The Project 01 - White Jade

hands ? It ' s as big as a baseball. " Carter couldn ' t take it all in at once. He ' d never seen anything like it.
    " I think so, and those blue stones are probably sapphires. " She turned in a circle. " Look at the walls! "
    The flames illuminated murals in brilliant color circling the room. Beneath the pictures, the walls were filled with writing and symbols. The murals looked as if they had been painted just days before.
    Selena walk ed down the steps and over to a mural next to the entrance. Holding her torch close, she examined the writing.
    " My God. This is Linear A. It ' s written in Minoan. And beneath it. " She stopped dead in her tracks.
    " Beneath it, what? "
    " Beneath it are passages in Sanskrit. "
    Carter walked over to her. " Can you read it? "
    " I can read the Sanskrit. I f the Sanskrit is telling the same story as the Linear A, it ' s the greatest linguistic discovery since the Rosetta Stone. "
    " That ' s what led to the translation of Egyptian hieroglyphics. "
    " Yes. No one ' s been able to really understand Linear A. There are theories, but none of them work all the time. It ' s mostly guesswork. That's what I was doing. "
    " It looks like pitchforks and chicken tracks. "
    Selena ignored Ronnie ' s comment. " This is a dream for me. I ' ve been studying dead languages for years. If this is what I think, it will make history. "
    She held her torch high and gazed at the mural above the writing. It showed a tranquil harbor scene, sunlit buildings against an azure sky, white clouds, ships with high, curved ends, people bustling near the docks. The details were vivid , lifelike. Nick could almost feel the trees swaying in an ocean breeze.
    " I think this is ancient Crete . " Her voice was reverent. " This must be the harbor at Knossos. "
    They moved along the wall. Men in orange robes gestured before a bearded man on a raised throne. To one side of the throne a group of women dressed in white stood watching. One woman wore blue.
    " King Minos? "
    " Possible. The Sanskrit says they are presenting a warning to the ' Great King. ' T his is probably the palace at Knossos . Do you know what this means in the world of archaeology? It ' s like finding photographs of 1600 B.C. "
    The King didn ' t look pleased. Whatever the priests were telling him, he wasn ' t happy about it.
    The sequence of murals grew dark. While children played on the beaches, a malignant , towering green wave b ore down on the island. A seething, foaming wall of water crashed over the city, smashing trees, boats, people and buildings against the hills. Then came a narrow band painted black, as if the artist could not bear to show the destruction.
    The next panel showed three sailing ships with high curved ends, plowing across a churning, wave-tossed sea under a smoky red and black sky. Standing on the decks were more of the robed figures in orange and white.
    The scenes continued along the wall. A landing site under a blood-red sun. A long, overland journey through desert and plain , bearers loaded down with boxes and burdens, climbing toward snowcapped mountains in the distance .
    The bearers came to a bleak hilltop. In the following panels a pyramid roofed building and houses were constructed. It was the temple site above.
    The style of painting changed, the work of a different artist. Figures dressed in garments of the early days of the Chinese empire surrounded a large golden palanquin with closed curtains, borne on the shoulders of straining, bare backed slaves. The procession was entering the temple complex on the hilltop.
    In the next panel figures bent over a Chinese man dressed in elaborate robes, lying on a white table. Men in orange and women in white, one in blue, stood on a platform lined with blazing sconces, arms raised and faces uplifted in supplication. Behind them the great golden bird soared with its rider. The painting mirrored what Nick could see with his own eyes.
    The last panel was a detailed map . Carter recognized India , China and Mongolia . It was marked with Minoan and Sanskrit writing.
    The murals told the tale of the end of the Minoan civilization. T hey confirmed the story in the book about taking the First Emperor of China to a secret place.
    This place.
    " I need pictures. " Selena took out her camera. Her hands trembled.
    " See if the writing can tell us anything we need to know. We ' ll take a look at the building. "
    Two V-shaped channels lined with white stone paralleled the steps going up to