While he was trying to find Lydia inside the almost empty church, she managed to elude him and already started her descent on the staircase into the darkness below.
◆◆◆
“XGlass activate light.” The dust was almost suffocating. As she was touching the steps, a thick layer of dust dislodged.
She quickly took out one of the protection masks she was given at the airport.
After she put it on, her breathing normalized.
After several meters, she reached the bottom of the staircase.
The air was moldy but breathable. A strange gust of air gave off a familiar fragrance—honeysuckle.
The floor glittered with crystal rocks, which reflected the light projected by her XGlass.
“Do you see this, Neo? It seems untouched for millennia. But what are we looking for?” Lydia asked worriedly.
“Besides the floor, I cannot spot anything on the walls made of similar marble as the outside column.”
“Did you try to use the double-pyramidion octahedron?”
“Maybe its magnetic properties will trigger another mechanism,” Neo said, worried by Lydia’s irregular breathing.
“I smell honeysuckle again, but I cannot trace where it’s coming from,” Lydia said, taking out the octahedron.
She waved it around the darkroom, but nothing happened.
Then by lowering it towards the floor level, something activated. The entire floor made of rock crystal started to vibrate, and each piece projected light on the darkened ceiling.
The octahedron was snatched from her by a magnetic force, making it rotate rapidly towards the floor’s center. The intensity of the multiple rays of light was increasing.
Looking more carefully at the lights, Lydia realized that the ceiling projections were forming a set of characters.
“Neo, please record the video flow. Do you recognize the letters?
“They resemble Egyptian hieroglyphs and again Aramaic when combined all together.”
Lydia went around the room, mapping the ceiling and finally understood how the mechanism was functioning. The final clue was given by the burning smell and the floor, which started to emanate heat.
“Neo, I think the honeysuckle oil was heated by the octahedron’s magnetic field.”
“I don’t know how much time the light projection will be fueled by the oil. Do you have the entire ceiling on the recording?
As she asked, the lights went off, and the metallic octahedron fell on the floor splitting in two.
The floor was starting to crack, and the crystals were exploding one by one, like mini bombs spraying sharp shards everywhere.
“Lydia, you have to run now,” Neo shouted.
One fragment grazed her arm, and another wounded her cheek.
“Damn it, I didn’t expect this.”
While running towards the staircase, she bent and grabbed one of the mini-pyramidions. The other was in the middle of the room, impossible to reach.
When climbing the first step of the stairs, she thought maybe she should go back and risk recovering the other half, but the center of the floor started to collapse.
The floor was replaced with a chasm, which swallowed the mini-pyramidion together with the glittering rock crystals.
She quickly climbed the staircase, which now was shaking as well. I hope I can exit…The steps below her were detaching and collapsing into the hole.
“Are you okay, Lydia?” Neo asked because the video feed was cutting in and out for a few moments.
Lydia was breathing heavily but managed to climb and snatch the baptisterium’s stone border hanging only by her right hand.
“Ahh, Neo, I just have to pull myself up. I don’t know if I have the strength,” she said as a trickle of blood came her hand, wounded by shrapnel from one of the crystals.
She balanced herself with the last ounce of strength and managed to put the other hand on the edge.
“Lydia, you need to focus. Please, you can do it.” Hearing Neo’s voice gave her the energy she needed to pull herself up.
She quickly rolled on the ground, taking some distance from the cruciform baptisterium transformed now into a deep black abyss, with the ground around her still shaking.
“Lydia, you better run now. The whole place might collapse. I already ordered a cab for you; someone is waiting at the top of the stairs.”
The old driver was fiddling with the beads of his kombolói, “ah kyria, eiste i kyria Lydia?”
“Yes, yes, that’s me,” Lydia said, trying to hide her wounded hand.
“Please drive towards the sea, I would like to say goodbye to it.”
§CHAPTER 67§
THE MEDITERRANEAN SEA was at its finest, with the waves hitting the esplanade and the water shimmering into the sun.
“Kyria mou aima, aima… parakalo prosexte,” shouted the driver, angrily gesticulating, almost losing the car’s control.
Lydia understood that the driver was afraid she would stain his car. He quickly handed her a couple of sticking plasters, which he took out from his glove compartment.
“Thank you,” Lydia said, covering her wound after first extracting from her arm a very fine, needle-like piece of crystal.
“Neo, can you hear me?”
“Yes, Lydia. Thank God you managed to pull yourself out. For a moment, I thought you wouldn’t make it.”
“Such a pity I could not be there to help.”
“No worries. You have done everything you can,” Lydia said with a sweet voice.
“For a moment, I died with you, and then I felt reborn.” Neo was almost stuttering and became shy again.
“Neo, are you in love? Who is the lucky girl or boy?” Lydia chuckled, blushing at the thought.
For a moment, there was a small pause from Neo.
“Hilarious Lydia del Biondo. Very funny… I am afraid there is no time for romance now. I have important things to tell you.”
“It’s good you managed to recover one of the two mini-pyramidions,” he said taking a deep breath.
“Strange, I don’t know if this is the correct order of words from the ceiling projection’s translation, but here it goes.”
“Seek the flower of life growing inside the Atlantean labyrinth guarded by Griffins, which need to be subdued by the power of the sacred pyramid.”
“Excellent. Now, we must discover Atlantis, a labyrinth, and griffins.”
“Atlantis was supposedly located between Crete and Santorini, with the central city in the middle of Santorini, destroyed by a catastrophic eruption some thirty-five hundred years ago.”
“My parents were fascinated with the legends of this mythical place. They promised that one day we’d explore its ruins together.”
“We always watched the Indiana Jones and Tomb Raider movies. My dad even called me Lara sometimes.”
“I played all the games,” Neo said.
“I cannot believe that I am a part of that reality now, fighting for our lives next to a real Lara Croft.”
“Can you search for a location with griffins in one of the two islands? Hopefully, the translation was accurate,” Lydia stated.
“Well, we already have a first match.”
“In the throne room of the Knossos palace, there is a set of griffins that have stylized flowers of life as their hearts, a spiral of the infinite…the Fibonacci sequence.”
Neo projected on her XGlass the image of a stone throne protected by the two griffins. These mystical creatures were thought to be the guardians of a treasure or a powerful artifact.
“Your search skills and translation algorithms are improving all the time, Neo.”
“I would not have survived without your help, that’s for sure…” Lydia said, blushing while thinking of Neo.
“Could we please go to the airport now. I think I’ve had enough of the sea,” Lydia gently asked the driver.
“Ne kyria mou, we go to the airport,” the driver said obediently.
“Strange choice,
I didn’t know that the Minoan civilization was fascinated with griffins,” Lydia said, surprised.
“Oh yes, the word griffin comes from the Greek gryphon, a powerful mystical animal with the head of an eagle and the body of a lion.”
“A hybrid between the king of the beasts and the king of the birds.”
“I have more good news. I booked you a charter flight to Crete. The virus situation is getting worse, so you’ll fly alone like a true VIP,” Neo announced.
“In two hours, you’ll be landing in the Heraklion airport, and from there, a car will take you directly to the archaeological site of the Knossos Palace. Do not forget to have a good rest on the plane.”
§CHAPTER 68§
WASHINGTON,
THE White house
A TALL FIGURE towered over the resolute desk located in the White House’s Oval Office, thinking of the number of past presidents who sat at it.
From his perspective, this piece of furniture was a bit overrated
History will always have its unknown heroes, but this kind of trinket will always survive.
“Did you call me, Mr. Vice President?” his secretary asked with a trembling voice despite appearing sure of himself. He was in his early thirties and had piercing eyes and impressive physique.
“Yes, Andrew, please get Senator Mark Hopkins in here as soon as possible.” The Vice President was full of anger.
“Yes, sir, I’ll bring him right away,” Andrew said and quickly exited.
I never wanted this office. Now our plan is doomed, and this global outbreak will generate an unfathomable fallout.
The death of de Moncler will have so many ramifications. It put in motion a chain of events that went beyond our control.
Even our great country cannot count on its President, who is still presently in quarantine like many other world leaders after attending the G20 summit.
There was a knock at the door, and a rather young Senator entered with a confident look on his face.
“Mark, thank you for coming on such short notice,” Lightgood said. “Please, Mark, have a seat.”
The Senator obediently complied with Lightgood’s instruction.
“My dear Mark, there is a sinister plot being put into place by forces beyond our control. It started in Brussels with the death of the European Commission’s President, and now I have some alarming news. I was informed by the CIA that the White House received a call from an entity who presented himself as the Phoenix, stating he kidnapped your wife and your two sons.”
“It said your family will be killed if, in twenty-four hours, Lydia del Biondo is not handed over to them.”
“I know you have as many questions as I do, but Lydia was the protégé of my late good friend Helene de Moncler.“
“I think they want to destroy us, especially me, through you and Lydia.”
“You are like my son, but now you have to be strong and find Lydia, who is in mortal danger,” the Vice President said, his eyes expressing deep sadness
“Mr. Vice President—Simon, how do I know that my family will be spared?” Mark asked, his face contorting into a grimace of despair.
“Don’t worry my son, the entire secret service is trying to find a way to save your family. It is an utmost priority for me.”
“I will need to save your family and the entire country from the grip of COVID-19.
The news sounded grim as the newly installed plasma TVs in the oval office were showing a catastrophic situation with New York at the epicenter of the outbreak. Tens of thousands were dead and morgues becoming overwhelmed. Mark turned to the Vice President. Failing to control his anger, he banged his fists on the desk, almost screaming: “who is this Lydia del Biondo? Why would someone go to such lengths to kidnap my family?”
“I don’t really know my son, and in the current situation, I cannot do more.”
“This is why I called you here. I asked the CIA to give you access to a private plane. Lydia was last located in Thessaloniki, Greece. The secret service is currently triangulating her location. They will provide constant updates to you.”
While he exited, a secret service agent whispered into his ear: “please follow me, Senator. I’ll escort you to the airport.” They hurried along the corridor leading outside the Oval Office, which was bustling with people wearing protective masks. They then vanished through one of the secret emergency exits.
§CHAPTER 69§
THE POPE was breathing heavily. He needed his Ventolin spray, which he always kept in one of his robe’s pockets. He took three puffs to calm his panic-induced asthma attack, and his breath slowly normalized.
The Sistine Chapel always had a soothing effect on him.
“I’m sure there are no microphones here because Cardinals were afraid of having their secrets revealed. They never dared to spy on anyone in here.”
“I constantly asked Armand to check if the room was bugged,” the Pope said, still breathing with difficulty.
With a saddened voice, he continued: “I constantly found microphones in my chambers, but we never found any here.”
“Now, this burden will fall on you as my new Head of Security.”
“Listen carefully, Salvatore. What I will tell you now it is a secret you should take to your grave, which I hope, my son, will be a long ways away.”
“I'm sure you’re aware of the whispers related to the Saint Malachy prophecy, which is connected to the choice of my Papal name, making me the destroyer of Rome.”
“Look around what’s happening. All of Italy is suffering profoundly from the new virus. I am starting to believe this is no longer just a coincidence. It is our divine mission to reform the church, but somebody is trying to annihilate me.”
“Some years ago, I had a vision of a little girl that would one day reveal a secret, one that would save all of humanity. She appeared to me; in fact, during the day, I was proclaimed Pope.”
“A few weeks ago, I met with the President of the European Commission, Helene de Moncler, who explained to me that she belonged to a secret society, The Order which was entrusted with keeping one of Jesus’ lost secrets.”
“I only had a brief moment with her in private. She told me that if anything happened to her, I needed to contact her protégé and she gave me this metallic card.”
Salvatore looked carefully at the card, and it seemed to be made of stainless steel with a barely visible dot marking in the middle.
“I think there is something there, but it is too small.” He took out his cell phone and zoomed all the way in revealing a strange pattern.
“Your Holiness, I think I know what this is. It’s a QR code, a quick response code that stores information that could be processed using a Reed–Solomon error correction to extract the data in a readable format.”
“I must have such an application on my cell phone.”
He quickly opened the app and processed the QR code receiving a set of letters
3NpNJfgpYVyZSa8YCfUufC3idVtF3iSX6d
“Does it make any sense to your Holiness?”
“No clue my son. I have never seen such a sequence of letters.”
“Helene only gave me her protégé’s name: Lydia del Biondo, and she also showed a picture of Lydia on her cell phone. I was astonished.
“I instantly recognized Lydia’s eyes—the same eyes that haunted me for so many years, eyes I could never forget.”
“The eyes of the little girl that appeared to me in Saint Peter’s Square, the very night when I was struck by lightning and when the conclave elected me as Pope.”
“I believe this was a divine sign; it’s time for you to go and look for Lydia.”
“You will have unlimited resources—anything you need, the entire Swiss guard, but you need to act swiftly as I’m afraid this virus will become the worst plague humanity has ever faced.”
“I was sure that Lydia held the key to our salvation and would redeem our Holy Church by helping all of humanity.”
“But now I am not
so sure anymore, I feel darkness is approaching, and in the end, Lydia might be working against us.”
“I am not sure I fully understood you, your Holiness.”
“What if del Biondo is the agent of destruction, and we need to stop her?”
“What if everything I believed was just a lie?”
“There is too much at stake, we cannot take any risks.”
“You need to do everything necessary to stop the prophecy from becoming a reality, even if this means putting an end to her.”
“Your Holiness, your wish is my command.”
“I will deploy my entire resources to look for her.”
“I will not fail you, and in the end, I will come back with a solution for your Holiness.”
“I already have forces looking for her but cannot count on them.”
“Thank you, my son, and God bless you. I know you can be trusted.”
“I’m afraid this would not be an easy task, but we have been chosen to be the servants of God and do his bidding.”
“In this final hour, we are the only ones who can prevent the apocalypse predicted by Saint Malachy.”
“Look what’s happening, the apocalypse is already on us. Today another 345 lives were lost with the death toll rising to 2,500, and the increase in infected people skyrocketed to 31,506 from a previous 27,980, the most significant figure outside of China.”
“The crisis is wreaking havoc on our hospitals and left regions of Italy scrambling to strengthen their health systems as the number of contaminated people rose all over the country. We have to find a way to stop this madness.”
§CHAPTER 70§
LYDIA WAS EXPECTED by a dark-haired man with sexy hazel eyes, flashing an iPad with her name blinking: Madame del Biondo.
“Madame, I am Xenios, and I will be your flight attendant and driver. Do you have any luggage?”
“I don’t have any luggage. I have private property in Crete, so I don’t need any,” she said improvising. “I am rather in a hurry. Can we go directly to the airplane?”
The Jesus Christ Cypher Page 16
