The Sacred Cipher by Terry Brennan

should adjourn so you
     can watch some silly TV sitcoms?”
    “Oh, come on, Dr. Johnson,” Rodriguez said with an edge. “No harm, no foul, right?
     Don’t stop now.”
    “All right. Three is just as symbolically important as seven. Three is the number
     of trilogy—body, mind, and spirit; or father-mother-child; or past-present-future.
     It is also the number of the three dimensions, or for the process of thought: the
     thinker, the thought, and the thing. It is also the number for the Trinity of Father,
     Son, and Holy Spirit. The fact that these symbols are constructed in these vertical
     rows of three and seven must be significant, otherwise there’s no purpose for constructing
     the scroll in this manner. So, here’s what I’m thinking at the moment.”
    Johnson returned to the drafting table, standing to the side and using his finger
     as a pointer. “You see this symbol,” he said to Bohannon and Rodriguez, pointing to
     a symbol that looked like a cane or a small hockey stick on a diagonal pitch. “This
     is one of the seven symbols the University of Chicago has determined in its Dictionary
     of Demotic that are universally the same in all Demotic writing. That was one of the
     keys we received from the Rosetta Stone. Even though the written Demotic language
     was so very unpredictable, there were at least seven symbols, seven we have been able
     to identify, that are consistent and never change. And that gives us a point at which
     to start. See, this is another, this another, this another,” Johnson said as he pointed
     to different symbols.
    “The odd thing about this document is that even those symbols that we have been able
     to identify as constants are not used in the same manner as they are used in other
     Demotic documents I’ve seen, or on the Rosetta Stone. This symbol, for instance,”
     he said, pointing again to the hockey stick. “This symbol is
F
and it means at its most basic
to fly
. And this symbol over here, the three vertical lines, that is
Y
and it means
sea
. In the Egyptian form of Demotic on the Rosetta Stone, fly is always followed by
     the sea . . . always. It is a phrase construction that is mostly translated as
the light bearer
or
the bringer of good news
. On these sheets,
F
, to fly, is never followed by the symbol for sea. The symbol for fly is all over
     these pages, but the symbol for sea never completes it, not once.”
    Johnson turned from the table to the two men, who were his rapt students. “So, gentlemen,
     what does this one piece of evidence tell you?”
    Silence sat in the room like a third visitor, one that Johnson was quite comfortable
     allowing to remain. Suddenly, Rodriguez looked up from his hands.
    “It means the language is not the message,” Rodriguez said confidently. “It means
     the structure is the message.”
    Johnson, always a bit too pompous for his own good, was astonished at the exact logic
     and quick wit exhibited by this tall, Hispanic librarian.
    “Well, Mr. Rodriguez,” Johnson said with true respect in his voice, “very impressive
     indeed. You are absolutely correct, sir. This message is not written in Demotic, it
     is written in a symbolic cipher using Demotic. It may require some knowledge of Demotic
     to unravel its truth, but our problem is not in the translation of Demotic . . . it
     is in the translation of this cipher. Gentlemen, I think it’s fair to say we’re closer
     to home.”
    “All right!” Bohannon whooped, punching his brother-in-law on the shoulder, “I knew
     you would come in handy one day.”
    “Closer to home,” said Johnson warily, “but still a long way to go. Whoever crafted
     this message was diabolically clever. If someone else, someone without a grounding
     in Demotic, had found this scroll, they could have spent fruitless months trying to
     translate these symbols. This use of Demotic is not only a dead-end rabbit trail,”
     he said triumphantly, “but it is also a security device, a