Edie snapped her fingers. “Yeah, don’t you remember? In The Book of Moses, Benjamin Franklin mentioned the Egyptian-styled ritual that he attended and the ‘ungodly chant’ that was sung.”
“Garbled polyglot without the encryption key.” Dr. Lyon dismissively shrugged. “The order of each vibratory sound is the key.”
“Holy crap!” Edie turned to him, wide-eyed. “That can only mean one thing — he’s got the encryption key.”
The older man opened his mouth. Then just as quickly closed it. Neither confirming nor denying.
“Come now. You are among friends. Or at least unarmed dinner companions,” Caedmon coaxed with forced humor.
“Yes, I have the encryption key,” Dr. Lyon finally confessed. “Some years back, I inherited a rare document that chronicles the entire history of the Emerald Tablet dating back to Atlantis and the high priest Thoth. Titled the Luminarium, it was composed by a Muslim Ma’min and a Jewish Kabbalist in the mid-twentieth century. Prior to their deportation to Auschwitz.”
“My God,” Edie murmured, like Caedmon, horrified. The mere mention of the place conjured a ghastly image.
“I’ve never heard of the Luminarium.”
“Only one copy of the manuscript exists. Within its pages, the secret of the Divine Harmonic is revealed.” Dr. Lyon paused, garnering their full attention. “As well as a detailed plan to end the violent depravity that permeates this world.”
Edie immediately swung her gaze toward the head of the table. “Why am I suddenly getting a very bad feeling?”
“The wise authors of the Luminarium knew that evil cannot be contained,” Dr. Lyon continued, an excited glimmer in his eyes. “It must be destroyed. Only then can our earthly souls ascend to the Lost Heaven, our true home. In the Lost Heaven, violence does not exist. There is only the Light. In all its purity and goodness.” Taking a deep breath, Dr. Lyon placed his palm upon the Emerald Tablet. His pose reminiscent of a witness swearing upon a Bible before taking the stand. “I intend to follow in Thoth’s hallowed footsteps. Just as the Atlantean high priest destroyed warmongering Atlantis twelve thousand years ago, I intend to use the Divine Harmonic to destroy this flawed creation.”
Hearing that, Edie gasped.
“God save me from overreaching zealots,” Caedmon muttered, the reality of Dr. Lyon’s scheme hitting him straight on. Like a fist of fives to the underbelly.
“All of which explains why Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson went to such lengths to hide the Emerald Tablet,” Edie exclaimed, her cheeks flushed with heated color. “So that people like you would not get it into their head to play God.”
“One cannot permit evil to exist if one has it in his power to eradicate that evil,” Dr. Lyon calmly replied.
“Making you the ultimate Decider. Oh, that’s rich!”
Dr. Lyon picked up the Emerald Tablet with his left hand and clasped it to his chest. “Unlike you, I have the courage of my convictions. And I will heal humankind by ending the violence and brutality. Once and for all. This is my gift to the planet, to reunite every living soul with the Light. Only then, can you and I and, indeed, every inhabitant of this battle-scarred planet be made whole.”
“I’d like to point out that good people do inhabit the planet.” Although damned difficult, he kept his tone neutral.
“And they shall inherit the Lost Heaven. I can think of no better reward. By initiating the harmonic sequence, I will liberate the suffering masses from this cesspool of evil.”
Edie derisively snorted. “Thank you, but I’d rather jump into the deep end of the cesspool than—”
“Surely the world is not so far gone that we need contemplate so drastic a solution,” Caedmon said over top of her. Well aware that Dr. Lyon’s gun was loaded, he didn’t think it wise to antagonize the man.
“Sadly, there’s no such thing as a utopian safe haven. No New Atlantis. No New Jerusalem. The dark fire burns too bright. Several miles from this very spot there’s a mass grave with the butchered remains of two hundred innocents… I rest my case.”
The professor’s startling declaration of intent cast a lunar shadow across the altar. In the pit of his tightening stomach, Caedmon feared that they were dealing with a mad man.
“So the solution is to kill everyone? That gives a whole new meaning to the word overkill.” Edie disgustedly shook her head.
“When you are free of this dark world, you will thank me.”
“For committing an act of radical nihilism? I think not,” Caedmon retorted, refusing to go an inch, let alone ride the full mile.
The older man smiled. “I prefer to think of it as sacred nihilism. Indeed, I could have done like everyone else and anesthetized the pain of existence with narcotics or alcohol or—” He stopped in midstream. Frowning, he stepped around the stone altar and peered down, directly into the gaping hole below.
Caedmon was able to see on Dr. Lyon’s face the exact moment that the recognition dawned.
As though the older man had been bitten by a snake and succumbed to paralysis the instant the poisonous venom entered his bloodstream, Merkür de Léon stood motionless. Totally and completely disoriented.
Then, just as Caedmon feared, he imploded.
Spinning on his heel, his hand violently shaking, he aimed the Smith & Wesson, first at Caedmon, then at Edie. Glaring.
Whether by accident or design, Dr. Lyon fired a shot, the bullet ricocheting off the wall near the entrance.
Bloody hell!
Afraid the next shot would hit its mark, Caedmon grabbed the lantern on the stone altar and flung it to the floor.
Plunging the sanctuary into primeval darkness.
CHAPTER 93
I can’t see anything!
Terrified, Edie shrieked.
The high-pitched sound reverberated off the stone walls. Endlessly echoing. Deafening even to her own ears. Oh God! She was totally disoriented. Pitch-black darkness, fear, and uncertainty all compressed into a painful cranial throb that felt like it would detonate at any moment.
A split second later, a second bullet discharged, whistling past her head, lodging in the pilaster behind her. She heard several pieces of stone, blasted free, pelt the ground.
“Hit the floor!” Caedmon ordered, his disembodied voice echoing off the sanctuary walls.
Gripped with terror, she reflexively dropped to the ground. On the other side of the sanctuary, she could hear Dr. Lyon’s erratic breathing. Or was that her erratic breathing? Edie held her breath, afraid Dr. Death would home in on her serrated exhalations.
Shifting into high gear, she crawled away from where Dr. Lyon had been standing.
At least, she hoped she was moving away from the monster. She couldn’t see a damned thing. Trying to make as little noise as possible, she winced every time the tip of her hiking boot scuffed the uneven stone surface.