The Last Patriot

CHAPTER 78

Even though Harvath had been based in Virginia as part of the Naval Special Warfare Development Group, he had never been to Monticello. As a child, he’d grown up seeing it on the back of the nickel, as well as on the two-dollar bill up until the mid-seventies. It was a magnificent piece of American history that he’d always regretted never having visited.

Once a sprawling plantation of five thousand acres upon an 850-foot peak on the outskirts of Charlottesville, Monticello took its name from Italian for little mountain. Designed completely by Thomas Jefferson, it was the only private home in the United States to have been designated a World Heritage Site.

Susan Ferguson had called ahead so that when they arrived at Monticello less than five minutes later, they were allowed to drive straight up to the main house.

Harvath parked as close as he could and they all jumped out. Beneath the Northeast Portico they got their first view of the Great Clock. It was mounted above a lunette window and a pair of French doors.

Ferguson had explained on the way over that the clock had two faces, one outside which showed just the hour, while another inside the entrance hall indicated hours, minutes, and seconds. What she hadn’t mentioned was that it was mounted more than fifteen feet off the ground.

Nevertheless, what grabbed Harvath’s attention was the hour hand. Its tip was in the shape of a heart while its tail was in the shape of a crescent. Whether it was meant to represent Islam or not, Harvath couldn’t be sure, but it was too much of a coincidence to discount. Looking over at Nichols, he could tell that the professor had noticed it as well. “We’re going to need a ladder,” he said as he and Nichols continued to look up at the clock.

“Mr. Jefferson already saw to that,” replied Ferguson as she removed a ring of keys from her pocket and unlocked the French doors.

The dramatic entrance hall was two stories tall, with an upper balcony connecting a wing on each side. Its floor had been painted grass green and the entire space looked like a mini-museum of its own with maps, antlers, paintings, bones, busts, fossils, animal hides, Native American artifacts, and other objects that had appealed to Jefferson.

Once the group was all inside, they turned and looked up at the interior face of the Great Clock which was housed in a wooden box.

Its face was black and its hands, numbers, and ornamentation were a brassy gold. Upon it rested a classic pediment and behind that a frieze similar to the one in Nichols’ drawing.

A series of cannonball-like weights suspended on ropes that moved up and down through holes in the floor allowed for the precise measurement of time, including days of the week, which were indicated by small signs attached to the weights on the south side of the entrance hall.

In the corner to his right, Harvath noticed a wooden ladder that stretched almost to the ceiling.

“The clock needs to be wound with a special key once a week,” said Ferguson. “We still do it the same way, just not normally with our display ladder.”

Harvath stared up at the clock face and noticed that the tail of its second hand was also in the shape of an Islamic-style crescent.

Ozbek helped bring the ladder over and gently leaned it against the wall. “All right,” said the curator once it was in place. “Who’s going up for a closer look?”

Harvath stepped forward and with Ozbek steadying the ladder, climbed up. Eye-to-eye with the clock, he noticed that the hours were Roman while the minutes of the hour were Arabic.

After a cursory review of the outside, Harvath began to remove the housing.

“Please be careful,” cautioned Ferguson.

It took him several minutes to figure out how to get it all the way off and when he did, he handed it down to Ozbek who set it carefully on the floor and went back to holding the ladder. The entire inner workings of Jefferson’s Great Clock were now exposed.

“Do you see the gear?” asked Nichols. “Is it there?”

There were plenty of gears, but nothing that resembled what was in the schematic. Harvath looked down at the curator and asked, “Is there any way we can stop this for a minute?”

Ferguson looked at her watch and then out the window where visitors were already starting to mill about and gather near the portico.

“Susan?” Harvath repeated. “I need to stop this clock for a minute.”

The curator took a deep breath. “Okay. Here’s how you stop it.”

Once all the movement had ceased, Harvath was able to reach his hand inside and better examine the mechanics.

He wasn’t having any luck. He asked Nichols to hand up the schematic and he checked each gear against each of the gears in the drawing.

He then had Nichols hand up the architectural drawings and compared them to the carpentry work around the clock and the entablature along the wall. It was close, but not perfect. It had all seemed so right, but yet they were missing something.

“We open the doors in two minutes,” said Ferguson. “Do you see anything at all?”

“Nothing,” replied Harvath as he handed the diagrams back down to Nichols.

With the curator walking him through it, Harvath restarted the clock and then replaced the housing. He climbed down the ladder and hung it on the nearby wall.

“I don’t understand it,” said Nichols. “It seemed like the perfect fit.”

Harvath borrowed the architectural detail again and looked at Ferguson. “Maybe this diagram is the clue to what we’re looking for. If Jefferson drew it, he probably drew it for here, right? So what should we do? Go room by room? I know the second and third floors aren’t open to the public. Maybe we should start up there.”

“Or the stone weaver’s cottage,” offered Nichols.

“There wouldn’t be carpentry like this in the stone weaver’s cottage,” said Ferguson as she bit the inside of her cheek in thought. She then pulled the walkie-talkie from her belt, changed its channel, and spoke into it. “John, this is Susan. Do you copy?”

A moment later, a man’s voice came back over the radio. “Go ahead, Susan.”

“Do we have Paul Gilbertson on the docent schedule today?”

“Who’s Paul Gilbertson?” asked Nichols.

Ferguson motioned for him to hold his question.

A moment later, the voice replied, “Yes, we do. He’s leading the architectural study tours.”

“Will you please ask him to meet me up at the main house right now? Tell him it’s urgent.”