m speaking to a group.”
He cleared his throat and began to explain. “To understand the importance of what was secured from that frozen ship, you must first understand its rarity. No one knows who invented the first astrolabe, a device that’s part cosmic map and part analog computer, capable of determining the position of stars and constellations, the rising and setting of the sun, even nautical directions. But most believe the first astrolabe was invented by the Greeks during the second century B.C. Maybe by Apollonius or Hipparchus.”
Roe waved this last detail aside. “Anyway, it was a crude version. Later, astrolabes were refined to their finest form in the Middle East during the Islamic Golden Age. Still, even then, these astrolabes were flat, planar in nature. Let me show you.”
He tapped at the keyboard, and a window popped up in one corner of the screen, showing a gilded flat plate covered in hands, dials, and inscriptions.
“This is how all astrolabes looked up until the ninth century. Then the first spherical astrolabe was invented, likely by Al-Nayrizi, a Muslim mathematician. But to this day, only a single example of such a device has ever been found. It sits at the History of Science Museum at Oxford University.”
He reached and clicked again to bring up the image of a tarnished brass globe engraved with symbols, Arabic numbers, constellations, and all encircled by arched arms and etched bands.
“This artifact dates back to the fifteenth century, to the Middle Ages, and was likely made in Syria. But it’s what’s written on the bottom that is the most intriguing.” He brought up an image of the lower half of the globe, where faint inscriptions could be seen.
Gray stood up to get a closer look. “Mūsã? Is that the name of the artist?”
Roe seemed to stare straight at Gray from the screen. “So it has been believed, but I think if you read deep into the history of—”
Bailey stepped forward and cut him off. “Like I mentioned, let’s return to what’s going on today before we get too lost in the past.”
Gray narrowed his eyes, sensing Bailey was keeping something significant up the sleeves of his priestly frock.
“What was recovered in Greenland,” Bailey continued, “is only the second such astrolabe ever found. That alone makes it valuable, but it is also a significant cog in the mechanical map that was taken from that ship. It is in fact its key. That’s why we requested it be brought to Rome for any chance of knowing what it portends, where it might point to.”
Painter stood and stepped over to the map of Greenland, where an ongoing search for the missing submarine continued, depicted in real time. He pointed out the single red V that had veered off from the others and headed east across the Atlantic.
“Kowalski, Maria, and Dr. MacNab are aboard this Poseidon jet. They’re already on their way to bring the artifact to the Vatican.”
“We’d like you to join us here, Commander Pierce,” Bailey said. “That silver astrolabe is only the first piece of a larger puzzle, but some pieces are still missing. We could use your unique insight to help us pull it all together.”
Now it’s beginning to make sense.
Gray knew he had been recruited into Sigma for this very talent, far more than for his military prowess. While growing up, Gray had always been pulled between opposites. His mother had taught at a Catholic high school, but she was also an accomplished biologist. His father was a Welshman living in Texas, a roughneck oilman disabled in midlife and forced to assume the role of a housewife. It was maybe this upbringing that made him look at things differently, to try to balance extremes. Or maybe it was something genetic, ingrained in his DNA, that allowed him to see patterns that