“Yes sir, and we have a location,” Kroen said.

Drummond turned back to the eye. “Oh Great One, your return will be the mightiest event we worthless humans have ever witnessed.” He got to his feet. “Where, when?” His dark robes trailed as he headed for the doors. On the way, he snatched up a bottle of Swiss mountain water, drank deeply, and then tossed it over his shoulder to the bodyguard.

Kroen caught it smoothly. “I do not know. The Father calls for you.”

Drummond spun, his eyes blazing. “When…?”

“Now,” the guard said.

Drummond felt the color drain from his face. “Of course…” he gulped. “Of course.”

*

“And now we must ask ourselves; where in the Middle East?” Albadi held a finger in the air, waving it, as he talked. “Abdul Alhazred travelled far during his…creative phase, and said he found the ruins of Babylon, the fallen cities of Ibu, and also crossed the haunted deserts of ad-Dahna to the forbidden caves. I believe it is in one of those long-forgotten sites that he got his inspiration for the Book…where he spoke of communing with the Old Ones.”

“Great,” Tania said sharply. “If it’s in a cave, we just go and damn well get it, and then get the hell out of here.”

Albadi turned to her, and opened his arms. “I didn’t say the Book was in the cave. In fact, even if you did find the cave that Alhazred used, it might be of no use to you, now. What I said was, the cave was where Alhazred received his inspiration. No, Captain, the Al Azif was secreted somewhere else, and I believe it is quite close – hidden – in a library.”

Matt looked up. “A library…your library, in Damascus?”

“No, no,” Albadi scoffed. “This copy refers to the Great Library of the Macedonian. Even though the Az-Zahiriyah Library of Damascus was created nearly eight hundred years ago, the library we seek was already ancient long before that. It was the greatest library our world has ever known, and at one time had collected together all the world’s knowledge, and its secrets.” Albadi smiled. “That Macedonian was Alexander.”

“The Bibliotheca Alexandrina; the Library of Alexandria in Egypt,” Matt said. “But it was destroyed nearly two thousand years ago by Julius Caesar.”

“A tragedy on an unbelievable scale,” Albadi said, his eyes downcast. “The most famous example of cultural vandalism in our history.” He looked up. “But not by Caesar, Professor Kearns. It is true that a fire raged through the library at the time of Caesar, but the works were spared. The real cultural vandal was Pope Theophilus in 391 AD, who regarded some of the works as being heretical and decreed they be destroyed.”

“Great; a dead end,” Tania said, pacing away from them. “I gotta use the head; back soon.”

“A dead end?” Albadi asked, brows raised at the departing woman. “The original library was an oasis of wisdom, and Alexandria became the center of the world for scientific and intellectual learning. It was also said to be the repository of many mystical wonders. Things that defied explanation for even the finest minds of their time.”