The Kukulkan Manuscript by James Steimle Page A

guys that you’d never expect to commit a crime. Kind of the ideal young man.” He shifted in his seat. “I don’t see any insult in that image. If the name brings to mind an old-fashioned all-American reflection, then I don’t mind the name.”
    Kinnard nodded. “As a Mormon, then, you believe in transoceanic contact between the Old World and the New, prior to, let’s say, the Viking arrival ‘round the year 1000.”
    Porter nodded.
    “Well, then you should love this codex.”
    “Why…does it back up that argument?”
    Leaning forward in his chair, Kinnard said softly, “Ulman’s codex may be something of a Rosetta Stone. The book is written in two languages on every page. That’s a good thing, because Dr. Ulman can barely make out one of the languages. The second he can’t decipher at all. But he says it’s only guesswork at present.”
    “You’re giving the book to me,” said Porter.
    “You couldn’t be worse off, Porter,” said Kinnard. “Not unless you’d been shot and left to die, anyway. Ulman’s a good man…and he’s my friend. I think he’ll understand after he gets back. You will of course need to give Ulman credit for the physical discovery.”
    Porter imagined the writing on this Mesoamerican ‘Rosetta Stone.’ All students of Ancient Near Eastern Studies were familiar with the real Rosetta Stone, the big slab of black basalt found in 1799 by an unknown person. The rock contained a text praising an Egyptian king, Ptolemy V Epiphanes (203-181 BC), written in Egyptian Hieroglyphics, then in Demotic, which some termed New Egyptian or Egyptian Short Hand, and then in Greek. Before 1822, scholars had not yet conquered the Egyptian writing system. But in September of the same year, a Frenchman by the name of Jean-Francois Champollion, realizing the message was being repeated in all three languages and finding specific names in each text, presented a paper deciphering the obscure glyphs for the first time to the
Academie des Inscriptions
. The result was a blaze of excitement concerning Egyptology throughout Europe. Champollion changed the world, an opportunity that both Porter and Kinnard could only hope for.
    So why was Kinnard giving Dr. Ulman’s find to Porter for study?
    “A new Mesoamerican script?” said Porter.
    “Ulman could read a little of the first set of characters on the page. Maybe the language is just an older version of characters common to the area, I don’t know; I don’t read any of those languages. But that was the writing Ulman
could
read to some degree.”
    Porter blinked and thought he misunderstood.
    “Ulman couldn’t read the second language on the page…” Kinnard said.
    They both looked straight into each other. Porter felt the room warm around him. Perhaps it was his own blood pulsing faster just beneath his skin.
    “…but…I thought
I
recognized letters of the second script,” said Kinnard. “
You
might be able to decode it, Porter.”
    “But I…don’t know any ancient American languages.”
    “Neither do I.”

C HAPTER S IX
    April 1
3:00 p.m. PST
    Erma Alred closed the door behind her. The room had far too many people in it for a casual discussion between Professor Masterson and herself as she had planned. But as the head of the Department of Ancient History and Anthropology at Stratford University, Dr. Masterson could do what he wanted.
    “Good morning Ms. Alred,” Masterson said with a bloated smile as he stood to shake her hand, “Right on time as usual.”
    Evidently the other four men in the room had come early, though she hadn’t the faintest idea why. They watched her as she shook Masterson’s hand. She eyed them closely, but also casually. She recognized a few faces, she thought, but couldn’t be sure.
    Masterson raised a hand to the only empty chair around the rectangular table. “Have a seat.”
    “Thank you,” she said, sitting down. The room smelled like old pipe smoke, memories of the professors who first ran Stratford