Jean-Francois Champollion is known as the father of modern Egyptology because he deciphered Egyptian hieroglyphs. However this was not his main goal. It was merely a means to an end. That end was the age of the known world. The Bible was considered the oldest history book and, at the brink of the modern era, was thought to be the key to calculating the years from Adam's first footsteps to Napoleon's own at the foot of the Sphinx.
Everybody likes a good mystery. If you're like me, you might have discovered it because you were bored one rainy afternoon and started browsing you parent's bookshelves for a good story. I can't tell you how many rainy afternoons I spent reading Encyclopedia Brown, Sherlock Holmes, The Hardy Boys or Nancy Drew. And as I grew older, I enjoyed Agatha Christie, Elmore Leonard, Dick Francis and Tony Hillerman. But if you're not an avid reader, you must have sen their stories turned into great films. The Maltese Falcon, The Long Goodbye, The Fugitive or In the Heat of the Night. Or maybe you're the more social type and have played Clue and triumphantly discovered that Mrs. White strangled Mr. Boddy with the rope in the conservatory.
A good detective is one who in not emotionally involved in the case. He can spot motives quite easily before a single interview of a suspect or accomplice. It gets tricky when you're forced to solve your own case. One of the best stories I ever read was about a detective who was trying to solve this serial killer case. The murders occurred at night and naturally the narrator (e.g. the detective) hides the fact that he knows who committed them. The plot thickens until the end when the detective turns himself in. It's a classic case of the "Inverted" detective, unreliable narrator, the killer in me.
Adam goes to Las Vegas on a seemingly innocent trip to have fun and spend some time with his Uncle Billy. What Adam doesn't know is that Uncle Billy is somewhat frustrated at Adam's phobia of the world outside of Texas. As a wanna-be jet-setter, Uncle Billy thinks Adam should be out there sowing his royal oats in every possible country that would have him. What Adam doesn't know is that Uncle Billy has a secret plan to get Adam on a plane to London without any money and force him to have a good time. He buys two one-way tickets to London without any plan on using his. He uses it to get through security and even on the plane. Adam is drugged and drunk so he is completely unaware of what's happening. Billy somehow gets off the plane and Adam is left passed out in his window seat on a non-stop flight to London.
When Adam wakes up, he discovers that Google (a.k.a. John Fryer) was on the flight the entire time.
This chapter should characterize Uncle Billy more than any other character. It should demonstrate that Uncle Billy is the opposite of his father George. Uncle Billy is a fly by the seat of his pants kind of guy. He's one of the few wild horses left in this world. He was cut off after spending too much of the company's funds on travel and entertainment. But what is really behind his motivation to push Adam out of the all-male nest that he's been so comfortably sitting in for the last five years??? [Bigger question]
London will be the backdrop to Adam's initial acclamation to life on the road. Everything will seem like a mystery to him and he will need to learn how enjoy life not knowing where he's going next. The only thing he has to help him is what he remembers about his mother.