Templar's Code

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, may 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.”