tuesday morning, i'm considerably richer, orloff made good on his word, which brings its own dilemma, for now i have to produce a result. i've already cracked the book, its pretty obvious it's a treatise on the goddess, and a very early feminist manifesto, what is proving rather tricky is producing the first translated  copy that was published.
no message from paulo or his contacts but i've send out a hyper hydra search virus, it's a simple and elegant piece of code that searches search engines, you just need to target your prey with the correct information, which in this case is fairly narrow, but within a few hours the virus will have embedded itself into every e mail or web page that contains information relating to the original text. the virus is not really a virus, it leaves no trace or forensic evidence, it merely acts as a ghost in the machine, i do the same with orloff, but i suspect the name is a pseudonym, i play around with anagrams but loose focus. 
i can obtain replications, i can get faxed versions but what orloff has requested is an original translation, the first one. the trouble with these is the translator can only hazard an educated guess at these type of books, it's all smoke and mirrors and  'love in a dream' is mostly smoke where the mirror should be and mirror where the smoke is expected. every translation will read unique due to the fact it was written in several different languages to begin with. 
around midday orloff rings, 'tick tock, i need it before venus crosses the sun mission.'
'i can't get you the first translation, my contacts are limited and it's an extremely rare book anyway.'
'tell me what you know so far?'
'i know you're not who you say you are.'
'the book mission, the book, or are you lost in the woods?'
'i'm at home in the woods orloff, if you want to find the book i suggest you hire a private detective. i'm not a detective, i just read a lot.'
'i know who you are captain mission, i know you can find the book.'
'look orloff, there are translations out there, on the net, you can buy facsimiles, various different translations, i don't think you need me at all. this is about something else isn't it?'
'ha ha, i don't need you at all, that is correct you need me though to lead you out from the woods.'
while this ridiculous conversation chased its own tail i received two e mails, one from paulo, one from the hydra ghost virus, it had found out a little about orloff, in fact it was now returning to my laptop with all some considerable information. i watched files enter the download folder.
'orloff, call me back in an hour and i may have something for you.'
i hung up, chucked the phone on the sofa opposite and opened paulo's e mail.
his contact in rome had found the first english translation of 'love in a dream' by robert darlington, but mr. darlington had given up halfway through, driven mad by the task itself, the manuscript was in an antique book collectors for more cash than i could possibly raise, but at least i had found the book, that was something. 
the next attempt at transalation is the one which most people know off, by joscelyn godwin, paulo's contact also said the original author of the book had hidden his name within the book, although it was now well known to be franchesco colonna but there were other schools of thought that said it may be leon battista alberti, perhaps one designed the woodcuts the other the words.
i opened the other e mail and there was a series of photographs of the man who called himself orloff, immediately recognisable. as being identical to the woodcuts. 172 photographs. 172 woodcuts.
i sat back and looked at the images they were all perfect reproductions, exactly the same depictions as their woodcut originals, more detailed and intricate than the woodcuts but originals none-the-less. 
i rearranged their order and jumped into photoshop, then i put each one side by side with the original.
i resized them and overlapped them, bleeding both into one another, they were perfect, which left the question. 
who was orloff?