Free Not the End of the World by Christopher Brookmyre

obscuring this lost culture was the fact that the only surviving documents were written in two as‐
yet indecipherable script forms, known as Linear A and Linear B. The latter had been identified as a very primitive form of Greek, but the former, although having contributed words to Linear B, seemed to be a different language altogether. So although the archaeologists possessed artefacts that gave clues as to the make‐
up of the Minoan civilisation, they were without any first‐
hand depictions of what life in it was like. Until Jerry Blake excavated a site just outside Beirut last year, discovered when developers were clearing the ruins of a bombed‐
out apartment block. A number of scrolls were sealed inside an earthenware jar, written in an early form of Hebrew that instantly dated them from around 1500 BC. The anticipated biblo‐
archaeological feeding frenzy failed to ensue after the first cursory translations of text fragments revealed them to be first‐
person accounts of events not in the Holy Land, but in ‘Kaftor’, the contemporary name for Crete. In the smaller field of Minoan archaeology, however, the find was nothing short of explosive. Questions – and arguments – had already arisen over whether the scrolls might themselves be a translation of original Minoan documents, or whether their author had command of both languages. This issue had important ramifications for the authenticity of what the texts depicted and, Jerry predicted, would be the bloody battleground for many archaeological bust‐
ups. It was inevitable that the scrolls would largely contradict certain established theories about Minoan life, so the scholars who adhered to those theories would have to defend their academic reputations by discrediting the reliability of the new accounts. which was where Maria came in. Contrary to Coop’s relentless innuendo, Maria had never met Jerry Blake – their relationship was purely electronic, her Internet research forays having led to regular correspondence with him on the subject of the Minoans. This had made her one of the first to know about the Beirut find, and initially Jerry had promised to keep her updated about whatever secrets the scrolls yielded, as and when the translations were sufficiently coherent. However, when those translations revealed that the texts included what purported to be a first‐
hand description of the destruction of Thera and its cataclysmic aftermath, her involvement became rather less passive. Jerry recruited her to assess the veracity of the scrolls’ account from a seismological point of view, because if that part sounded like bullshit then it would cast serious doubts over the credibility of the rest. From all she’d seen so far, Maria was satisfied that if whoever penned these scrolls wasn’t around when Thera went bang, then he sure as hell knew a man who was. All that he described, even the most fantastic‐
sounding phenomena, was seismologically and vulcanologically authentic. Events that even Jerry had assumed to be ‘the narrator laying it on pretty thick’ were not only scientifically explicable, but highly unlikely to have been inspired by anything other than direct witness. From the preceding years of earthquakes and lesser eruptions to the insanity of Thera’s last hours, this chronicler was talking about things he simply wouldn’t have known to make up.
    The eruptions had begun long before dawn, heralded as ever by the night’s tremors, spewing forth pumice upon the waters and blackness into the air, confounding we who thought there could not be so much ash in the world as had already smothered the life from our lands on Kaftor. Those fleeing in boats from Tira’s shores found their eyes and skin begin to burn, as if their bodies had been flayed and vinegar poured upon the wounds. Their throats and noses became choked with this searing vapour, which ate through flesh and smelt of death and decay. Upon the stricken island, the mountain’s