“The soma takes fear away.”
“Is that all?”
“That’s more than all. We humans are born afraid to leave our mother’s belly, and we die afraid to leave this life. Now just imagine a life without fear. Nothing would hold us back. We’d be absolutely serene. Jouhanneau smiled when Sol killed him. He wasn’t afraid.”
Jade looked at him. “But why didn’t the drug have the same effect on Sol?”
“He didn’t have a pure heart.”
“But…”
“So he suffered. He experienced something he had never felt before: guilt. We all have it in us — the good and the bad. Maybe the true Masonic secret is in the practice of ritual and initiation, in facing yourself through the efforts you make to reach the light. It’s the path, not the destination. All Sol did was try to steal a fix, like a drug addict. He got high on the gods he envisioned — the gods of retribution and anger, and they made him suffer.”
Jade slowed down.
“Would you want to experience it?”
“No, I’m vain enough to think I can continue on the path of knowledge without a drug, no matter how celestial it is. That said, the questions raised by this mixture are astonishing. If sacred and religious experiences are the result of disturbances in the brain caused by external stimuli, then God is simply a drug. Divine light is little more than a neuronal big bang. But…”
“But what?”
“Perhaps this substance really does have the power to put us in touch with something bigger than we are.”
“I actually love it when you get that sententious look. It’s too funny. You chase away the Mason, and he comes running back.”
Marcas laughed.
In front of a newspaper stand, a delivery man was dropping off a shipment of magazines. A gust of wind blew one onto the sidewalk. Marcas stopped it with his foot and picked it up. On the front page were a compass and square, the Freemason symbol.
Revelations
Freemason secrets unveiled
Exclusive interview
Marcas paged through the magazine to the article. “A pharmaceutical startup has announced the launch of a new plant-based antidepressant, Somatox. Makers of the drug claim it will revolutionize the antidepressant landscape.”
Marcas felt like tossing the magazine into a garbage can, but he returned it to the pile where it belonged. Just let it go, he said to himself.
He looked at Jade. “So tell me. Do you still think we’re all a bunch of nasty hoodwinkers?”
“Hmm. Let’s just say, I know now that all the apples aren’t bad.”
“I could introduce you to some more of us. You might actually like a few.”
“Don’t press your luck, Inspector.”
Marcas stopped grinning and took her hand. “I’m so sorry she did this to you.”
“Don’t sweat over it,” Jade said. “I still have nine. And the last time I checked, they were all working. It changes the balance when I shoot, but it’s no big deal.”
She smiled at Marcas again, hardly the hard-as-stone security chief he had met a lifetime ago. She held his hand and intertwined her fingers with his. In the distance, the sun was rising above the deserted street. To the Orient.
SORTING FACTS FROM FICTION
This book is of course a work of fiction but also based on true historical facts. If you want to know more, visit the following page:
www.lefrenchbook.com/shadow-ritual-facts-fiction
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Eric Giacometti, studied biochemistry and genetics in Toulouse, France, before going into journalism. Then, at the height of his career as an investigative reporter, he was contaminated by the thriller virus. His life took on another dimension: journalist by day, writer by night. That is when he and his childhood friend Jacques Ravenne created the Freemason police inspector Antoine Marcas. “Writing escapist fiction was a perfect antidote to the depressing stories of scandals and corruption I faced every day. Having one foot in reality and the other in fiction is incredible, but it’s key not to mix the two.” In 2013, he left his full-time reporting job with a French daily newspaper to work freelance and write. He teaches journalism and writing.
Jacques Ravenne is a high-level French Freemason. He is also a literary critic, known for his work on the writers Paul Valéry, Yves Bonnefoy, Gérard de Nerval and Stéphane Mallarmé. In addition to his academic work, he was also a local elected official for a number of years, and contributes regularly to Freemason publications. He discovered the Marquis de Sade’s château in 1985, beginning a long fascination with the man, which has resulted in an anthology of his correspondence and a novel based on Sade’s life.
ABOUT THE TRANSLATOR
Anne Trager loves France so much she has lived there for over a quarter of a century and just can’t seem to leave. What keeps her there is a uniquely French mix of pleasure seeking and creativity. Well, that and the wine. In 2011, she woke up one morning and said, “I just can’t stand it anymore. There are way too many good books being written in France not reaching a broader audience.” That’s when she founded Le French Book to translate some of those books into English. The company’s motto is “If we love it, we translate it,” and Anne loves myteries and thrillers.