The Twelfth Tablet - Ebook Read online

  Also by Tom Harper

  The Lost Temple

  The Book of Secrets

  The Lazarus Vault

  Secrets of the Dead

  The Crusade Series

  The Mosaic of Shadows

  Knights of the Cross

  Siege of Heaven

  The Twelfth Tablet

  Tom Harper

  www.hodder.co.uk

  First published in Great Britain in 2013 by

  Hodder & Stoughton

  An Hachette UK company

  Copyright © Tom Harper 2013

  The right of Tom Harper to be identified as the Author of the Work

  has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright,

  Designs and Patents Act 1988.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,

  stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any

  means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be

  otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that

  in which it is published and without a similar condition being

  imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

  All characters in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance

  to real persons, living or dead is purely coincidental.

  A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library

  ISBN 978 1 444 78074 1

  Hodder & Stoughton Ltd

  338 Euston Road

  London NW1 3BH

  www.hodder.co.uk

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 1

  Zurich, Switzerland

  The museum was closing. Tourists studied their maps, wondering where to go next; relieved husbands hurried their wives away to the tables they had waiting for dinner. A few students lingered, getting maximum value, until the guards rounded them up.

  Paul Mitchell let himself out of his office and followed the crowds towards the exit, oblivious to the two thousand years of masterpieces on the walls. It had been a long day, and a long night ahead – five pages to get written, he’d promised himself. The thesis was already late. At six months overdue, the university had cut off his funding. In three weeks, they’d kick him out completely if he didn’t hand it in.

  ‘Do you work here?’

  The voice was loud, easily enough to break him out of his thoughts. A big man, standing in front of the doors to the Classical gallery. He was built like a heavyweight, with puffy lips and a mane of dark hair tumbling over the tight shoulders of his jacket. He had a fat gold ring wrapped around his finger, and a blonde in a fake fur coat wrapped around his arm.

  On closer inspection, the blonde was probably fake. The fur, he thought, looked genuine. He’d attended enough museum fundraisers to know money when he saw it. He gave his best apologetic smile. ‘Can I help?’

  The man pointed to the locked doors. ‘You can let us in?’

  ‘I’m afraid the museum’s closed.’ He touched the badge on the lanyard around his neck, warding off the evil look he’d got. ‘We open again at–’

  ‘Please.’ The woman leaned forward. ‘There was fog at the airport.’

  ‘We’ve come to see the Aphrodite,’ said her partner. ‘We need only five minutes.’

  ‘Tomorrow–’

  ‘Tomorrow we must go to Venice,’ said the woman.

  ‘You have the keys?’ the man demanded.

  Paul’s hand drifted to the bulging keychain in his jacket pocket. ‘It’s not that.’

  ‘Of course, I can make a donation to the museum.’ He pulled a fistful of Swiss franc notes out of his trousers. Hundreds and five-hundreds, Paul noticed.

  The woman reached out and touched Paul’s hand. A static charge seemed to shiver up his arm. Her soft fingers pressed through his, wrapping around them. He looked into her eyes: deep and dark.

  ‘They say you have to see her to believe her.’

  Paul flicked a switch and shut the door behind them. As the soft lights rose, two dozen faces woke out of the gloom. If they were angry at being disturbed, their stone and marble faces didn’t show it. They’d been sleeping for twenty-five centuries.

  The woman ran down the gallery – a skipping, childish run, oblivious to the grownups looking down. The man sauntered after her. At the far end of the room, where a larger-than-life figure stood on a solitary plinth removed from the other gods, the woman stopped.

  Aphrodite had been well served by the sculptors of the ancient world, Paul knew, but this one was something else. Cast in bronze, the fluid lines of her body shone wetly, as if she’d just risen from the sea. Her hair coiled back in demure braids; a shy arm covered her modesty, and her head was turned down. Unless you stood in one particular place and looked up, when her ivory eyes suddenly blinked open and transfixed you. Then you understood the story of Pygmalion, Paul thought.

  ‘Fourth century BC,’ he said. The words sounded stiff as a typed card. ‘Discovered in a shipwreck off Taranto. We think it’s the earliest nude ever to come to light.’

  The man grunted. ‘I know. I tried to buy it.’

  Paul laughed, then noticed the man wasn’t smiling. The woman reached up, wrapped her arm around the statue’s leg and put her head against it. As if she was listening for something.

  Paul rushed forward. ‘You’re not allowed–’

  A thick arm barred his way.

  ‘What’s the point of beauty if you can’t get your hands on it?’ The hand holding him back grabbed a fistful of his shirt and twisted it tight. Paul struggled, but not very hard. All the power seemed to have temporarily drained out of him.

  The woman caressed the statue’s leg, running her hand down to the heel. Her lips brushed the cold bronze – a kiss, an offering.

  She straightened up. The look on her face almost made Paul forget the fist holding him.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ she said.

  Paul cleared his throat. ‘I think you ought to–’

  The fist hadn’t relaxed ‘Are you done?’ the man demanded. The woman stared up at the statue. She nodded.

  Paul stumbled as the fist let him go. The man took the woman’s arm and shepherded her to the door – leisurely, smirking. Paul turned out the lights, locked the door and prayed to the gods – ancient, modern, he didn’t care – that none of the guards had seen. If the curator knew…

  ‘I’m Ari, by the way,’ the man introduced himself, as if he’d never laid a finger on Paul. ‘This is Valerie.’

  He shook Paul’s hand. When he let go, Paul felt a wad of Swiss francs fat in his palm.

  ‘For the museum,’ said Ari. He winked.

  ‘Thank you so much.’ Valerie peered at him, as if looking for something she might have forgotten. ‘It was unforgettable.’

  Paul smoothed his shirt and watched them go. Just before the lift, he saw Valerie stretch up and whisper something in Ari’s ear. She looked like a ballerina, her toes pointed and her body pressed tight against her jersey dress. A silhouette that even the most hardened sculptor might have thought worth a block of marble.

  Ari nodded; she turned.

  ‘Why don’t you come for a drink?’

  ‘That’s very kind. Really, I should–’

  ‘Ari doesn’t mind. Do you?’

  Ari’s smile showed teeth as sharp as a can opener. ‘You must. We have to celebrate.’

  Paul blinked. ‘Celebrate what?’

  ‘Aphrodite.’

  ‘Have you worked for the museum long?’ Valerie asked.

  They sat in the bar of the Four Seasons: Ar
i filling out a club chair, Paul crammed on a loveseat with Valerie, squeezing against the end trying not to rub against her. Among the Gucci and Armani, his brown corduroy jacket felt like sackcloth. He hoped Ari was paying.

  He felt the wad of notes in his jacket pocket and savoured the weight. He could pay, if he had to.

  ‘I’ve been there two years. I just help out in the office – cataloguing, administration, paperwork. Only part-time. I’m still finishing off my doctorate.’

  ‘That’s fantastic.’ Valerie smelled of cigarettes and perfume: a dark, hazy scent that felt like 3am in someone else’s room. ‘I always wanted to finish university.’

  The waiter brought champagne and three glasses on a silver tray. A wisp of icy smoke rose out of the bottle.

  Ari gripped his champagne in a paw and took a slug. ‘So much of life is fake,’ he announced. ‘This is the real thing. Like Aphrodite.’

  ‘To Aphrodite,’ Valerie and Paul chorused. The champagne was so cold it left frost on his throat.

  Valerie twisted round in the loveseat so she was looking straight at Paul. Her knee pressed against his.

  ‘Tell me about your studies.’

  ‘I’m in the History of Art department here in Zurich. I–’

  ‘But you’re not Swiss?’ Ari interrupted.

  ‘English. I transferred here two years ago. From Cambridge,’ he added, hoping it didn’t sound arrogant.

  ‘What are you working on?’

  Paul hesitated. Six years in academia had taught him you had to judge your audience’s tolerance for details. ‘Ancient Greek religion.’

  ‘You do ancient Greece?’ A look passed between Ari and Valerie. ‘Perhaps you can help us.’

  Ari pulled a glossy sheet of paper from his jacket pocket and unfolded it. A tear ran down one edge where it had been ripped out of something.

  ‘You know this?’

  In the main photograph, a black background framed a flat piece of gold. Its edges were torn ragged; creases scored the surface, cutting through the tiny letters that had been pressed into the surface with blindpoint. It looked solid; in reality, Paul knew, it was as thin as silk and fragile as a dry leaf.

  ‘It’s the Orphic tablet,’ Paul said. ‘We had it in the Afterlives exhibition last year.’ He read the description under the photograph.

  The Orphic religion was one of the most successful and mysterious cults in the ancient world. Twelve golden tablets have been found in burials across the Mediterranean, in contexts ranging from the fifth century BC to the second century AD. Each is inscribed with fragments of the same poem, navigation for the dead to guide them through the underworld. Little more is known of the religion, though because of the subject and the ancient origin, tradition has always ascribed authorship of the poem to Orpheus.

  ‘You worked on this exhibition?’

  ‘I helped.’ Why be modest? ‘I wrote the catalogue entry.’

  ‘This piece, the tablet. It was a loan, right?’

  ‘From a private collection.’

  Ari nodded. ‘There are twelve of these in the world. Eleven are in museums. This one you had in your exhibition is the only one in private hands, and your exhibition was the first time it had been seen in public since before the Second World War.’

  ‘You obviously know a lot about it.’

  ‘Not as much as you.’

  Paul sipped his champagne. ‘It’s not really my specialism. They only asked me to do the catalogue because it’s similar to my doctorate.’ Ari’s bloodshot eyes wouldn’t let him go. ‘Most of what I do in the museum is back office stuff. Paperwork.’

  ‘Paperwork.’ Ari repeated.

  ‘Customs forms. Insurance. Liaising with other institutions that had loaned us artefacts.’

  ‘Institutions – or individuals?’

  Paul nodded.

  ‘So you know the identity of this private owner?’

  The champagne was making the world blur. Valerie’s leg had tangled in his, her stocking rubbing softly against the back of his calf. Her perfume was stronger than ever.

  ‘It’s confidential,’ he said weakly.

  Valerie refilled his glass. ‘We’re all friends.’

  ‘I would like to know his name.’ Something in Ari’s voice made Paul’s skin prickle. He remembered the hand on him at the museum, the feeling of utter powerlessness. He tried to sit up, and spilled champagne in his lap. Valerie dabbed at it with a napkin.

  A phone broke the deadlock: a brusque jangle that drew every eye in the bar. A concierge started to move towards them, then saw Ari and backed off. Ari reached in his jacket pocket and pulled out the widest phone Paul had ever seen.

  ‘Legyeteh,’ he said. He listened a moment, then put his hand over the phone.

  ‘One minute, OK?’

  He disappeared out the front door. Paul remembered to breathe again.

  ‘Is your boyfriend always that direct?’

  Valerie narrowed her eyes. ‘My boyfriend,’ she repeated, experimentally. ‘He’s used to getting what he wants. His father is very rich.’

  He remembered what Ari had said about the statue. ‘Did he really try to buy the Aphrodite?’

  She shrugged. ‘I don’t think so. If he did, it wouldn’t be in your museum.’

  ‘He isn’t the sort of man you say no to,’ Paul agreed. ‘Where are you from?’

  ‘Kind of all over.’ She waved a hand. ‘Ari has a boat.’

  ‘Not much good for Switzerland.’

  ‘I guess.’ She’d rearranged herself, legs crossed, hands demurely in her lap. Paul felt unbalanced, as if something had disconnected inside him. Even sitting felt unbearably awkward.

  ‘What did you hear when you listened to the statue?’

  It was an impulsive question – he wasn’t even sure what he meant – but it earned him a privileged smile.

  ‘Immortality.’

  Before he could ask what she meant, a cold breeze blew through the hotel doors as Ari came back in. He sat down opposite and drained his champagne.

  ‘I need to see that tablet,’ he said, without preamble. ‘Not me personally. For my father.’

  ‘Right.’ Paul sat back, the same posture he used when his supervisor asked him for chapters. He wondered how soon he could leave.

  ‘My father, his whole life is studying the Orphic religion. He thinks maybe there are secret messages written on the tablets, some key to the afterlife. It sounds crazy, right?’ Paul shrugged. ‘He’s an old man, he’s sick, he stays in his house too much. All he wants is a photograph.’

  Paul pointed to the catalogue page, still open on the table. ‘I could probably find you the original image.’

  ‘Not good enough.’

  ‘Bu it’s professional quality.’

  ‘My father wants ultra-high definition. Also infrared. You know there have been things found with infrared that nobody saw before. Maybe this tablet has something.’

  ‘I very much doubt–’

  ‘It is easy. You take us to this collector, you tell him something about the museum, maybe there is a problem with the insurance, blah blah. You need a photograph to prove it is OK. Then we go, we take the photograph, we come home. Maybe we find the secret message, maybe – probably – there is nothing. But my father is happy.’

  ‘I really wish I could help.’ He meant it: anything to get rid of Ari. ‘It’s simply that–’

  ‘How much does the museum pay you a week?’ He took the billfold out of pocket and peeled off a hundred-franc note. ‘This much?’ Another hundred. ‘This? This?’

  Paul shook his head. ‘Not that much.’

  ‘And the university? For your studies?’

  He put down another hundred. Paul looked at the table and said nothing shook his head.

  ‘So. Not even this much. And when you finish the doctorate? What then?’

  ‘I’ll probably try for a job in academia.’

  He’d said it so often he should have believed it by now. But the longer it we
nt on, the less he could ignore the truth. He’d missed his time. He was two years late, and that meant two more crops of PhD’s out in the market, competing for the same dwindling number of jobs.

  Valerie suddenly reached across and stroked his hand. He shot Ari a glance, wondering whether he’d feel those fists around him again. But either he hadn’t noticed, or didn’t care.

  ‘My father’s business is shipping,’ said Ari. ‘You know what he says? If something is in the wrong place, it is nothing – but take it somewhere else, where it is in demand, it can be worth everything. That is his business. He moves things from the wrong place…’

  He took the stack of notes and slid them across the table.

  ‘… to the right place. He makes them valuable.’

  Paul stared at the pile of money.

  ‘There is a foundation,’ Ari said. ‘We promote major research on ancient Greece – archaeology, philology, religion – and we are always looking for exciting new researchers who can work with us. Our funding is very generous,’ he added.

  Paul twisted the stem of his glass in his fingers.

  ‘You are in the wrong place, my friend.’

  ‘They don’t value you,’ said Valerie earnestly.

  ‘All it takes is one photograph.’

  Chapter 2

  It wasn’t hard to guess Ari’s car: a monstrous Mercedes as long as a hearse, riding up on the pavement in a disabled bay outside the museum. The rear window slid down as he approached, unveiling Valerie’s face behind the tinted glass. He wondered why she was wearing sunglasses so late on an overcast day.

  He got in next to her and closed the door. The only other person in the car was the driver.

  ‘Where’s Ari?’

  ‘He had a meeting.’

  Paul looked forward between the seats and caught a thick-set pair of eyes watching him from the rear-view mirror. The rest of the face was hidden: through the headrest in front, he could see a short neck and a pair of shoulders that filled the Mercedes’ ample interior.