LUCAS AND I EXPLAIN ABOUT THE CANOPIC JAR. UNCLE RANDALL DOESN’T even flinch when we tell him how Castor and Pollux knocked it over and shattered it. All he can do is stare at the rubbing of the Deluge Segment in front of him.
“So this means we can find it,” Ethan says. “Right?”
It’s a little unexpected. I get that I want to find it. If my parents are still alive, then this will lead me right to them. But I don’t understand why Ethan would care one way or the other.
Almost like Lucas can read my mind, he says, “Why do you care?”
Instantly the room ices around us.
Ethan bites his lip. “Because … well, it’s the right thing to do to find it.”
“Why?” Lucas says. “Didn’t you hear the part about how dangerous it is?”
Ethan glares at Lucas. “Of course I heard that. That’s what I’m saying. If it really does exist, and if we can find it, then that means other people could find it, too.”
I want to pretend it’s not a valid point, except it really is. The thought of someone else finding this artifact makes my stomach twist into a knot.
Uncle Randall looks away from the rubbing to Ethan. “You said your dad had a renewed interest in it?”
Ethan nods.
“Why?”
Ethan swallows. “I don’t know. He’s just been talking about it a lot lately. Talking about finding the third piece. He’s probably just curious.”
I highly doubt it’s just curiosity. He wanted to find the Code of Enoch before because of Caden. If he’s interested in it again, then that means he wants to find it, for some reason. There’s no other explanation for the interest.
I instantly want to snatch the piece off the table and tuck it away. What if Ethan takes a picture of it? Then his dad would have all three pieces. And given that his dad works for Amino Corp … it’s not hard to connect the dots.
“He wants it for the company,” I say.
Ethan scowls at me. “He does not. If it’s dangerous and if my dad found it, it’s not like he’d hand it over to Amino Corp so they could destroy the world. And it’s not like they would destroy the world. You guys are being really paranoid about this whole thing.”
Maybe so, but every word out of Ethan’s mouth is making me only more paranoid. I’m about to grill him some more when Lucas picks up the rubbing. “Hannah, can I use your computer to scan this in?”
I look to Uncle Randall who nods. I trust Lucas with my life. Ethan? Not so much. I follow Lucas from the room toward my lab. Uncle Randall and Ethan trail behind. Uncle Randall asks Ethan something, but he whispers so I can’t hear. I walk faster so I don’t have to listen to them.
In my lab, Lucas sits at my computer and scans in the rubbing. Then he loads it up in Photoshop.
“Where’d you store the picture you took the other day when you busted into Amino Corp?” he asks.
“With an accomplice,” Uncle Randall says.
“It was completely her fault,” Lucas says. “I told her it was a bad idea from the start.”
“A likely story,” Uncle Randall says. But I can tell from the tone of his voice that’s he’s not mad anymore. He’s too focused on what’s here in front of us.
I point Lucas to the right directory, and he loads in the picture I took. He does a bunch of stuff that I definitely don’t follow, merging the two images, making the background disappear, flipping them around. Pretty soon, the two images are the same size and layered on top of each other.
“We did stuff like this,” Uncle Randall says. “The images didn’t line up. The symbols didn’t make sense.”
“Maybe,” Lucas says. “But did you try this?” With the cursor, he points to the five notches at the top of one of the pieces. “The ratio for these notches isn’t random. You ever heard of the golden ratio?”
“Like seashells, right?” I say.
“Exactly,” Lucas says. “You see it in art all the time, for as long as art’s been around. If we use that ratio to line up the notches, rotate them just right …” He rotates one of the images, leaving the other as is. Then he messes around with the opacity of the images and makes a few more adjustments. Instantly, the image comes to life, almost like the symbols are popping off the screen in a three dimensional display of art that may have never been seen before.
Uncle Randall sucks in a breath. Maybe I do to.
“The map,” Uncle Randall says.
“Except it’s not complete,” Lucas says. “We still need the third piece.”
Uncle Randall, Lucas, and I all look to Ethan. He takes a step back.
“What?”
“May we see it?” Uncle Randall asks.
“Um …,” Ethan says, but his hand reaches toward the phone in his pocket.
“Come on. You have a picture,” I say, grabbing for the phone. Which is totally irrational. It’s not like I’d be able to unlock his phone even if I wrestle him for it.
“It’s just that—” he starts.
But I can’t let this opportunity slip away. If there is a map and if there is some way to read it, then I need all the pieces of the map to do that.
“Please,” I say. “You have to help me. This is my parents we’re talking about. They’ve been gone for eleven years, and I’ll never get those years back. But if there is any chance that they’re still alive …” My voice catches, and I can’t go on. But this is everything to me. All I’ve ever dreamed of.
Ethan narrows his eyes at me like he wants to disagree, but then his eyes soften. He reaches for his pocket and pulls his phone out, unlocking the screen and passing it to Lucas.
Lucas downloads the image onto my computer and then brings it into Photoshop also. Then, with a couple more rotations and adjustments, the entire image comes together. It’s like a real map, complete with hills and valleys and rivers. The image is in black and white, but with the adjustments that Lucas has made, color appears, highlighting everything, almost to the point where certain sections glow. The map is alive. The map is complete.
The map is going to lead me to my parents.