Michael White - Equinox

'Ah.'

'Ah indeed,' Philip said.

'Still didn't get me anywhere,' said Jo, with a grin. 'Except that it made me focus on the colours in Charlie's message, and how they might relate to the table of numbers — Charlie was obviously tying them together. In cryptanalysis everything has a purpose, and Charlie is — was — a master.'

'OK, so what did you do?'

'Nothing much, just stared at the cylinder of numbers,' Jo said. 'And then suddenly I saw it.'

'Saw what?'

'The numbers 5,5,6,3 in one of the columns along the scytale.'

'The word black — five letters, white — five letters, and so on?' Laura asked.

'Precisely. And that, Mother, is called a key.'

'Well, thanks, Jo. I'm not Homer Simpson.'

'The block of text is a set of instructions,' Philip interrupted. He showed Laura a printout.

FIRST OFF. USE THE SAME KEY TO DECODE NEWTON'S DOCUMENT. INTERPRET THE INCANTATION — IT MIGHT INTEREST YOU. THE DIAGRAM SHOWS THE LABYRINTH UNDER THE BODLEIAN. YOU ENTER IT VIA THE TRILL MILL STREAM, DOOR IN WALL SIXTY-THREE PACES IN FROM WEST ENTRANCE. AT THE BOTTOM OF THE

PAGE IS AN ESSENTIAL QUOTE: YOU WILL NEED IT LATER. GOOD LUCK!

'Fantastic, Jo!' Laura exclaimed. 'OK. My turn.' She jumped up from the sofa. 'Newton document, Philip, please,' she said. 'And lots more of your excellent coffee.'

Laura laid out the single page on the table in the dining room. Charlie had used a high-res colour photocopier and every crease and crinkle of the original could be seen on the reproduction. It had a dark ochre tinge and was skirted with white where Charlie had mounted the document on a modern card backing. The lettering was in different shades of grey. Laura assumed that Newton had used different inks and added to the text over a period of time. Around the edges of the page were roughly drawn diagrams and images, symbols and formulae. Laura wondered about the significance of a ram's head, a sun symbol and a few Greek letters. .

At the top it said: PRINCIPIA CHEMICUM by Isaacus Neuutonus and beneath that were two lines of Latin.

'The subtitle is just about the only thing that makes any sort of immediate sense,' said Laura, leaning over the paper with her arms crossed on the table. 'I read that much in the car coming from London.'

'It does?' Philip and Jo said in unison.

'God, where were you two educated? It says "From the Manuscript of the Adept Ripley and Supplemented by My Own Researches and Explorations. Translated from the Original Egyptian Text.'"

The rest of the page was divided almost evenly into two. The first section consisted of lines of writing, made up from a block of letters similar to the text that Charlie had put on the DVD. Under that was a roughly drawn scratchy-looking diagram — a network of interlocking lines that resembled a complex maze of corridors. At the base of the diagram a series of lines threaded their way almost to the foot of the page. Beside this was a single line in plain Latin:

ALUMNUS AMAS SEMPER UNICIUM TUA DEUS

'Over to you again, Mom,' Jo remarked wearily.

'Yes, it's a bit of an odd sentence. Literally, it translates as: "Pupil love always. . er, uniquely, I guess.. thy, your.. God." Which is very clumsy, so I suppose it would better read as something like: "Adept", yes, adept is better for alumnus … "Adept, love always thy God.'"

'"Adept, love always thy God"? A sort of signing-off? A signature at the end of the document?' Philip speculated.

'Could be. Perhaps a sort of general statement for the alchemist, like "God Bless You" or "Best Wishes", maybe.' Laura shrugged. 'Doesn't seem to help much. Let's get to work on this first block, using the key'

'5 5 6 3,' Jo said. 'So, fifth letter, tenth, sixteenth, nineteenth.'

As they went methodically through the text Philip wrote down each letter on a fresh sheet of paper. After a few minutes they had distilled nine lines from it.

'It's Latin again,' Laura noted. 'I can translate the first few words, but there are no breaks.'

After twenty minutes, between them they had arranged the string of letters into a paragraph of Latin words which Laura translated and wrote out on a separate sheet.

You are Mercury the mighty flower, You are most worthy of honour; You are the Source of Sol, Luna and Mars, You are Settler of Saturn and Source of Venus, You are Emperor, Prince and most regal of Kings, You are Father of the Mirror and Maker of Light. You are head and highest and fairest in Sight. All praise thee.

All praise thee. Giver of truth.

We seek, we beseech, we welcome you.

'Twaddle,' Philip snorted.

'Maybe, but it's obviously some sort of incantation. I can only assume this is what the Order of the Black Sphinx use to conjure up Old Nick.'

'And this is what the present-day Order need to carry out the ritual.'

'And what Charlie gave them in altered form,' Philip said.

'Why did he bother changing it if it's all nonsense?' Jo asked.

'Because he's a believer. Never quite understood how someone so intelligent could be taken in by this stuff, but there you are. To Charlie, this incantation was a real way to conjure up the Devil, and to the members of the Order it is too. Newton believed it — but then, he did live in an entirely different age, an era during.which magic and witchcraft were accepted in the way that we accept the principles of science.'

'They can believe in the Loch Ness Monster for all I care,' Philip added. 'But we have to do everything we can to stop them committing more murders. And we have just over twelve hours before the next one.'

Laura turned her attention to the diagram. 'This must be the labyrinth,' she said.

'Which you can reach from. . where was it?' Jo asked.

'The Trill Mill Stream.' 'What on earth is that?'

Laura looked at Philip and they both laughed. 'She's only been here a few months, poor love,' Philip said.

Jo rolled her eyes. 'Oh, wise ones, please impart your ancient knowledge.'

'It's quite famous, Jo. A stream that runs under the city from Christ Church Meadow. Its about a mile long. When T. E. Lawrence was young he used to row through it.'

'Really?'

'Yeah, and legend has it that in the 1920s someone found a punt down there with a couple of skeletons in Victorian dress — they had got stuck there and died.'

'Spooky,' Jo said. 'It all sounds like some third-rate horror movie.'

'But I'm afraid it's all horribly true,' said Philip.

'And I think it's time we looked down there for ourselves,' said Laura.

Oxford: 30 March, noon

The police station was abuzz with activity as DCI John Monroe swung open the doors and strode in. In the reception area two officers were trying to restrain a drunken youth wearing a yellow-and-black football scarf and bobble hat.

'Coachload from Watford. Drunk as skunks,' explained PC Hornet as Monroe approached the desk. Monroe said nothing but slid some papers across the counter towards the duty officer. 'And there's a Mr Bridges in Room 3. Been here half an hour,' Hornet added. 'Also, a witness has come forward about the Lightman disappearance. Old lady reckons she saw the professor being dragged from a car by two men, just outside her house on Norham Gardens. Here's the report.'

Monroe waved a silent thanks and headed along the corridor off the main reception area. He glanced at the report but decided to save it for later. Entering

Interview Room 3, he saw Malcolm Bridges sitting at a table placed under a window on the far side of the room.

'Mr Bridges, I'm sorry for the delay.'

The young man began to get out of his seat.

Monroe lowered himself wearily into the chair opposite. He leaned forwards with his elbows on the desk and rubbed his eyes. 'Professor Lightman. . you know him well?' he said.