The Templar's Code

CHAPTER 92

“Still among the living as you can plainly see.”

Caedmon gaped at the resurrected gunman, shocked. “I am as confused as Miss Miller. How can you be both dead and—”

“Alive? A bit of smoke and mirrors, as they say. Or porcelain and bathwater, in this case. Please forgive the subterfuge. A necessary ploy to force your hand. We have not been properly introduced. My birth name is Merkür de Léon. Americanized many years ago to Lyon. Spelled with a y,” he added, obviously amused by the “ploy.”

Still flabbergasted, Caedmon stared at the elderly man who all along had been pulling the puppet strings. The kindly Dr. Lyon. Professor emeritus at Catholic University. Although not so kindly that he didn’t carry a firearm. A Smith & Wesson 9mm revolver. Eight rounds in the clip, one in the chamber. Which meant that Dr. Lyon, professor emeritus, had nine shots available to him. Of course, he only needed two to kill them. An easy enough prospect given that he and Edie were utterly defenseless. Nowhere to hide. And nowhere to run.

“Where is Saviour?” Dr. Lyon scanned the room, his eyes suspiciously narrowing.

Caedmon quickly glanced at Edie. A warning. Whatever you do, love, don’t reveal that his homunculus tumbled into the pits of hell.

“Your neophyte suffered an unexpected bout of claustrophobia, which prompted his early departure.”

“Yeah, he had a real bad case of spelunkphobia,” Edie snickered.

“Since there’s only the one exit, Saviour ordered us to retrieve the relic while he awaits our egress aboveground. I’m surprised you didn’t cross paths.” Caedmon strove for a calm façade, ignoring the searing bolts of pain that continuously pulsed from his battered left hand. Refusing to show any weakness. Smoke and mirrors.

With a nod of the head, Dr. Lyon accepted the deceit as payment in full.

“All in all, well done, sir!” Caedmon congratulated with hale good humor. “We respectfully concede the field and award you the prize. Edie, if you would be so kind as to set the Emerald Tablet on the stone altar where Dr. Lyon may properly examine it.”

“Um, right… be happy to.” Always a dependable teammate, Edie did as instructed.

Like guests summoned to dinner, the three of them gathered at the altar: Dr. Lyon at the head of the table, Caedmon at the foot, and Edie, the hapless diner in the middle. And of course, the silent, uninvited guest Saviour Panos, who’d been cast into the pit just prior to the dinner gong.

Dr. Lyon’s eyes glimmered with unshed tears as he stared at his “dinner plate.” Utterly bedazzled. As Caedmon had been when he first set eyes on the sacred relic.

“I’m admittedly curious as to how you learned of the Emerald Tablet,” he conversationally remarked.

Long moments passed before Dr. Lyon finally tore his gaze away from the relic. “I was approached by Jason Lovett regarding the Paleo-Hebrew inscription that he unearthed in Arcadia.”

“Paleo-Hebrew is an ancient version of the Semitic language,” Caedmon said in a quick aside to Edie.

Like a lover caressing the beloved, Dr. Lyon smoothed his hand over the intricate gold-inlaid design, Edie having set the relic on the altar, backside up. “The Templar inscription proved to be a Latin transliteration. Properly translated, it reads ‘Thoth’s stone.’ ”

“Aka the Emerald Tablet,” Edie said. “Which is how you knew that the Templars had taken the relic to their secret New World colony.”

“No sooner did I read Dr. Lovett’s extraordinary e-mail than I knew it was the Fourth and final Sign.”

Taken aback, Caedmon’s head jerked. “Do you honestly believe that the hand of providence—”

“I am the chosen one!” Dr. Lyon snapped. “It is my destiny to have found the Emerald Tablet.”

Although tempted to point out that he and Edie unearthed the sacred relic, Caedmon held his tongue.

“Oh, puh-leeze! This guy’s clearly delusional,” Edie scoffed, subtlety not her strong suit. “I don’t know why we’re even wasting our breath talking to you.”

“Perhaps because I am the one holding the gun.”

At hearing the ironic riposte, Edie openly glared.

“Do you by any chance know how the Genesis code works?” Caedmon politely inquired, hoping to smooth the rough waters. A calm sea might buy them more time.

“The Emerald Tablet is an ingeniously crafted cryptogram that unlocks the sequences of the Divine Harmonic,” Dr. Lyon replied, back to speaking in a measured professorial tone.

The Divine Harmonic.

He raised a quizzical brow, unfamiliar with the term.

Using the index finger of his left hand as a pointer, Dr. Lyon indicated the circular wreath of intertwined characters. “The pictograph is fashioned from the letters of the Paleo-Hebrew alphabet. Each letter, when spoken aloud, has a specific tone that generates a unique pulse and vibration. Not only can sound and vibration alter physical matter, but it can create physical matter if correctly sequenced.”

Edie turned to him. “Tell me it ain’t so.”

“I cannot,” Caedmon honestly replied, grappling with this latest revelation. “Dr. Lyon’s claim is scientifically possible. Indeed, there is a branch of science known as cymatics that studies modal phenomenon, specifically examining the interaction of sound, vibration, and frequency. The results of these experiments tend to prove Dr. Lyon’s assertion that sound and vibration can affect physical matter.” He hesitated, well aware that the cymatic research had also proved something else. Something utterly astounding.

Dr. Lyon wordlessly lifted his chin in Caedmon’s direction, silently commanding him to continue.

“Right.” He took a deep breath, worried that rather than dousing the flame with a wet flannel, he was about to splash gasoline onto the fire. “The cymatic researchers also discovered that when the letters of the ancient Hebrew language are spoken aloud, the ensuing tonal vibration alters physical matter. This result could not be replicated with any modern-day language.” He shrugged, forced to capitulate under the onerous weight of the scientific evidence. “One can only speculate that there is a universal harmonic contained within the ancient Hebrew language that has the inherent ability to reconfigure physical reality.”

Edie snapped her fingers. “Yeah, don’t you remember? In The Book of Moses, Benjamin Franklin mentioned the Egyptian-styled ritual that he attended and the ‘ungodly chant’ that was sung.”

“Garbled polyglot without the encryption key.” Dr. Lyon dismissively shrugged. “The order of each vibratory sound is the key.”

“Holy crap!” Edie turned to him, wide-eyed. “That can only mean one thing — he’s got the encryption key.”

The older man opened his mouth. Then just as quickly closed it. Neither confirming nor denying.

“Come now. You are among friends. Or at least unarmed dinner companions,” Caedmon coaxed with forced humor.

“Yes, I have the encryption key,” Dr. Lyon finally confessed. “Some years back, I inherited a rare document that chronicles the entire history of the Emerald Tablet dating back to Atlantis and the high priest Thoth. Titled the Luminarium, it was composed by a Muslim Ma’min and a Jewish Kabbalist in the mid-twentieth century. Prior to their deportation to Auschwitz.”

“My God,” Edie murmured, like Caedmon, horrified. The mere mention of the place conjured a ghastly image.

“I’ve never heard of the Luminarium.”

“Only one copy of the manuscript exists. Within its pages, the secret of the Divine Harmonic is revealed.” Dr. Lyon paused, garnering their full attention. “As well as a detailed plan to end the violent depravity that permeates this world.”

Edie immediately swung her gaze toward the head of the table. “Why am I suddenly getting a very bad feeling?”

“The wise authors of the Luminarium knew that evil cannot be contained,” Dr. Lyon continued, an excited glimmer in his eyes. “It must be destroyed. Only then can our earthly souls ascend to the Lost Heaven, our true home. In the Lost Heaven, violence does not exist. There is only the Light. In all its purity and goodness.” Taking a deep breath, Dr. Lyon placed his palm upon the Emerald Tablet. His pose reminiscent of a witness swearing upon a Bible before taking the stand. “I intend to follow in Thoth’s hallowed footsteps. Just as the Atlantean high priest destroyed warmongering Atlantis twelve thousand years ago, I intend to use the Divine Harmonic to destroy this flawed creation.”

Hearing that, Edie gasped.

“God save me from overreaching zealots,” Caedmon muttered, the reality of Dr. Lyon’s scheme hitting him straight on. Like a fist of fives to the underbelly.

“All of which explains why Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson went to such lengths to hide the Emerald Tablet,” Edie exclaimed, her cheeks flushed with heated color. “So that people like you would not get it into their head to play God.”

“One cannot permit evil to exist if one has it in his power to eradicate that evil,” Dr. Lyon calmly replied.

“Making you the ultimate Decider. Oh, that’s rich!”

Dr. Lyon picked up the Emerald Tablet with his left hand and clasped it to his chest. “Unlike you, I have the courage of my convictions. And I will heal humankind by ending the violence and brutality. Once and for all. This is my gift to the planet, to reunite every living soul with the Light. Only then, can you and I and, indeed, every inhabitant of this battle-scarred planet be made whole.”

“I’d like to point out that good people do inhabit the planet.” Although damned difficult, he kept his tone neutral.

“And they shall inherit the Lost Heaven. I can think of no better reward. By initiating the harmonic sequence, I will liberate the suffering masses from this cesspool of evil.”

Edie derisively snorted. “Thank you, but I’d rather jump into the deep end of the cesspool than—”

“Surely the world is not so far gone that we need contemplate so drastic a solution,” Caedmon said over top of her. Well aware that Dr. Lyon’s gun was loaded, he didn’t think it wise to antagonize the man.

“Sadly, there’s no such thing as a utopian safe haven. No New Atlantis. No New Jerusalem. The dark fire burns too bright. Several miles from this very spot there’s a mass grave with the butchered remains of two hundred innocents… I rest my case.”

The professor’s startling declaration of intent cast a lunar shadow across the altar. In the pit of his tightening stomach, Caedmon feared that they were dealing with a mad man.

“So the solution is to kill everyone? That gives a whole new meaning to the word overkill.” Edie disgustedly shook her head.

“When you are free of this dark world, you will thank me.”

“For committing an act of radical nihilism? I think not,” Caedmon retorted, refusing to go an inch, let alone ride the full mile.

The older man smiled. “I prefer to think of it as sacred nihilism. Indeed, I could have done like everyone else and anesthetized the pain of existence with narcotics or alcohol or—” He stopped in midstream. Frowning, he stepped around the stone altar and peered down, directly into the gaping hole below.

Caedmon was able to see on Dr. Lyon’s face the exact moment that the recognition dawned.

As though the older man had been bitten by a snake and succumbed to paralysis the instant the poisonous venom entered his bloodstream, Merkür de Léon stood motionless. Totally and completely disoriented.

Then, just as Caedmon feared, he imploded.

Spinning on his heel, his hand violently shaking, he aimed the Smith & Wesson, first at Caedmon, then at Edie. Glaring.

Whether by accident or design, Dr. Lyon fired a shot, the bullet ricocheting off the wall near the entrance.

Bloody hell!

Afraid the next shot would hit its mark, Caedmon grabbed the lantern on the stone altar and flung it to the floor.

Plunging the sanctuary into primeval darkness.