The Midas Code

Jordan Orr was Gia Cavano’s second cousin on her mother’s side. When Orr was just a boy, his family decided to take a trip back to his grandparents’ home region of Campania. Cavano’s parents welcomed them and hosted the three of them for two weeks while the Orrs visited Naples. It was during that time that Cavano and Orr went exploring and stumbled onto the Midas treasure.

The Orrs returned to the United States, planning to come back to Italy every year or two, but Cavano didn’t hear from Orr again until many years after his parents died. She said it had never occurred to the authorities to send him back to Italy to live with his extended family. And by the time Cavano was an adult, and ready to follow up on what she’d seen in the tunnels, she couldn’t track Orr down.

Five years ago, Orr took a trip to Europe and reconnected with Cavano. Only then did he learn that an Italian Ministry of Health building had been built atop the original entrance to the tunnel they’d discovered. It would take major demolition to cut through the foundation, and days more to map out the tunnels before finding the chamber again. But Orr and Cavano remembered the well opening they’d seen and realized that there might be another way in. He proposed that they search for this entrance to the vault.

For three years, they combed through every available historical document that had even a passing reference to Midas or gold, but they could find no mention of the Midas chamber.

Then the Archimedes manuscript and the golden hand were discovered in an English landholder’s attic and made headlines around the world. When she and Orr saw the golden hand, which matched the statue in the Midas chamber, they knew the one line from the manuscript that had been released to the public was not just a fable.

He who controls this map controls the riches of Midas.

The codex would lead them to the treasure map. Orr and Cavano realized that they would have no chance to get the manuscript once the auction house’s appraisal and cataloguing were completed and the document’s full contents were known. So they came up with the plan to steal it before the appraisal was done.

The heist went off without a hitch and then… nothing. She had provided the muscle, including two men who had been loyal to her and reported Orr’s movements back to her without his knowledge, but everyone in the crew had disappeared without a trace. Cavano assumed the escape boat had gone down at sea with all hands.

“I purchased the tablet several months later,” Cavano said, finishing the story. “It had been found with the hand and the manuscript, but it wasn’t part of the original auction. After the theft, the seller didn’t trust the auction house, so I was able to make a generous preemptive offer. I believed that tablet might have something to do with the search for Midas, but I could not divine its purpose. I thought I never would. Until now.”

“What makes you think we know anything about this search for Midas?” Stacy said.

“Because Jordan must be alive and in possession of the manuscript. He knows I’m days from returning to the Midas chamber myself, and he’s trying to beat me to it. Loyalty is prized above everything else in my culture, and Jordan betrayed me. For that, I will make him pay.”

She pressed a button, and her bodyguard opened the door. He came in carrying the pack Tyler had put in the Range Rover’s trunk. The bodyguard laid it on the desk. Cavano reached in and pulled out the pack’s only content.

The geolabe. Cavano’s eyes glittered as she looked at it.

“Fascinating device. You’ll have to explain what it does later.”

She put it back in the pack and spoke to the man in Italian. This went back and forth for a minute, and the man finally said, “Si,” and left with the pack.

“What do you want?” Tyler said.

“I want you to help me find Jordan.”

“We’d like to,” Stacy said, “but we don’t know how to find your cousin.”

“You’re not a very good liar, Dr. Benedict.” Cavano drummed her fingers on the desk. “So. How much for you to give up your search and tell me where he is?”

“How much?”

“I’ll give you a share of the gold.”

Tyler and Stacy looked at each other as if they were contemplating the offer. Tyler knew this offer would be made only once. If they turned it down, they would be forced to do what she wanted anyway. Tyler briefly considered allying with Cavano against Orr, but it was too risky. If he and Stacy weren’t able to complete their task, Orr would know they had failed. Then Sherman Locke and Carol Benedict would die.

“Supposing we know anything about this,” Tyler said. “How do we know you can deliver our share if we turn him in to you?”