As he stepped across the threshold, Cædmon immediately saw that there would be no rescue. The vanquished Finnegan McGuire was seated against the far wall. Standing beside him, a leather-clad Valkyrie had a semi-automatic pressed to his left temple. Wearing a white lab coat, Dr Ivo Uhlemann stood a few feet from the pair.
A small room, the viewing chamber was no bigger than a home theatre with a glass partition in lieu of a movie screen. On the other side of the glass was the Vril Generator, housed in a pyramid-shaped bunker. The centrepiece of the device was the Grail, configured in some sort of crystal array. A second door led to the bunker. Like the steel door they’d just come through, it had a security keypad on the doorframe.
Still clutching the Ruger, the faithful Myrmidon slunk over to his master, insinuating himself between Dr Uhlemann and the blonde Valkyrie.
‘Oh, Finn … I’m so happy to see you!’ Kate rushed towards McGuire, only to draw up short when the Valkyrie took aim at her with the semi-automatic.
‘Sorry I couldn’t come through for you, Katie.’ The commando’s apology was punctuated with a rueful half-smile. Turning slightly, he jutted his head in Cædmon’s direction. ‘Hey, buddy. Glad to see that you’re still alive. The Death Star is due to appear in eighteen minutes. So you better grab yourself a front-row seat.’
Cædmon sensed that embedded within McGuire’s swagger was a covert message. But what?
He surreptitiously glanced around the viewing chamber. There was a clock above the glass partition, a chalkboard affixed to one wall, a video camera set on a tripod and three empty viewing chairs lined up in front of the glass partition. ‘Grab yourself a front row seat.’ Perhaps McGuire thought Cædmon could use one of the wood-backed chairs as a weapon.
Right.
He deliberately touched the blood-soaked bandage on his head as he turned to Dr Uhlemann and said, ‘May I have leave to sit down? Before I fall down,’ he added, hoping he appeared sufficiently pathetic.
‘By all means.’ The request was granted with a regal wave of the hand.
Playing the nursemaid, Kate solicitously helped Cædmon to his seat. In truth, he was a bloodied weakling, having yet to recover from the earlier thrashing. The painful crown that insistently pressed against his bashed head had become damned near excruciating.
Although not as excruciating as a bullet to the brain.
No time to waste, Cædmon quickly sized up the enemy. Crisply knotted silk tie. Perfectly tailored trousers. Tasselled leather loathers. All-in-all, a revealing book cover. Conservative, yet eloquent, the wardrobe indicated that Ivo Uhlemann was a man with a taste for the finer things. Cædmon suspected that the German was also something of an aesthete, a lover of all that was beautiful and perfect. As ‘Herr Doktor’ defined those two terms, of course, his arrogance plain to see. Paired with that conceit was a keen intelligence. Unlike the gauche Myrmidon who couldn’t juggle two balls at once, the elder German was a spatial thinker. A theoretical physicist who could problem solve in multiple dimensions.
He’ll prove a damned difficult nut to crack, Cædmon acknowledged dispiritedly.
As for the blonde Valkyrie, he didn’t intend to turn his back on her any time soon.
‘I am delighted that the three of you will witness das Groß Versuch,’ Dr Uhlemann announced with an air of mocking conviviality.
Since cadavers can’t speak, Cædmon assumed that the witnesses would be summarily shot at the conclusion of the ‘Great Experiment’. The gloating victor, Dr Uhlemann wanted first to lord his hard-earned triumph over them. And it had been hard-earned, years in the making as he understood it.
Acutely aware of the ticking clock, Cædmon examined the Vril Generator.
Noticing the direction of his gaze, Dr Uhlemann said, ‘The design for the generator was extrapolated from a careful reading of the Ghayat al-Hakim. Crystal matrixes are part of the Lost Science.’ He removed a laser pen from his pocket and aimed the red beam at the Vril Generator. ‘As you can see, the nucleus of the design is the Lapis Exillis, which is bracketed, top and bottom, by a tubular quartz crystal. The ancients were well aware that these crystals can hold a high-frequency electric charge.’
‘That’s what modern-day scientists refer to as piezoelectricity,’ Kate remarked as she sat down beside Cædmon. Turning her head ever so slightly, she shot him a pointed glance.
Earlier, when they were in the library, she had tried to tell him something about ‘two stones’.
But there was only the one Grail.
Christ! What in bloody hell is she trying to communicate to me?
He needed more intelligence. And he needed to be damned quick about gathering it.
‘Doctor Uhlemann, how exactly does the crystal matrix work?’ he enquired, hoping to pry loose a useful nugget.
‘Astral energy is directed into the quartz crystal suspended from the pyramid’s apex. Conversely, the crystal on the floor acts as a magnet to attract telluric energy from deep within the earth,’ the German informed him in a professorial tone. ‘The two quartz crystals simultaneously funnel their respective energies into the Lapis Exillis which then generates the Vril force. All in all, a simple but efficient means of energy production.’
‘Fascinating.’ Cædmon then asked the question that had been plaguing him since he’d first found the Grail stone hidden inside the Isis Sanctuary. ‘Do you have any idea what’s beneath the gold plating?’
‘According to our scan, it’s a layered configuration, a lapis lazuli stone embedded in the centre. We have yet to determine the material used in the insulating second layer.’
‘Blue, of course, is the colour ascribed to Isis, Queen of the Heavens. Prized by the Egyptians for its unique hue, the stone was used as a protective talisman, a lapis lazuli scarab often buried with the dead to guard them in the afterlife.’
Kate gently nudged him with her elbow. ‘And, like the quartz crystal, lapis lazuli has a high resonance frequency.’
Cædmon took the nudge as a silent caution to keep the conversation grounded in the scientific and not veer off on to the esoteric realm.
Right.
Taking his cues from Kate, he made a quick course correction. ‘As I recall from a long-ago physics lesson, high resonance frequency has to do with the stone’s accumulated vibrational energy.’ He glanced at the clock mounted on the wall. Eleven minutes left. How can I possibly stop the Vril generation from taking place in the few minutes remaining?
Jaw clamped tight, Cædmon refocused his attention on the Grail.
Think, man, think.
‘Doctor Uhlemann, I’m curious about the relationship between the Vril Generator and the monuments on the Axe Historique,’ Kate ventured politely. ‘Specifically, I’m wondering how the Louvre Pyramid figures into the equation.’
Hearing this, Cædmon whipped his head in Kate’s direction. The ‘second stone’. Of course! That was it!
Kate, you’re brilliant.
He gave her an answering nudge, signalling that, while late to the game, he now understood.
‘As you know, each monument on the Axe Historique has a purpose. The obelisk functions as a radio tower, drawing down the astral energy from Sirius, and the three arches channel the earth’s telluric energy. The glass pyramid serves as a counterbalance to the pyramidal Lapis Exillis.’ With his laser light pen, Dr Uhlemann pointed to the Grail. ‘Perfect symmetry.’