And suddenly there it was: the Sarah Rittenhouse armillary, a sundial of sorts. Actually, on closer inspection, it was a classic Greek celestial sphere comprised of three interlocking rings that represented the motion of the stars encircling the Earth. The outermost band of the ecliptic featured the raised constellations of the zodiac. Piercing through the rings was an arrow that pointed to true north.
But still no Conrad.
She set her sunglasses atop her brushed back hair for a moment and adjusted the volume of her iPod as she waited, pretending to admire the armillary. It stood on a marble pedestal and according to the plaque was dedicated in 1956 in memory of some society woman named Sarah Rittenhouse.
"Sarah Rittenhouse was some matronly preservationist who saved this park from nasty developers back in the early 1900s," said a voice from behind her. "Reminds me of somebody I know."
She turned to see Conrad in a dress shirt and suit pants, a hardcover book clutched in his hand. He looked like a university professor. "So where's the globe?"
"I'm fine, thanks." He stared at the celestial armillary. "This is where I first saw Brooke after you disappeared on me. She was walking her dog."
"We have all of three days to stop the Alignment," Serena said, frustrated. "Did you find the globe?"
"No, but I know where it is."
She started walking briskly away from the armillary, where they might be seen if they stood together too long. "You told me the globe was in the cornerstone of the Capitol."
"It was," he said, guiding them down a cobblestone walkway called "Lovers Lane" to the ravines of Rock Creek Park. "The Masons moved it for safekeeping."
"But it was already safe in the cornerstone, right?"
"Not after the British burned the Capitol down to its foundations during the War of 1812. I think the Masons felt they had to move it before the Alignment got to it. At least that's my guess."
"Your guess?" she repeated, unable to disguise her dismay. "And where do you guess the Masons moved it?"
"Under the Jefferson Building at the Library of Congress."
Serena shook her head. "That site was never in L'Enfant's original plans for the city."
"No, but the cosmic radiant cuts right through the Capitol dome to the Library's Great Hall."
Serena had heard enough. Time was running out and they had nothing. "You and your blasted radiant, Conrad! We could follow it around the world a dozen times and still never find the globe."
"But the Masons knew that," he said and stopped them in their tracks near a stream that she assumed was the eponymous Rock Creek. "They knew they were 'going off the grid,' so to speak. So they left clues for Stargazer in the form of zodiacs."
"Zodiacs?"
"The Jefferson Building is a hive of them," he said. "Scholars have counted seven zodiacs, but the docents have counted eleven. I counted fifteen."
Serena stared at him. "Wait a minute. When did you count the zodiacs?"
"This afternoon."
She nearly screamed. "I'm out of my bloody mind wondering if you're alive, and you're loitering around the Jefferson Building after breaking into the U.S. Capitol across the street?"
"Calm down," he said, looking around and taking her by the arm. "I was already there, so I took advantage of the opportunity."
Serena angrily twisted her arm out of his grip. "Well, if you found the accommodations so comfortable, why didn't you just spend the night?"
"I thought of it. But I couldn't crack the zodiacs. Then I saw the central arch to the east of the main zodiac in the Great Hall. The top of the arch is inscribed with the names of those responsible for the construction of the Library, starting with Brigadier General Thomas Lincoln Casey."
Serena huffed. "And Casey is important because?"
"He was a Mason like Washington and L'Enfant," Conrad said. "He not only supervised the completion of the Washington Monument, but he also built the Library of Congress from the ground up."
They were deep in the ravines of the park now, and Serena was wondering where Conrad was leading them.
"So you believe that Casey and the Masons built the entire Library of Congress as some kind of cosmological citadel to protect the celestial globe?"
"I do."
"It's a nice theory, Conrad, but we need hard evidence to link Casey to the last known resting place of the globe. You said it was the cornerstone of the U.S. Capitol."
"It was," he said. "And after the British destroyed the original north wing of the Capitol in 1814, it was Casey who wrote up the damage report for the Architect of the Capitol at the time, then Benjamin Henry Latrobe."
Serena knew the name of Benjamin Henry Latrobe. He had designed America's first cathedral in Baltimore for Archbishop John Carroll with input from Thomas Jefferson. Suddenly Conrad didn't seem so crazy.
"So that's when you think Casey and the Masons removed the globe from the ruins of the Capitol."
"Exactly."
"You were busy at the Library." She jabbed at the old hardcover book he held-Elements of Astronomy by Simon Newcomb. "Did you check out that book?"
"I'll bring it back when I break into the Library."
There wasn't much Serena could say at that point. There was no going back, and Conrad was determined to go forward. "So who is Simon Newcomb?"
"He was an admiral in the U.S. Navy and probably America's most brilliant astronomer of the 19th century," Conrad explained. "And years before Casey became Chief of the Army Corps of Engineers and built the Library of Congress, he was Newcomb's assistant. Amazing how everything connects, isn't it?"
"So you think by reading Newcomb's popular astronomy guide you'll tap the minds of the people who built the Library of Congress."
"That's the idea" he said. "Once D.C. started deviating from the original L'Enfant plan, the Masons had to find a way of communicating outside the hard landscape of astronomical alignments. So they resorted to symbols in the form of zodiacs. If I can reconcile the zodiacs with the Library's extensive renovation plans on file, I bet I can find a sealed-off access tunnel somewhere that will lead us to the globe."
Conrad paused to scope out the surrounding woodlands. Convinced they were not being watched, he stepped into some nearby brush. "Follow me."
Serena followed him through the dense foliage, her hands up to keep the branches from her face, wondering what he wanted to show her. They were off any beaten trail now. Conrad stopped a couple of minutes later in front of a small cliff in the ravines, and parted a curtain of vines to reveal the mouth of a cave.
"I used to hide out here as a kid," he told her. "There's an old Indian well in the back. The cave collapsed at least a hundred years ago, so my dad and I used to come out here and dig it out, bit by bit. Every spring we'd plant shrubs to cover any trace of the path."
Serena nodded. She wasn't even sure if she could ever find it again herself if she had to. But this cave was certainly a better safe house for Tom Sawyer here than the penthouse, which was surely under surveillance now.
She said, "Tomorrow night I'm at the Hilton for the annual media dinner and then the Presidential Prayer Breakfast the following morning. The day after that is the Fourth of July."
"I get it, game over," Conrad said. "I'm going to have to hit the Library of Congress tomorrow night at the latest if we're going to have any chance of nabbing the globe and making any kind of sense of it to stop the Alignment."
"Stop them from what, Conrad?" she pressed. "If we know what they're going to do, then maybe we don't need the globe."
"Oh, we need the globe," Conrad assured her. "And I'm guessing the Alignment is going to do what it failed to do in 1783."