Page 4 of Booked for Theft

Then, with deliberate care, he selected one of the pens, bumping the other so that it pointed not far from where I looked. “Do you accept checks, wires, or credit for donations?”

With the concept of a check possibly being written, if anyone used video recording, there would be nothing suspicious in the eyes of those monitoring the senator. I chuckled and replied, “We accept cash, check, and wires. If you wish to do a credit card donation, those can be done on the NYPL website. There is an additional fee for credit transactions, so I don’t recommend them.” I explored the bookshelf in the general direction the pen pointed, which had an eclectic collection of books, many of them dating to long before the United States had become a country. I sucked in a breath, my gaze falling to some I’d only seen in pictures. “These are ancient.”

Numerous of them had a theme, involving history books associated with the city of Bath in England.

Turning to Senator Thaddens, I gestured to one such book that happened to have a much older tome beside it. “Could I have a closer look at this?”

“I will get the gloves. I do insist that anyone handling books of that age wash their hands first. I’ll show you to my bathroom while I get everything we need to take one of those beauties from the shelf.” He got up, smiled at me, and motioned for me to follow. “I thought you would appreciate seeing some of my collection. I have always loved studying Rome and her influence on the world, so as codices from the empire came for sale, I acquired them. While many of these are from the 1400s, I have a few codices from both the early and late Roman Empire. I also have a few scrolls and papyrus sheets that we can admire. The oldest codex I have is a religious gospel of some sort. I believe it might be a prayer book. Many of the surviving scrolls and codices are religious in nature. My favorite are two accounts of Emperor Hadrian and his architectural exploits, written during his reign. I don’t know who wrote it. If there was a page regarding its author, it has long since been lost to time. But it’s a fascinating work, from his rebuild of the Pantheon to his wall in Britannica. Would you like to see those?”

“Would I ever.” I didn’t have to feign excitement over the possibility of holding books penned sometime during Emperor Hadrian’s lifetime. “That is such a priceless treasure.”

“The pair cost me two million, so not as priceless as one might think. I was astonished to receive them for such a bargain. The religious texts were far pricier, auctioned off as part of charity activities. I acquired the codices from a private seller; he had lost interest in the Roman Empire, and he wanted the money to pursue Asian scrolls and other works. It will take me a few minutes to make preparations to handle the books. Use the soap in the darker dispenser, please. The other one is a scented lotion.”

“I’ll avoid the lotion,” I promised.

“Thank you. Please, come with me.”

Aware that the entirety of the senator’s home might be bugged, I made use of the bathroom with care, keeping to my regular habits, including playing on my phone while making use of the toilet. As someone had left a single sheet on the roll of toilet paper, I went through the process of swapping them to discover something inside. To cover my activities, I dropped my cell and the roll, cussing up a storm while checking within the toilet paper, uncovering a USB stick, which I swiped. My phone and the stick went into my purse, and I made a point of flinging a few extra curses at my wretched cell before finishing the process of swapping the rolls, handling my business, thoroughly washing my hands, and checking for anything else of interest.

If the space held any other secrets, I failed to find them.

As the bathroom wasn’t far from Senator Thaddens’s study, I returned, smiling at the man, who also wore gloves and handled his precious tomes with care. He displayed a priceless collection of antiques on his desk, all of them holding some form of secret.

Unless the future changed, I expected the past would be buried and forgotten, destroyed for the sake of the government’s power.

‘We the People’ died in horrific silence, and I doubted the supporters of the government understood the vile histories they recreated.

Plenty liked to claim that absolute power corrupted absolutely, but the longer I became exposed, the less I wanted to do with power.

I desired peace.

It didn’t take much thinking for me to understand how passive peace cultivated corruption—and once planted, those seeds were worse than any weed.

Senator Thaddens gestured to a pair of white gloves on the edge of his desk. “Some of these actually need to be handled. The oils on our hands help preserve them. I use a mix of mundane oils to handle the job, caring for the covers once a month. Has anyone showed you how?”

“No, I can’t say they have. The truly ancient books in the New York Public Library are at the main branch, and only certified librarians tend to those. I’ve seen them, but none of the tomes at my branch are nearly so old.”

“There is no better time than the present to learn. Come, and I’ll introduce you to the tools of my trade and teach you how you can preserve volumes such as these.”

I did as he asked, sliding on the gloves and joining him, marveling at the assortment of cloths, brushes, and other tools needed to keep the books in good condition. He made use of a small vial of oil to dampen the corner of one of his cloths, lightly dabbing at the fragile cover. “That’s not human skin, is it?”

“It is not, but it is leather, and if not properly oiled, leather will become brittle, crack, and flake away to nothing. This specific oil is designed for books, and it contains a preservative that will keep the leather supple and in good condition for decades to come.” After demonstrating how to do it, he handed over the cloth and gave me the opportunity to care for the volume. “This is the first part of the record of Hadrian’s architectural accomplishments. Initially, it wasn’t believed the Romans had used parchments, vellum, or papyrus for writing during his time; prior to the discovery of these works, only wooden tablets discovered at Vindolanda indicated the Romans of Hadrian’s time used ink at all, at least for writing. The inked wood at Vindolanda was quite the archaeological discovery. The location of several ancient private collections and the determination of historians uncovered these. The Vindolanda tablets predate these, or so we think, but not by long. Judging from the content, these were written closer to the time of Hadrian’s death rather than at the height of his rule. The Vindolanda tablets were important records, but the wood oxidized rapidly after discovery. With technology, archaeologists were able to reveal the script, but they have not fared well. While they still exist, they are in dire shape. But they were able to preserve the text for future generations to study, and that is a huge accomplishment.”

I took care with my work, aware I held something thousands of years old in my hands. “And I can open this?”

“Of course. Support the spine in your hand. It’s recently been worked on, so the binding is in excellent condition. The pages undergo professional preservation every three months. That costs me a hundred per book.”

“That’s it?”

“The magic required to do it isn’t difficult, and a lot of universities use antique books as a way for their graduate students to practice. I ask that the professors use these as demonstrations rather than have the students do the work due to their age, which is a request they honor. The university I use does not want to have to pay out the value of a codex of this age.”

No kidding.

Once I had the front, back, and spine properly oiled, I opened the book, holding it as he directed, to have a look inside. One day, I would need to learn how to read Roman script, and while the first few pages were text, the author dove right into the meat of the codex, presenting sketches of various buildings, some I recognized. “Hadrian is behind the Pantheon?”

“He was the architect for it, yes. He worked alongside Apollodorus of Damascus to design it, and he saw to its construction during his reign. It’s not commonly taught anymore.”

No, it wasn’t. “Is Apollodorus the author of this book?”