"Michael, sometimes I think you are a madman." He shrugged, then turned to hobble back toward the bedroom. "Just don't answer the door, whatever you do."
"Get some sleep. I'll be doing the same."
"Then good night. May God give you rest." He was gone.
Vance barely nodded, since he was already turning to the appendix of the book and switching on the dim overhead light. The volume brought back a world long lost for him. Now he wanted it back, if only for a moment.
He flipped to Appendix C. There he'd reproduced, as a dutiful scholar should, the standard numerical correlates for the syllabary of Linear B.
Mycenaen Syllabary (after Ventris, 1953)
da qa sa je o ra
01 16 31 46 61 76