August slowly raised the lid. Inside was a worn, leather-bound notebook, tied shut with two thin cords. He didn’t dare touch it, for fear that the oil from his fingers might damage its ancient pages.

“You book collectors are all the same,” Xandria said, sitting down and snatching the journal out of the box. “Weak. Afraid. You forget that the value is the content of the books, not the books themselves.” She released the journal’s cords and let it fall open with such a flourish that August thought birds might spring from its pages.

“Tell that to the people I sell to,” August said, infuriated that Xandria would be so cavalier with such a precious commodity. What would it fetch at auction? One hundred thousand? Half a million?Less now, of course, thought August as he watched Xandria flip through it.

Xandria turned to a passage near the middle. “The journal explains that there are three sets of images needed to complete Gutenberg’s riddle.”

“Three sets in three different Gutenberg Bibles?”

“Correct. But there are redundancies. Each set of images can be found in multiple copies of the Gutenberg. For instance, the set of images in your copy could also have been obtained from Gutenberg Bibles in France and Japan.”

“Then why didn’t you just steal those?”

“For one, your photographic memory will come in handy.” How in the world did she know about that? “And for another, your copy provided a unique opportunity. Leveraging, you could call it.”

“Leveraging? This isn’t a business transaction. You’re toying with people’s lives.”

“Whatever you want to call it, it’s working,” Xandria said. “After acquiring the three images from the Morgan Library edition, the only ones we need are the images in the Bible you have and the one your ex-wife is going to steal. And then, of course, there’s the matter of the tenth image.”

“What is that?”

“No need to worry about it now,” Xandria said. “You’ve got nine other images to interpret first.”

“What am I supposed to interpret?”

“Don’t play coy with me,” Xandria said, checking her watch. “You’ve got one hour to figure out the meaning of the first three images.” She closed the journal and placed it back in the box, setting it on the seat beside her.

August resized the images and arranged them on the screen so he could see them all at the same time. “One hour. That’s not enough time. This would take weeks, maybe even months for a team of researchers to figure out.”

“One hour,” Xandria said, stressing each word. “But tell you what. I’ll make you a deal. Something to give you a little more incentive. Figure out these first three images in the next hour, and not only will I save the life of your son, but I’ll put your mother-in-law out of her misery.”