“ESP has not been scientifically proven to exist,” Nadia argued. “The legends surrounding the Moon Mask’s fortune-telling properties were the results of the hallucinogenic compounds which you yourself said Kha’um used to enter a trans-like state.”
“But suppose for the moment that the tachyon stimulation of the Parietal Lobe, causing the brain tumours you discovered in both Kha’um and Pryce’s remains, did give them some degree of extra sensory perception,” King argued. “It would explain Kha’um’s visions, how by simply wearing part of the mask he found the other pieces. Imhotep, who one way or another came into the possession of another piece of the mask, was considered a visionary. He designed the forerunner to probably the most iconic shaped building in the world, the pyramid. He was a master of science and medicine, far beyond anyone else of his day. He knew to seal the mask inside lead. He even carried out successful brain surgery!”
“You’re kidding,” Langley couldn’t help but say, shocked.
“No, it’s a well document fact,” King confirmed. “Having developed a form of ESP from his exposure to tachyons explains how he came about such knowledge.”
“You’re saying that he took this knowledge from his visions of the future?” Nadia didn’t bother trying to hide the disdain in her voice.
“That’ right. And if the Freemasons had access to the Bouda’s mask then it would explain the time-travelling legends behind the 33rd Degree.”
Langley felt this video conference spiralling into a fierce academic debate and so pulled it back on track. “So you’re saying that this man, Jonathon Hawk,” he concluded, “a prominent member of an early sect of the Freemasons in America, took Pryce’s piece of the mask and then… what? Employed Pryce to find the other pieces?”
“Basically, yes,” King confessed. “Pryce most likely was himself being used by Hawk and Hawk’s own superiors. I’d guess that they promised him that he could use it to undo the ‘curse’ he’d been inflicted with.”
“Suppose any of this is true,” Langley said. “How does it help us?”
“It opens up a new avenue of enquiry to pursue,” King replied. “About eighteen months after Kha’um and Pryce left England for the last time and set sail for ‘Davy Jones Locker,’ Hawk left the Caribbean and never returned. He moved to the Colony of New York where, in later years, he became an outspoken opponent of British rule. He was also instrumental in the formative years of the Grand Lodge of New York, the oldest officially independent Freemason Lodge in America. Hawk died about twenty five years before it was officially founded but we discovered evidence of his interactions with a man named Daniel Coxe, the first of the Provisional Grand Masters during the 1730’s.”
“Where’s this going, Doctor?” Langley was getting agitated again.
King felt the pressure mounting. Langley, an American patriot through-and-through, wasn’t going to like the next part. “He also had dealings with a tobacco planter from Virginia — a man named Augustine Washington. Whether or not Hawk had any influence over Augustine’s son, George, is unclear, but what is known is that on November 4th, 1752, in his early twenties, George Washington was initiated into Freemasonry. In 1789, following Washington’s victory over Britain in the War of Independence, Robert R. Livingston, the Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of New York, administered America’s first president’s oath of office.”
“I know all this,” Langley felt ire rising. He considered himself a patriot; he knew the history of his country and didn’t need to be taught it like a school child by a Brit.
“Washington was considered, and still is by most Americans today, to have been visionary. He laid down the building blocks of the government of the United States, most notably the presidency, and presided over the writing of the constitution.”
“Doctor, you’re preaching to the converted here.”
King ignored him. “This ‘visionary greatness’ has led to many urban legends, and the fact that he was a Freemason — everyone knows the story of how he laid the cornerstone of the Capitol Building dressed in his Freemasonry regalia — only fuels these stories. His military success during the war, his uncanny ability to ‘predict’ British movements, his unnerving knack of always being one step ahead, has given rise to legends of what can only be described as ‘witchcraft’ and ‘magic’ going on behind the closed doors of the Grand Lodge. Some Evangelic Christian groups even suggest that he’d sold his soul to the devil to be given the power to overthrow the British.”
“This is preposterous, Doctor!” Langley was getting angry now.
“I agree, Mister Ambassador. I don’t think he sold his soul to the devil, but we’ve got to remember that we’re talking about myths here. And if there is any element of truth in it then we need to follow that thread and hope it leads us to the mask.”
“Do you know where the mask is Doctor King?” Langley crunched straight to the point.
King hesitated a second. “We found references to Washington’s ability to see future events. One of those references suggested he did this by using a magical mask that gave him the ability to see through time.”
“Yes or no, Doctor?”
King swallowed. “Not yet, but—”
“Doctor King, I respect the work the three of you have been doing, but I don’t appreciate you throwing about wild speculation about the ‘Father of the United States.’ George Washington may have been a member of a secret society, but that society, in your own words, is not in any way evil nor magical. We are not searching for a magical mask which gives its wearer the ability to see the future, much less travel to it. We are searching for a lump of metal from outer-space which in the wrong hands could bring about not just the destruction of nations, but the annihilation of humanity!” He paused, catching his breath. “George Washington was a great man, a man who won independence for this country not through the use of black magic and mumbo-jumbo, but by the sheer will of his character. Now, I appreciate the ‘thread’ you’re following, but I think you’re barking up the wrong tree.”
“With respect Ambassador,” King argued firmly. “I think you had more of an open mind when I was telling you how the Moon Mask influenced the ‘forefathers’ of the Mayans and the Incas. This is no different.”
Langley forced himself to relax and take a deep breath. As a military man he had always seen Washington as the hero of America, the great general who became a president. Having someone suggest that he had been assisted by a magical mask had been insulting, yet King’s comment was fair.
“You’re right, Ben. But it still seems loose to me. Other than Emily Hamilton’s reports about Kha’um using one piece of the mask to find the next, there is no evidence to support this theory of ESP. Now, you’re trying to link George Washington into the equation using only that link. It just doesn’t sit true.”
“At the moment, it’s all we’ve got.”
Langley studied the young man in the monitor. “But where does it get us? Is there any actual evidence of Washington having the Moon Mask?”
“That’s where we were hoping you could help, Ambassador.”