There was a famous battle, a win for the Greeks, and the end of the Greco-Persian Wars.”
“Okay, what were those?”
Lourds warmed to the subject. “Have you heard of the Mycenaean civilization?”
Anna frowned. “I’m thinking that doesn’t have anything to do with space aliens coming to Earth to take our water?”
Lourds laughed. “No. Mycenae was important to the Greeks because much of their Greek literature and myths, including Homer’s Iliad, were believed to have taken place there. Today, this is one of the most studied and most documented cultures of the Bronze Age. When Mycenae collapsed from disease and natural disasters and internal conflicts, many of the people might have migrated to the Middle East, then thought of as the Near East. As a result, the Greeks believed many of the inhabitants and cities of the Persian Empire were actually Greek in origin.”
“It was a land grab?”
Shaking his head, Lourds considered how best to explain. “It was more than a land grab. There was culture, history, trade routes. All of those things that would be necessary to help the Greek city-states become more powerful. Rome was beginning to flex its muscles at this time, and they had to have seen the writing on the wall. The Greek strategists knew that the war between the two cultures would be long and demanding.”
“They needed resources.”
“More than that, they needed conscripts for their armies. Someone to pick up the sword and spear and stand against encroaching armies. At the time, it was easier to conquer the Persian Empire than fight against Rome. But if the Persian Empire was conquered, if it was aiding the Greeks with resources and men, then the Delian League would be in a better position.”
“Aristotle was part of the Delian League?”
“No. The Delian League had been gone for a hundred years by that time. But the desire for the Persian Empire had not been quenched. Plato was a firm proponent of the ideals of the league, even though he was born long after the organization had officially ended. But Callisthenes believed that Aristotle saw in Alexander a chance to take back the lands that King Cyrus of the Persian Empire had taken from the Greeks.” Lourds shrugged. “As it turned out, Alexander was that chance.”
“Okay, I understand that the scrolls can be important documentation on Aristotle’s motivations and goals for taking the mentoring position—resources are important for everyone—but why would anyone be interested enough to murder to get them?”
Lourds shook his head. “I don’t know. Yet.” He bit into his naan and chewed, thinking of everything he’d read. “The one theme prevalent throughout Callisthenes’s scrolls is his insistence that Alexander had somehow won godly favors that helped him achieve all that he had done.”
“Godly?”
“Yes.”
“Do you mean that he believed the gods—the Greek gods—took part in this war?”
“I do. If you look at Greek mythology—which, by the way, is not nearly so dry as Aristotle’s discourses on dramatic theory—you will see that the Greek gods always interacted with the human world.”
“I know. I learned that in the Percy Jackson books.”
Lourds was familiar with the novels for young readers and thought they were some of the best books written for that age group. The author had managed to convey Greek history and the omnipresence of the jealous and very human Greek gods in a way that was both entertaining and informative.
“Then you know what I’m talking about?”
“You are telling me that something in the lost tomb of Alexander may be a lightning rod for the favor of the gods?”
“Not me. I don’t believe that for a moment. But some people might.”
Anna shook her head. “I do not see how anyone could believe such a thing.”
Captain Fitrat spoke up in his quiet, level voice. “Miss Cherkshan, you shelter tonight in a building that lies in a city torn apart by religious battles, where the Islam god and the Christian god are essentially the same being, but the people called to those beliefs differ in their opinions on how that god is supposed to be worshipped. People still wage wars to win the favors of God. They just fight over the one these days instead of many.”
31
Safe House
Kandahar
Kandahar Province
Afghanistan
February 15, 2013
After dinner, her head still swirling from all the information Lourds had dangled—while still not managing to answer what it was Boris Glukov had been killed for—Anna returned to her room to work on her story. Tonight, she worked on the true story, the one about the scrolls and her role in absconding with