“We think the Voynich manuscript was allowed to be found by the Order. It puts it out there so that anyone can find it and read it. Every page is on the Net. They don’t care if the average person finds it—it’s gibberish to them. However, if you have that as a reference, and you have access to the other two books, then you can read them all.”

“How do you know?” I asked.

“Because,” said Circe, “we found the key to the cipher.”

“What?” demanded Lilith, almost in a shriek.

“At least we think we’ve found it. Bug is programming it into MindReader right now. He says that we should have a full translation within hours.”

Lilith shook her head. “We’ve spent years trying to make sense of it, and we have looked at the Codex as well. There is no key to the ciphertext.”

“There is,” insisted Circe, “and it’s in the Voynich manuscript. Rudy figured it out. Or, he kicked off the line of thinking that’s brought us to this point. He said that we’re overthinking this. You see, if the Book is the history of the Agreement, then the Red Order and the Tariqa want their members to be able to read it. Otherwise … why write it down?”

“Makes sense,” I said. “How does it help us, though?”

“Well, we backed up and looked at the issues of translation from the perspective of two ideologies, two cultures who are effectively at war on a permanent basis. They have different customs, different languages, different points of reference on virtually everything … except one. There is one area in which all advanced cultures can agree, language differences aside.”

I had no idea where she was going with this, but Church and Lilith said it at the same time.

“Math.”

“Math,” agreed Circe. “The Voynich manuscript and the Book of Shadows are written in an invented language that has order and structure to it. Therefore it has mathematical predictability as long as anyone who tries to read it has a set of precise, immutable guidelines.”

“Such as a ciphertext,” I said.

“Yes. And the third book in our mix, the Saladin Codex is a book on understanding the science and functions of math.”

Chapter Ninety-three

Chapter Ninety-Three

Arklight Camp

Outskirts of Tehran

June 16, 3:15 a.m.

Circe was so excited that her voice bubbled out of the phone. “One of the reasons historians never paid much attention to the Saladin Codex is it was widely regarded as a well-intentioned and fundamentally flawed set of theories about math. The author was so well-respected that the book was given a place of honor in a museum, but it was an open secret that al-Asiri was no true mathematician. Certainly not by the exacting standards of the Muslim world, and let’s remember that they invented algebra.”

“Is the math in the Codex actually flawed?” I asked.