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Because air transport was a scarce resource in Antarctica, the helicopter that had brought them to the work site had returned to McMurdo Station, and wouldn’t be available again for several hours. So while Quinn and his partner Curtis Johnson—a gregarious fellow with a grin as big as a Halloween jack-o-lantern—began bulldozing the ice shavings into the borehole, both to rebury Grace and at least partially return the landscape to its original condition, Kismet, following Rose’s advice, went to work creating digital copies of both the journal and the strange tarot card.
Rose had immediately recognized the image on the card, confirming and clarifying Kismet’s original identification.
“This is the Magus card from the Thoth deck created by Aleister Crowley,” she said, enlarging the image on the screen of Kismet’s tablet computer. “A version of it, anyway. There are some differences.”
“Thoth was an Egyptian god, right?” Maddock said.
Rose nodded. “The god of wisdom and knowledge.”
“Isn’t Thoth also the Egyptian version of Hermes?”
“The ancients made that connection, though strictly speaking, the god on this card is a representation of Mercury.”
“Same dif,” Bones muttered.
“There are similarities, but they aren’t the same,” Rose insisted. “Crowley was very particular about the imagery he chose for this deck, and specifically this card. He wasn’t happy with the first few attempts, much to the chagrin of his collaborator, Lady Frieda Harris. He made her paint at least four different versions before finally settling on one that looked pretty much like this. He didn’t call it the Magus, though. His name for the card was the Juggler, which is more consistent with the symbolism used in earlier decks, where the magician isn’t a sorcerer but more of a sleight-of-hand performer. His decision to show a divine figure instead of a human was very controversial among occultists of his time.” She paused a beat and then delivered her caveat. “John Edward Grace disappeared in 1912. Crowley didn’t start work on his tarot deck until 1938.”
“How is that possible?” Jade asked.
Bones shrugged. “Duh. Magic.”
Kismet stared at the image on the screen with renewed interest. “You said this isn’t exactly the same as Crowley’s card.”
“If we had WiFi down here, I’d show you a side-by-side comparison.”
“Is it possible that Crowley and Grace knew each other?”
“Assuming that he and Adam Garral are one and the same, I’d say it’s very likely. They traveled in the same circles, and I don’t just mean the occult. Crowley was a renowned mountaineer and world traveler. It’s also widely believed that he was working for British intelligence. That story you told us about Garral spending a night in the Great Pyramid. Crowley claimed to have done that also. Maybe they both did, or maybe he borrowed the story from Garral. Either way, I don’t think it’s a coincidence.”
Maddock saw where things were headed. “So maybe Garral-slash-Grace showed Crowley this card back in 19-aught-whatever, and thirty years later, Crowley tried to reproduce it from memory.”
“I still say magic,” Bones said. “But if the egg came before the chicken, where did iceman get the card in the first place?”
“Hand painted tarot decks have been around since the 15th Century. They would have been collector’s items for occult enthusiasts in the 19th and early 20th. But like I said, the imagery on the Thoth Magus is unique.”
“Whoever painted this one knew about the Apex. And the orb from the Outpost.”
“John Dee!” Jade exclaimed.
“It’s pronounced: ‘Yahtzee,’” Bones said.
Jade ignored him. “Grace must have found the card in the Liber whatchamacallit, the same way you found it in his diary.”
Kismet inclined his head toward her. “That makes sense. And if Dee really was some kind of seer, maybe he saw the Apex and the orb in one of his visions.”
“Dee didn’t have visions,” Jade corrected. “Kelly was the one who had the visions. Dee just wrote it all down.” When she realized everyone was looking at her expectantly, she grimaced. “I heard that somewhere. But the point is, he saw them.” She turned to Kismet. “Remember how the manuscript talked about the elemental temples? Pyramids! Your great-grandfather found the Apex in the Great Pyramid in Egypt. Maddock found the orb in a pyramid under the ice.”
“So the other two are also in pyramids,” Maddock said. “Where?”
Jade shook her head. “No. Dee already had one piece. The smoking mirror from the temple of Tezcatlipoca. An Aztec pyramid!”
“Obsidian,” Kismet mused. “That would represent the earth element.”
“And it's shaped like a disk,” Jade added.
Bones wagged his head. “Does anybody else think this is...you know, a reach? We’ve got an Aztec artifact that’s probably... what, a few hundred years old. Then we’ve got something from an Egyptian pyramid that could be five thousand years old. And that orb...who even knows who put it there? And yet somehow, this kooky old mystic saw it all.”
Ten years earlier, Maddock would have agreed wholeheartedly, but now he wasn’t so quick to dismiss the seemingly impossible. “It’s not the strangest thing we’ve seen,” he said, and then, with a wry smile added. “Could be aliens, traveling in time and space.”
Bones’ skepticism immediately vanished as he latched on to the suggestion. “Aliens. Of course.”
“Dee’s mirror,” Kismet said. “It’s in the British Museum. I’ve seen it. And I’d be willing to bet Adam Garral saw it, too. It led him to the Apex stone, and then it led him here.” He raised his eyes to the others. “There’s just one piece left. Air. The sword. But where?”
Bones stroked his chin in mock-thoughtfulness. “I’m thinking it’s in a pyramid. Rose? What do you think?”
She shrugged. “Don’t look at me. I’ve read a couple books on Crowley, but I’m no expert on this occult stuff.”
Jade offered a cryptic grin. “I think we need to look in the mirror.”