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"Absolutely!" I replied

Lucy boxed up the Voynich and returned it to the locked hold She returned shortly thereafter with a trolley loaded with folders, boxes, various notebooks, and a tube

"Here’s everything on the Voynich, in all its confusing glory It’s been picked through thousands of ti es" She headed toward our private rooh it all"

It took thirtytable Some of it would be no use at all: the tube and the scrapbook full of newspaper clippings, the old photostats, and lectures and articles written about the manuscript after the collector Wilfrid Voynich purchased it in 1912 That still left folders full of correspondence, handwritten notes, and a clutch of notebooks kept by Wilfrid’s wife, Ethel

"Here’s a copy of the che inforranted access to the manuscript in the past three years" Lucy handed me a sheaf of papers "You can keep theave you that list of library patrons, though"

Mattheould have to go over the chemistry with me--it was all about the inks used in the manuscript, a subject that interested both of us The list of people who’d seen the ot to look at it anyranted access were mostly academics--a historian of science from the University of Southern California and another frorapher from Princeton, another from Australia I’d had coffee with one of the visitors before leaving for Oxford: a writer of popular fiction as interested in alcheh

Peter Knox had seen the Voynich this past May, before Eled, and the knots on ?" Lucy asked

"There was a name on the list I didn’t expect to see"

"Ah A scholarly rival" She nodded sagely

"I guess you could say that" But u interpretations This ar And if I were going to win it, I would need to pull ahead of hie

The proble downtheir provenance The papers I knew best had belonged to the chemist Robert Boyle All seventy-four volumes of them had been presented to the Royal Society in 1769, and, like everything else in the Royal Society archives, they were ed, indexed, and cross-referenced

"If I want to trace the Voynich’s chain of ownership, where do I start?" Iat the materials

"The fastest ould be for one of us to start at the ins and work forhile the other starts at the Beinecke’s acquisition of it and works backward With luck we’ll meet at the middle" Lucy handed me a folder "You’re the historian You take the old stuff"

I opened the folder, expecting to see so to Rudolf II Instead I found a letter froue, Johannes Marcus Marci It ritten in Latin, dated 1665, and sent to someone in Rome addressed as "Reverende et Eximie Domine in Christo Pater" The recipient was a cleric then, perhaps one of the men I’d seen when I touched the corner of the Voynich’s first page

I quickly scanned the rest of the text, noting that the cleric was a Father Athanasius and that Marci’s letter was acco The Book of Life, perhaps?

Marci said that attempts had been made to contact Father Athanasius before, but the letters had beenWhen the third paragraph revealed the identity of Father Athanasius, however, my exciteed to Athanasius Kircher?" If the es had passed into Kircher’s hands, they could be anywhere

"I’m afraid so," Lucy replied "I understand he was quiteer, wide-ranging in his interests"

"That’s an understateoal had been nothing less than universal knowledge He had published forty books and was an internationally bestselling author as well as an inventor Kircher’s museum of rare and ancient objects was a fae of correspondents extensive, and his library vast I didn’t have the language skills to work through Kircher’s oeuvre More important , I lacked the ti me jump

"Excuse me, Lucy" I slid the phone out and checked the display On it was a text e First/Last]

Where are you? Gallowglass is waiting for you We have a

doctor’s appointment in ninety minutes

[des: the next 3 lines are both 04 Body Text and 06 Text Message and

should all be in one line]

I cursed silently

I’ the Beinecke,

I typed back [end of textto have to pick up with this again to Marci’s letter to Kircher

"A reliable source told me you were on carinned

"That’s h this stuff tos are pretty slow around here at the ether"

"Thanks for your help, Lucy I’otiable--deadline" I scooped up pencil, laptop, and pad of paper and rushed to lass Matthew had seconded his nephew to act as lass was also responsible forBenjamin’s Internet feed, but so far the screen had re bonny" He kissed me on the cheek

"I’m sorry I’m late"

"Of course you’re late You ith your books I didn’t expect you for another hour at least,"

Gallowglass said, disot to the lab, Matthew had the i from Ashmole 782 in front of him and was so absorbed that he didn’t even look up when the door pinged Chris and Sherlock were standing at his shoulder, watching intently Scully sat on a rolling stool nearby Ga it dangerously close to the e