‘Yes, well, this isn’t about King Arthur,’ stressed Jake.
‘A pity,’ said Michelle. ‘If it was, that might be worth a story.’
‘Can I get on with it?’ asked Jake, an impatient edge to his tone.
Michelle nodded and sipped at her coffee. Jake continued.
‘Even at Glastonbury the books weren’t safe, because over the years the threat of the Inquisition spread, and the Church in Britain also began to seek out and destroy heretical thinking in its ranks. So, in 1497 the monks of the Order were told to take these so-called heretical science books and hide them in secure places, hiding each book in a separate place. To ensure the books would not be discovered, each book was to be hidden in a place that was unlikely to be disturbed because it was either sacred, or said to be cursed, or claimed to be haunted. A coded list of the different books and their hiding places was kept, known as The Index.
‘Once the threat of the Inquisition had passed, and the books had been recovered they would be returned to the abbey library. However, the Inquisition didn’t pass. The books stayed hidden.
‘The Index, the supposed list of where the scientific books were hidden, would be a key piece of evidence these “lost sciences” existed.‘But no one knows what happened to it,’ concluded Jake.
Michelle studied Jake over her coffee cup. She didn’t look impressed.
‘I still don’t get it,’ she said.
‘You don’t get what?’ asked Jake.
‘Why all this fuss over these old books. Yes, so they’ve been hidden. So what? Why should anyone be bothered about them, except historians and these geeks who go hunting for old things?’
‘Because of the information they contain,’ said Jake. ‘Stuff like invisibility; turning ordinary metal into gold; the quest for eternal life; raising the dead . . .’
Michelle laughed.
‘Oh, come on!’ she said. ‘This is just weird stuff! We’re not talking real science here!’
‘Yes we are,’ insisted Jake. ‘I saw it. Three months ago one of these books was dug up in a field in Bedfordshire. It contained details of how to create food from thin air, using fungal spores. And inside the book there were some of these spores, and some builder working at the site picked up the book and breathed in the spores, and turned into some sort of human vegetable. His whole body was covered in a fungus . . .’
Michelle shook her head.
‘Urban legends,’ she said. ‘These sort of stories come up all the time. People turning into things. Werewolves . . .’
‘I was there,’ said Jake again. ‘I saw it happen.’
Michelle looked at him curiously.
‘How?’
‘Because I’m a press officer with the Department of Science. I was sent to cover the story about a protest going on at this site where they were going to build a new university science block. I saw the book dug up. I saw the man pick it up. I saw him turn into this . . . thing.’
‘Why wasn’t there anything on the news about it?’ challenged Michelle.
‘Because my department slapped a D notice on the story, stopping it,’ said Jake. ‘But I know it happened. And I’ve seen the book. I held it in my hands.’
Michelle looked at the old leather book cover on the table.
‘That’s it?’ she asked, suddenly worried.
‘No,’ said Jake. ‘That book was taken back into protective custody by the government. It’s been hidden away, and all knowledge of it has been denied.’ He gestured at the piece of ancient black leather. ‘This is from another one, and it’s just the cover. Someone sent it to me.’
‘Why?’
‘I don’t know. Either to rope me in, or as a warning to stay out of it. I don’t know.’
Michelle fell silent, obviously thinking over everything Jake had said.
‘Tell me again why these books are important now?’ she asked.
‘Because if anyone finds one with key information like that, they’ve got enormous power in their hands. And money. Say they find one with a cure for cancer. If they patent that information, they’re rich for ever. Or say they’d got their hands on the one I saw dug up, the one where this dried fungus comes back to life and spreads as soon as it comes into contact with air.’
‘Biological weapons,’ muttered Michelle.
‘Or a way of ending world hunger,’ said Jake. ‘Either way, it’s power. And that is why so many people are after these books.’
‘To make money.’
‘Or, in the case of our government, and others, to stop the information coming out.’ Jake sighed. ‘They don’t want our enemies having access to potential weapons like these.’