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She had no idea if it would work, and she decided not to tell Peter about her idea until her work was complete. It took four months, but finally Katherine brought her brother into the lab. She wheeled out a large piece of gear that she had been keeping hidden in the back storage room.

 

"I designed and built it myself," she said, showing Peter her invention. "Any guesses?"

 

Her brother stared at the strange machine. "An incubator?"

 

Katherine laughed and shook her head, although it was a reasonable guess. The machine did look a bit like the transparent incubators for premature babies one saw in hospitals. This machine, however, was adult size--a long, airtight, clear plastic capsule, like some kind of futuristic sleeping pod. It sat atop a large piece of electronic gear.

 

"See if this helps you guess," Katherine said, plugging the contraption into a power source. A digital display lit up on the machine, its numbers jumping around as she carefully calibrated some dials.

 

When she was done, the display read:

 

0.0000000000 kg

 

 

"A scale?" Peter asked, looking puzzled.

 

"Not just any scale." Katherine took a tiny scrap of paper off a nearby counter and laid it gently on top of the capsule. The numbers on the display jumped around again and then settled on a new reading. .0008194325 kg

 

 

"High-precision microbalance," she said. "Resolution down to a few micrograms."

 

Peter still looked puzzled. "You built a precise scale for . . . a person?"

 

"Exactly." She lifted the transparent lid on the machine. "If I place a person inside this capsule and close the lid, the individual is in an entirely sealed system. Nothing gets in or out. No gas, no liquid, no dust particles. Nothing can escape--not the person's breath exhalations, evaporating sweat, body fluids, nothing."

 

Peter ran a hand through his thick head of silver hair, a nervous mannerism shared by Katherine. "Hmm . . . obviously a person would die in there pretty quickly."

 

She nodded. "Six minutes or so, depending on their breathing rate."

 

He turned to her. "I don't get it."

 

She smiled. "You will."

 

Leaving the machine behind, Katherine led Peter into the Cube's control room and sat him down in front of the plasma wall. She began typing and accessed a series of video files stored on the holographic drives. When the plasma wall flickered to life, the image before them looked like home-video footage.

 

The camera panned across a modest bedroom with an unmade bed, medication bottles, a respirator, and a heart monitor. Peter looked baffled as the camera kept panning and finally revealed, near the center of the bedroom, Katherine's scale contraption.

 

Peter's eyes widened. "What the . . . ?"

 

The capsule's transparent lid was open, and a very old man in an oxygen mask lay inside. His elderly wife and a hospice worker stood beside the pod. The man's breathing was labored, and his eyes were closed.

 

"The man in the capsule was a science teacher of mine at Yale," Katherine said. "He and I have kept in touch over the years. He's been very ill. He always said he wanted to donate his body to science, so when I explained my idea for this experiment, he immediately wanted to be a part of it."

 

Peter was apparently mute with shock as he stared at the scene unfolding before them.

 

The hospice worker now turned to the man's wife. "It's time. He's ready." The old woman dabbed her tearful eyes and nodded with a resolute calm. "Okay."

 

Very gently, the hospice worker reached into the pod and removed the man's oxygen mask. The man stirred slightly, but his eyes remained closed. Now the worker wheeled the respirator and other equipment off to the side, leaving the old man in the capsule totally isolated in the center of the room.

 

The dying man's wife now approached the pod, leaned down, and gently kissed her husband's forehead. The old man did not open his eyes, but his lips moved, ever so slightly, into a faint, loving smile.

 

Without his oxygen mask, the man's breathing was quickly becoming more labored. The end was obviously near. With an admirable strength and calm, the man's wife slowly lowered the transparent lid of the capsule and sealed it shut, exactly as Katherine had taught her.

 

Peter recoiled in alarm. "Katherine, what in the name of God?!"

 

"It's okay," Katherine whispered. "There's plenty of air in the capsule." She had seen this video dozens of times now, but it still made her pulse race. She pointed to the scale beneath the dying man's sealed pod. The digital numbers read:

 

51.4534644 kg

 

 

"That's his body weight," Katherine said.

 

The old man's breathing became more shallow, and Peter inched forward, transfixed.

 

"This is what he wanted," Katherine whispered. "Watch what happens."

 

The man's wife had stepped back and was now seated on the bed, silently looking on with the hospice worker.

 

Over the course of the next sixty seconds, the man's shallow breathing grew faster, until all at once, as if the man himself had chosen the moment, he simply took his last breath. Everything stopped.

 

It was over.

 

The wife and hospice worker quietly comforted each other.

 

Nothing else happened.

 

After a few seconds, Peter glanced over at Katherine in apparent confusion. Wait for it, she thought, redirecting Peter's gaze to the capsule's digital display, which still quietly glowed, showing the dead man's weight.

 

Then it happened.

 

When Peter saw it, he jolted backward, almost falling out of his chair. "But . . . that's . . ." He covered his mouth in shock. "I can't . . ."

 

It was seldom that the great Peter Solomon was speechless. Katherine's reaction had been similar the first few times she saw what had happened.

 

Moments after the man's death, the numbers on the scale had decreased suddenly. The man had become lighter immediately after his death. The weight change was minuscule, but it was measurable . . . and the implications were utterly mind-boggling.

 

Katherine recalled writing in her lab notes with a trembling hand: "There seems to exist an invisible `material' that exits the human body at the moment of death. It has quantifiable mass which is unimpeded by physical barriers. I must assume it moves in a dimension I cannot yet perceive."

 

From the expression of shock on her brother's face, Katherine knew he understood the implications. "Katherine . . ." he stammered, blinking his gray eyes as if to make sure he was not dreaming. "I think you just weighed the human soul."

 

There was a long silence between them.

 

Katherine sensed that her brother was attempting to process all the stark and wondrous ramifications. It will take time. If what they had just witnessed was indeed what it seemed to be--that is, evidence that a soul or consciousness or life force could move outside the realm of the body--then a startling new light had just been shed on countless mystical questions: transmigration, cosmic consciousness, near-death experiences, astral projection, remote viewing, lucid dreaming, and on and on. Medical journals were filled with stories of patients who had died on the operating table, viewed their bodies from above, and then been brought back to life.

 

Peter was silent, and Katherine now saw he had tears in his eyes. She understood. She had cried, too. Peter and Katherine had lost loved ones, and for anyone in that position, the faintest hint of the human spirit continuing after death brought a glimmer of hope.

 

He's thinking of Zachary, Katherine thought, recognizing the deep melancholy in her brother's eyes. For years Peter had carried the burden of responsibility for his son's death. He had told Katherine many times that leaving Zachary in prison had been the worst mistake of his life, and that he would never find a way to forgive himself.

 

A slamming door drew Katherine's attention, and suddenly she was back in the basement, lying on a cold stone table. The metal door at the top of the ramp had closed loudly, and the tattooed man was coming back down. She could hear him entering one of the rooms down the hall, doing something inside, and then continuing along the hall toward the room she was in. As he entered, she could see that he was pushing something in front of him. Something heavy . . . on wheels. As he stepped into the light, she stared in disbelief. The tattooed man was pushing a person in a wheelchair.

 

Intellectually, Katherine's brain recognized the man in the chair. Emotionally, her mind could barely accept what she was looking at.

 

Peter?

 

She didn't know whether to be overjoyed that her brother was alive . . . or utterly horrified. Peter's body had been shaved smooth. His mane of thick silver hair was all gone, as were his eyebrows, and his smooth skin glistened as if it had been oiled. He wore a black silk gown. Where his right hand should have been, he had only a stump, wrapped in a clean, fresh bandage. Her brother's pain-laden eyes reached out to hers, filled with regret and sorrow.

 

"Peter!" Her voice cracked.

 

Her brother tried to speak but made only muffled, guttural noises. Katherine now realized he was bound to the wheelchair and had been gagged.

 

The tattooed man reached down and gently stroked Peter's shaved scalp. "I've prepared your brother for a great honor. He has a role to play tonight."

 

Katherine's entire body went rigid. No . . .

 

"Peter and I will be leaving in a moment, but I thought you'd want to say good-bye."

 

"Where are you taking him?" she said weakly.

 

He smiled. "Peter and I must journey to the sacred mountain. That is where the treasure lies. The Masonic Pyramid has revealed the location. Your friend Robert Langdon was most helpful."

 

Katherine looked into her brother's eyes. "He killed . . . Robert."

 

Her brother's expression contorted in agony, and he shook his head violently, as if unable to bear any more pain.

 

"Now, now, Peter," the man said, again stroking Peter's scalp. "Don't let this ruin the moment. Say good-bye to your little sister. This is your final family reunion."

 

Katherine felt her mind welling with desperation. "Why are you doing this?!" she shouted at him. "What have we ever done to you?! Why do you hate my family so much?!"

 

The tattooed man came over and placed his mouth right next to her ear. "I have my reasons, Katherine." Then he walked to the side table and picked up the strange knife. He brought it over to her and ran the burnished blade across her cheek. "This is arguably the most famous knife in history."

 

Katherine knew of no famous knives, but it looked foreboding and ancient. The blade felt razor sharp.

 

"Don't worry," he said. "I have no intention of wasting its power on you.

 

I'm saving it for a more worthy sacrifice . . . in a more sacred place." He turned to her brother. "Peter, you recognize this knife, don't you?"

 

Her brother's eyes were wide with a mixture of fear and disbelief.

 

"Yes, Peter, this ancient artifact still exists. I obtained it at great expense . . . and I have been saving it for you. At long last, you and I can end our painful journey together."

 

With that, he wrapped the knife carefully in a cloth with all of his other items--incense, vials of liquid, white satin cloths, and other ceremonial objects. He then placed the wrapped items inside Robert Langdon's leather bag along with the Masonic Pyramid and capstone. Katherine looked on helplessly as the man zipped up Langdon's daybag and turned to her brother.

 

"Carry this, Peter, would you?" He set the heavy bag on Peter's lap.

 

Next, the man walked over to a drawer and began rooting around. She could hear small metal objects clinking. When he returned, he took her right arm, steadying it. Katherine couldn't see what he was doing, but Peter apparently could, and he again started bucking wildly.

 

Katherine felt a sudden, sharp pinch in the crook of her right elbow, and an eerie warmth ran down around it. Peter was making anguished, strangled sounds and trying in vain to get out of the heavy chair. Katherine felt a cold numbness spreading through her forearm and fingertips below the elbow.

 

When the man stepped aside, Katherine saw why her brother was so horrified. The tattooed man had inserted a medical needle into her vein, as if she were giving blood. The needle, however, was not attached to a tube. Instead, her blood was now flowing freely out of it . . . running down her elbow, forearm, and onto the stone table.

 

"A human hourglass," the man said, turning to Peter. "In a short while, when I ask you to play your role, I want you to picture Katherine . . . dying alone here in the dark."

 

Peter's expression was one of total torment.

 

"She will stay alive," the man said, "for about an hour or so. If you cooperate with me quickly, I will have enough time to save her. Of course, if you resist me at all . . . your sister will die here alone in the dark." Peter bellowed unintelligibly through his gag.

 

"I know, I know," the tattooed man said, placing a hand on Peter's shoulder, "this is hard for you. But it shouldn't be. After all, this is not the first time you will abandon a family member." He paused, bending over and whispering in Peter's ear. "I'm thinking, of course, of your son, Zachary, in Soganlik prison."

 

Peter pulled against his restraints and let out another muffled scream through the cloth in his mouth.

 

"Stop it!" Katherine shouted.

 

"I remember that night well," the man taunted as he finished packing. "I heard the whole thing. The warden offered to let your son go, but you chose to teach Zachary a lesson . . . by abandoning him. Your boy learned his lesson, all right, didn't he?" The man smiled. "His loss . . . was my gain."

 

The man now retrieved a linen cloth and stuffed it deep into Katherine's mouth. "Death," he whispered to her, "should be a quiet thing."

 

Peter struggled violently. Without another word, the tattooed man slowly backed Peter's wheelchair out of the room, giving Peter a long, last look at his sister.

 

Katherine and Peter locked eyes one final time.

 

Then he was gone.

 

Katherine could hear them going up the ramp and through the metal door. As they exited, she heard the tattooed man lock the metal door behind him and continue on through the painting of the Three Graces. A few minutes later, she heard a car start.

 

Then the mansion fell silent.

 

All alone in the dark, Katherine lay bleeding.

 

 

 

CHAPTER 108

 

Robert Langdon's mind hovered in an endless abyss.

 

No light. No sound. No feeling. Only an infinite and silent void.

 

Softness.

 

Weightlessness.

 

His body had released him. He was untethered.

 

The physical world had ceased to exist. Time had ceased to exist.

 

He was pure consciousness now . . . a fleshless sentience suspended in the emptiness of a vast universe.

 

 

 

CHAPTER 109

 

The modified UH-60 skimmed in low over the expansive rooftops of Kalorama Heights, thundering toward the coordinates given to them by the support team. Agent Simkins was the first to spot the black Escalade parked haphazardly on a lawn in front of one of the mansions. The driveway gate was closed, and the house was dark and quiet.

 

Sato gave the signal to touch down.

 

The aircraft landed hard on the front lawn amid several other vehicles . . . one of them a security sedan with a bubble light on top.

 

Simkins and his team jumped out, drew their weapons, and dashed up onto the porch. Finding the front door locked, Simkins cupped his hands and peered through a window. The foyer was dark, but Simkins could make out the faint shadow of a body on the floor.

 

"Shit," he whispered. "It's Hartmann."

 

One of his agents grabbed a chair off the porch and heaved it through the bay window. The sound of shattering glass was barely audible over the roar of the helicopter behind them. Seconds later, they were all inside. Simkins rushed to the foyer and knelt over Hartmann to check his pulse. Nothing. There was blood everywhere. Then he saw the screwdriver in Hartmann's throat.

 

Jesus. He stood up and motioned to his men to begin a full search.

 

The agents fanned out across the first floor, their laser sights probing the darkness of the luxurious house. They found nothing in the living room or study, but in the dining room, to their surprise, they discovered a strangled female security guard. Simkins was fast losing hope that Robert Langdon and Katherine Solomon were alive. This brutal killer clearly had set a trap, and if he had managed to kill a CIA agent and an armed security guard, then it seemed a professor and a scientist had no chance.

 

Once the first floor was secure, Simkins sent two agents to search upstairs. Meanwhile, he found a set of basement stairs off the kitchen and descended. At the bottom of the stairs, he threw on the lights. The basement was spacious and spotless, as if it were hardly ever used. Boilers, bare cement walls, a few boxes. Nothing here at all. Simkins headed back up to the kitchen just as his men were coming down from the second floor. Everyone shook their heads.

 

The house was deserted.

 

No one home. And no more bodies.

 

Simkins radioed Sato with the all-clear and the grim update.

 

When he got to the foyer, Sato was already climbing the stairs onto the porch. Warren Bellamy was visible behind her, sitting dazed and alone in the helicopter with Sato's titanium briefcase at his feet. The OS director's secure laptop provided her with worldwide access to CIA computer systems via encrypted satellite uplinks. Earlier tonight, she had used this computer to share with Bellamy some kind of information that had stunned the man into cooperating fully. Simkins had no idea what Bellamy had seen, but whatever it was, the Architect had been visibly shell- shocked ever since.

 

As Sato entered the foyer, she paused a moment, bowing her head over Hartmann's body. A moment later, she raised her eyes and fixed them on Simkins. "No sign of Langdon or Katherine? Or Peter Solomon?"

 

Simkins shook his head. "If they're still alive, he took them with him."

 

"Did you see a computer in the house?"

 

"Yes, ma'am. In the office."

 

"Show me."

 

Simkins led Sato out of the foyer and into the living room. The plush carpet was covered with broken glass from the shattered bay window. They walked past a fireplace, a large painting, and several bookshelves to an office door. The office was wood paneled, with an antique desk and a large computer monitor. Sato walked around behind the desk and eyed the screen, immediately scowling.

 

"Damn it," she said under her breath. Simkins circled around and looked at the screen. It was blank. "What's wrong?"

 

Sato pointed to an empty docking station on the desk. "He uses a laptop. He took it with him."

 

Simkins didn't follow. "Does he have information you want to see?"

 

"No," Sato replied, her tone grave. "He has information I want nobody to see."

 

Downstairs in the hidden basement, Katherine Solomon had heard the sounds of helicopter blades followed by breaking glass and heavy boots on the floor above her. She tried to cry out for help, but the gag in her mouth made it impossible. She could barely make a sound. The harder she tried, the faster the blood began flowing from her elbow.

 

She was feeling short of breath and a little dizzy.

 

Katherine knew she needed to calm down. Use your mind, Katherine. With all of her intention, she coaxed herself into a meditative state.

 

Robert Langdon's mind floated through the emptiness of space. He peered into the infinite void, searching for any points of reference. He found nothing.

 

Total darkness. Total silence. Total peace.

 

There was not even the pull of gravity to tell him which way was up.

 

His body was gone.

 

This must be death.

 

Time seemed to be telescoping, stretching and compressing, as if it had no bearings in this place. He had lost all track of how much time had passed.

 

Ten seconds? Ten minutes? Ten days?

 

Suddenly, however, like distant fiery explosions in far-off galaxies, memories began to materialize, billowing toward Langdon like shock waves across a vast nothingness.

 

All at once, Robert Langdon began to remember. The images tore through him . . . vivid and disturbing. He was staring up at a face that was covered with tattoos. A pair of powerful hands lifted his head and smashed it into the floor.

 

Pain erupted . . . and then darkness.

 

Gray light.

 

Throbbing. Wisps of memory. Langdon was being dragged, half conscious, down, down, down. His captor was chanting something.

 

Verbum significatium . . . Verbum omnificum . . . Verbum perdo . . .

 

 

 

CHAPTER 110

 

Director Sato stood alone in the study, waiting while the CIA satellite-imaging division processed her request. One of the luxuries of working in the D.C. area was the satellite coverage. With luck, one of them might have been properly positioned to get photos of this home tonight . . . possibly capturing a vehicle leaving the place in the last half hour.

 

"Sorry, ma'am," the satellite technician said. "No coverage of those coordinates tonight. Do you want to make a reposition request?"

 

"No thanks. Too late." She hung up.

 

Sato exhaled, now having no idea how they would figure out where their target had gone. She walked out to the foyer, where her men had bagged Agent Hartmann's body and were carrying it toward the chopper. Sato had ordered Agent Simkins to gather his men and prepare for the return to Langley, but Simkins was in the living room on his hands and knees. He looked like he was ill.

 

"You okay?"

 

He glanced up, an odd look on his face. "Did you see this?" He pointed at the living-room floor.

 

Sato came over and looked down at the plush carpet. She shook her head, seeing nothing.

 

"Crouch down," Simkins said. "Look at the nap of the carpet."

 

She did. After a moment, she saw it. The fibers of the carpet looked like they had been mashed down . . . depressed along two straight lines as if the wheels of something heavy had been rolled across the room.

 

"The strange thing," Simkins said, "is where the tracks go." He pointed.

 

Sato's gaze followed the faint parallel lines across the living-room carpet. The tracks seemed to disappear beneath a large floor-to-ceiling painting that hung beside the fireplace. What in the world?

 

Simkins walked over to the painting and tried to lift it down from the wall. It didn't budge. "It's fixed," he said, now running his fingers around the edges. "Hold on, there's something underneath . . ." His finger hit a small lever beneath the bottom edge, and something clicked.

 

Sato stepped forward as Simkins pushed the frame and the entire painting rotated slowly on its center, like a revolving door.

 

He raised his flashlight and shined it into the dark space beyond.

 

Sato's eyes narrowed. Here we go.

 

At the end of a short corridor stood a heavy metal door.

 

The memories that had billowed through the blackness of Langdon's mind had come and gone. In their wake, a trail of red-hot sparks was swirling, along with the same eerie, distant whisper.

 

Verbum significatium . . . Verbum omnificum . . . Verbum perdo.

 

The chanting continued like the drone of voices in a medieval canticle.

 

Verbum significatium . . . Verbum omnificum. The words now tumbled through the empty void, fresh voices echoing all around him.

 

Apocalypsis . . . Franklin . . . Apocalypsis . . . Verbum . . . Apocalypsis . . .

 

Without warning, a mournful bell began tolling somewhere in the distance. The bell rang on and on, growing louder. It tolled more urgently now, as if hoping Langdon would understand, as if urging his mind to follow.

 

 

 

CHAPTER 111

 

The tolling bell in the clock tower rang for three full minutes, rattling the crystal chandelier that hung above Langdon's head. Decades ago, he had attended lectures in this well-loved assembly hall at Phillips Exeter Academy. Today, however, he was here to listen to a dear friend address the student body. As the lights dimmed, Langdon took a seat against the back wall, beneath a pantheon of headmaster portraits.

 

A hush fell across the crowd. In total darkness, a tall, shadowy figure crossed the stage and took the podium. "Good morning," the faceless voice whispered into the microphone.

 

Everyone sat up, straining to see who was addressing them.

 

A slide projector flashed to life, revealing a faded sepia photograph--a dramatic castle with a red sandstone facade, high square towers, and Gothic embellishments.

 

The shadow spoke again. "Who can tell me where this is?"

 

"England!" a girl declared in the darkness. "This facade is a blend of early Gothic and late Romanesque, making this the quintessential Norman castle and placing it in England at about the twelfth century."

 

"Wow," the faceless voice replied. "Someone knows her architecture."

 

Quiet groans all around.

 

"Unfortunately," the shadow added, "you missed by three thousand miles and half a millennium."

 

The room perked up.

 

The projector now flashed a full-color, modern photo of the same castle from a different angle. The castle's Seneca Creek sandstone towers dominated the foreground, but in the background, startlingly close, stood the majestic, white, columned dome of the U.S. Capitol Building.

 

"Hold on!" the girl exclaimed. "There's a Norman castle in D.C.?!"

 

"Since 1855," the voice replied. "Which is when this next photo was taken."

 

A new slide appeared--a black-and-white interior shot, depicting a massive vaulted ballroom, furnished with animal skeletons, scientific display cases, glass jars with biological samples, archaeological artifacts, and plaster casts of prehistoric reptiles.

 

"This wondrous castle," the voice said, "was America's first real science museum. It was a gift to America from a wealthy British scientist who, like our forefathers, believed our fledgling country could become the land of enlightenment. He bequeathed to our forefathers a massive fortune and asked them to build at the core of our nation `an establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge.' " He paused a long moment. "Who can tell me the name of this generous scientist?"

 

A timid voice in front ventured, "James Smithson?"

 

A whisper of recognition rippled through the crowd. "Smithson indeed," the man on stage replied. Peter Solomon now stepped into the light, his gray eyes flashing playfully. "Good morning. My name is Peter Solomon, and I am secretary of the Smithsonian Institution."

 

The students broke into wild applause.

 

In the shadows, Langdon watched with admiration as Peter captivated the young minds with a photographic tour of the Smithsonian Institution's early history. The show began with Smithsonian Castle, its basement science labs, corridors lined with exhibits, a salon full of mollusks, scientists who called themselves "the curators of crustaceans," and even an old photo of the castle's two most popular residents--a pair of now-deceased owls named Diffusion and Increase. The half-hour slide show ended with an impressive satellite photo of the National Mall, now lined with enormous Smithsonian museums.

 

"As I said when I began," Solomon stated in conclusion, "James Smithson and our forefathers envisioned our great country to be a land of enlightenment. I believe today they would be proud. Their great Smithsonian Institution stands as a symbol of science and knowledge at the very core of America. It is a living, breathing, working tribute to our forefathers' dream for America--a country founded on the principles of knowledge, wisdom, and science."

 

Solomon clicked off the slides to an energetic round of applause. The houselights came up, along with dozens of eager hands with questions.

 

Solomon called on a small red-haired boy in the middle.

 

"Mr. Solomon?" the boy said, sounding puzzled. "You said our forefathers fled the religious oppression of Europe to establish a country on the principles of scientific advancement."

 

"That's correct."

 

"But . . . I was under the impression our forefathers were devoutly religious men who founded America as a Christian nation."

 

Solomon smiled. "My friends, don't get me wrong, our forefathers were deeply religious men, but they were Deists--men who believed in God, but in a universal and open-minded way. The only religious ideal they put forth was religious freedom." He pulled the microphone from the podium and strode out to the edge of the stage. "America's forefathers had a vision of a spiritually enlightened utopia, in which freedom of thought, education of the masses, and scientific advancement would replace the darkness of outdated religious superstition."

 

A blond girl in back raised her hand.

 

"Yes?"

 

"Sir," the girl said, holding up her cell phone, "I've been researching you online, and Wikipedia says you're a prominent Freemason."

 

Solomon held up his Masonic ring. "I could have saved you the data charges."

 

The students laughed.

 

"Yes, well," the girl continued, hesitating, "you just mentioned `outdated religious superstition,' and it seems to me that if anyone is responsible for propagating outdated superstitions . . . it would be the Masons."

 

Solomon seemed unfazed. "Oh? How so?"

 

"Well, I've read a lot about Masonry, and I know you've got a lot of strange ancient rituals and beliefs. This article online even says that Masons believe in the power of some kind of ancient magical wisdom . . . which can elevate man to the realm of the gods?"

 

Everyone turned and stared at the girl as if she were nuts.

 

"Actually," Solomon said, "she's right."

 

The kids all spun around and faced front, eyes widening.

 

Solomon suppressed a smile and asked the girl, "Does it offer any other Wiki-wisdom about this magical knowledge?"

 

The girl looked uneasy now, but she began to read from the Web site. "`To ensure this powerful wisdom could not be used by the unworthy, the early adepts wrote down their knowledge in code . . . cloaking its potent truth in a metaphorical language of symbols, myth, and allegory. To this day, this encrypted wisdom is all around us . . . encoded in our mythology, our art, and the occult texts of the ages. Unfortunately, modern man has lost the ability to decipher this complex network of symbolism . . . and the great truth has been lost.'"

 

Solomon waited. "That's all?"

 

The girl shifted in her seat. "Actually, there is a little bit more."

 

"I should hope so. Please . . . tell us."

 

The girl looked hesitant, but she cleared her throat and continued. "`According to legend, the sages who encrypted the Ancient Mysteries long ago left behind a key of sorts . . . a password that could be used to unlock the encrypted secrets. This magical password--known as the verbum significatium--is said to hold the power to lift the darkness and unlock the Ancient Mysteries, opening them to all human understanding.' "

 

Solomon smiled wistfully. "Ah, yes . . . the verbum significatium." He stared into space for a moment and then lowered his eyes again to the blond girl. "And where is this wonderful word now?"

 

The girl looked apprehensive, clearly wishing she had not challenged their guest speaker. She finished reading. " `Legend holds that the verbum significatium is buried deep underground, where it waits patiently for a pivotal moment in history . . . a moment when mankind can no longer survive without the truth, knowledge, and wisdom of the ages. At this dark crossroads, mankind will at last unearth the Word and herald in a wondrous new age of enlightenment.' "

 

The girl turned off her phone and shrank down in her seat.

 

After a long silence, another student raised his hand. "Mr. Solomon, you don't actually believe that, right?"

 

Solomon smiled. "Why not? Our mythologies have a long tradition of magic words that provide insight and godlike powers. To this day, children still shout `abracadabra' in hopes of creating something out of nothing. Of course, we've all forgotten that this word is not a toy; it has roots in ancient Aramaic mysticism--Avrah KaDabra--meaning `I create as I speak.' "

 

Silence.

 

"But, sir," the student now pressed, "surely you don't believe that a single word . . . this verbum significatium . . . whatever it is . . . has the power to unlock ancient wisdom . . . and bring about a worldwide enlightenment?"

 

Peter Solomon's face revealed nothing. "My own beliefs should not concern you. What should concern you is that this prophecy of a coming enlightenment is echoed in virtually every faith and philosophical tradition on earth. Hindus call it the Krita Age, astrologers call it the Age of Aquarius, the Jews describe the coming of the Messiah, theosophists call it the New Age, cosmologists call it Harmonic Convergence and predict the actual date."

 

"December 21, 2012!" someone called.

 

"Yes, unnervingly soon . . . if you're a believer in Mayan math."

 

Langdon chuckled, recalling how Solomon, ten years ago, had correctly predicted the current spate of television specials predicting that the year 2012 would mark the End of the World.

 

"Timing aside," Solomon said, "I find it wondrous to note that throughout history, all of mankind's disparate philosophies have all concurred on one thing--that a great enlightenment is coming. In every culture, in every era, in every corner of the world, the human dream has focused on the same exact concept--the coming apotheosis of man . . . the impending transformation of our human minds into their true potentiality." He smiled. "What could possibly explain such a synchronicity of beliefs?"

 

"Truth," said a quiet voice in the crowd. Solomon wheeled. "Who said that?"

 

The hand that went up belonged to a tiny Asian boy whose soft features suggested he might be Nepalese or Tibetan. "Maybe there is a universal truth embedded in everyone's soul. Maybe we all have the same story hiding inside, like a shared constant in our DNA. Maybe this collective truth is responsible for the similarity in all of our stories."

 

Solomon was beaming as he pressed his hands together and bowed reverently to the boy. "Thank you."

 

Everyone was quiet.

 

"Truth," Solomon said, addressing the room. "Truth has power. And if we all gravitate toward similar ideas, maybe we do so because those ideas are true . . . written deep within us. And when we hear the truth, even if we don't understand it, we feel that truth resonate within us . . . vibrating with our unconscious wisdom. Perhaps the truth is not learned by us, but rather, the truth is re-called . . . re-membered . . . re-cognized . . . as that which is already inside us."

 

The silence in the hall was complete.

 

Solomon let it sit for a long moment, then quietly said, "In closing, I should warn you that unveiling the truth is never easy. Throughout history, every period of enlightenment has been accompanied by darkness, pushing in opposition. Such are the laws of nature and balance. And if we look at the darkness growing in the world today, we have to realize that this means there is equal light growing. We are on the verge of a truly great period of illumination, and all of us--all of you--are profoundly blessed to be living through this pivotal moment of history. Of all the people who have ever lived, in all the eras in history . . . we are in that narrow window of time during which we will bear witness to our ultimate renaissance. After millennia of darkness, we will see our sciences, our minds, and even our religions unveil the truth."

 

Solomon was about to get a hearty round of applause when he held up his hand for silence. "Miss?" He pointed directly to the contentious blond girl in back with the cell phone. "I know you and I didn't agree on much, but I want to thank you. Your passion is an important catalyst in the coming changes. Darkness feeds on apathy . . . and conviction is our most potent antidote. Keep studying your faith. Study the Bible." He smiled. "Especially the final pages."

 

"The Apocalypse?" she said.

 

"Absolutely. The Book of Revelation is a vibrant example of our shared truth. The last book of the Bible tells the identical story as countless other traditions. They all predict the coming unveiling of great wisdom."

 

Someone else said, "But isn't the Apocalypse about the end of the world? You know, the Antichrist, Armageddon, the final battle between good and evil?"

 

Solomon chuckled. "Who here studies Greek?" Several hands went up.

 

"What does the word apocalypse literally mean?"

 

"It means," one student began, and then paused as if surprised. "Apocalypse means `to unveil' . . . or `to reveal.' "

 

Solomon gave the boy a nod of approval. "Exactly. The Apocalypse is literally a reveal-ation. The Book of Reveal-ation in the Bible predicts an unveiling of great truth and unimaginable wisdom. The Apocalypse is not the end of the world, but rather it is the end of the world as we know it. The prophecy of the Apocalypse is just one of the Bible's beautiful messages that has been distorted." Solomon stepped to the front of the stage. "Believe me, the Apocalypse is coming . . . and it will be nothing like what we were taught."

 

High over his head, the bell began to toll.

 

The students erupted into bewildered and thunderous applause.

 

 

 

CHAPTER 112

 

Katherine Solomon was teetering on the edge of consciousness when she was jolted by the shock wave of a deafening explosion.

 

Moments later, she smelled smoke.

 

Her ears were ringing.

 

There were muffled voices. Distant. Shouting. Footsteps. Suddenly she was breathing more clearly. The cloth had been pulled from her mouth.

 

"You're safe," a man's voice whispered. "Just hold on."

 

She expected the man to pull the needle out of her arm but instead he was yelling orders. "Bring the medical kit . . . attach an IV to the needle . . . infuse lactated Ringer's solution . . . get me a blood pressure." As the man began checking her vital signs, he said, "Ms. Solomon, the person who did this to you . . . where did he go?"

 

Katherine tried to speak, but she could not. "Ms. Solomon?" the voice repeated. "Where did he go?"

 

Katherine tried to pry her eyes open, but she felt herself fading.

 

"We need to know where he went," the man urged.

 

Katherine whispered three words in response, although she knew they made no sense. "The . . . sacred . . . mountain."

 

Director Sato stepped over the mangled steel door and descended a wooden ramp into the hidden basement. One of her agents met her at the bottom.

 

"Director, I think you'll want to see this."

 

Sato followed the agent into a small room off the narrow hallway. The room was brightly lit and barren, except for a pile of clothing on the floor. She recognized Robert Langdon's tweed coat and loafers.

 

Her agent pointed toward the far wall at a large, casketlike container.

 

What in the world?

 

Sato moved toward the container, seeing now that it was fed by a clear plastic pipe that ran through the wall. Warily, she approached the tank.

 

Now she could see that it had a small slider on top. She reached down and slid the covering to one side, revealing a small portal-like window.

 

Sato recoiled.

 

Beneath the Plexiglas . . . floated the submerged, vacant face of Professor Robert Langdon.

 

Light!

 

The endless void in which Langdon hovered was suddenly filled by a blinding sun. Rays of white-hot light streamed across the blackness of space, burning into his mind.

 

The light was everywhere.

 

Suddenly, within the radiant cloud before him, a beautiful silhouette appeared. It was a face . . . blurry and indistinct . . . two eyes staring at him across the void. Streams of light surrounded the face, and Langdon wondered if he was looking into the face of God.

 

Sato stared down into the tank, wondering if Professor Langdon had any idea what had happened. She doubted it. After all, disorientation was the entire purpose of this technology. Sensory-deprivation tanks had been around since the fifties and were still a popular getaway for wealthy New Age experimenters. "Floating," as it was called, offered a transcendental back-to- the-womb experience . . . a kind of meditative aid that quieted brain activity by removing all sensory input--light, sound, touch, and even the pull of gravity. In traditional tanks, the person would float on his back in a hyperbuoyant saline solution that kept his face above the water so he could breathe.

 

In recent years, however, these tanks had taken a quantum leap.

 

Oxygenated perfluorocarbons.

 

This new technology--known as Total Liquid Ventilation (TLV)--was so counterintuitive that few believed it existed.

 

Breathable liquid.

 

Liquid breathing had been a reality since 1966, when Leland C. Clark successfully kept alive a mouse that had been submerged for several hours in an oxygenated perfluorocarbon. In 1989, TLV technology made a dramatic appearance in the movie The Abyss, although few viewers realized that they were watching real science.

 

Total Liquid Ventilation had been born of modern medicine's attempts to help premature babies breathe by returning them to the liquid-filled state of the womb. Human lungs, having spent nine months in utero, were no strangers to a liquid-filled state. Perfluorocarbons had once been too viscous to be fully breathable, but modern breakthroughs had made breathable liquids almost the consistency of water.

 

The CIA's Directorate of Science and Technology--"the Wizards of Langley," as they were known within the intelligence community--had worked extensively with oxygenated perfluorocarbons to develop technologies for the U.S. military. The navy's elite deep-ocean diving teams found that breathing oxygenated liquid, rather than the usual heliox or trimix, gave them the ability to dive to much greater depths without risk of pressure sickness. Similarly, NASA and the air force had learned that pilots equipped with a liquid breathing apparatus rather than a traditional oxygen tank could withstand far higher g-forces than usual because liquid spread the g-force more evenly throughout the internal organs than gas did.

 

Sato had heard that there were now "extreme experience labs" where one could try these Total Liquid Ventilation tanks--"Meditation Machines," as they were called. This particular tank had probably been installed for its owner's private experimentation, although the addition of heavy, lockable latches left little doubt in Sato's mind that this tank had also been used for darker applications . . . an interrogation technique with which the CIA was familiar.

 

The infamous interrogation technique of water boarding was highly effective because the victim truly believed he was drowning. Sato knew of several classified operations in which sensory- deprivation tanks like these had been used to enhance that illusion to terrifying new levels. A victim submerged in breathable liquid could literally be "drowned." The panic associated with the drowning experience usually made the victim unaware that the liquid he was breathing was slightly more viscous than water. When the liquid poured into his lungs, he would often black out from fear, and then awaken in the ultimate "solitary confinement."

 

Topical numbing agents, paralysis drugs, and hallucinogens were mixed with the warm oxygenated liquid to give the prisoner the sense he was entirely separated from his body. When his mind sent commands to move his limbs, nothing happened. The state of being "dead" was terrifying on its own, but the true disorientation came from the "rebirthing" process, which, with the aid of bright lights, cold air, and deafening noise, could be extremely traumatic and painful. After a handful of rebirths and subsequent drownings, the prisoner became so disorientated that he had no idea if he was alive or dead . . . and he would tell the interrogator absolutely anything.

 

Sato wondered if she should wait for a medical team to extract Langdon, but she knew she didn't have time. I need to know what he knows.

 

"Turn out the lights," she said. "And find me some blankets."

 

The blinding sun had vanished.

 

The face had also disappeared.

 

The blackness had returned, but Langdon could now hear distant whispers echoing across the light-years of emptiness. Muffled voices . . . unintelligible words. There were vibrations now . . . as if the world were about to shake apart.

 

Then it happened.

 

Without warning, the universe was ripped in two. An enormous chasm opened in the void . . . as if space itself had ruptured at the seams. A grayish mist poured through the opening, and Langdon saw a terrifying sight. Disembodied hands were suddenly reaching for him, grabbing his body, trying to yank him out of his world.

 

No! He tried to fight them off, but he had no arms . . . no fists. Or did he? Suddenly he felt his body materializing around his mind. His flesh had returned and it was being seized by powerful hands that were dragging him upward. No! Please!

 

But it was too late.

 

Pain racked his chest as the hands heaved him through the opening. His lungs felt like they were filled with sand. I can't breathe! He was suddenly on his back on the coldest, hardest surface he could imagine. Something was pressing on his chest, over and over, hard and painful. He was spewing out the warmth.

 

I want to go back.

 

He felt like he was a child being born from a womb. He was convulsing, coughing up liquid. He felt pain in his chest and neck. Excruciating pain. His throat was on fire. People were talking, trying to whisper, but it was deafening. His vision was blurred, and all he could see was muted shapes. His skin felt numb, like dead leather.

 

His chest felt heavier now . . . pressure. I can't breathe!

 

He was coughing up more liquid. An overwhelming gag reflex seized him, and he gasped inward. Cold air poured into his lungs, and he felt like a newborn taking his first breath on earth. This world was excruciating. All Langdon wanted was to return to the womb.

 

Robert Langdon had no idea how much time had passed. He could feel now that he was lying on his side, wrapped in towels and blankets on a hard floor. A familiar face was gazing down at him . . . but the streams of glorious light were gone. The echoes of distant chanting still hung in his mind.

 

Verbum significatium . . . Verbum omnificum . . .

 

"Professor Langdon," someone whispered. "Do you know where you are?"

 

Langdon nodded weakly, still coughing.

 

More important, he had begun to realize what was going on tonight.

 

 

 

CHAPTER 113

 

Wrapped in wool blankets, Langdon stood on wobbly legs and stared down at the open tank of liquid. His body had returned to him, although he wished it had not. His throat and lungs burned. This world felt hard and cruel.

 

Sato had just explained the sensory-deprivation tank . . . adding that if she had not pulled him out, he would have died of starvation, or worse. Langdon had little doubt that Peter had endured a similar experience. Peter is in the in-between, the tattooed man had told him earlier tonight. He is in purgatory . . . Hamistagan. If Peter had endured more than one of those birthing processes, Langdon would not have been surprised if Peter had told his captor anything he had wanted to know.

 

Sato motioned for Langdon to follow her, and he did, trudging slowly down a narrow hall, deeper into this bizarre lair that he was now seeing for the first time. They entered a square room with a stone table and eerie-colored lighting. Katherine was here, and Langdon heaved a sigh of relief. Even so, the scene was worrisome.

 

Katherine was lying on her back on a stone table. Blood-soaked towels lay on the floor. A CIA agent was holding an IV bag above her, the tube connected to her arm.

 

She was sobbing quietly.

 

"Katherine?" Langdon croaked, barely able to speak.

 

She turned her head, looking disorientated and confused. "Robert?!" Her eyes widened with disbelief and then joy. "But I . . . saw you drown!"

 

He moved toward the stone table.

 

Katherine pulled herself to a seated position, ignoring her IV tube and the medical objections of the agent. Langdon reached the table, and Katherine reached out, wrapping her arms around his blanket-clad body, holding him close. "Thank God," she whispered, kissing his cheek. Then she kissed him again, squeezing him as though she didn't believe he was real. "I don't understand . . . how . . ."

 

Sato began saying something about sensory-deprivation tanks and oxygenated perfluorocarbons, but Katherine clearly wasn't listening. She just held Langdon close.

 

"Robert," she said, "Peter's alive." Her voice wavered as she recounted her horrifying reunion with Peter. She described his physical condition--the wheelchair, the strange knife, the allusions to some kind of "sacrifice," and how she had been left bleeding as a human hourglass to persuade Peter to cooperate quickly.

 

Langdon could barely speak. "Do you . . . have any idea where . . . they went?!"

 

"He said he was taking Peter to the sacred mountain."

 

Langdon pulled away and stared at her.

 

Katherine had tears in her eyes. "He said he had deciphered the grid on the bottom of the pyramid, and that the pyramid told him to go to the sacred mountain."

 

"Professor," Sato pressed, "does that mean anything to you?"

 

Langdon shook his head. "Not at all." Still, he felt a surge of hope. "But if he got the information off the bottom of the pyramid, we can get it, too." I told him how to solve it.

 

Sato shook her head. "The pyramid's gone. We've looked. He took it with him."

 

Langdon remained silent a moment, closing his eyes and trying to recall what he had seen on the base of the pyramid. The grid of symbols had been one of the last images he had seen before drowning, and trauma had a way of burning memories deeper into the mind. He could recall some of the grid, definitely not all of it, but maybe enough?

 

He turned to Sato and said hurriedly, "I may be able to remember enough, but I need you to look up something on the Internet."

 

She pulled out her BlackBerry.

 

"Run a search for `The Order Eight Franklin Square.' "

 

Sato gave him a startled look but began typing without questions.

 

Langdon's vision was still blurry, and he was only now starting to process his strange surroundings. He realized that the stone table on which they were leaning was covered with old bloodstains, and the wall to his right was entirely plastered with pages of text, photos, drawings, maps, and a giant web of strings interconnecting them.

 

My God.

 

Langdon moved toward the strange collage, still clutching the blankets around his body. Tacked on the wall was an utterly bizarre collection of information--pages from ancient texts ranging from black magic to Christian Scripture, drawings of symbols and sigils, pages of conspiracy- theory Web sites, and satellite photos of Washington, D.C., scrawled with notes and question marks. One of the sheets was a long list of words in many languages. He recognized some of them as sacred Masonic words, others as ancient magic words, and others from ceremonial incantations.

 

Is that what he's looking for?

 

A word?

 

Is it that simple?

 

Langdon's long-standing skepticism about the Masonic Pyramid was based largely on what it allegedly revealed--the location of the Ancient Mysteries. This discovery would have to involve an enormous vault filled with thousands upon thousands of volumes that had somehow survived the long-lost ancient libraries in which they had once been stored. It all seemed impossible. A vault that big? Beneath D.C.? Now, however, his recollection of Peter's lecture at Phillips Exeter, combined with these lists of magic words, had opened another startling possibility.

 

Langdon most definitely did not believe in the power of magic words . . . and yet it seemed pretty clear that the tattooed man did. His pulse quickened as he again scanned the scrawled notes, the maps, the texts, the printouts, and all the interconnected strings and sticky notes.

 

Sure enough, there was one recurring theme. My God, he's looking for the verbum significatium . . . the Lost Word. Langdon let the thought take shape, recalling fragments of Peter's lecture. The Lost Word is what he's looking for! That's what he believes is buried here in Washington.

 

Sato arrived beside him. "Is this what you asked for?" She handed him her BlackBerry.

 

Langdon looked at the eight-by-eight grid of numbers on the screen. "Exactly." He grabbed a piece of scrap paper. "I'll need a pen."

 

Sato handed him one from her pocket. "Please hurry."

 

Inside the basement office of the Directorate of Science and Technology, Nola Kaye was once again studying the redacted document brought to her by sys-sec Rick Parrish. What the hell is the CIA director doing with a file about ancient pyramids and secret underground locations?

 

She grabbed the phone and dialed.

 

Sato answered instantly, sounding tense. "Nola, I was just about to call you."

 

"I have new information," Nola said. "I'm not sure how this fits, but I've discovered there's a redacted--"

 

"Forget it, whatever it is," Sato interrupted. "We're out of time. We failed to apprehend the target, and I have every reason to believe he's about to carry out his threat."

 

Nola felt a chill.

 

"The good news is we know exactly where he's going." Sato took a deep breath. "The bad news is that he's carrying a laptop with him."

 

 

 

CHAPTER 114

 

Less than ten miles away, Mal'akh tucked the blanket around Peter Solomon and wheeled him across a moonlit parking lot into the shadow of an enormous building. The structure had exactly thirty-three outer columns . . . each precisely thirty-three feet tall. The mountainous structure was deserted at this hour, and nobody would ever see them back here. Not that it mattered. From a distance, no one would think twice about a tall, kindly-looking man in a long black coat taking a bald invalid for an evening stroll.

 

When they reached the rear entrance, Mal'akh wheeled Peter up close to the security keypad. Peter stared at it defiantly, clearly having no intention of entering the code.

 

Mal'akh laughed. "You think you're here to let me in? Have you forgotten so soon that I am one of your brethren?" He reached out and typed the access code that he had been given after his initiation to the thirty-third degree.

 

The heavy door clicked open.

 

Peter groaned and began struggling in the wheelchair.

 

"Peter, Peter," Mal'akh cooed. "Picture Katherine. Be cooperative, and she will live. You can save her. I give you my word."

 

Mal'akh wheeled his captive inside and relocked the door behind them, his heart racing now with anticipation. He pushed Peter through some hallways to an elevator and pressed the call button. The doors opened, and Mal'akh backed in, pulling the wheelchair along with him. Then, making sure Peter could see what he was doing, he reached out and pressed the uppermost button.

 

A look of deepening dread crossed Peter's tortured face.

 

"Shh . . ." Mal'akh whispered, gently stroking Peter's shaved head as the elevator doors closed. "As you well know . . . the secret is how to die."

 

I can't remember all the symbols!

 

Langdon closed his eyes, doing his best to recall the precise locations of the symbols on the bottom of the stone pyramid, but even his eidetic memory did not have that degree of recall. He wrote down the few symbols he could remember, placing each one in the location indicated by Franklin's magic square.

 

So far, however, he saw nothing that made any sense. "Look!" Katherine urged. "You must be on the right track. The first row is all Greek letters--the same kinds of symbols are being arranged together!"

 

Langdon had noticed this, too, but he could not think of any Greek word that fit that configuration of letters and spaces. I need the first letter. He glanced again at the magic square, trying to recall the letter that had been in the number one spot near the lower left corner. Think! He closed his eyes, trying to picture the base of the pyramid. The bottom row . . . next to the left- hand corner . . . what letter was there?

 

For an instant, Langdon was back in the tank, racked with terror, staring up through the Plexiglas at the bottom of the pyramid.

 

Now, suddenly, he saw it. He opened his eyes, breathing heavily. "The first letter is H!"

 

Langdon turned back to the grid and wrote in the first letter. The word was still incomplete, but he had seen enough. Suddenly he realized what the word might be.

 

!

 

Pulse pounding, Langdon typed a new search into the BlackBerry. He entered the English equivalent of this well-known Greek word. The first hit that appeared was an encyclopedia entry. He read it and knew it had to be right. HEREDOM n. a significant word in "high degree" Freemasonry, from French Rose Croix rituals, where it refers to a mythical mountain in Scotland, the legendary site of the first such Chapter. From the Greek originating from Hieros-domos, Greek for Holy House.

 

"That's it!" Langdon exclaimed, incredulous. "That's where they went!"

 

Sato had been reading over his shoulder and looked lost. "To a mythical mountain in Scotland?!"

 

Langdon shook his head. "No, to a building in Washington whose code name is Heredom."

 

 

 

CHAPTER 115

 

The House of the Temple--known among its brethren as Heredom--had always been the crown jewel of the Masonic Scottish Rite in America. With its steeply sloped, pyramidical roof, the building was named for an imaginary Scottish mountain. Mal'akh knew, however, there was nothing imaginary about the treasure hidden here.

 

This is the place, he knew. The Masonic Pyramid has shown the way.

 

As the old elevator slowly made its way to the third floor, Mal'akh took out the piece of paper on which he had reorganized the grid of symbols using the Franklin Square. All the Greek letters had now shifted to the first row . . . along with one simple symbol.

 

 

The message could not have been more clear.

 

Beneath the House of the Temple.

 

Heredom

 

The Lost Word is here . . . somewhere.

 

Although Mal'akh did not know precisely how to locate it, he was confident that the answer lay in the remaining symbols on the grid. Conveniently, when it came to unlocking the secrets of the Masonic Pyramid and of this building, no one was more qualified to help than Peter Solomon. The Worshipful Master himself.

 

Peter continued to struggle in the wheelchair, making muffled sounds through his gag.

 

"I know you're worried about Katherine," Mal'akh said. "But it's almost over."

 

For Mal'akh, the end felt like it had arrived very suddenly. After all the years of pain and planning, waiting and searching . . . the moment had now arrived.

 

The elevator began to slow, and he felt a rush of excitement.

 

The carriage jolted to a stop.

 

The bronze doors slid open, and Mal'akh gazed out at the glorious chamber before them. The massive square room was adorned with symbols and bathed in moonlight, which shone down through the oculus at the pinnacle of the ceiling high above.

 

I have come full circle, Mal'akh thought.

 

The Temple Room was the same place in which Peter Solomon and his brethren had so foolishly initiated Mal'akh as one of their own. Now the Masons' most sublime secret--something that most of the brethren did not even believe existed--was about to be unearthed.

 

"He won't find anything," Langdon said, still feeling groggy and disorientated as he followed Sato and the others up the wooden ramp out of the basement. "There is no actual Word. It's all a metaphor--a symbol of the Ancient Mysteries."

 

Katherine followed, with two agents assisting her weakened body up the ramp.

 

As the group moved gingerly through the wreckage of the steel door, through the rotating painting, and into the living room, Langdon explained to Sato that the Lost Word was one of Freemasonry's most enduring symbols--a single word, written in an arcane language that man could no longer decipher. The Word, like the Mysteries themselves, promised to unveil its hidden power only to those enlightened enough to decrypt it. "It is said," Langdon concluded, "that if you can possess and understand the Lost Word . . . then the Ancient Mysteries will become clear to you."

 

Sato glanced over. "So you believe this man is looking for a word?"

 

Langdon had to admit it sounded absurd at face value, and yet it answered a lot of questions. "Look, I'm no specialist in ceremonial magic," he said, "but from the documents on his basement walls . . . and from Katherine's description of the untattooed flesh on his head . . . I'd say he's hoping to find the Lost Word and inscribe it on his body."

 

Sato moved the group toward the dining room. Outside, the helicopter was warming up, its blades thundering louder and louder.

 

Langdon kept talking, thinking aloud. "If this guy truly believes he is about to unlock the power of the Ancient Mysteries, no symbol would be more potent in his mind than the Lost Word. If he could find it and inscribe it on the top of his head--a sacred location in itself--then he would no doubt consider himself perfectly adorned and ritualistically prepared to . . ." He paused, seeing Katherine blanch at the thought of Peter's impending fate.

 

"But, Robert," she said weakly, her voice barely audible over the helicopter blades. "This is good news, right? If he wants to inscribe the Lost Word on the top of his head before he sacrifices Peter, then we have time. He won't kill Peter until he finds the Word. And, if there is no Word . . ."

 

Langdon tried to look hopeful as the agents helped Katherine into a chair. "Unfortunately, Peter still thinks you're bleeding to death. He thinks the only way to save you is to cooperate with this lunatic . . .probably to help him find the Lost Word."

 

"So what?" she insisted. "If the Word doesn't exist--"

 

"Katherine," Langdon said, staring deeply into her eyes. "If I believed you were dying, and if someone promised me I could save you by finding the Lost Word, then I would find this man a word--any word--and then I'd pray to God he kept his promise."

 

"Director Sato!" an agent shouted from the next room. "You'd better see this!"

 

Sato hurried out of the dining room and saw one of her agents coming down the stairs from the bedroom. He was carrying a blond wig. What the hell?

 

"Man's hairpiece," he said, handing it to her. "Found it in the dressing room. Have a close look."

 

The blond wig was much heavier than Sato expected. The skullcap seemed to be molded of a thick gel. Strangely, the underside of the wig had a wire protruding from it.

 

"Gel-pack battery that molds to your scalp," the agent said. "Powers a fiber-optic pinpoint camera hidden in the hair."

 

"What?" Sato felt around with her fingers until she found the tiny camera lens nestled invisibly within the blond bangs. "This thing's a hidden camera?"

 

"Video camera," the agent said. "Stores footage on this tiny solid-state card." He pointed to a stamp-size square of silicon embedded in the skullcap. "Probably motion activated."

 

Jesus, she thought. So that's how he did it.

 

This sleek version of the "flower in the lapel" secret camera had played a key role in the crisis the OS director was facing tonight. She glared at it a moment longer and then handed it back to the agent.

 

"Keep searching the house," she said. "I want every bit of information you can find on this guy. We know his laptop is missing, and I want to know exactly how he plans to connect it to the outside world while he's on the move. Search his study for manuals, cables, anything at all that might give us a clue about his hardware."

 

"Yes, ma'am." The agent hurried off.

 

Time to move out. Sato could hear the whine of the helicopter blades at full pitch. She hurried back to the dining room, where Simkins had now ushered Warren Bellamy in from the helicopter and was gathering intel from him about the building to which they believed their target had gone.

 

House of the Temple.

 

"The front doors are sealed from within," Bellamy was saying, still wrapped in a foil blanket and shivering visibly from his time outside in Franklin Square. "The building's rear entrance is your only way in. It's got a keypad with an access PIN known only to the brothers."

 

"What's the PIN?" Simkins demanded, taking notes.

 

Bellamy sat down, looking too feeble to stand. Through chattering teeth, he recited his access code and then added, "The address is 1733 Sixteenth, but you'll want the access drive and parking area, behind the building. Kind of tricky to find, but--"

 

"I know exactly where it is," Langdon said. "I'll show you when we get there."

 

Simkins shook his head. "You're not coming, Professor. This is a military--"

 

"The hell I'm not!" Langdon fired back. "Peter's in there! And that building's a labyrinth! Without someone to lead you in, you'll take ten minutes to find your way up to the Temple Room!"

 

"He's right," Bellamy said. "It's a maze. There is an elevator, but it's old and loud and opens in full view of the Temple Room. If you hope to move in quietly, you'll need to ascend on foot."

 

"You'll never find your way," Langdon warned. "From that rear entrance, you're navigating through the Hall of Regalia, the Hall of Honor, the middle landing, the Atrium, the Grand Stair-- "

 

"Enough," Sato said. "Langdon's coming." CHAPTER 116

 

The energy was growing.

 

Mal'akh could feel it pulsing within him, moving up and down his body as he wheeled Peter Solomon toward the altar. I will exit this building infinitely more powerful than when I entered. All that remained now was to locate the final ingredient.

 

"Verbum significatium," he whispered to himself. "Verbum omnificum."

 

Mal'akh parked Peter's wheelchair beside the altar and then circled around and unzipped the heavy daybag that sat on Peter's lap. Reaching inside, he lifted out the stone pyramid and held it up in the moonlight, directly in front of Peter's eyes, showing him the grid of symbols engraved on the bottom. "All these years," he taunted, "and you never knew how the pyramid kept her secrets." Mal'akh set the pyramid carefully on the corner of the altar and returned to the bag. "And this talisman," he continued, extracting the golden capstone, "did indeed bring order from chaos, exactly as promised." He placed the metal capstone carefully atop the stone pyramid, and then stepped back to give Peter a clear view. "Behold, your symbolon is complete."

 

Peter's face contorted, and he tried in vain to speak.

 

"Good. I can see you have something you'd like to tell me." Mal'akh roughly yanked out the gag.

 

Peter Solomon coughed and gasped for several seconds before he finally managed to speak. "Katherine . . ."

 

"Katherine's time is short. If you want to save her, I suggest you do exactly as I say." Mal'akh suspected she was probably already dead, or if not, very close. It made no difference. She was lucky to have lived long enough to say good-bye to her brother.

 

"Please," Peter begged, his voice ragged. "Send an ambulance for her . . ."

 

"I will do exactly that. But first you must tell me how to access the secret staircase."

 

Peter's expression turned to one of disbelief. "What?!"

 

"The staircase. Masonic legend speaks of stairs that descend hundreds of feet to the secret location where the Lost Word is buried."

 

Peter now looked panicked.

 

"You know the legend," Mal'akh baited. "A secret staircase hidden beneath a stone." He pointed to the central altar--a huge block of granite with a gilded inscription in Hebrew: GOD SAID, "LET THERE BE LIGHT" AND THERE WAS LIGHT. "Obviously, this is the right place. The entrance to the staircase must be hidden on one of the floors beneath us."

 

"There is no secret staircase in this building!" Peter shouted.

 

Mal'akh smiled patiently and motioned upward. "This building is shaped like a pyramid." He pointed to the four-sided vaulted ceiling that angled up to the square oculus in the center.

 

"Yes, the House of the Temple is a pyramid, but what does--"

 

"Peter, I have all night." Mal'akh smoothed his white silk robe over his perfect body. "Katherine, however, does not. If you want her to live, you will tell me how to access the staircase."

 

"I already told you," he declared, "there is no secret staircase in this building!"

 

"No?" Mal'akh calmly produced the sheet of paper on which he had reorganized the grid of symbols from the base of the pyramid. "This is the Masonic Pyramid's final message. Your friend Robert Langdon helped me decipher it."

 

Mal'akh raised the paper and held it in front of Peter's eyes. The Worshipful Master inhaled sharply when he saw it. Not only had the sixty-four symbols been organized into clearly meaningful groups . . . but an actual image had materialized out of the chaos.

 

An image of a staircase . . . beneath a pyramid.

 

Peter Solomon stared in disbelief at the grid of symbols before him. The Masonic Pyramid had kept its secret for generations. Now, suddenly, it was being unveiled, and he felt a cold sense of foreboding in the pit of his stomach.

 

The pyramid's final code.

 

At a glance, the true meaning of these symbols remained a mystery to Peter, and yet he could immediately understand why the tattooed man believed what he believed.

 

He thinks there is a hidden staircase beneath the pyramid called Heredom. He misunderstands these symbols. "Where is it?" the tattooed man demanded. "Tell me how to find the staircase, and I will save Katherine."

 

I wish I could do that, Peter thought. But the staircase is not real. The myth of the staircase was purely symbolic . . . part of the great allegories of Masonry. The Winding Staircase, as it was known, appeared on the second-degree tracing boards. It represented man's intellectual climb toward the Divine Truth. Like Jacob's ladder, the Winding Staircase was a symbol of the pathway to heaven . . . the journey of man toward God . . . the connection between the earthly and spiritual realms. Its steps represented the many virtues of the mind.

 

He should know that, Peter thought. He endured all the initiations.

 

Every Masonic initiate learned of the symbolic staircase that he could ascend, enabling him "to participate in the mysteries of human science." Freemasonry, like Noetic Science and the Ancient Mysteries, revered the untapped potential of the human mind, and many of Masonry's symbols related to human physiology.

 

The mind sits like a golden capstone atop the physical body. The Philosopher's Stone. Through the staircase of the spine, energy ascends and descends, circulating, connecting the heavenly mind to the physical body.

 

Peter knew it was no coincidence that the spine was made up of exactly thirty-three vertebrae. Thirty-three are the degrees of Masonry. The base of the spine, or sacrum, literally meant "sacred bone." The body is indeed a temple. The human science that Masons revered was the ancient understanding of how to use that temple for its most potent and noble purpose.

 

Unfortunately, explaining the truth to this man was not going to help Katherine at all. Peter gazed down at the grid of symbols and gave a defeated sigh. "You're right," he lied. "There is indeed a secret staircase beneath this building. And as soon as you send help to Katherine, I'll take you to it."

 

The man with the tattoos simply stared at him.

 

Solomon glared back, eyes defiant. "Either save my sister and learn the truth . . . or kill us both and remain ignorant forever!"

 

The man quietly lowered the paper and shook his head. "I'm not happy with you, Peter. You failed your test. You still take me for a fool. Do you truly believe I don't understand what it is I seek? Do you think I have not yet grasped my true potential?"

 

With that, the man turned his back and slipped off his robe. As the white silk fluttered to the floor, Peter saw for the first time the long tattoo running up the man's spine.

 

Dear God . . .

 

Winding up from the man's white loincloth, an elegant spiral staircase ascended the middle of his muscular back. Each stair was positioned on a different vertebra. Speechless, Peter let his eyes ascend the staircase, all the way up to the base of the man's skull.

 

Peter could only stare.

 

The tattooed man now tipped his shaved head backward, revealing the circle of bare flesh on the pinnacle of his skull. The virgin skin was bordered by a single snake, looped in a circle, consuming itself.

 

At-one-ment.

 

Slowly now, the man lowered his head and turned to face Peter. The massive double-headed phoenix on his chest stared out through dead eyes.

 

"I am looking for the Lost Word," the man said. "Are you going to help me . . . or are you and your sister going to die?"

 

You know how to find it, Mal'akh thought. You know something you're not telling me.

 

Peter Solomon had revealed things under interrogation that he probably didn't even recall now. The repeated sessions in and out of the deprivation tank had left him delirious and compliant. Incredibly, when he spilled his guts, everything he told Mal'akh had been consistent with the legend of the Lost Word. The Lost Word is not a metaphor . . . it is real. The Word is written in an ancient language . . . and has been hidden for ages. The Word is capable of bringing unfathomable power to anyone who grasps its true meaning. The Word remains hidden to this day . . . and the Masonic Pyramid has the power to unveil it.

 

"Peter," Mal'akh now said, staring into his captive's eyes, "when you looked at that grid of symbols . . . you saw something. You had a revelation. This grid means something to you. Tell me."

 

"I will tell you nothing until you send help to Katherine!"

 

Mal'akh smiled at him. "Believe me, the prospect of losing your sister is the least of your worries right now." Without another word, he turned to Langdon's daybag and started removing the items he had packed in his basement. Then he began meticulously arranging them on the sacrificial altar.

 

A folded silk cloth. Pure white.

 

A silver censer. Egyptian myrrh.

 

A vial of Peter's blood. Mixed with ash.

 

A black crow's feather. His sacred stylus.

 

The sacrificial knife. Forged of iron from a meteorite in the desert of Canaan.

 

"You think I am afraid to die?" Peter shouted, his voice racked with anguish. "If Katherine is gone, I have nothing left! You've murdered my entire family! You've taken everything from me!"

 

"Not everything," Mal'akh replied. "Not yet." He reached into the day-bag and pulled out the laptop from his study. He turned it on and looked over at his captive. "I'm afraid you have not yet grasped the true nature of your predicament."

 

 

 

CHAPTER 117

 

Langdon felt his stomach drop as the CIA helicopter leaped off the lawn, banked hard, and accelerated faster than he ever imagined a helicopter could move. Katherine had stayed behind to recuperate with Bellamy while one of the CIA agents searched the mansion and waited for a backup team.

 

Before Langdon left, she had kissed him on the cheek and whispered, "Be safe, Robert."

 

Now Langdon was holding on for dear life as the military helicopter finally leveled out and raced toward the House of the Temple.

 

Seated beside him, Sato was yelling up to the pilot. "Head for Dupont Circle!" she shouted over the deafening noise. "We'll set down there!"

 

Startled, Langdon turned to her. "Dupont?! That's blocks from the House of the Temple! We can land in the Temple parking lot!"

 

Sato shook her head. "We need to enter the building quietly. If our target hears us coming--"

 

"We don't have time!" Langdon argued. "This lunatic is about to murder Peter! Maybe the sound of the helicopter will scare him and make him stop!"

 

Sato stared at him with ice-cold eyes. "As I have told you, Peter Solomon's safety is not my primary objective. I believe I've made that clear."

 

Langdon was in no mood for another national-security lecture. "Look, I'm the only one on board who knows his way through that building--"

 

"Careful, Professor," the director warned. "You are here as a member of my team, and I will have your complete cooperation." She paused a moment and then added, "In fact, it might be wise if I now apprised you fully of the severity of our crisis tonight."

 

Sato reached under her seat and pulled out a sleek titanium briefcase, which she opened to reveal an unusually complicated-looking computer. When she turned it on, a CIA logo materialized along with a log-in prompt.

 

As Sato logged in, she asked, "Professor, do you remember the blond hairpiece we found in the man's home?"

 

"Yes."

 

"Well, hidden within that wig was a tiny fiber-optic camera . . . concealed in the bangs."

 

"A hidden camera? I don't understand."

 

Sato looked grim. "You will." She launched a file on the laptop.

 

ONE MOMENT PLEASE . . .

 

DECRYPTING FILE . . . A video window popped up, filling the entire screen. Sato lifted the briefcase and set it on Langdon's thighs, giving him a front-row seat.

 

An unusual image materialized on the screen.

 

Langdon recoiled in surprise. What the hell?!

 

Murky and dark, the video was of a blindfolded man. He was dressed in the garb of a medieval heretic being led to the gallows--noose around his neck, left pant leg rolled up to the knee, right sleeve rolled up to the elbow, and his shirt gaping open to reveal his bare chest.

 

Langdon stared in disbelief. He had read enough about Masonic rituals to recognize exactly what he was looking at.

 

A Masonic initiate . . . preparing to enter the first degree.

 

The man was very muscular and tall, with a familiar blond hairpiece and deeply tanned skin. Langdon recognized his features at once. The man's tattoos had obviously been concealed beneath bronzing makeup. He was standing before a full-length mirror videotaping his reflection through the camera concealed in his wig.

 

But . . . why?

 

The screen faded to black.

 

New footage appeared. A small, dimly lit, rectangular chamber. A dramatic chessboard floor of black-and-white tile. A low wooden altar, flanked on three sides by pillars, atop which burned flickering candles.

 

Langdon felt a sudden apprehension.

 

Oh my God.

 

Filming in the erratic style of an amateur home video, the camera now panned up to the periphery of the room to reveal a small group of men observing the initiate. The men were dressed in ritual Masonic regalia. In the darkness, Langdon could not make out their faces, but he had no doubt where this ritual was taking place.

 

The traditional layout of this Lodge Room could have been anywhere in the world, but the powder-blue triangular pediment above the master's chair revealed it as the oldest Masonic lodge in D.C.--Potomac Lodge No. 5--home of George Washington and the Masonic forefathers who laid the cornerstone for the White House and the Capitol Building.

 

The lodge was still active today. Peter Solomon, in addition to overseeing the House of the Temple, was the master of his local lodge. And it was at lodges like this one that a Masonic initiate's journey always began . . . where he underwent the first three degrees of Freemasonry.

 

"Brethren," Peter's familiar voice declared, "in the name of the Great Architect of the Universe, I open this lodge for the practice of Masonry in the first degree!"

 

A gavel rapped loudly.

 

Langdon watched in utter disbelief as the video progressed through a quick series of dissolves featuring Peter Solomon performing some of the ritual's starker moments.

 

Pressing a shining dagger to the initiate's bare chest . . . threatening impalement should the initiate "inappropriately reveal the Mysteries of Masonry" . . . describing the black-and-white floor as representing "the living and the dead" . . . outlining punishments that included "having one's throat cut across, one's tongue torn out by its roots, and one's body buried in the rough sands of the sea . . ."

 

Langdon stared. Am I really witnessing this? Masonic initiation rites had remained shrouded in secrecy for centuries. The only descriptions that had ever been leaked were written by a handful of estranged brothers. Langdon had read those accounts, of course, and yet to see an initiation with his own eyes . . . this was a much different story.

 

Especially edited this way. Langdon could already tell that the video was an unfair piece of propaganda, omitting all the noblest aspects of the initiation and highlighting only the most disconcerting. If this video were released, Langdon knew it would become an Internet sensation over night. The anti-Masonic conspiracy theorists would feed on this like sharks. The Masonic organization, and especially Peter Solomon, would find themselves embroiled in a firestorm of controversy and a desperate effort at damage control . . . even though the ritual was innocuous and purely symbolic.

 

Eerily, the video included a biblical reference to human sacrifice . . . "the submission of Abraham to the Supreme Being by proffering Isaac, his firstborn son." Langdon thought of Peter and willed the helicopter to fly faster.

 

The video footage shifted now.

 

Same room. Different night. A larger group of Masons looking on. Peter Solomon was observing from the master's chair. This was the second degree. More intense now. Kneeling at the altar . . . vowing to "forever conceal the enigmas existing within Freemasonry" . . . consenting to the penalty of "having one's chest cavity ripped open and pulsing heart cast upon the surface of the earth as offal for the ravenous beasts" . . .

 

Langdon's own heart was pulsing wildly now as the video shifted yet again. Another night. A much larger crowd. A coffin-shaped "tracing board" on the floor. The third degree.

 

This was the death ritual--the most rigorous of all the degrees--the moment in which the initiate was forced "to face the final challenge of personal extinction." This grueling interrogation was in fact the source of the common phrase to give someone the third degree. And although Langdon was very familiar with academic accounts of it, he was in no way prepared for what he now saw.

 

The murder.

 

In violent, rapid intercuts, the video displayed a chilling, victim's point-of-view account of the initiate's brutal murder. There were simulated blows to his head, including one with a Mason's stone maul. All the while, a deacon mournfully told the story of "the widow's son"--Hiram Abiff--the master Architect of King Solomon's temple, who chose to die rather than reveal the secret wisdom he possessed.

 

The attack was mimed, of course, and yet its effect on camera was bloodcurdling. After the deathblow, the initiate--now "dead to his former self"--was lowered into his symbolic coffin, where his eyes were shut and his arms were crossed like those of a corpse. The Masonic brothers rose and mournfully circled his dead body while a pipe organ played a march of the dead.

 

The macabre scene was deeply disturbing.

 

And it only got worse.

 

As the men gathered around their slain brother, the hidden camera clearly displayed their faces. Langdon now realized that Solomon was not the only famous man in the room. One of the men peering down at the initiate in his coffin was on television almost daily.

 

A prominent U.S. senator.

 

Oh God . . .

 

The scene changed yet again. Outside now . . . nighttime . . . the same jumpy video footage . . . the man was walking down a city street . . . strands of blond hair blowing in front of the camera . . . turning a corner . . .the camera angle lowering to something in the man's hand . . . a dollar bill . . . a close-up focusing on the Great Seal . . . the all-seeing eye . . . the unfinished pyramid . . . and then, abruptly, pulling away to reveal a similar shape in the distance . . . a massive pyramidical building . . . with sloping sides rising to a truncated top.

 

The House of the Temple.

 

A soul-deep dread swelled within him.

 

The video kept moving . . . the man hurrying toward the building now . . . up the multitiered staircase . . . toward the giant bronze doors . . . between the two seventeen-ton sphinx guardians. A neophyte entering the pyramid of initiation.

 

Darkness now.

 

A powerful pipe organ played in the distance . . . and a new image materialized.

 

The Temple Room.

 

Langdon swallowed hard.

 

On-screen, the cavernous space was alive with electricity. Beneath the oculus, the black marble altar shone in the moonlight. Assembled around it, seated on hand-tooled pigskin chairs, awaited a somber council of distinguished thirty-third-degree Masons, present to bear witness. The video now panned across their faces with slow and deliberate intention.

 

Langdon stared in horror.

 

Although he had not seen this coming, what he was looking at made perfect sense. A gathering of the most decorated and accomplished Masons in the most powerful city on earth would logically include many influential and well-known individuals. Sure enough, seated around the altar, adorned in their long silk gloves, Masonic aprons, and glistening jewels, were some of the country's most powerful men.

 

Two Supreme Court justices . . .

 

The secretary of defense . . .

 

The speaker of the House . . .

 

Langdon felt ill as the video continued panning across the faces of those in attendance.

 

Three prominent senators . . . including the majority leader . . .

 

The secretary of homeland security . . .

 

And . . .

 

The director of the CIA . . .

 

Langdon wanted only to look away, but he could not. The scene was utterly mesmerizing, alarming even to him. In an instant, he had come to understand the source of Sato's anxiety and concern.

 

Now, on-screen, the shot dissolved into a single shocking image.

 

A human skull . . . filled with dark crimson liquid. The famed caput mortuum was being offered forth to the initiate by the slender hands of Peter Solomon, whose gold Masonic ring glinted in the candlelight. The red liquid was wine . . . and yet it shimmered like blood. The visual effect was frightful.

 

The Fifth Libation, Langdon realized, having read firsthand accounts of this sacrament in John Quincy Adams's Letters on the Masonic Institution. Even so, to see it happen . . . to see it calmly witnessed by America's most powerful men . . . this was as arresting an image as any Langdon had ever seen.

 

The initiate took the skull in his hands . . . his face reflected in the calm surface of the wine. "May this wine I now drink become a deadly poison to me," he declared, "should I ever knowingly or willfully violate my oath."

 

Obviously, this initiate had intended to violate his oath beyond all imagination.

 

Langdon could barely get his mind around what would happen if this video were made public. No one would understand. The government would be thrown into upheaval. The airwaves would be filled with the voices of anti-Masonic groups, fundamentalists, and conspiracy theorists spewing hatred and fear, launching a Puritan witch hunt all over again.

 

The truth will be twisted, Langdon knew. As it always is with the Masons.

 

The truth was that the brotherhood's focus on death was in fact a bold celebration of life. Masonic ritual was designed to awaken the slumbering man inside, lifting him from his dark coffin of ignorance, raising him into the light, and giving him eyes to see. Only through the death experience could man fully understand his life experience. Only through the realization that his days on earth were finite could he grasp the importance of living those days with honor, integrity, and service to his fellow man.

 

Masonic initiations were startling because they were meant to be transformative. Masonic vows were unforgiving because they were meant to be reminders that man's honor and his "word" were all he could take from this world. Masonic teachings were arcane because they were meant to be universal . . . taught through a common language of symbols and metaphors that transcended religions, cultures, and races . . . creating a unified "worldwide consciousness" of brotherly love.

 

For a brief instant, Langdon felt a glimmer of hope. He tried to assure himself that if this video were to leak out, the public would be open-minded and tolerant, realizing that all spiritual rituals included aspects that would seem frightening if taken out of context--crucifixion reenactments, Jewish circumcision rites, Mormon baptisms of the dead, Catholic exorcisms, Islamic niqab, shamanic trance healing, the Jewish Kaparot ceremony, even the eating of the figurative body and blood of Christ.

 

I'm dreaming, Langdon knew. This video will create chaos. He could imagine what would happen if the prominent leaders of Russia or the Islamic world were seen in a video, pressing knives to bare chests, swearing violent oaths, performing mock murders, lying in symbolic coffins, and drinking wine from a human skull. The global outcry would be instantaneous and overwhelming.

 

God help us . . .

 

On-screen now, the initiate was raising the skull to his lips. He tipped it backward . . . draining the blood-red wine . . . sealing his oath. Then he lowered the skull and gazed out at the assembly around him. America's most powerful and trusted men gave contented nods of acceptance.

 

"Welcome, brother," Peter Solomon said.

 

As the image faded to black, Langdon realized he had stopped breathing.

 

Without a word, Sato reached over, closed the briefcase, and lifted it off his lap. Langdon turned to her trying to speak, but he could find no words. It didn't matter. Understanding was written all over his face. Sato was right. Tonight was a national-security crisis . . . of unimaginable proportions.

 

 

 

CHAPTER 118

 

Dressed in his loincloth, Mal'akh padded back and forth in front of Peter Solomon's wheelchair. "Peter," he whispered, enjoying every moment of his captive's horror, "you forgot you have a second family . . . your Masonic brothers. And I will destroy them, too . . . unless you help me."

 

Solomon looked almost catatonic in the glow of the laptop sitting atop his thighs. "Please," he finally stammered, glancing up. "If this video gets out . . ."

 

"If?" Mal'akh laughed. "If it gets out?" He motioned to the small cellular modem plugged into the side of his laptop. "I'm connected to the world."

 

"You wouldn't . . ."

 

I will, Mal'akh thought, enjoying Solomon's horror. "You have the power to stop me," he said. "And to save your sister. But you have to tell me what I want to know. The Lost Word is hidden somewhere, Peter, and I know this grid reveals exactly where to find it."

 

Peter glanced at the grid of symbols again, his eyes revealing nothing.

 

"Perhaps this will help to inspire you." Mal'akh reached over Peter's shoulders and hit a few keys on the laptop. An e-mail program launched on the screen, and Peter stiffened visibly. The screen now displayed an e-mail that Mal'akh had cued earlier tonight--a video file addressed to a long list of major media networks.

 

Mal'akh smiled. "I think it's time we share, don't you?"

 

"Don't!"

 

Mal'akh reached down and clicked the send button on the program. Peter jerked against his bonds, trying unsuccessfully to knock the laptop to the floor.

 

"Relax, Peter," Mal'akh whispered. "It's a massive file. It will take a few minutes to go out." He pointed to the progress bar:

 

SENDING MESSAGE: 2% COMPLETE

 

 

"If you tell me what I want to know, I'll stop the e-mail, and nobody will ever see this."

 

Peter was ashen as the task bar inched forward.

 

SENDING MESSAGE: 4% COMPLETE

 

 

Mal'akh now lifted the computer from Peter's lap and set it on one of the nearby pigskin chairs, turning the screen so the other man could watch the progress. Then he returned to Peter's side and laid the page of symbols in his lap. "The legends say the Masonic Pyramid will unveil the Lost Word. This is the pyramid's final code. I believe you know how to read it."

 

Mal'akh glanced over at the laptop.

 

SENDING MESSAGE: 8% COMPLETE

 

 

Mal'akh returned his eyes to Peter. Solomon was staring at him, his gray eyes blazing now with hatred.

 

Hate me, Mal'akh thought. The greater the emotion, the more potent the energy that will be released when the ritual is completed.

 

At Langley, Nola Kaye pressed the phone to her ear, barely able to hear Sato over the noise of the helicopter.

 

"They said it's impossible to stop the file transfer!" Nola shouted. "To shut down local ISPs would take at least an hour, and if he's got access to a wireless provider, killing the ground-based Internet won't stop him from sending it anyway."

 

Nowadays, stopping the flow of digital information had become nearly impossible. There were too many access routes to the Internet. Between hard lines, Wi-Fi hot spots, cellular modems, SAT phones, superphones, and e-mail-equipped PDAs, the only way to isolate a potential data leak was by destroying the source machine.

 

"I pulled the spec sheet on the UH-60 you're flying," Nola said, "and it looks like you're equipped with EMP."

 

Electromagnetic-pulse or EMP guns were now commonplace among law enforcement agencies, which used them primarily to stop car chases from a safe distance. By firing a highly concentrated pulse of electromagnetic radiation, an EMP gun could effectively fry the electronics of any device it targeted--cars, cell phones, computers. According to Nola's spec sheet, the UH- 60 had a chassis-mounted, laser-sighted, six-gigahertz magnetron with a fifty-dB-gain horn that yielded a ten-gigawatt pulse. Discharged directly at a laptop, the pulse would fry the computer's motherboard and instantly erase the hard drive.

 

"EMP will be useless," Sato yelled back. "Target is inside a stone building. No sight lines and thick EM shielding. Do you have any indication yet if the video has gone out?"

 

Nola glanced at a second monitor, which was running a continuous search for breaking news stories about the Masons. "Not yet, ma'am. But if it goes public, we'll know within seconds."

 

"Keep me posted." Sato signed off.

 

Langdon held his breath as the helicopter dropped from the sky toward Dupont Circle. A handful of pedestrians scattered as the aircraft descended through an opening in the trees and landed hard on the lawn just south of the famous two-tiered fountain designed by the same two men who created the Lincoln Memorial.

 

Thirty seconds later, Langdon was riding shotgun in a commandeered Lexus SUV, tearing up New Hampshire Avenue toward the House of the Temple.

 

Peter Solomon was desperately trying to figure out what to do. All he could see in his mind were the images of Katherine bleeding in the basement . . . and of the video he had just witnessed. He turned his head slowly toward the laptop on the pigskin chair several yards away. The progress bar was almost a third of the way filled.

 

SENDING MESSAGE: 29% COMPLETE

 

 

The tattooed man was now walking slow circles around the square altar, swinging a lit censer and chanting to himself. Thick puffs of white smoke swirled up toward the skylight. The man's eyes were wide now, and he seemed to be in a demonic trance. Peter turned his gaze to the ancient knife that sat waiting on the white silk cloth spread across the altar.

 

Peter Solomon had no doubt that he would die in this temple tonight. The question was how to die. Would he find a way to save his sister and his brotherhood . . . or would his death be entirely in vain?

 

He glanced down at the grid of symbols. When he had first laid eyes on the grid, the shock of the moment had blinded him . . . preventing his vision from piercing the veil of chaos . . . to glimpse the startling truth. Now, however, the real significance of these symbols had become crystal clear to him. He had seen the grid in an entirely new light.

 

Peter Solomon knew exactly what he needed to do.

 

Taking a deep breath, he gazed up at the moon through the oculus above. Then he began to speak.

 

All great truths are simple.

 

Mal'akh had learned that long ago.

 

The solution that Peter Solomon was now explaining was so graceful and pure that Mal'akh was sure that it could only be true. Incredibly, the solution to the pyramid's final code was far simpler than he had ever imagined.

 

The Lost Word was right before my eyes.

 

In an instant, a bright ray of light pierced the murkiness of the history and myth surrounding the Lost Word. As promised, the Lost Word was indeed written in an ancient language and bore mystical power in every philosophy, religion, and science ever known to man. Alchemy, astrology, Kabbalah, Christianity, Buddhism, Rosicrucianism, Freemasonry, astronomy, physics, Noetics . . .

 

Standing now in this initiation chamber atop the great pyramid of Heredom, Mal'akh gazed upon the treasure he had sought all these years, and he knew he could not have prepared himself more perfectly.

 

Soon I am complete.

 

The Lost Word is found.

 

In Kalorama Heights, a lone CIA agent stood amid a sea of garbage that he had dumped out of the trash bins that had been found in the garage.

 

"Ms. Kaye?" he said, speaking to Sato's analyst on the phone. "Good thinking to search his garbage. I think I just found something." Inside the house, Katherine Solomon was feeling stronger with every passing moment. The infusion of lactated Ringer's solution had successfully raised her blood pressure and quelled her throbbing headache. She was resting now, seated in the dining room, with explicit instructions to remain still. Her nerves felt frayed, and she was increasingly anxious for news about her brother.

 

Where is everybody? The CIA's forensics team had not yet arrived, and the agent who had stayed behind was still off searching the premises. Bellamy had been sitting with her in the dining room, still wrapped in a foil blanket, but he, too, had wandered off to look for any information that might help the CIA save Peter.

 

Unable to sit idly, Katherine pulled herself to her feet, teetered, and then inched slowly toward the living room. She found Bellamy in the study. The Architect was standing at an open drawer, his back to her, apparently too engrossed in its contents to hear her enter.

 

She walked up behind him. "Warren?"

 

The old man lurched and turned, quickly shutting the drawer with his hip. His face was lined with shock and grief, his cheeks streaked with tears.

 

"What's wrong?!" She glanced down at the drawer. "What is it?"

 

Bellamy seemed unable to speak. He had the look of a man who had just seen something he deeply wished he had not.

 

"What's in the drawer?" she demanded.

 

Bellamy's tear-filled eyes held hers for a long, sorrowful moment. Finally he spoke. "You and I wondered why . . . why this man seemed to hate your family."

 

Katherine's brow furrowed. "Yes?"

 

"Well . . ." Bellamy's voice caught. "I just found the answer."

 

 

 

CHAPTER 119

 

In the chamber at the top of the House of the Temple, the one who called himself Mal'akh stood before the great altar and gently massaged the virgin skin atop his head. Verbum significatium, he chanted in preparation. Verbum omnificum. The final ingredient had been found at last. The most precious treasures are often the simplest.

 

Above the altar, wisps of fragrant smoke now swirled, billowing up from the censer. The suffumigations ascended through the shaft of moonlight, clearing a channel skyward through which a liberated soul could travel freely.

 

The time had come.

 

Mal'akh retrieved the vial of Peter's darkened blood and uncorked it. With his captive looking on, he dipped the nib of the crow's feather into the crimson tincture and raised it to the sacred circle of flesh atop his head. He paused a moment . . . thinking of how long he had waited for this night. His great transformation was finally at hand. When the Lost Word is written on the mind of man, he is then ready to receive unimaginable power. Such was the ancient promise of apotheosis. So far, mankind had been unable to realize that promise, and Mal'akh had done what he could to keep it that way.

 

With a steady hand, Mal'akh touched the nib of the feather to his skin. He needed no mirror, no assistance, only his sense of touch, and his mind's eye. Slowly, meticulously, he began inscribing the Lost Word inside the circular ouroboros on his scalp.

 

Peter Solomon looked on with an expression of horror.

 

When Mal'akh finished, he closed his eyes, set down the feather, and let the air out of his lungs entirely. For the first time in his life, he felt a sensation he had never known.

 

I am complete.

 

I am at one.

 

Mal'akh had worked for years on the artifact that was his body, and now, as he neared his moment of final transformation, he could feel every line that had ever been inscribed on his flesh. I am a true masterpiece. Perfect and complete.

 

"I gave you what you asked for." Peter's voice intruded. "Send help to Katherine. And stop that file."

 

Mal'akh opened his eyes and smiled. "You and I are not quite finished." He turned to the altar and picked up the sacrificial knife, running his finger across the sleek iron blade. "This ancient knife was commissioned by God," he said, "for use in a human sacrifice. You recognized it earlier, no?"

 

Solomon's gray eyes were like stone. "It is unique, and I've heard the legend."

 

"Legend? The account appears in Holy Scripture. You don't believe it's true?"

 

Peter just stared. Mal'akh had spent a fortune locating and obtaining this artifact. Known as the Akedah knife, it had been crafted over three thousand years ago from an iron meteorite that had fallen to earth. Iron from heaven, as the early mystics called it. It was believed to be the exact knife used by Abraham at the Akedah--the near sacrifice of his son Isaac on Mount Moriah--as depicted in Genesis. The knife's astounding history included possession by popes, Nazi mystics, European alchemists, and private collectors.

 

They protected and admired it, Mal'akh thought, but none dared unleash its true power by using it for its real purpose. Tonight, the Akedah knife would fulfill its destiny.

 

The Akedah had always been sacred in Masonic ritual. In the very first degree, Masons celebrated "the most august gift ever offered to God . . . the submission of Abraham to the volitions of the supreme being by proffering Isaac, his firstborn . . ."

 

The weight of the blade felt exhilarating in Mal'akh's hand as he crouched down and used the freshly sharpened knife to sever the ropes binding Peter to his wheelchair. The bonds fell to the floor.

 

Peter Solomon winced in pain as he attempted to shift his cramped limbs. "Why are you doing this to me? What do you think this will accomplish?"

 

"You of all people should understand," Mal'akh replied. "You study the ancient ways. You know that the power of the mysteries relies on sacrifice . . . on releasing a human soul from its body. It has been this way since the beginning."

 

"You know nothing of sacrifice," Peter said, his voice seething with pain and loathing.

 

Excellent, Mal'akh thought. Feed your hatred. It will only make this easier.

 

Mal'akh's empty stomach growled as he paced before his captive. "There is enormous power in the shedding of human blood. Everyone understood that, from the early Egyptians, to the Celtic Druids, to the Chinese, to the Aztecs. There is magic in human sacrifice, but modern man has become weak, too fearful to make true offerings, too frail to give the life that is required for spiritual transformation. The ancient texts are clear, though. Only by offering what is most sacred can man access the ultimate power."

 

"You consider me a sacred offering?"

 

Mal'akh now laughed out loud. "You really don't understand yet, do you?"

 

Peter gave him an odd look.

 

"Do you know why I have a deprivation tank in my home?" Mal'akh placed his hands on his hips and flexed his elaborately decorated body, which was still covered only by a loincloth. "I have been practicing . . . preparing . . . anticipating the moment when I am only mind . . . when I am released from this mortal shell . . . when I have offered up this beautiful body to the gods in sacrifice. I am the precious one! I am the pure white lamb!"

 

Peter's mouth fell open but no words came out.

 

"Yes, Peter, a man must offer to the gods that which he holds most dear. His purest white dove . . . his most precious and worthy offering. You are not precious to me. You are not a worthy offering." Mal'akh glared at him. "Don't you see? You are not the sacrifice, Peter . . . I am. Mine is the flesh that is the offering. I am the gift. Look at me. I have prepared, made myself worthy for my final journey. I am the gift!"

 

Peter remained speechless.

 

"The secret is how to die," Mal'akh now said. "Masons understand that." He pointed to the altar. "You revere the ancient truths, and yet you are cowards. You understand the power of sacrifice and yet you keep a safe distance from death, performing your mock murders and bloodless death rituals. Tonight, your symbolic altar will bear witness to its true power . . . and its actual purpose."

 

Mal'akh reached down and grasped Peter Solomon's left hand, pressing the handle of the Akedah knife into his palm. The left hand serves the darkness. This, too, had been planned. Peter would have no choice in the matter. Mal'akh could fathom no sacrifice more potent and symbolic than one performed on this altar, by this man, with this knife, plunged into the heart of an offering whose mortal flesh was wrapped like a gift in a shroud of mystical symbols.

 

With this offering of self, Mal'akh would establish his rank in the hierarchy of demons. Darkness and blood were where the true power lay. The ancients knew this, the Adepts choosing sides consistent with their individual natures. Mal'akh had chosen sides wisely. Chaos was the natural law of the universe. Indifference was the engine of entropy. Man's apathy was the fertile ground in which the dark spirits tended their seeds.

 

I have served them, and they will receive me as a god.

 

Peter did not move. He simply stared down at the ancient knife gripped in his hand.

 

"I will you," Mal'akh taunted. "I am a willing sacrifice. Your final role has been written. You will transform me. You will liberate me from my body. You will do this, or you will lose your sister and your brotherhood. You will truly be all alone." He paused, smiling down at his captive. "Consider this your final punishment."

 

Peter's eyes rose slowly to meet Mal'akh's. "Killing you? A punishment? Do you think I will hesitate? You murdered my son. My mother. My entire family."

 

"No!" Mal'akh exploded with a force that startled even himself. "You are wrong! I did not murder your family! You did! It was you who made the choice to leave Zachary in prison! And from there, the wheels were in motion! You killed your family, Peter, not me!" Peter's knuckles turned white, his fingers clenching the knife in rage. "You know nothing of why I left Zachary in prison."

 

"I know everything!" Mal'akh fired back. "I was there. You claimed you were trying to help him. Were you trying to help him when you offered him the choice between wealth or wisdom? Were you trying to help him when you gave him the ultimatum to join the Masons? What kind of father gives a child the choice between `wealth or wisdom' and expects him to know how to handle it! What kind of father leaves his own son in a prison instead of flying him home to safety!" Mal'akh now moved in front of Peter and crouched down, placing his tattooed face only inches from his face. "But most important . . . what kind of father can look his own son in the eyes . . . even after all these years . . . and not even recognize him!"

 

Mal'akh's words echoed for several seconds in the stone chamber.

 

Then silence.

 

In the abrupt stillness, Peter Solomon seemed to have been jolted from his trance. His face clouded now with a visage of total incredulity.

 

Yes, Father. It's me. Mal'akh had waited years for this moment . . . to take revenge on the man who had abandoned him . . . to stare into those gray eyes and speak the truth that had been buried all these years. Now the moment was here, and he spoke slowly, longing to watch the full weight of his words gradually crush Peter Solomon's soul. "You should be happy, Father. Your prodigal son has returned."

 

Peter's face was now as pale as death.

 

Mal'akh savored every moment. "My own father made the decision to leave me in prison . . . and in that instant, I vowed that he had rejected me for the last time. I was no longer his son. Zachary Solomon ceased to exist."

 

Two glistening teardrops welled suddenly in his father's eyes, and Mal'akh thought they were the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.

 

Peter choked back tears, staring up at Mal'akh's face as if seeing him for the very first time.

 

"All the warden wanted was money," Mal'akh said, "but you refused. It never occurred to you, though, that my money was just as green as yours. The warden did not care who paid him, only that he was paid. When I offered to pay him handsomely, he selected a sickly inmate about my size, dressed him in my clothes, and beat him beyond all recognition. The photos you saw . . . and the sealed casket you buried . . . they were not mine. They belonged to a stranger."

 

Peter's tear-streaked face contorted now with anguish and disbelief. "Oh my God . . . Zachary."

 

"Not anymore. When Zachary walked out of prison, he was transformed." His adolescent physique and childlike face had drastically mutated when he flooded his young body with experimental growth hormones and steroids. Even his vocal cords had been ravaged, transforming his boyish voice into a permanent whisper.

 

Zachary became Andros.

 

Andros became Mal'akh.

 

And tonight . . . Mal'akh will become his greatest incarnation of all.

 

At that moment in Kalorama Heights, Katherine Solomon stood over the open desk drawer and gazed down at what could be described only as a fetishist's collection of old newspaper articles and photographs.

 

"I don't understand," she said, turning to Bellamy. "This lunatic was obviously obsessed with my family, but--"

 

"Keep going . . ." urged Bellamy, taking a seat and still looking deeply shaken.

 

Katherine dug deeper into the newspaper articles, every one of which related to the Solomon family--Peter's many successes, Katherine's research, their mother Isabel's terrible murder, Zachary Solomon's widely publicized drug use, incarceration, and brutal murder in a Turkish prison.

 

The fixation this man had on the Solomon family was beyond fanatical, and yet Katherine saw nothing yet to suggest why.

 

It was then that she saw the photographs. The first showed Zachary standing knee-deep in azure water on a beach dotted with whitewashed houses. Greece? The photo, she assumed, could have been taken only during Zach's freewheeling drug days in Europe. Strangely, though, Zach looked healthier than he did in the paparazzi shots of an emaciated kid partying with the drug crowd. He looked more fit, stronger somehow, more mature. Katherine never recalled him looking so healthy.

 

Puzzled, she checked the date stamp on the photo.

 

But that's . . . impossible.

 

The date was almost a full year after Zachary had died in prison.

 

Suddenly Katherine was flipping desperately through the stack. All of the photos were of Zachary Solomon . . . gradually getting older. The collection appeared to be some kind of pictorial autobiography, chronicling a slow transformation. As the pictures progressed, Katherine saw a sudden and dramatic change. She looked on in horror as Zachary's body began mutating, his muscles bulging, and his facial features morphing from the obvious heavy use of steroids. His frame seemed to double in mass, and a haunting fierceness crept into his eyes.

 

I don't even recognize this man!

 

He looked nothing like Katherine's memories of her young nephew.

 

When she reached a picture of him with a shaved head, she felt her knees begin to buckle. Then she saw a photo of his bare body . . . adorned with the first traces of tattoos.

 

Her heart almost stopped. "Oh my God . . ."

 

 

 

CHAPTER 120

 

"Right turn!" Langdon shouted from the backseat of the commandeered Lexus SUV.

 

Simkins swerved onto S Street and gunned the vehicle through a tree-lined residential neighborhood. As they neared the corner of Sixteenth Street, the House of the Temple rose like a mountain on the right.

 

Simkins stared up at the massive structure. It looked like someone had built a pyramid on top of Rome's Pantheon. He prepared to turn right on Sixteenth toward the front of the building.

 

"Don't turn!" Langdon ordered. "Go straight! Stay on S!"

 

Simkins obeyed, driving alongside the east side of the building.

 

"At Fifteenth," Langdon said, "turn right!"

 

Simkins followed his navigator, and moments later, Langdon had pointed out a nearly invisible, unpaved access road that bisected the gardens behind the House of the Temple. Simkins turned in to the drive and gunned the Lexus toward the rear of the building.

 

"Look!" Langdon said, pointing to the lone vehicle parked near the rear entrance. It was a large van. "They're here."

 

Simkins parked the SUV and killed the engine. Quietly, everyone got out and prepared to move in. Simkins stared up at the monolithic structure. "You say the Temple Room is at the top?"

 

Langdon nodded, pointing all the way to the pinnacle of the building. "That flat area on top of the pyramid is actually a skylight." Simkins spun back to Langdon. "The Temple Room has a skylight?"

 

Langdon gave him an odd look. "Of course. An oculus to heaven . . . directly above the altar."

 

The UH-60 sat idling at Dupont Circle.

 

In the passenger seat, Sato gnawed at her fingernails, awaiting news from her team.

 

Finally, Simkins's voice crackled over the radio. "Director?"

 

"Sato here," she barked.

 

"We're entering the building, but I have some additional recon for you."

 

"Go ahead."

 

"Mr. Langdon just informed me that the room in which the target is most likely located has a very large skylight."

 

Sato considered the information for several seconds. "Understood. Thank you."

 

Simkins signed off.

 

Sato spit out a fingernail and turned to the pilot. "Take her up."

 

 

 

CHAPTER 121

 

Like any parent who had lost a child, Peter Solomon had often imagined how old his boy would be now . . . what he would look like . . . and what he would have become.

 

Peter Solomon now had his answers.

 

The massive tattooed creature before him had begun life as a tiny, precious infant . . . baby Zach curled up in a wicker bassinette . . . taking his first fumbling steps across Peter's study . . . learning to speak his first words. The fact that evil could spring from an innocent child in a loving family remained one of the paradoxes of the human soul. Peter had been forced to accept early on that although his own blood flowed in his son's veins, the heart pumping that blood was his son's own. Unique and singular . . . as if randomly chosen from the universe. My son . . . he killed my mother, my friend Robert Langdon, and possibly my sister.

 

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