Rome, U.S. Embassy
Laboratory
10 March 2022, 5:23 p.m.
«There must be some pattern, some logic behind the positioning of these symbols, Holy Cleopatra!» Lionhill blurted out in frustration.
They had spent over one hour reading the symbols on the nine cubes. Reading symbols on the lateral faces and especially on the back of the cubes required a lot of patience. On top of that, they had to pay attention to prevent an accidental activation of a potential self-destruction mechanism in case of wrong positioning of the cubes. Lara had replaced Lionhill when examining the cubes on the upper part of the ring, which his disability prevented him from reaching. Finally, a couple of minutes before noon, the 36 symbols had been identified and transcribed into the 9-by-4 grid.
«We've been beating our brains for over five hours, but we still haven't found anything that makes sense», Lara said, disappointed.
«Well, if Young didn't call every half an hour to check on progress, maybe we could focus better...»
At that moment March's phone rang again and the notes of Em Rossi's Earthquake used as a ringtone spread throughout the room.
«Again!» Lionhill huffed, both hands in his hair.
«Any progress?» March asked for the umpteenth time in the last few hours.
«Please call Major Young and arrange for two good espresso from Café Doney to be delivered to us». Lionhill deliberately stressed the word "espresso" to be sure not to get an American coffee by mistake. «Mine, in a glass, long but not too much, macchiato with cold milk, half a teaspoon of sugar. For the young lady, macchiato with hot milk, one teaspoon of brown sugar. Thank you. Is it all clear, Lance Corporal Dawson?»
«Yes, sir!» replied March promptly, snapping to attention. «But my name is March, sir! And I am not a Lance Corporal, sir!» he added, shouting.
«I know, sir!» Lionhill replied while March exited the room.
«You are terrible, Guido», Lara scolded him but could not help smiling.
«I know, madam!» Lionhill said, smiling as well. «Now that we got rid of the sellerone [very tall and thin person], let's take stock of the situation», he said. He moved his hands close to his mouth, cupped his hands, and touched his lower lip with the tips of his index fingers.
He remained silent for a few moments while gathering his thoughts. Then he said: «Let's recap: the ring has nine notches with a metal cube in each of them. Four of the six faces of each cube are engraved, for a total of 36 symbols.»
Lionhill reached out to the 9-by-4 grid that Lara had diligently filled in with the 36 symbols, then continued: «All symbols on the cubes are also on the Phaistos Disk. Three of them, SHIP, HELMET and HIDE, are engraved twice on the cubes. The Phaistos Disk has a total of 45 distinct symbols. As a consequence, 12 of them are not on the cubes.»
«Correct. The 12 symbols on the disk but not on the cubes are TIARA, CLUB, SAW, BOOMERANG, CARPENTRY PLANE, BEEHIVE, BULLS LEG, DOVE, BEE, ROSETTE, OX BACK, and FLUTE», Lara read from a sheet of paper.
«The Disk of Phaistos is made of 61 "words", so to speak, 31 on side A and the other 30 on side B.»
«And the very first word on side A is made of the five symbols engraved on the outer shell of the ring», Lara added.
«So, if we ignore the first word on side A, we would have 30 words on each side. Therefore, 33 distinct symbols on the cubes, and 30 words on each side of the disk.»
«However, out of the 33 symbols on the cubes, PLUMED HEAD, PEDESTRIAN and SHIELD are also engraved on the outer shell. If we excluded them, we are left with 30 symbols on the cubes, exactly the same number of words on each side of the disk», Lara said.
«Interesting idea... you are suggesting that there could be a one-to-one matching between the 30 symbols on the cubes and the 30 words on each side of the disk...»
Lionhill tinkered for a few moments on his smartphone, a Samsung A10, then said: «Let's focus for the moment on side A. This is the transcription of the 31 words engraved on it, marked with codes A1 through A31. The word on the outer shell is the one marked with A1.»
The professor handed his smartphone over to Lara. On its display there was an 8-by-4 grid of symbols he had downloaded from Wikipedia. «How would you link the 30 symbols on the cubes to the 30 words, A2 to A31?» Lionhill asked.
Lara studied the sequence on the smartphone for a while, stroking her chin with her left hand, and shaking her head from time to time.
«No, it doesn't work», she finally said, placing the smartphone on the desk. «I thought there might be a link between the 30 symbols on the cubes and the very first symbol in each of the 30 words on side A. However, the 30 symbols on the cubes are all different from each other, but the symbols at the beginning of the 30 words are not. For example, the PLUMED HEAD is the first symbol in 13 of the 30 words.»
«On the other hand, if we take instead into account the last symbols in each word on the disk, we would end up with symbols that are not on the cubes, like BOOMERANG, ROSETTE, or BEE», Lionhill said.
The professor grabbed his smartphone and, after a couple of touches on its screen, handed it back to Lara.
«This is the transcription of the 30 words on side B, marked with codes B1 through B30.»
Lara carefully studied the new 8-by-4 matrix on the smartphone. A few moments later she shook her head and raised her eyes to meet those of Lionhill.
«No, side B doesn't work either», Lara finally said, disappointed. «The 30 symbols at the start of the words do not form a sequence of unique symbols. The PLUMED HEAD is at the start of 5 words, and the CAT is at the start of 6 of them, just to name two examples. And the HELMET is the last symbol in 6 out of 30 words.»
Lara stood up and started pacing up and down the room thinking. Then she sat down again, her eyes fixed on the sheets of notes scattered across the desk in front of her.
«I can't breathe...» Lionhill widened his shirt collar with his right hand. «I hate being in a room with no windows and the door closed.»
«Tell me about it!» Lara said. «Qui dentro c'è un'afa [It's muggy in here]... I don't think the air conditioning is working properly.»
«What did you say?» Lionhill asked, suddenly turning to Lara, his eyes wide open.
«I wondered whether the air conditioning was working properly...»
«No, what did you say before you mentioned the air conditioning.»
«Ho detto che qui c'è un'afa terribile [I said that it is terribly muggy in here ] I'm suffocating!»
«Why didn't I think of it earlier!» Lionhill shouted, loudly clapping his hands, a large smile on his face. «Afa... hapax... The hapaxes! That is, those symbols appearing only once on the Phaistos Disk. How many are they? Nine! How many cubes on the ring? Nine! It can't be coincidence!»
Lara jumped up, adrenaline kicking in.
«The nine hapaxes on the Phaistos Disk are the CAPTIVE... first cube, fourth face... the CHILD... fifth cube, first face...» Lara checked the sheet with the 9-by-4 grid, the voice trembling with emotion. «The BOW... third cube, second face... the MATTOCK... seventh cube, fourth face... the LID... fourth cube, third face... the RAM... ninth cube, first face... the GRATER... eighth cube, second face...»
Lionhill's mouth widened in a smile as if he had matched all 6 numbers at Superenalotto.
«The STRAINER... sixth cube, third face... and, last, the SMALL AXE... second cube, second face», Lara said, looking at Lionhill with teary eyes.
«CAPTIVE - SMALL AXE - BOW - LID - CHILD - STRAINER- MATTOCK - GRATER - RAM... one symbol per cube, in exactly the same order as they are engraved on the disk, starting from side A and finishing on side B...We found the sequence!»
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