The Iron Man [Serial]

Resonance

Even after the dance, some of the others still talked about that Gigolo song, how it had struck a chord with so many in Europe. Murphy had heard a German version in Berlin; Prim had heard that as well. There was a French version. The song was popular in Barcelona, too, where Prim had first learned of it.

"I think the popularity is influenced by fact that the original lyrics are more clearly the lament of a soldier," Prim said as he passed one of the lamps to Alpha. "It was written just after the end of the war, when our veterans were unsure what work they could get under the Pax, and possibly looking to marry, but...."

"I barely saw combat," Alpha said. He held the light near Thierry where he crouched to take a sample of dark striations on the ramp. "My father was in office by that time, and I didn't want any favors, but they sent me as a liaison to Faisal's camp in Syria."

"I have never served in any war," Thierry said, "I just like the song because a friend taught it to me."

"There's a French version 'C'est Mon Gigolo' from the point-of-view of a lady," Murphy said from his seat on the ramp. "But the version you sang, with the English lyrics, was our anthem. The idea that poverty, loss of youth, and anonymity are the worse crimes!" He laughed.

"Please, do not go on," I said, "I shall write a lament about how I disliked that Green Carnation book and it's endless discussion of how witty and artistic we must be."   

"You must have stitched this flower before you read the book," Murphy said, extending his left arm with the embroidered sleeve.

"It was on the way here from the Impero," I said, "green seemed the color."

"It is because they have caught on to its use as a symbol in certain circles," Thierry said. He stood and stowed his tools and samples in a slim satchel.

"Oh," I said, not quite having realized it before. "Murphy, how is it you like that book?"

"Who said I did?"

"It was on your shelf, and your mother said you learned English by reading it."

Murphy sighed. "It is strange to me you have conversations with my mother. It is not even entirely true. I mean, she's mistaken in forgetting I had picture books in several languages." He paused, turning his head to look at me. "The book is meaningful because I read it with my father, and because I met the author, once."

"I thought it was anonymous."

"It was. A story for another time?"

"We can move on, if David has finished marveling at the masonry," Thierry said.

"Quite," David called, still being within earshot, especially so given the nature of these granite-lined chambers. "It does look like something was chiseled out from that third corbel down, but Howard says that's been noted before."

"Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence," Howard said, still holding one of the induction bulbs aloft, "Though the chisel marks suggest something may have been there and removed, without remains of a false ceiling, we have no evidence there was a false ceiling painted with stars was there."

"But a written witness account describing 'chambers had been built in which the stars and heavens were depicted' paired with the marks on the wall implies—"

"Only that there is a pyramid with a chamber containing stars, as there is in Saqqara, and that Egyptians could chisel granite. To me, that is the more important lesson. The very pyramid itself is evidence that a civilization with advanced arts and sciences existed here."