“In what way?”
“It was built with the same measurement, the same sacred geometry used in the building of Solomon’s Temple. The Chartres Cathedral is without a doubt one of the most amazing structures on earth, and it looks like it is probably near the exact size as Solomon’s Temple. The interior layout of Chartres is the shape of a large cross, and the massive roof is built like a horizontal cross. The cathedral is equivalent to a stone and glass book of the Bible. Much of the entire Bible, from creation to the final days, is told within the cathedral’s portals, and found on the most remarkable stained glass images ever created by man. Not only is their beauty world renowned, but also the colors have never been duplicated. The glass is said to have qualities that transmute or change sunlight, removing ultra violet and allowing the interior of the church to glow from a warmer spectrum of light. The Blue Virgin window is believed to be the best example of stained glass art in any cathedral. Here’s something very interesting, Paul. Pilgrims entering the church often say they feel as if the combination of light, images in the glass, the biblical icons of Creation and the Last Judgment, give them an experience never found in any other building on earth.”
“What do you mean?”
“They say it’s like some form of spiritual baptism, and many are profoundly changed just by entering the building and staying a while.”
“I read that it houses a tunic worn by Mary, mother of Jesus.”
“That article of clothing was actually given to Chartres Cathedral by Charles the Bald, the grandson of Charlemagne who had the tunic in his possession.”
Marcus closed his eyes for a moment, the words of Bahir ricocheting in his mind. ‘Charlemagne is said to have carried the spear through forty-five victorious battles, but died not long after he, by chance, dropped it from his horse. It is said that whoever has possession of this lance is near unconquerable.’
“Paul, are you there?”
“Yes. Did you find out anything about light from the summer solstice entering the cathedral?”
“Yes, during two minutes of the equinox, a long, narrow sunbeam strikes an iron nail in the only rectangle stone laid within the thousands of other stones in the floor. No one alive knows the significance of it. An architect, whose identity was kept secret, designed the cathedral. It’s believed that the Knights Templar had it built.”
“What can you find out about the labyrinth in the sanctuary?”
“It’s a big mystery, too. The number of steps to the center is 270. The center looks like a flower with six petals. Something else I believe you will find very intriguing.”
“What’s that?”
“Chartres Cathedral was the site of the School of Chartres. It was like none other in Europe.”
“How?”
“It attracted the brightest students from the four corners of Europe who wanted to study the spiritual sciences. The short of it is that the teachers combined a Platonic philosophy within scriptures found in the Bible. They applied reason to faith to find a ground between the simple acceptance of what God had revealed and…well…”
“What are you saying, Jacob?”
“Let’s put it this way, the School of Chartres, was probably the closest place on earth during the Middle Ages where the goal — the curriculum, was to learn, understand and possibly attain absolute knowledge. Is this the thread Isaac Newton was searching for? Can it be found hidden in the mortar of Chartres Cathedral?
SIXTY-FOUR
At six a.m., the digital alarm chirped from Marcus’ phone on his bedside table. He got up and looked out the hotel window. The Paris cityscape was in silhouette. Dawn broke as if a smoldering match was burning beyond the horizon, the sky looked aged — a sulfurous chemical grey. The Eiffel Tower resembled a lighthouse rising above a sea of taxis and commuters moving in elliptical orbits below the hotel.
Marcus made coffee and was walking to the shower when his phone rang. It was Alicia Quincy. “I spoke earlier with Larry Foster at the Mayflower Assisted Living center.”
“Is he the same guy from the Nuremberg Trials?”
“Yes. He’s eighty-eight and in fairly good health. No signs of dementia.”
“What’d he say?”
“He says he knew James Tower. Said Tower was thought to have been British, but in reality he was an American who worked for the OSS at the end of World War II. After the war, he relocated to England. Foster said Tower was one of an elite group who carried out daring missions over Germany during the latter part of the war. After the war ended, he was in Mannheim, Germany, the same time General Patton was there. That’s all Foster could remember.”
“That’s all we need. So James Tower is still alive?”
“Yes. I found his address.”
“You could find a needle in a haystack.”
“Only if it left a cyber-trace somewhere. I’ll text his address to you. He lives in Wallingford, a village about ninety minutes west of London.”
“How are you Alicia?”
“Okay.” She sighed. The funeral was hard. “Because Dad was in such pain, Mom’s at peace with his death, but she still misses him terribly when the silence sets in. It took the cancer two years to kill Dad. I’m ready to come to Israel.”
“I’m in Paris.”
“Paris! What are you doing there?”
“I have reason to believe that the hit on the prime minister was never meant to happen at the Lincoln Memorial.”
“What do you mean?”
“The weeping angel wasn’t the Lincoln statue. I believe it’s a statue of an angel resurrected from the rubble of a nuclear bomb over Nagasaki. The statue was placed in the UNESCO Garden of Peace in the heart of Paris.”
“Secretary of State Hanover is there for the ceremonies.”
“Yes. I met with her. She and everyone I’ve talked with seem to look at me with a cynical eye after the Lincoln Memorial. But something in my gut…my heart is telling me this is the place it’s going to happen.”
“Dear God…I hope you’re wrong.”
“I do too.”
“I’ve busied myself researching the Kinsley Group.”
“Have you found anything more?”
“Yes.” She lowered her voice on the phone. “The Kinsley Group has people on their payroll that are from the White House on down. They include a former presidential chief of staff, secretaries of defense, state, treasury and ex-chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. The roster of former and current advisers and directors on their payroll includes a mixture of some of the most powerful people in the nation and even around the world.”
“So we have a private equity company morphing into a defense contractor.”
“Yes. The Kinsley Group conducts business within what’s known as the iron-triangle of industry, government and the military. So what you have, for example, is a past secretary of defense setting policy while in that position. When he leaves the cabinet level post, the policies he set in place help funnel in huge government contracts, most of them worth billions, and our new Kinsley Group consultant and his friends reap the rewards he planted.”
“I’d call that a slight conflict of interest.”
“They’re so big, like BP and the oil spill disaster — the Kinsley Group pays fines as part of the cost of doing business. They even consider bribes as part of their business model. They were fined fifty million dollars for making payments to middlemen in exchange for investments into the California Retirement System and Florida’s Education Retirement System. The middlemen are multimillionaire pimps who get huge kickbacks for setting up these deals.”
“Who are they?”