The Scepter of Ur.

By José Cámara

FOREWORD

Gabriel Torres, a young university student from Seville, discovers overnight that his life is caught up in an unpredictable and apocalyptic spiral; an immense power is at work in his name.

Since the dawn of time, human beings have perpetually manipulated the rest of their fellow human beings, and two ancestral brotherhoods that compete to command the destiny of humanity link their existence so intrinsically that they are willing to extinguish all life on Earth.

A wonderful journey awaits you on a lively carpet of magical colors, which will transport you from the cradle of civilization in the Middle East to the great European Hadron Collider and the emerging Asian continent. A chaotic and unbridled tidal wave of spies, theories and legends, supernatural powers and beings from other planets.

Under the placid China Sea and the healthy coolness of the Tokyo sky, the mother of all wars is about to be unleashed...

Welcome to a contemporary tale born at the dawn of civilization.

Welcome to The Scepter of Ur.

• Language: English
• Publisher: José Cámara
• Release date: Jul 7, 2020
• ISBN: 9781005974381

José Cámara

Sobre el autor:Nací en Sevilla (1.978) y sentí pasión por la literatura desde muy joven. Radico entre Europa y el continente americano.Mi amor y respeto por las letras me animó a publicar El Cetro de Ur, la primera novela de una trilogía realizada con sumo esmero y cariño.

Book preview

FOREWORD

Gabriel Torres, a young university student from Seville, discovers overnight that his life is caught up in an unpredictable and apocalyptic spiral; an immense power is at work in his name.

Since the dawn of time, human beings have perpet- ually manipulated the rest of their fellow human beings, and two ancestral brotherhoods that compete to command the destiny of humanity link their existence so intrinsically that they are willing to extinguish all life on Earth.

A wonderful journey awaits you on a lively carpet of magical colors, which will transport you from the cradle of civilization in the Middle East to the great European Hadron Collider and the emerging Asian continent. A chaotic and unbridled tidal wave of spies, theories and legends, supernatural powers and beings from other planets.

Under the placid China Sea and the healthy cool- ness of the Tokyo sky, the mother of all wars is about to be unleashed...

Welcome to a contemporary tale born at the dawn of civilization.

Welcome to The Scepter of Ur.

To Patricia... the love of my life.

This novel wouldn't have been born without you.

Made by the author, with contributions from

Patricia Giovanna Pure Cusi.

E-mail: [e-mail]

Facebook: ElcetrodeUr

Twitter: @CetroEl

ISBN: 978-84-09-13380-2

Legal Deposit: SE 1427-2019

All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the express permission of the copyright holder.

The Scepter of Ur.

© JOSÉ CÁMARA, [2020]

The social model that does not base

its foundations in the will of its

participants is born dead

The society that does not watch

over its true freedom

will die…

CHAPTER I (The Find)

Iraqi desert. Nasiriya, ancient city of Ur.

October 1938

Otto Rahn carefully cleaned that worn-out splint, hoping it would take them out of the frustration they were in.

Thirty-four years old, of medium height and slim build, this writer with a kind face and penetrating gaze felt the wear and tear after six months of hard work in the excavation.

A member of the Nazi Party and of the Shutzstaffel, better known as the S.S., he was assigned a primary mission together with his comrade in rank, Edmund Kiss, under the orders of his friend Heinrich Himmler; commander in chief of the S.S.

Edmund, on the other hand, walked up and down nervously as he gave orders left and right. He was over fifty years old and was a man of rough temperament and narrow eyes. A former combatant of the First World War, writer, archaeologist and architect, he shared with Otto many concerns and even some physical similarities.

-Are you sure this is the place, Otto? We've been beating the crap out of each other for weeks," he said angrily as he kicked hard at a plate of fine desert sand.

-You know it's very difficult to interpret these plans," he replied with a lost look at a dusty, rickety papyrus. It has to be the house of Abraham and Saray, we have to go a few more meters to the northeast, in that direction! -He pointed to the mud walls.

Edmund snapped his fingers with the energy that characterized him, and caused the workers to react to his orders and continue with their work despite the unbear- able heat; he inspired in them less respect than the fear of his bad character.

Otto was fortunate enough to buy two years earlier on the black market in Baghdad, near the Suq Al-Ghazel minaret, a huge and varied set of parts from a small-time trafficker who had stolen them from one of the trucks from the excavations carried out by Sir Leonard Wooley the previous decade.

This merchant told us that he removed the pieces with great skill until they made up that magnificent lot, and all this in spite of the security measures that the British Army deployed for the protection of some relics that had as their main destinations the British Museum and the University of Pennsylvania.

Nothing could be further from the truth. After twelve years of excavations, the British were so interested in getting out of that desert that many of the pieces, es- pecially those belonging to the ruins of the city, not so much those inside the ziggurat, were released by over- loading the moorings on the trucks or were left in the ru- ins without being catalogued.

A regrettable disaster that Otto and the SS-Ahne- nerbe, the Society for Research and Teaching on German Ancestral Heritage led by Himmler, were ready to take ad- vantage of.

Edmund was anxious because he was receiving a lot of pressure from many different fronts. On the one hand, from Ahnenerbe himself and Karl Wolf, the SS general, to whom he owed his commitment because of the delay in the results, and on the other hand, from Nuri Al- Said, the politician whom they bribed to keep the British in the dark. Great Britain retained military bases and freedom of movement throughout the territory after the Anglo- Iraqi treaty of 1930, although it left Iraq outside the guardianship of the Empire in 1932.

He looked askance at the Totenkopfring, the S.S. ring of honor that Otto proudly displayed on his right hand. That silver ring full of runic symbols, with its skull and two warm crosses, was Himmler's private distinction to the most recognized members of the society.

An admiration that Edmund coveted greatly, and this mission was the culmination of his career and the key to achieving that respect.

The flash of sunlight on the ring made him look at one of the workers at the dig, a young half-slave from the area who worked with little diligence near the adobe col- umns, and he did not hesitate for a moment to vent all his frustrations after sinking the sole of his boot into his back.

That miserable kick knocked him down on one of the food tables that supported a sink of water filled to the brim.

-You dirty, clumsy bastard. -I'm surrounded by useless people! -he shouted angrily as he went about his business at ease.

-Stop it! -his partner interrupted him. Look!

Edmund turned around in an effort to assuage the rest of his anger at Otto, whom he blamed for much of his frustration, but as soon as he became aware of what had happened he was speechless; there was no trace of water left on the ground of the dig.

They both looked puzzled. Where had it leaked?

He shoved the young man who had vexed him sec- onds before to get out of the area, grabbed the pickaxe he was carrying in his hands, and beat the ground with ex- treme brutality until he broke.

-Eureka! he exclaimed with joy.

For the first time in months, his look was different and full of excitement. One square metre had been de- tached and revealed the existence of an underground construction, something unprecedented in this type of settlement, which, being hidden, must have been very valuablement.

-Give me a torch, quick! -exclaimed Otto in amaze.

One of the lookouts they had placed several kilometres away from the excavation surprised them. The poor, barefoot, half-starved child covered the distance in the stifling heat and arrived breathless.

The foreman yanked the boy to inform them, but he could hardly catch his breath from the ride. Everyone was waiting for the little one in the rales to mumble.

-Al-Said...

The two shared their looks of wonder. Nuri Al-Said was approaching the dig with a convoy of soldiers and it was clear that this was not a courtesy visit.

They had been ignoring his warnings for months because that leech was always asking for more money to keep the mouths of the officials who issued the permits for the exploitation closed.

-I knew it! That wretch hasn't paid anyone and he's spent it all," said Edmund worriedly.

-And it's coming right now, damn it!" exclaimed Otto nervously. We can't leave this to him, it's too important. Cover everything with the tarpaulins! -he ordered the workers. Go to him, promise him anything, threaten him if you have to, but for God's sake he's got to get out of here!

Edmund ran to the entrance of the dig, but it was too late; the vehicles were already inside the complex.

Even so, he continued in their direction to increase the distance between them and the find, and as soon as he was close, he stopped in his tracks to give the Nazi salute reluctantly and with a sketchy smile, ready for the best performance of his life.

-Heil, Hitler," he exclaimed aloud as the wave of dust and sand carried by the vehicles penetrated his mouth, blew his hat off and drenched his sweat, looking even more grimy.

The convoy stopped abruptly at his height, and one of the soldiers ran to open the door of Nuri Al-Said's Rolls Royce Phantom while the rest remained inside the vehi- cles.

Edmund was aware that they were going to find a financial offer very expensive and was not at all reassured by the fact that one of the vehicles was carrying a ma- chine gun that was pointed at him with the face of few friends.

-My dear Edmund! What am I going to do with you?" said Nuri in a haughty and arrogant tone as she stripped off her gloves and shook the dust from her boots.

About the same height as Edmund, but better fed, he was in his early fifties. With prominent eyebrows, elon- gated ears, and suspicious demeanor he stood with a fake smile and hands in his pockets as he looked from head to toe.

-I see that the desert doesn't treat you well at all," he commented on the disarray and the dirt on his clothes.

-I can't say the same for you. -He swallowed his pride as he admired the imposing bodywork of the Rolls Royce.

-It's obvious that if I do well, it's not thanks to you..." he said as a reproach. In view of the pressures to which I am subjected I am obliged to ask you to leave the dig today.

-Today? But Nuri, it's impossible...

-Today! -he interrupted. In fact, you are leaving right now and I have these gentlemen with me to make sure of it.

Edmund was stunned. He found it hard to believe that he could throw them out so quickly, but the decision had been made and he was almost out of options.

I had the possibility to promise her more money, but I didn't know if the Shutzstaffel would grant it or if Nuri would accept it. Another alternative was to threaten him with a lawsuit. A somewhat reckless attitude when the muzzle of a machine gun is saying to your face, "Make my day, you fool. And finally, they always had the option of leaving.

That meant throwing away all his work, losing all hope of obtaining recognition and becoming a faint- hearted traitor by serving the discovery on a platter to the British, who would ultimately be the ones to take over.

He didn't know what decision to make because they all seemed equally bad, so he swallowed his saliva and let his mind randomly articulate the words.

-Nuri, Nuri, Nuri... and now what are we going to do with you?" he asked without hesitation.

Al-Said was surprised; he didn't expect so much guts from someone who was being shot by a 7.70mm Bren.

-Otto, come here a minute!

His companion was unaware of what was happen- ing, but when he reached his height he held his hand and brought the Totenkopfring close to Nuri's face.

The reflection of the Sun on the skull of the ring sparkled under his prominent dark eyebrows as he danced it before his eyes like a taught hypnotist.

-Nuri, my friend. You are aware of who is financing this exploitation and has an interest in it, just as you also know that the British will not be in Iraq for much longer.

-The Fürher has had no qualms about invading Austria, the Sudetenland and Czechoslovakia, and the threats from the British and the French have not intimi- dated him in the slightest," he said in the same arrogant and superb tone with which he had addressed him minutes before.

The expression on Nuri's face became enigmatic. She thought that the German government was financing the exploitation, but not that the S.S. was, and she was unaware that Otto was a recognized member of the Ahne- nerbe and a personal friend of Heinrich Himmler, the Führer's right-hand man.

In 1938, Adolf Hitler was a feared and respected figure throughout the world, so much so that Time magazine itself recognized him as man of the year on January 2, 1939.

-The English will be leaving here soon. -If a war breaks out in Europe, they will protect their strategic cen- tres, and it is clear that Iraq is not one of them. The Fürher is also very interested in this excavation and can be very generous with the people who support him.

-Someone with so much command in the admin- istration of the country would be indispensable in a fu- ture government and, who knows, might even rule it.

-On a ship you always have to hold on with one hand..." he commented skillfully because the English did not support him in General Bakr Sidgi's revolt.

Both waited for Nuri's reaction with an extraordi- nary poker face, but inside they were terrified. In partic- ular Otto, who kept turning over in his head the mistake that Edmund had made in the speech; he said that the excavation was very important for the Führer. That meant recognizing that it was vital for Germany and they would pay a lot for it if it came to that.

What nonsense! What kept Nuri from giving the order to shoot them with nothing and no one stopping her? he thought.  He had served her on a platter the opportunity to get a huge slice of what they were looking for in those archaic ruins.

Still, in Nuri's mind Edmund's words about Ger- many's predisposition weighed like stones. He remem- bered the Anschluss in Austria and the invasion of the Sudetenland and made him think that, "if the Führer was willing to break treaties and confront the powers in a world war, what would prevent him from wiping it off the map if what was in those ruins that the English them- selves had already plundered was so valuable to Hitler himself?

Nuri looked into their eyes for a few uncomfortable seconds, looking for a glimmer of doubt that proved to be non-existent.

-It was only a joke, my friends," he exclaimed with a big smile.

The two held their breath in that extraordinarily vital cast and took advantage of the monumental laugh to finally exhale the air from their lungs.

Edmund had been in very tense situations during the war and was well used to it, but Otto had never endured a situation of such caliber and his legs trembled so much that he had to lean on the Rolls Royce to keep from falling.

-Next week we'll arrange some payments and that's it. -We're leaving! -He got in the car and drove off immediately.

Both held the fake smile until the convoy crossed the line and then looked at each other with an expression of relief and complicity that lasted less than expected, the time it took Edmund to remember the discovery.

-The digging!

Otto pulled aside the tarpaulins blocking access to that unexplored space and asked the foreman for a torch while the workers drilled the edges of the entrance.

He threw her inside to check for the presence of oxygen and the absence of flammable gases, and once he confirmed this concern for good, he approached his part- ner with the end of a rope.

-After such a memorable speech, I'd be proud if you'd come in first.

Edmund forgot any animosity with such an honor- able gesture, gave him a sincere smile, and walked down the rope to the ground.

It was hard for him to breathe, it was evident that whatever was inside the cabin had not been exposed to the world for centuries, perhaps millennia, and he picked up the torch to go into the unknown.

As he lost sight of him and with the impatience that was characteristic of that moment, Otto questioned him several times without getting an answer.

-Edmund, what do you see? -Edmund, answer!

About to burst out of nerves and despair he saw his face flickering in the shadows.

-Otto, go call Karl Wolf, tell him to inform Himmler. We found it!

CHAPTER II (Genesis)

Seville, Spain. 2.004

It was their breakfast ritual, especially that Sunday morning: a tall, full glass of half a packet of cookies and four milk-dipped muffins.

A preparation that, as a haute cuisine recipe, was not strictly finished until the spoon was left upright and without any movement.

Such fascinating amalgam could well be used in concrete on a construction site, but there is no stomach in a five-year-old child that would not digest even cement if necessary.

For Gabriel it was the perfect breakfast, while Michael, his tedious older brother, was more inclined to eat cereal.

Gabriel Torres or gaby, as he was affectionately called, doubted that he really liked them because of his fondness for using them as ammunition at breakfast, being more of an instrument with which to give free rein to a child's mischief. At ten years old, Michael was an insidious party pooper rather than a protective brother. His parents, Claudia and Manuel, suffered with resignation that he did not bear well the loss of protagonism with the birth of the little one and, although they tried by all means to deal with that envy, with profuse love and holy patience, they did not succeed completely.

-He hit my glasses, Mama! He mumbled in disgust as he scratched his cheek with his sweater sleeve.

-You hold on, four-eyes! Captain of the Lice! -Michael replied with the stupid song he always used to mock his precocious myopia, accompanied by a characteristic guttural aftertaste that he repeated three times at the end of the laughter and was unbearable.

-Leave your brother alone! -his mother scolded him. If you don't behave, we'll stay home.

That morning they were planning a family picnic and enjoy the dim sun of a rainy and mild winter, something unusual for the time of year.

Claudia Fernández, a housewife, and Manuel Ramírez, an architect by profession, were part of the humble middle class that survived on few luxuries, an old car and a disturbing mortgage.

-Come on, guys! Pick up your breakfast, we're leaving.

-A storm is expected in the afternoon," said Manuel as he gave her a sweet kiss on the neck.

-Stand still!" she exclaimed contentedly. Help me, I want to sunbathe, I'm pale! -She pinched her cheeks in front of the mirror in the hall, and you need it too, you've got a tan like a clerk.

The children trudged down the stairs and dragged their parents out the door before jumping into the back seats of the car. Miguel elbowed and pushed his brother while Claudia watched as her husband tried in vain to start the engine, which seemed to succumb to a whooping cough attack.

-I told you that you had to take him to the workshop, that one day he'd leave us in the lurch!

-Calm down, woman, it's still a long way off. It's the engine that's cold...

-Cold? -He raised his voice. Because the mechanic said last time it was the starter, and the shock absorbers, and the trolls... I don't even know what they are! It's never the same story, and now what are we going to do... -The engine ignition silenced his words. The shadow of ending his days in a junkyard rejuvenated him for a five-year period.

Manuel breathed a sigh of relief, but he knew that it was better to be quiet than to lie down in the bush with a reproach, and he set off without a word of complaint.

Sitting in the back seat, Gabriel watched his mother place her hand in his father's hand while he smiled shyly and, though brief, said many things. The experience of living together for many years, where a simple grimace or a raised eyebrow unleashed the perfect storm or a waterfall of kisses. Singular gestures that only they could decipher.

They arrived at their destination wanting to get out of the car and finish that embarrassing family scene as soon as possible. Gabriel, his arm reddened by his brother's pinching, covered his ears as he shunned the song, the insults and his three-way laugh, and Claudia kept telling him to leave him alone.

The landscape was spectacular: pine forests, eucalyptus trees and some shy alder trees could be seen as far as the eye could see. The leaves and fallen branches of the trees formed genuine beds in a range of yellowish, brown and greenish tones. The sound of the wind as it struck them was drowsy, and their footsteps resembled those of the waves breaking away from the sea.

They sat down together under the shade of a majestic eucalyptus tree and in the company of a not at all opulent picnic which, after a well-deserved rest that could not be further flattered by the children's restlessness, ended with their permission to explore the forest on the condition that they return as soon as they were called, in case they had to leave earlier due to the storm.

Their parents poured a glass of wine for the benefit of their absence and huddled like lovebirds under that extraordinary eucalyptus tree, which had given them such good shade and good times in the past.

As he walked into the unknown in the company of his brother, Gabriel looked back for reference and could not help but smile as he watched Manuel lay Claudia on his lap and pour out much of the wine that had just been served.

They advanced towards the thicket and in barely a hundred meters the atmosphere became gloomy and sinister. The trees were covered with the scarce light that reluctantly penetrated to the ground, and the repetitive and monotonous sound of the wind waves on the eucalyptus leaves ceased, becoming silent.

Gabriel walked cautiously over that sea of leaves through the tangle of insects, crawlers and vermin that it might contain, but his brother went into the woods so quickly that he lost sight of him and sensed that he was lost.

-Migue! -Where are you? Migue! -he shouted several times without reply.

He looked back to remember the exact point of reference he pointed out in his mind when he left, and that calmed his nerves because it would at least allow him to alert his parents, but as soon as he was ready to do so he heard his brother's voice.

-Gaby, come on! -Run!

When the little boy reached his side, he found a Dantesque image: on the top of a cliff, interspersed with bushes and grass, lay a spotted hare, big ears and a tuft of albs. The poor animal had the misfortune to stumble upon a hunting trap that had broken its leg, and it whimpered faintly for the hours it had been in captivity while bleeding so slowly that this would not be the cause of its end, but devoured alive by predators or pure starvation.

Gabriel felt a mixture of sorrow and frustration, at the tragic end of such a tender animal and being unable to do anything to save it. Feelings to which he added rage and anger as he watched his brother, who shared his same blood, enjoy stinging the hare with a sharp branch while screaming in pain.

-What are you doing!? -He asked visibly upset. Leave her alone! You're hurting her!

-Shut up, you little runt!

-I'm going to tell Mom and Dad! -He exclaimed helplessly.

His meager threats were of no use, Michael kept on biting the poor hare and laughing like a fool with that stupid smile.

Gabriel was incapable of understanding such cruelty in his own brother, his own blood.

How could they be so different, he wondered.

Despite being much smaller in age and size, he summoned up his courage and tried to stop his vileness, but Miguel hit him in the face and knocked him to the ground.

He put his hand to his nose and felt it wet. He was bleeding from the punch, but that didn't deter him. On the contrary, it made him even more angry.

Gabriel was clear about what was right and what was wrong, and he was consumed with helplessness when he saw a defenseless animal being abused.

Miguel was amusing himself with his misdeed, unaware of his brother's condition and insensitive to the acts he was performing, when suddenly he felt a blow on his side that knocked him down. As he turned around on the ground, he was surprised to see that the little boy was holding a stone in his hands of such size that he would have had a hard time getting up.

She looked at him with an expression of anger that she had never known, her eyes watering and angry, and half her face tinged with a bright red-brown mixture of the earth and her own blood.

He was afraid of his younger brother for the first time in his life, and such was his fear that with a voice cut off in panic he shouted at him:

-Stop it!!!

Gabriel looked him straight in the eye and threw the stone at the hare.

-He said as he walked away from the call of his parents, "He no longer suffers.

Michael dropped the carrion stick and followed in his footsteps...

-Children, it's starting to rain! -exclaimed Manuel as he saw them peeking through the trees. Where have you been? We've been calling you for a while.

-What happened to you, Gaby? -Claudia asked as soon as she noticed that he was wearing his blood-stained clothes. -Are you all right, darling?

Gabriel looked at his brother, who was frightened by the deserved reprimand that awaited him in the making.

-Nothing, Mom! I tripped over a stone and fell," he replied with a smile. I'm fine, it's not bleeding anymore.

Miguel breathed a sigh of relief, that lesson brought out the best in him. It was the beginning of a truce in his relationship with his brother and he waved his hair in a loving gesture before the astonished look of Claudia, who had not perceived this complicity between them for years and preferred not to ask.

As soon as they left, it started raining. The road ran parallel to an irrigation channel that stretched for tens of kilometers, was winding and easily deteriorated.

The children joked in the back seats, oblivious to the words of their mother, who ordered them to fasten their seat belts, and they were alerted as soon as the rain turned into a storm that made it impossible for them to distinguish the lines in the road.

Manuel drove as fast as visibility allowed. The water level in the canal was very high due to the rains and, as he had had the opportunity to see on many occasions, the leaves and branches of the trees blocked the drains and flooded the road, so it was important to reach the main road as soon as possible.

To make matters worse, if the situation itself was not already risky enough, a vehicle dazzled them with its lights.

-What's that idiot doing?! -What's that idiot doing? But can't you see that you can't go any faster?

The car was driving along with its rear bumper, flashing its lights and honking its horn to try to overtake them, but when it crossed the oncoming vehicles it took up its position and dazzled them again.

It was of little or no use that Manuel tilted his rear-view mirror to avoid being directly blinded by the glare; since the car was so close to them and their windows were fogged, the light reflected inside as if it were a fair and it was impossible to distinguish the path of the road.

-This madman is going to get us killed! -exclaimed his wife as she honked her horn in despair.

Manuel rolled down the window to turn the outside mirror and contain the glare. The water penetrated the back of the vehicle and soaked the children while Claudia cried out in hysterics a string of insults conceived on the spot, unless mascachapas and cagaprisas had a recognized meaning.

In desperation, he decided to pull over to the side of the road to make room for the bastard while he indicated with his indicators that he should overtake him, but just when he started the maneuver a truck driving in the opposite direction flashed its lights to warn of his presence.

As he did not give up trying, he maneuvered to avoid an accident and his car skidded on the track in a singular aquaplaning.

He had to use his skills to avoid ending up in the gutter and it wasn't long before all three vehicles crashed, but despite the Dantean scene and after an excursion outside the road he finally managed to overtake them.

Silence took its rightful place and Manuel readjusted his mirrors to see the faces of his children, bruised by the cold and the shock. To break their anguish, he closed the window and said to them with a smile.

-Children! What you have heard from your mother's mouth, don't you ever think of repeating it.

Claudia laughed out loud and everyone laughed out loud to release the tension that had built up during those minutes of heart attack. The rain even stopped and Gabriel leaned back in his seat while he imagined himself at home, well showered and warm, but the tension of his smile relaxed when he contemplated the silhouette of his brother, who was pale and with his mouth unbent, pointing in the direction of the vehicle's advance.

He watched as his chest swelled and the veins in his neck thickened until he felt the echo of their cry.

-Dad, look out!

When he looked beyond the windscreen he understood his brother's reaction: the car that had tormented them was stuck in the road.

Visibility was poor and his father was late in reacting. The overflow prevented him from braking in time and he could only turn the wheel in the direction of the canal. At the speed at which they were driving, the collision was comparable to hitting a wall.

The water penetrated the interior through the windows and the windshield that came loose after the crash, and it numbed Gabriel's body as it filtered into his lungs and subtracted the vitality they contained.

They were sinking hopelessly in the depths of the waters, but just before they vanished he felt his arm being pulled...

CHAPTER III (Star hunting)

Paris, France. October 5, 2010

The four of them climbed the building's stairs to the roof and used pseudonyms instead of names to avoid being recognized.

-Is it a good place? Did you bring the target? -Newton asked.

-Yes, it's in the rucksack by the tripod," said Einstein in agitation as he continued his climb at a good pace. It is the best place without a doubt: the terrace is wide and as it is higher than the nearby buildings it is not reflected. With the new moon and the clear sky it is the perfect conjunction.

-I don't like perfect scenarios. In all probability, if everything is perfect now, it will be a disaster later," Newton replied.

-Always anticipating the worst and with your natural tendency to balance everything, my dear. Entropy and luck have nothing in common.

-You better not tell me how lucky you are that it's 13 plants.

-Twelve. Ah, twelve and the roof..." he said, smiling. I forgot your triscaidecaphobia.

Copernicus and Ptolemy had been arguing for quite some time during the ascent, and when they reached the terrace door and caught their breath, Einstein interrupted their conversation.

-He asked as Ptolemy leaned over to pick the lock.

-What's the problem? -Said Copernicus in disgust. -Aside from the twelve floors we've had to climb on foot?

-Thirteen," Newton smiled.

-It happens, dear friend, that Ptolemy conjectures the absurd hypothesis that the hotter it is on Earth the further it is from the Sun, and I do not see the point.

-What an asshole drag! I told you that's right, you've been doing that all afternoon," she replied angrily.

-I am not an asshole... -The Sun radiates heat and it is logical to think that the closer we are to it the hotter we feel.

-Right... -You're not an asshole, you're worse that a pain in the ass!

Newton and Einstein shared a smile for the squabbling among the children; they were more than used to this kind of childish squabbling.

-So I'm a pain in the ass, aren't I? -he replied angrily. I'll give you a practical example so you can understand me...

While they were