The Minoan Cipher

CHAPTER SIXTY-THREE

Abby had no illusions about the challenge involved in rescuing Kalliste. The operation was somewhere between foolhardy and insane. If anyone could pull off a mission this dangerous, it would be Hawkins and Calvin. But they would need all the help she could provide.

While they were off on their separate errands, Abby had been alone in the galley of the boat. She sat hunched over a table that was covered with the notes and diagrams she had sketched out suggesting ways to penetrate the castle’s ramparts. She had blocked out the creaks and burbles the boat made as water nibbled at its hull, and was so intent on her work she didn’t hear the footfalls on deck.0

Sensing she was no longer alone, she turned and saw Hawkins standing at the bottom of the companionway.

“How long have you been there?” she said.

“Less than a minute. I didn’t want to startle you.”

“Sorry. I was totally engrossed.”

“So I see.” Hawkins pointed at the 3-D diagram of the castle slowly spinning on the computer screen. “That looks like Castillo de Huernos.”

“It’s a close rendition. I pulled the schematic together using the video you shot on your recon and combined it with material from the internet.”

He sat next to her and gazed at the diagram. “If attacking armies had this program back in the Middle Ages, not a castle in the land would be left standing.”

“Having a detailed picture of potential weak points would definitely have given the assaulting army an edge. They’d still have been stuck with the traditional siege tools. Fire, battering rams, catapults and starving to submission.”

“After you left, I did some research on Minoan construction. Their engineers were far ahead of their time when it came to urban hydraulics.”

“Moving water in and out of cities?”

“I’m talking about cities, palaces and villages. Thousands of years ago their plumbing was more advanced than what you’d find in Europe in the late 19^th century. They had indoor bathrooms and bathtubs. Their water systems had aqueducts, cisterns, filtering systems, ways to collect rainwater, and terracotta pipes. They knew about gravity, flow and pipe pressure. They brought water in from rivers and springs, built distribution and disposal systems that worked quite well.”

Abby placed the scroll diagram of the maze in front of Hawkins.

Hawkins studied the diagram. “What do you see that I don’t?”

“Look at this opening in one wall of the maze. It’s in an odd place for an entrance. Now look at this satellite photo of the castle. See the faint double line running in from the river to the moat?”

“A conduit of some kind to bring water into the maze from the river?”

She drew her fingernail from the tip of the conduit, across the moat to the wall of the castle where the opening was indicated in the diagram. “Or it could have been a sluiceway that brought effluent from the maze to the river. Either possibility might provide a way to get close to or into the castle.”

“If you’re right, we could land up-river and drift down to the sluiceway. Would the conduit be big enough for a man to pass through it?”

“I can’t say for sure. Minoan water systems all have the same characteristics; a water main, cisterns or wells, internal distribution lines and refuse disposal. When the castle was built over the maze, a section of the conduit may have been removed to make way for the moat. The builders might have been satisfied with a plumbing system that was not as sophisticated as the Minoan design, but they would still need part of the sluiceway to bring water from the river to the moat. But if I’m wrong, even if you get from the moat into a pipe, you might find that it leads nowhere. All I can give you is my educated guess.”

“Good enough for me,” Hawkins said. “Beats flying out of Calvin’s catapult.”

She gave him a hug. “I can’t wait to fill Calvin in.”

“He’s on his way. He texted me a while ago and said all went okay with his errand.”

“I’ll start pulling things together.”

“Good. I want to push ahead with the castle plan, but my talk with Lily Porter put a new spin on the situation.”

Hawkins gave her a shortened version of his meeting.

Abby shook her head. “I’ve seen Hidden History. It’s all crap. She prances around in a mini-skirt looking for vampires and ghosts. Maybe she’s trying out a new script.”

He took the cell phone out of his pocket. “Someone sent Lily this picture.”

“Dear God!” Abby said. “What are those awful-looking things with Kalliste?”

“Dunno, Ab, but they’re not waiting for her to throw a stick. Check out the expression on Kalliste’s face. She’s hanging tough, but she’s scared.”

“We’ve got to get her out of there damned fast.”

He pointed at the 3-D castle image on the computer screen. “Can’t wait to tell Calvin that the way we’re going to get into that pile of rock is almost as crazy as his catapult theory.”

They heard footsteps on deck, then Calvin’s voice saying, “Anybody home?”

“Looks like you’ll have your chance sooner than later,” Abby said.

Hawkins shrugged and called out, “We’re down here, Cal.”