Touchstone (Meridian Series) by John Schettler, Mark Prost Page B

swept over his
features.
           Nordhausen’s empty emotions were suddenly filled with a
backlash of anger. “Well I am not insane, if that’s what you’re thinking. I
planned this very carefully.  I told you I was going to check on the writing.
It was a legitimate mission, though I know I should have cleared it with the
rest of the team. In any case, what’s done is done. Yes, I had my toast with
Wilde and Gilbert in the bar, and I went to the museum the very next day. It
was well thought out. How long have you known me, Paul? Since high school!
Maybe I shouldn’t have gone back, but that’s not the issue here. Something
bigger is going on now. We’ve got to find out what happened to the Rosetta
Stone!”
    6
     
    “Rosetta Stone!” Dorland shot back. “There you go again. What are you talking
about? Look, I’m trying to be sympathetic here, but you’re not making any
sense. What’s this stone you keep rambling on about?”
           Nordhausen sighed heavily. “It was discovered in 1799,
during Napoleon’s invasion of Egypt .
They were trying to improve an old fort near the town of Rosetta and uncovered a huge slab of
black basalt with inscriptions in three languages.”
           “Wait a second,” Paul interrupted. “I’ve read that history
many times. Sure, Napoleon invaded Egypt ,
and was stranded by the British Fleet. He fought a few battles, tried to march
off to Palestine , then got tired of the whole
campaign and escaped to leave all his men to fend for themselves. That’s all in
the history, but I’ve never heard of this Rosetta thing.”
           “Well he brought teams of savants with him. Do you remember
that? They carried back all their records and artifacts and published volumes
about them.”
           “Yes, but there was nothing with a clue to translating
hieroglyphics.”
           “Don’t you see?” Nordhausen was getting frustrated now.
“That’s what I’m trying to tell you! There was an artifact. It was
called the Rosetta Stone—perhaps the most significant find of the whole expedition!
There were three languages: Demotic, Greek and the Hieroglyphics, and they all
said the same thing. That was how Champollion made the connection between them.
It was a touchstone, a key reference point that opened everything up.” He gave
Paul a wild look, then changed his tack, hitting on some new thought. “Paul, I
can read them,” Nordhausen insisted.
           “Read what?”
           “The hieroglyphics! I know what they mean—I’ve known about
them for over thirty years. Hell, I’ve got old notebooks in my study—We’ve got
to get over there!”
           “Notebooks? Hold on now, Robert.” Nordhausen was up off his
seat and looking about him, as though searching for something.
           “Yes, notebooks. Good lord, what if they’re gone too?”
           “Sit down, Robert. You’re getting weird on me now.”
           “Sit down? Is that all
you have to say about this? I thought you were the time theoretician here.
Think man! I just came through the Arch, only minutes ago in fact. No, I wasn’t
in the bathroom. I lied about that, but you’ve got to believe me on this point.
I was back in Old London, just like I said, and I’ve done something to change
the Meridian . But I remember the world I came from, Paul,
and it had the Rosetta Stone, the hieroglyphics and all. I remember how to read
the glyphs, and I can prove it to you. Hell, that’s why I went on the mission
in the first place—to read samples of the hieroglyphics that might have been
lost to our time. I figured they might still be intact in an earlier time, and
what better place to look than the British Museum ? So I went
back, damnit. Yes, I screwed up again, and I’m the first to admit that. But I
know I’m right about the stone, the glyphs, and all the rest.”
           Paul gave him a long, searching look. He scratched the back
of his head