Trifariam, The Lost Codex (2012) (16 page)

“The Great Seal of the United States appears on the current U.S. dollar bill alongside the
All-seeing Eye
, also known as the
Eye of Providence
. The Freemasons gradually adopted this symbol to represent the Great Architect of the Universe, and it later began to feature on the dollar bill as of 1935. This decision met with the approval of the President of the United States, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who was a 32
^nd
degree Mason in the Scottish Rite and member of The Shriners. Guess who was a member of the initial committee created in 1776 and charged with designing the Seal of the United States of America?!”

“Thomas Jefferson!”

Richard burst out laughing.

“It’s also worth mentioning something else,” James went on, interrupting his friend. “The pyramid is formed by thirteen steps which symbolize the thirteen original colonies of the United States, although they could also represent the thirteen grades in the hierarchy of the Bavarian Illuminati. Plus, at the base you can clearly see the year 1776 written in Roman numerals - in other words, the year in which the thirteen colonies gained independence, and the Illuminati Order was founded.”

“And what do the inscriptions
Annuit Coeptis
and
Novus Ordo Seclorum
refer to?” asked Mary.

James was about to answer when Richard got in before him. “The first phrase means ‘He favors our undertakings’, while the second was incorrectly translated for years as ‘New Secular Order’. This translation is wrong and it should actually be ‘New Order of the Ages’ or ‘New Order of the Centuries’. In any case, it’s strange how the number thirteen James mentioned earlier appears so many times. Contrary to what my colleague says, some experts believe that the number represents the thirteen Knights Templar who were burned at the stake on 13 October 1307. If you look at the bill, you’ll see I’ve marked wherever it appears with a red circle.”

Mary carefully examined the bill and she started to add up the number of times in her head. The number of arrows, leaves and olives on the olive branch, stars with five points, the vertical bars on the shield, the pyramid steps, or even the number of letters in some of the Latin phrases on both sides. All are repeated thirteen times. “In other words, the bill has lots of hidden secrets,” said Mary, at last.

They both looked at each other and shared a smile. Richard pressed on with his explanations. “Many more than you think. Now’s not the time to explain all of its mysteries, but I’ll make an exception for one which very few actually know about, and which will lead us to the author of the message.”

James really was feeling confused now. He hadn’t seen anything hidden in the message which could point to a particular area of the United States, let alone one specific person.

“Look at the pyramid on the bill!” Mary was holding it in her hands, so she stood next to James and they both studied it closely. “Can you see a small
X
marked on one of the steps of the pyramid?”

“Yeah. What does it mean?”

“I’ll tell you now, but first you have to listen carefully. You can make the pyramid featured on the bill into the Star of David if you join up the letters
A
from ‘Annuit’, the
S
from ‘Coeptis’, the
N
from ‘Novus’, the
O
from ‘Ordo’ and the
M
from ‘Seclorum’. If you rearrange them, these letters spell the word
MASON
.” Richard took delight in their expressions for a few seconds and then continued to speak. “The sentence which refers to Thomas Jefferson not only tells us that we have to pay attention to the Great Seal of the United States on the dollar bill, given that he was one of its designers, but something else too. A few days ago, I found myself looking for information about the Illuminati when, by chance, I stumbled across the notes of an author who claimed something astonishing. He believed that certain landmarks in the city of Washington formed an isosceles triangle when they were joined up. To be more precise, the buildings are Capitol Hill, where Congress has its headquarters, the White House and the Thomas Jefferson Memorial. Later I saw for myself that the outline formed a perfect isosceles triangle.”

Richard smiled again when he saw how shocked his friends were. It was very rare that he discovered something James did not know about. He was relishing the moment more than he had ever done before. “But that isn’t the most important thing. According to this researcher, there are exactly one thousand seven hundred and sixty six meters between the Jefferson Memorial and the fountain at the entrance to the White House - 1776 was the year in which both the United States and the Illuminati Order were founded. The sides of this triangle measure exactly two thousand three hundred and ten meters long, which means that ratio between the base and the sides is 0.76, the same as that for the pyramid featured on the dollar bill. And, finally, the most important part of all and the thing which will reveal the exact location of the author of the message is this: when we look at the area marked off by the triangle, the avenues and pathways inside divide it into thirteen sections. In other words, there are just as many sections as there are steps on the unfinished pyramid on the bill.”

“Oh my god! It’s a map of the city of Washington,” said James, unable to contain his delight. “But… how do you know that the author of the message used those facts to create his riddle?”

“Look how the initials
T.J.
appear in the right corner of the triangle. That is the very same corner where the Jefferson Memorial is located, and T.J. must obviously stand for Thomas Jefferson.”

Mary had picked up on the initials from the outset but she thought that they had been written by Richard and not the author of the mysterious message.

“Anyway, I don’t think that the layout of those three buildings was premeditated, but rather a product of chance. If we took a street map of any city and drew lines wherever we wanted, we’d probably end up finding some kind of geometric shape. That doesn’t mean I don’t agree with what I’ve just told you. I just think that the person who left the envelope was familiar with all these fantastic stories and used one of them as another resource to tell us where we should look for them.”

“So… the
X
on the bill represents an area within the triangle? I mean, we might know which road, but… how will we know which building?”

Richard replied. “That’s exactly what I thought, but if you look at the serial number on the bill, you’ll see that two digits are underlined. Normally the first one would refer to the number of the building, and the second to the apartment number.”

James was absolutely stunned. “Richard, you are some dark horse. Remind me to give you a raise when all this is over.”

Suddenly, they heard the sound of distant footsteps coming towards them. They replaced the slab and ran out of the church before the monk arrived, so as to avoid having to give him a long explanation.

Just as the sunlight hit his eyes, James couldn’t help but rub them when he saw the scene that was unfolding outside. He blocked the exit with his right arm, preventing them from continuing on their way, while he surveyed the scene open-mouthed through the railings of the gate.

The site was crawling with police cars and was a sight worthy of a sci-fi movie with hundreds of armed officers spreading throughout the area. Right in the middle of the park stood a man smoking a cigarette as he talked into his cellphone. He was wearing a cream-colored raincoat and sunglasses, and his hair was unkempt. It was the police inspector, Carlo Tardelli.

The idea of sending the photographs not only to every department in Rome, but to all the security firms in the city, had proven to be a greater stroke of genius that he could ever have imagined. The first tipoff came just a few minutes after having arrived in the city. It was courtesy of a security guard who had been on duty at the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran, who thought he had seen the two attackers in the photo prowling around the area.

They had already left by the time the police arrived at the scene of events, but a scientific team started to collect evidence from the area where the car had been parked. They were searching for some kind of evidence which would enable them to identify the attackers. The license plate already seemed to match the one which the two police officers had reported before they had mysteriously disappeared during their shift.

Carlo had a feeling that those two men were involved in something very, very serious. And he intended to find out what it was.

“What’s going on?” asked Richard.

James didn’t reply.

Mary tried to stand on her tiptoes to see over James’ body, but it was impossible. Her legs began to shake at the thought of the two killers who were chasing them being close by.

“Ten police cars have just pulled up. Something’s happened out there.”

Richard took a deep breath and tried to get his body to relax. “How are we going to get out of here?”

“After the scene we caused in the station at Florence, they’re probably looking for two well-built men or a couple. The best thing to do would be for all three of us to leave together as if we were tourists and quickly blend in with the crowds, all the while pretending that we aren’t fazed by the police presence. Mary, you and I should put something on top of our clothes in case they’re using that as a way to identify us.”

A minute later, three tourists left the basilica and joined the crowd which seemed to be rooted to the spot, unable to understand the reason behind such a heavily armed display. Eventually, they turned the corner and got into the first taxi they found, heading for the airport.

T
he flight to Washington was extremely peaceful. The calm was broken only by a few small instances of turbulence during take-off. Ahead of them lay a long, eleven-hour flight in first class until they touched down in Ronald Reagan Airport, Washington.

After an unsuccessful attempt to get a few hours of sleep, Richard had sought the services of one of the flight attendants. After a quick chat, she disappeared for a few minutes before returning with a detailed map of the American city.

As it was impossible for him to get to sleep, he had thought about pinpointing the exact location shown on the bill on the extensive map he had been given.

James and Mary were traveling in two adjacent seats at the front of the plane. The woman showed signs of exhaustion, her eyes slowly closing as she rested her head on the professor’s shoulders, making her feel safe. Meanwhile, James was reading one of the sensationalist U.S. newspapers as he slowly massaged the nape of Mary’s neck with his right hand. It reminded him of the many occasions when his daughter had woken up in the early hours and he had to resort to this old trick to get her to relax and go back to sleep.

When he succeeded in doing so, he closed his newspaper and put it away in one of the back pockets of the seat in front. James was fascinated by the sensuality that Mary oozed constantly, even when she was asleep. Her lips had a slight sheen which gleamed against her golden skin. It had been a long time since James had had such a special feeling towards a woman; he longed to hold her tightly against his chest, stroke her face, drink in her perfume and bless her ears with beautiful words, but he dared only to bring his arm closer to hers. Then he slowly closed his eyes, drifting off to a world where Mary desired him as much as he did her.

Meanwhile Richard, who was a couple of seats behind, had drawn an isosceles triangle in red pen on the street map he had been given, joining up those three landmarks of the city. The passenger sitting on his right looked at him in disbelief, failing to grasp what he was doing. When he saw that there were a total of thirteen avenues and pathways inside the shape, he started to use a ruler to make notes and establish the exact point marked
X
on the bill.

It must be around here,
he thought as his hand skillfully traced a big red circle on the map. Luckily, it coincided with an intersection so the building had to be on one of those corners. Anyway, his computer was complete with a version of Google Earth, the famous program which provides a satellite-view of the planet. He had downloaded it a few months ago and he had been absolutely stunned. It allowed him to see practically any city in the world in three dimensions without leaving his chair. He could narrow down the measurements even more and find out exactly which building it referred to. He would have to try it when they landed because it required an internet connection.

After further investigation, he found out that this famous company had designed a program called Google Maps, a kind of street map with all the roads of all the cities in the world. One of its most innovative features, even though it was only available for some cities for the time being, was the ability to look around the city through photographs which showed all the buildings in startling and unimaginable detail.

Fatigue was starting to creep up on him. The inside of the cabin was practically pitch-black, except for a couple of lights which shone at the rear of the aircraft. He had put the map away and was going to devote the last hour to studying the book James had found, until his head decided that enough was enough. Defeated, he slumped forward in his seat almost without realizing.

“Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.” A male voice came over the speaker system, waking up the vast majority of passengers. “This is your captain, Steven Stewart, speaking. We will shortly be landing at Ronald Reagan Airport in Washington. The temperature in the city is currently twenty degrees centigrade, the humidity is 55% and the sky is completely clear. Please fasten your seatbelts and have a pleasant landing.”

The pilot had used the plane’s speaker system in order to wake up all those lazy passengers who had managed to sleep through the break of dawn, as it was absolutely imperative that each of them fasten their seatbelt in order to avoid any last minute surprises as they landed. Richard wriggled about in his seat, savoring that wonderful feeling of a morning stretch. He had managed to sleep for six hours which was not inconsiderable in the least, and he felt as if he could take on the world. However, his blood ran cold when his hand patted his chest looking for the book. It had vanished!