‘The black sun?’ Rahn was in shock, remembering Wewelsburg. He was thinking the connections through out loud: ‘The swastika is the symbol of the black sun – that’s common knowledge among the SS. You know, I myself heard Hitler say to a group of the most senior SS dignitaries, his inner circle, something to the effect, that “all Germans must sacrifice their goodness, even their connection to Christ”. I had a sense that there was something evil about Himmler and Hitler, but I mostly thought they were just madmen – I couldn’t have been more wrong! This whole Nazi business is clearly part of an intelligent design to bring the German people under the worship of the black sun, under the worship of Sorat.’
‘Sorat will bring about Apocalypse, Rahn, the end of the world, Armageddon! Yes,’ Deodat confirmed. ‘Hitler knew enough to reverse the swastika, transforming the ancient sun symbol into a symbol of evil. That is why you were sent here, Rahn – not to find Le Serpent Rouge, Hitler no doubt already has that; you were sent here to fetch the key. They need that key if Hitler is to invoke Sorat. Now you see the gravity of this entire affair? And soon we will know what JCKAL has to do with it . . . at Bugarach.
‘Bugarach? Is that the sixth church?’ Rahn said.
‘Time will tell.’
When they arrived back at Bugarach church, Rahn parked the car behind some trees, feeling forlorn. He chose the same spot he had used two nights before and turned off the engine. The town lay dormant under a sky scattered with fast-moving clouds revealing behind them a tangle of stars. A thought occurred to Rahn and he turned to look at Deodat. ‘What did you call that creature on the Countess P’s clock?’
‘A Leoncetophaline,’ Deodat said.
‘You said it was Hermetic, or Mithraic, right?’
‘Yes, and it also represents the rogue sign, the thirteenth sign of the zodiac. The sign by which—’ He looked at Rahn in the darkness and Rahn could just see the outline of his face. ‘Ophiucus . . . it has two snakes winding around its body and in one hand it holds – a key! A key to the Underworld! A key to the forces of a living death . . . and a dead life . . . to Saturn forces – forces of the bottomless pit!’ he said.
‘Will someone let me in on what in God’s name you’re talking about?’ La Dame said, from the back seat. His voice sounded anxious. He kept looking from this side to that.
‘Are you expecting someone, La Dame?’ Rahn said.
La Dame answered, ‘I reserve the right to be moderately concerned for our safety. Have you still got that hunting gun, Deodat?’
‘Actually I dropped it in the forest after I shot those men.’
But Rahn wasn’t listening, his mind turned to a question that was bothering him. ‘Deodat, what was that engraving on the clock, do you remember it? You know, I think the countess was leaving me a clue! Don’t forget, she also died of a stroke on the same day as Saunière and Marie Blanchefort. Three people dying of strokes and all of them on the seventeenth of January, the date that Verger was sentenced; and it’s also the same date in Monti’s notebook. Don’t forget that date marks the feast day of Saint Sulpice, and Saint Sulpice in Paris is the headquarters of AA, Association Angelica. I’m beginning to think, Deodat, that the Countess P was somehow mixed up in all this.’
Deodat was silent in the darkness. When he spoke his voice was grave. ‘Rahn, I think you’re right, and I can make sense of that riddle now. This is a tomb that has no body in it . . . this is a body that has no tomb around it . . . but body and tomb are the same.
‘This is a tomb that has no body in it – means the tomb is the corpse; after death the corpse has no spirit body in it. It is therefore a tomb without a spirit body. Now, a body that has no tomb around it – means the spirit body is free of the corpse and therefore has no tomb around it. But in certain cases the corpse and the spirit body remain united, even beyond the grave. In this case body and tomb, spirit and corpse, are one, do you see?’
‘You mean, like a living death?’ Rahn said.
‘Yes, Rahn! In fact I’ll wager that what we are dealing with here is a kind of suicide circle, wherein those who choose to die give over their spirits to the members of these groups as a form of immortality, but they may not know that this immortality is a sentence to Hell because those who run these groups are seeking to use them for the benefit of Sorat – the sun demon. That is the point! That would explain Saunière’s sudden obsession with death and the penitents, and their cult of the dead, in which the sacrament that is administered to the dying is desecrated, mixed with excrement, to create a species of control after death.’