Once they got settled, the two headed in different directions, searching for materials. Boyd grabbed a map and looked for the location of the library’s Latin collection while Maria sat at a computer terminal and entered EARLY LATIN. Within seconds she was staring at the name of the best books in the building. Unfortunately, when she got to the section, he was already emerging from the stacks with several books in his hands.
‘Computers,’ he laughed, ‘are a waste of time and money!’
They returned to the study room, where Boyd unveiled the bronze cylinder. He’d peeked at the scroll during their journey to Milan and realized that it was written in the same language as its brother, the language of the Roman Empire. Now he just needed time to translate it.
‘What can I do to help?’ she asked.
‘Why don’t you use your fancy-pants computer skills and research the artwork of ancient Rome? Try to locate the laughing man from Orvieto. He has to be mentioned somewhere.’
Maria went to the same terminal as before and typed ANCIENT ROMAN ART. The computer scanned the library’s resources and spat out a long list. Photographs, sketches, maps, and descriptions were available by the hundreds, all of them detailing the colorful history of the Roman Empire. Maria grabbed the first five books she found, then settled into a nearby booth.
As she opened the first book, she realized that she didn’t have a plan of attack. Sure, she could flip through page after page, hoping to stumble across a picture of the laughing man, but she knew there had to be a more efficient way to conduct her research.
Giving it some thought, she decided to look in the table of contents, hoping that her theory from the Catacombs – that the laughing man was actually a Roman leader – was accurate. To her surprise, the book classified its artwork by emperor, meaning she could flip through the book’s pictures until she reached the last leader of the Empire.
Starting with Augustus, she studied statue after statue and carving after carving, but none of them shared any similarities to the face of the laughing man.
After Augustus was Tiberius, a man who ruled the Empire from 14 to 37 ad, a period that covered the adult life of Jesus Christ. In her mind she felt that Rome’s second emperor could be the man she was looking for. Since the laughing man was prominently displayed on the crucifixion archway and Tiberius was the leader of Rome at that time, she thought they might be one in the same. That made sense, didn’t it? But as soon as she saw Tiberius’s face in a series of statues, she knew it wasn’t him. The two men looked nothing alike.
‘Damn!’ she cursed. ‘Who the hell are you?’
Maria searched for the laughing man for two more hours before she finally took a break. Her lack of sleep coupled with her lack of success proved to be a powerful narcotic. So she stumbled down two flights of stairs to the basement lounge and bought the largest espresso they sold. While waiting for her order, she collapsed into a nearby booth and rested her head on the table. Unfortunately, the sound of footsteps cut her nap short.
‘La Repubblica?’ offered the server who brought Maria’s order.
She didn’t have the energy to read the local paper but accepted it with a nod. The instant he walked away, she brought the steaming cup to her mouth, savoring the rich aroma with several deep breaths before finally taking a sip. ‘Aaaaah,’ she moaned. ‘Much better than sex.’
Within seconds Maria felt rejuvenated, so much so that she started to skim the headlines. She had no intention of reading any articles – she wasn’t that refreshed – but hoped to catch up on the major news: An Earthquake in India… A Murder in Denmark… Violence near Orvieto –
‘What?’ she gasped.
She skipped back to the story and forced her eyes to read the headline, hoping it was a hallucination. Shockingly, the paper claimed that there’d been a terrorist attack near Orvieto.
Maria put her espresso aside and started to read, devouring the words of the article. The paper claimed that Dr Charles Boyd blew up a bus, killing nearly forty people in the process. It stated his whereabouts were unknown but warned he should be considered armed and dangerous.
With a mixture of emotions, she gathered her things and rushed upstairs to tell Boyd the news. She burst into the conference room, expecting to find him working, his slight frame hovering over the outstretched scroll. But he wasn’t there. The ancient document sat in the middle of the table next to a translation of the text, yet his chair sat vacant. It was a sight that made no sense to her. Why did he leave the document unguarded? No way he’d abandon it for a bathroom break or a trip to the card catalog. It was far too important to leave unprotected.