The Templar's Code

by C. M. Palov

  “While the inscription on the Jefferson Pier has been obliterated, maybe there’s a record of it elsewhere.” Idea proffered, Edie sank her teeth into the hot dog, making him wait until she’d chewed, swallowed, and washed it down with several sips of cola. “I’m guessing that Jefferson and Adams would have sent one another progress reports. When Jefferson surveyed the meridian, he would have written to Adams to inform him of what he’d done. Conversely, when Adams transported the Emerald Tablet from Philly to Washington, he would have sent a letter to Jefferson letting him know that the transport went off without a hitch.”

  “And, in the days before cell phones and e-mail, this information would have been relayed via letters sent in the post.”

  “It’s possible that one or the other may have mentioned the seventy-seventh meridian in a letter. And I’m fairly certain that the written correspondence between Jefferson and Adams is archived online.” Putting aside her half-eaten lunch, Edie opened her leather satchel and removed the netbook computer.

  “A valid theory worth investigating.” Particularly since they’d reached a roadblock.

  “Okay, I’ve got the complete set of Jefferson-Adams letters,” Edie informed him once the computer had booted up. “Lordy. Between the two of ’em, there’s more than three hundred letters. Any suggestions as to the keyword search?”

  “The obvious first choice is ‘meridian.’ ” He dabbed at the corner of his mouth with a paper napkin before setting aside his half-eaten lunch, grateful for a reason to do so.

  “I don’t believe it. . . . We got a hit.” Edie silently read the text, her lips moving as she did so. “Not that it makes a whole lot of sense,” she muttered a few moments later, handing him the netbook.

  Caedmon skimmed over the first page of the missive, which seemed to be little more than inconsequential musings on the weather and an eloquent passage about the harvesting of English peas. When he reached the last paragraph on the second page, his breath caught in his throat.

  By paragraph’s end, he’d reached a startling conclusion.

  “The Great Seal anagram is embedded within this last paragraph.”

  “Really! Are you sure?”

  “Beyond a shadow.” To prove the point, he copied the paragraph and pasted it onto a blank page. He then selected ten words out of the text, which he highlighted. Finished, he handed the netbook back to Edie.

  Mister Adams, be assured that God’s eye will each day be blinded when the noonday sun falls upon our meridian. That is true illumination. Not the superstition and rituals carved on the biblical ten stone. I do not care that those who dabble in the dark arts will be displeased to learn of my deed. I will take my heavenly rest knowing I did not err. For “I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in mine hand.”

  “Biblicil aten stone to gods eye do not err.” Edie stared at the computer screen, lower lip tucked behind her upper row of teeth. Then, frowning, she added, “We still don’t have a clue what it means.”

  “True, but we know that the original Triad members, Franklin, Jefferson, and Adams, devised the anagram in July 1776. That, undoubtedly, was when they formulated their long-term plan to safeguard the Emerald Tablet,” he said, thinking that the most likely premise. “And, clever trio that they were, they knew that if there was a new capital city constructed from the ground up, no one would take notice of a man putting spade to dirt and placing something in a hole.”

  “Because in 1800 when John Adams transported the Emerald Tablet to Washington, the whole city was one big construction zone,” Edie pointed out.

  “From the informative chat with Ranger Walker, we learned that in 1793 Thomas Jefferson surveyed the seventy-seventh meridian. Which, in all likelihood, is when he selected the site where the Triad would hide the Emerald Tablet once it was conveyed to the new capital city.” He paused, taking a moment to flesh out the scheme. “My best guess is that ‘biblicil aten stone to gods eye do not err’ refers to the exact spot, here in Washington, where the Emerald Tablet was hidden. The three original Triad members knew all along that they would eventually hide the bloody thing on the seventy-seventh meridian.”

  “But—and I hate to rain on our picnic—we need a signpost to point us in the right direction. The message originally inscribed on the Jefferson Pier no longer exists.”

  He pointed to the last sentence in the paragraph. “Unless I’m greatly mistaken this is the phrase that was inscribed on Mister Jefferson’s pier.”

  “ ‘I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in mine hand,’ ” she read aloud. “That’s from the Old Testament, isn’t it?”

  “The book of Exodus, to be precise. And it’s a line of scripture rife with layered meaning. The ‘rod of God’ was the wand that Moses used to work his miracles. According to the Bible, it was kept in the Ark of the Covenant.”

  “Along with the Ten Commandments and the Emerald Stone.” Edie snapped her fingers, making the next connection. “And you mentioned earlier that one of Thoth’s attributes was an Egyptian was. Which was a type of rod, right?”

  He nodded. “Additionally, in the eighteenth century, a ‘rod’ was a unit of measure used by surveyors. An instrument that Thomas Jefferson undoubtedly used in his survey of the seventy-seventh meridian. Rather tongue-in-cheek, don’t you think?”

  “Yeah, but we were just at the pier and, well, there isn’t a hill in sight. If the scripture is supposed to be read literally, it means Jefferson was standing on a hill located somewhere on the seventy-seventh—I got it! Hand me that map!” Holding out her hand, Edie wiggled her fingers, the classic “gimme” gesture.

  Caedmon quickly passed the map and pen to her. Anxious, hoping this truly proved a eureka! moment, he watched as Edie confidently drew two lines on the map, making a right-angle triangle.

  “From the Jefferson Pier, head due north on Sixteenth Street, aka God’s line of longitude. Go approximately two miles and you come to”—she handed the map back to him—“Meridian Hill Park. As you can see, the Adams Annex, the Jefferson Pier, and Meridian Hill Park are the three vertices of a perfect right triangle.”

  Bowled over, he stared at the drawing.

  “ ‘I must find the catheti to my hypotenuse,’ ” he murmured, the disparate pieces falling into place. “That’s what the wily bastard Franklin wrote in The Book of Moses.”

  “He did?”

  “Indeed. And, in geometry, the catheti are the two shorter sides of a right triangle.”

  “The hypotenuse being the longest of the three sides.”

  “At the time, I thought it a figurative turn of phrase, Franklin wanting to find two younger men to do his legwork.” He waved away the flawed deduction.

  Overhead, a dark flock flew across the sky in perfect avian formation. Of one mind, they suddenly swung to the left, not an errant bird among them.

  He summoned a smile. “Triad. Triangle. Thoth the Thrice Great. Perfect symmetry.”

  “Okay. Try this on. . . . Suppose we actually find the Emerald Tablet. What happens then?”

  Mmmm . . . an excellent question. For which there were two distinctly different answers: He could keep the sacred artifact for himself, hidden from the scholars, schemers, and occult fanatics who would descend like vultures. Or he could share his discovery with the world and let fate sort the clean laundry from the soiled sheets. Each of the scenarios had merit, Caedmon undecided.

  “I seek neither fame nor fortune. That said, the quest for the Emerald Tablet is a search for wisdom, the ancient relic reputed to contain the knowledge of the Ages. The secret of creation itself.”

  “The secret of creation?” Clearly put off by his reply, Edie pointed to an inscribed equation on the bronze statue. “E equals MC squared. As you no doubt know, that is often referred to as the mathematical equation for Genesis. It boggles the mind—well, my mind—anyway, to think that a teensy amount of mass can produce a huge amount of destructive energy. Poor Uncle Albert.”

  “Indeed, Einste
in discovered firsthand the horrific destruction that can ensue when man takes on the mantle of God.”

  “I’ve often wondered how he slept at night knowing that the blast at Hiroshima killed one hundred thousand people,” Edie said, echoing his thoughts. “Create or annihilate . . . Why do I have this dreadful feeling that the Genesis code contained within the Emerald Tablet can do either?”

  “Benjamin Franklin went to great lengths to keep his powerful discovery out of the hands of men who would misuse it.”

  Her movements slow and deliberate, Edie returned her gaze to the bronze statute. “And Albert Einstein went to his grave regretting the fact that he didn’t.”

  CHAPTER 74

  “According to this plaque, there used to be a granite pier at Meridian Hill Park just like the one that’s on the Washington Monument grounds.” Edie turned toward the busy thoroughfare behind them. “With all the congestion, it’s hard to envision Sixteenth Street as God’s line of longitude.”

  Caedmon reread the bronze plate affixed to the tall concrete wall that bordered the park. “It states that the pier marking the seventy-seventh meridian was situated precisely fifty-two feet and nine inches from where we’re currently standing.” Placing it in the center of what was now four lanes of fast-moving traffic. Damn. First a defaced pier, now one that’s gone missing. While his hopes weren’t dashed, they were dented.

  “Back in the day, that being the year 1800 when Adams and Jefferson stashed their cache, this was nothing but a wild hinterland. In fact, the original L’Enfant plan for the new capital city never included the remote bluffs north of the downtown area.”

  “And the park, when was it constructed?”

  “Sometime in the 1920s. That’s when the area became a residential hub, folks moving up here in droves to escape the heat and humidity.” If Edie was disappointed by the missing pier, she gave no indication.

  “Shall we?” Caedmon motioned to the covered stairway that led into the park.

  An impressive bit of workmanship, the entry was reminiscent of a European citadel. But with a decidedly occult aspect, a flight of steps the age-old symbol of spiritual ascension. Moreover, the darkened passageway bespoke of the primordial chaos from which mankind evolved. The stairs inside Solomon’s Temple that led to the Middle Chamber.

  When he heard the echo of tom-tom drums in the distance, he glanced at the sunlit street behind them, wondering where the sound emanated.

  “I’ve been to Meridian Hill Park numerous times and every time I walk up these steps, I feel like a devotee making a spiritual pilgrimage.”

  “A spot-on observation,” he murmured, the sound of beating drums becoming louder.

  No sooner did they exit the enclosed staircase than they had to shield their eyes with their hands. Afternoon sunlight bounced off the pebbles and bits of mica embedded in the concrete aggregate pavement, the shimmery effect too intense to be happenstance. Someone purposely designed the enclosed passageway so that the initiate would ascend through the dark void into a state of illumination.

  Wondering who that someone might be, he turned slightly—and gasped.

  In the distance, perfectly framed between a majestic allée of linden trees, was the most famous Egyptian obelisk in the world, the Washington Monument. Like the glittering effect at the top of the stairs, the dramatic vista was too contrived not to be intentional.

  “Guess you figured out, Toto, that we’re not in Kansas anymore.” Chuckling, Edie gave him a companionable nudge. “Your reaction, by the way, was priceless. Well, what do you think?” She expansively gestured to the acres of surrounding parkland.

  In truth, he didn’t know what to think, surprised to be standing at one end of a neoclassical promenade flanked by two monumental fountains that had the look and feel of an old-world pleasure park. But not the sound: The New World version hosted a raucous percussion performance attended by an eclectic crowd of bobbing, dancing, whirling attendees. He estimated there were at least forty drummers playing every type of percussion instrument imaginable. A wood djembe, conga drums, an old-school drum set with crash symbol and hi-hat. There was even a bloke on the end playing a xylophone. Add to that the odd cowbell, whistle, and tambourine and it made for a cacophonous fusion of sight and sound.

  Beginning to think that he really had been plunked down in Oz, he turned to Edie, hoping she could supply an explanation for the frenzy.

  “What can I say? I just want to bang on the drum all day.” Swaying slightly, Edie bobbed her head with the thunderous beat. “The drum circle is something of a neighborhood institution.”

  And a perfect diversion. At least a hundred people giving uninhibited expression to their inner child. No one would pay him and Edie any mind as they traipsed through the park and peered under statuary and stone.

  Needing to focus his thoughts, he turned his back on the drum circle. “Tell me everything that you know about the layout and design of Meridian Hill Park.” Not only did Edie hail from Washington, but she also lived a mere eight blocks away.

  His companion immediately stopped swaying. Assuming the classic tour guide pose, right arm raised to point out places of interest, she said, “Basically, it’s two separate parks. We’re currently standing on the upper level, which, as you can see, is a flat escarpment with lots of trees, benches, and walkways. Very French. Think Tuileries in Paris.” Arm still raised, she gestured to the right. “This way, please.”

  He walked with Edie to the edge of the escarpment. Bordered by a sturdy balustrade, it afforded one a magnificent view of the city below, the white dome of the Capitol and the skyscrapers of K Street visible from where they stood.

  “From here, you can view the lower terrace of the park, which is set into a tiered hillside,” Edie said, still in tour guide mode. “Of special interest is the cascading fountain flanked on either side by wide steps with a long reflecting pool in the plaza below. Very Italian. Think Villa Medici.” Falling out of character, Edie chuckled. “All in all, very schizophrenic. Although oddly enough, it works.”

  Caedmon’s attention was drawn to the oversized concrete bowls of water set into the hillside, each one positioned beneath the other. As one basin filled, it overflowed into the one beneath it. And so on and so on. All the way down the hillside. Thirteen basins of cascading water that flowed into the glassy reflecting pool at the bottom.

  Thirteen.

  “I’m guessing the basins represent the original thirteen colonies,” Edie remarked, having intuited the direction of his thoughts.

  “For me, it harkens to that most infamous date in medieval history, October 13, 1307. The day that the royal arrest warrants were issued for the Knights Templar.”

  Edie playfully slapped her forehead. “Silly me! I should have guessed.” Resuming the tour, she gestured to the eastern side of the tiered hillside. “To the left of the cascade fountain, there’s a path that meanders through a lovely grove with a full-length statue of Dante in the clearing. A sacro bosso, as they say in the old country. And at the bottom of the hill, across from the reflecting pool, there’s a seated marble statue of President James Buchanan. Don’t ask me why.”

  Caedmon hitched a hip onto the balustrade. As he did, he was taken aback by what he saw in the so-called Tuileries section of the park. “Good Lord, is that an equestrian statue of Joan of Arc?”

  “Keeping a vigilant eye over the city below. A gift from the women of France to the women of America. Girl power at its best. Although as you can see, somebody stole her thunder.”

  He assumed that Edie referred to the fact that the armored saint was missing the requisite sword, her right arm held aloft, leading the charge against the English army with nothing but thin air.

  “If there is a signpost hidden among all of these bronze and marble tchotchkes, it was put here by a later generation of the Triad.”

  “Mmmm . . .” He didn’t want to consider the possibility that the granite meridian pier, removed decades ago to make way for the park construction, m
ay have been the signpost they sought.

  Edie clapped her hands together. “So, where do we begin?”

  Folding his arms over his chest, a general previewing the parade ground, Caedmon glanced at the female saint astride a horse, the oversized urns, the bubbling fountains, the sacro bosso. “Safe to say that the signpost will not be in plain sight. At the first vertex of our triangle, we discovered Thoth. At the second, an obelisk. Yet here, at the third and final vertex, someone went to great lengths to re-create a European pleasure garden.” Purposefully confounding the hunt.

  “Well, we know that Thoth was missing his two attributes, the was and the ankh. Since we suspect a reference to the was inscribed on the Jefferson Pier, perhaps we need to search for the other attribute.”

  “Possibly.” He recalled the anagram that the original Triad members had cleverly concealed within their Great Seal motto, the meaning of which was still unclear. “Or perhaps an All-Seeing Eye. It has been popping up with annoying frequency.” Stepping away from the balustrade, he slowly turned full circle. “I say, the park is much larger than I expected.”

  “Twelve acres of statuary, fountains, urns, and ferns.” For the first time since entering the park, Edie’s perky optimism dimmed as evidenced by the incised lines that suddenly appeared between her brows. “Yeah, I know, a Herculean task.”

  CHAPTER 75

  Saviour tugged on the baseball cap bill, pulling it lower, obscuring his features. That done, he turned to the muscular Jamaican beside him. Together they swayed and bobbed to the hypnotic percussion beat. Nearly a hundred bystanders swayed and bobbed along with them.

  Without a doubt, Meridian Hill was a mystical and magical place.

  Utterly seduced by the pulse of the drums and the teeming bodies that moved as one glorious, undulating beast, Saviour put a hand on the other man’s shoulder to steady himself. Afraid his legs might actually collapse beneath him. Both sensual and martial, this was the rhythm of the sex act fused to the soldiers’ call to arms.