THEY MET AT THE AUCTION house around four o'clock. Gregory arrived last due to a nascent hangover, which kept him bedridden until noon. Despite everything, he was able to combine his hours of partying and drinking with work, and so he printed Toledo's manuscript in two copies and transcribed numerous notes from the memories he mentally recalled of his conversations with Monroe, when they discussed the Temple and the Freemasons.
Also brought the sketch with him for further exploration, and the letter he found in his correspondence. He wanted Antonia to read it.
— What do you think of this?
He handed her the sheet as soon as he arrived, sitting down at the meeting table.
Standing, the cryptographer read the letter in silence, oblivious to Nicolas's disturbing presence behind her. Then she turned to look him in the eye, waiting for a verdict.
— I think they're trying to get in touch with us...
— said the lawyer — ...although this could also be a trap.
— My opinion is that it's a charade that the Freemasons use as a method of co-optation — added Antonia, sitting where only Geovanna could do so, when she was presiding over a meeting with the session heads.
At that moment, he remembered the detective's phone call that night and asked:
— So, that's why you called me yesterday?
— Yes — Greg replied quietly, — but I decided to wait until today for you to take a look.
Colmenares went to the coffee machine to make three cappuccinos. The afternoon promised to be long and interesting.
— Did you get a glimpse of the person who made the delivery? — the lawyer asked from across the room.
— I suppose it was the mailman, since it was in my mailbox with the rest of the letters — Evans replied. — The sender is downright cabalistic. There are only a handful of numbers.
— Did you bring the envelope? — Antonia handed him back the sheet of paper the moment he asked the question.
He nodded, reaching into his shirt pocket. He held it out for her to take a look.
— Did you pay attention? — Gregory pointed to the bottom of the message. — The letter is signed by Balkis... the Queen of Sheba.
— Yes... and the text seems quite strange — Colmenares replied, bringing the coffees on a plastic tray to place on the conference table. — It seems to encourage us to investigate. And that's something we should think deeply about before making any move to try to find them. I insist it could be a trap.
— I have to admit that the riddle they're presenting us is based on a desire to help, and that's quite strange after what happened — Antonia opined, still looking at the numbers written on the sender's name. — Maybe Nicolas is right, and we shouldn't trust a letter from a stranger so quickly... — Then, after biting her upper lip, she added thoughtfully, — ...what the hell do those numbers mean?
The lawyer took the envelope Antonia offered him. He examined it closely. Then, he handed it back to the detective.
— A phone number? — he asked, surprised.
— I have no idea... — Evans admitted. — ...although I get the impression that someone is trying to help me... I don't know! There's something about those words that inspires confidence in me.
— A very dangerous game, in my opinion.
Antonia's statement was like a bucket of cold water. He found her petulant and conceited, certain she knew everything. The letter, he said, was intended to tell him something very important, but his companions' skepticism managed to put him in a bad mood.
He put the letter back in the envelope. Then he put it back in his pocket.
— Okay! — He placed the sketch on the table. — Let's start at the beginning.
From then on, they dedicated themselves entirely to studying the recording. The first thing they did was transfer the information to one of the company's computers. This allowed them to reproduce and enlarge the different sequences, saving the images in a Word folder. Their intention was to print them in legal-size format for later in-depth study.
After two hours, they had before them twenty-eight photograms— four walls for each of the seven rooms— and several more from the stepped monument in the main room. They analyzed the written phrases one by one. None seemed related to the other, but in some, the words — stone — and — God — were repeated. There were also allusions to music and numbers, to the perfection of letters and the movement of the stars, to thought and divine equations. It was, as they had thought, a written diary that demonstrated the wise virtue of the Liberal Arts.
— What's this? — Antonia asked, pointing to some letters faded by centuries that could be seen in the corner of the screen, behind the bell that hung over the top of the entrance.
Gregory Evans moved closer to take a closer look at the image.
— Do you remember what was written here? — he asked.
— I think so.
The cryptographer pointed.
Then they could hear with absolute clarity:
— Avidites.
— Greed?
— That's what it looks like — Antonia said.
— Try another room.
And so the detective did, finding a similar term behind the bell in the seventh room. In this case: — SUPERBIA —
— Pride — she translated, from Latin to Spanish.
— What do the seven deadly sins have to do with The Widow's Sons? — asked Colmenares, who was lost in the labyrinthine passages from Freemasonry to alchemy.
No one answered. His two companions were busy searching for new clues behind the various bells of that sanctuary.
Indeed, one by one, the most characteristic human weaknesses emerged: AVERAGE, PRIDE, LUST, LAZINESS, ANGER, GLUTTONY, and ENVY, all written above each entrance, hidden behind the various bronze bells. They had a new piece of information to hinder their work, which became increasingly confusing and enigmatic. Deeply focused, however, Antonia seemed to have the answer to everything.
— Didn't you ask me before what connection the deadly sins might have with Freemasonry? — The cryptographer took off her glasses, which she had put on for close-up vision, and stared at Nicolas.
The lawyer smoothed his mustache, frowning in surprise.
But, in fact, is there really a relationship? — he seemed to think.
Antonia answered her own question, before any of the men watching her closely did so.
— Well, the truth is, yes, they are linked to the world of alchemy — he said with deliberate slowness. — According to the reconstruction of the Gnostic universe, conceived by the Ophites, each planet imprints a negative character on human will that subdues and enslaves it. The Sun awakens gluttony in us..., the Moon, laziness, Mercury, greed, Venus, lust, Mars, anger, Jupiter, envy, and Saturn, pride. After death, the human spirit must traverse the first six spheres and face the last and most dangerous of all: Saturn, the outcast god, creator of time and space. Whoever can overcome his power will be able to ascend to God's Universe and defeat the serpent that guards paradise. Furthermore, in case you didn't know, each day of the week is represented by one of the planets known in the Middle Ages. — And, why not, also because of the seven musical notes... — he lifted his chin and concluded — ...it is scientifically proven that music provokes different reactions in man.
— When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven...
Greg and Antonia looked at the lawyer in astonishment, who was proud to attract the experts' attention by quoting from memory a passage from the Apocalypse, in which the number seven was once again the protagonist.
— Wait a moment — the cryptographer exclaimed. — What you said reminded me of Georg von Welling, who worked as an alchemist at the court of the Margrave of Karlsruhe... — She cleared her throat slightly. — ...and claimed that from the Throne of God, with the seven great spirits of the Apocalypse surrounding him, divine light flowed, creating the spiritual world as the archetype of our universe. Let me see, Greg...! Give me the letter you just showed us for a moment. I need to verify something that may be important.
He didn't hesitate. He picked up the letter again and handed it to her, waiting for an explanation that seemed to be taking a while. Ignoring the detective's questioning gesture, Antonia read the text again. After a few seconds, she spread it out on the table, pointing to a sentence with her right index finger.
— In the temple of the three chambers is hidden the Kisé of the Testimony... — he read aloud.
— Did you find any meaning? — Colmenares asked, increasingly involved in this captivating adventure.
— Kise! — she exclaimed with remarkable emphasis, hoping they would be able to understand what she meant, but neither the detective nor the lawyer knew Hebrew.
So she refreshed their memory:
— Do you remember the phrase written in Hebrew, which I managed to translate when we were at the Hotel Santa Rosa Victoria, in Murcia...? — Seeing they were unresponsive, she searched through the photographs, recovering an image of a wall with geometric signs and several phrases in Hebrew. — Here it is! Vayomer kisé iad al kes Yahweh, which corresponds to 'For the hand of God is upon his throne.' Kisé means throne... The Throne of God... — she added, satisfied. — ...and that's not all, because last night I had time to translate some of the Latin phrases. There was one that spoke precisely of a throne.
— Are you sure? — Greg thought it was strange that there were so many coincidences.
— Yes, and wait just a moment... — she took her notebook from the pocket on the back of the chair, and then opened it — ... here it is... In excelso throno vidi sedere virum.
"On the lofty throne I saw a man sitting..." — Greg went ahead and translated it, before Antonia gave him a Latin lesson that would highlight her university career.
— Doesn't that seem strange to you? — the cryptographer commented.
— It could be a simple coincidence — was the lawyer's dry opinion.
— What does esotericism say about the Throne of God? — the detective asked, sensing that Antonia knew all the answers.
— On the one hand, we have the intrinsic function of the cathedral, that is, to house the throne where the bishop instructed the laity... — He preferred to share his knowledge from the beginning. — As you know, the word cathedral comes from the Latin cathedra, which means throne, but... what was the bishop's real function? And I'll tell you: to sit on the throne to communicate with God through prayer. —
— I don't believe God would speak to a bishop... — Colmenares disagreed, then grimaced in disdain. — ...and I also don't believe he can communicate with anyone. It's absurd to think something like that.
— Now I remember... — Evans remembered the copies of Toledo's manuscript he had brought for them. He took them from his inside jacket pocket, handing one to Antonia and one to the lawyer.
— Read this! Especially the part that tells how the cathedral builders hid this way of communicating with God from the people.
Antônia, who knew the text by heart, read it in a few seconds. Nicolas got lost before finishing the second paragraph.
— You're right, but Balkis also mentions it... don't you remember? — she warned, quoting a passage from Gregory's letter from memory. — If you wish to speak with God, you must go where the pillars that divide the city of Enoch await you.
— I told you, try to help us.
Gregory Evans's explanation didn't satisfy the scholar. To her, it meant something more.
— Listen... — the cryptographer told her — ... when you told us about Monroe, you said that he had spent part of his life searching for the Ark of the Covenant... Isn't that right?
— It's your obsession... — he replied, with a mordant half-smile — ...and the worst of all is that you think she's been hiding in the outskirts of Murcia... — he raised his eyebrows significantly.
— When we told him about looking for the stonemason's writing under the cathedral, he seemed quite interested. He even said that our search was no different from his.
Antônia reflected on the words she had just heard. In her mind, hypotheses followed one another, like movie sequences. She knew she was close to finding what she was looking for, but she had to continue playing her role in the realm of discovery and show sympathy to others, helping in any way she could to decipher the enigma.
— There is something I haven't told you about the Ark of the Covenant, also called the Testimony... — she tried to be as sincere as possible — ...is that it was possibly something more than just a simple ark.
— What are you referring to? — the lawyer was the first to express surprise.
— Some claim that the Ark of the Covenant manifested itself as an electrical capacitor, capable of generating indescribable energy, the power of which would be enough to kill a person, as the Bible says. And also that it was a sound amplifier in the shape of a throne, with two cherubim touching at the ends, as if forming a backrest, where Moses sat to communicate directly with God.
— That's absurd! — Colmenares exclaimed, raising his arms theatrically. — I hope you don't take such statements seriously.
— I'm not saying it's true, but it makes sense when we see its usefulness being reiterated. We read it in the mason's manuscript, in Greg's letter, and on the crypt walls... — Antonia wasn't about to let such coincidences pass unnoticed. — If it's true that the Throne of God exists, it's possible we'll find answers to the questions we've been asking ourselves all along: why were Geovanna and Viana murdered?
Gregory Evans knew instantly. And he allowed himself the luxury of responding gravely:
— Because the Ark is what The Widow's Sons protect so fervently, just as Monroe said.
— Exactly! — the redhead solemnly remarked, brushing back the hair that fell across her face. — And they intend to keep it a secret, cutting out the tongues of anyone who might betray its location, as happened with Iacobus of Carthage.
— That means the mason knew where to find the Ark— the lawyer had thought aloud.
— Not only that... — Greg said, — ...but he must have described the exact place where it's hidden, among all those hieroglyphics of numbers and letters... — He took the drawings in his hand. — He did it so that people like us would rack our brains trying to find the treasure described by Nostradamus.
— The number of characters implicated is growing — the lawyer commented. — Besides, I don't understand what connection Nostradamus could have with the cathedral builders, nor how he knew there was a crypt beneath the Vélez chapel.
— They say that Michel de Nostradamus belonged to an esoteric brotherhood called Santa Fe, and that he even became a Master of the Great White Lodge — Gregory Evans, who had studied the figure after receiving Viana's e-mail, was quick to say. — Perhaps he had some kind of relationship with the Spanish builders' lodges.
— That's true — Antonia stated. — Your Centuries are a clear example of the language used among alchemists. Nostradamus must have known the secret when he wrote down its location. Don't you realize? It's just a game of wits for privileged minds... — She reflected for a moment in silence, and then asked herself, — ...what is the letter they sent you, if not a new coded message?
The question was addressed to Gregory Evans.
— It's enough to drive anyone crazy! — the detective grunted.
— Can anyone tell me what we're actually looking for? — The million dollar question is... what do they want us to find?
Antonia posed her riddle. The men were unable to answer, because there were too many unknowns and too few answers.