The Sixth Key(127)

‘I had a feeling that Cros had scratched the sign of the lamb in the tabernacle to protect his own sacrament!’ Rahn said. ‘Perhaps that’s why he didn’t want anyone knowing where he was going to be buried, because he was concerned they would somehow snatch his immortal soul.’

‘Perhaps, but in order to invoke Sorat these groups need the sign, which they don’t have – the key missing from Le Serpent Rouge. So now we know what Hitler wants with the key and what the penitents want with the key, and perhaps also what this AA, and anyone else who is after it, are seeking – they are seeking to invoke Sorat, to bring about the end of the world so that they can install a New Jerusalem – a new world order that is to their liking. And we, my dear friends, are about to stop them, because the crucial ingredient, I believe, is in that church.’

‘What makes you think Cros would hide it there? Wouldn’t that be too obvious?’ La Dame said, in the back.

‘That’s exactly why it’s suspect!’ Deodat said, with an emotion close to glee. ‘And we are going to find it by using your Vigenère Square, Rahn. You are going to decipher JCKAL using Sorat as the master word.’

‘So you think Cros wasn’t intending to be buried with the treasure at all, and that the clues to the treasure’s whereabouts are on the list – as I surmised?’

‘Exactly so. Let’s go, what are we waiting for?’

Inside the church, Rahn followed Deodat and La Dame to the altar like a lamb going to the slaughter. Once more, he wondered why in God’s name he had answered that telegram in Berlin. Deodat was excited at the prospect of discovering the key, that much he could see, but for his part he wasn’t relishing it, nor was he relishing the potential consequences of having it. Then again, perhaps it had always been his destiny to find it? If it was his destiny, he wondered how he would ever atone for it if his actions should lead somehow to an Armageddon of biblical proportions? But as Deodat had already pointed out, he was chin deep in responsibility. Feeling grim, he looked about with a creeping sense that he was being watched. Perhaps it was the Devil himself around the corner waiting to snatch away his soul?

At the altar his hands were shaking so much he could hardly hold the pencil, and his eyes were finding it difficult to focus. He gave them a rub and wrote down the cipher and the master word and deciphered each letter using the square.



He came to his solution while La Dame held a candle close:

‘My God!’ Rahn said, looking at his own handiwork. ‘Rotas is the encrypted word! We seem to be going round in circles. Literally.’

‘Rotas!’ Deodat said, ecstatically. ‘Yes, you are right! We have been going around in circles, like a wheel! Running around looking for something we could have known at the beginning. Rotas, arepo, tenet, opera, sorat! When Cros gave us sator, he must have intended to give us rotas.’

‘Why do you say that?’ La Dame said.

‘Because rotas is the wheel in the tarot, the wheel of fortune – the tenth card. Now we see it: six parchments, six priests and six churches. Six plus six plus six. Cros was the sixth priest, and this was the sixth church. Let’s see if I’m right.’ Deodat went to the stained-glass window in the side chapel.

Rahn followed Deodat, taking a candle from the altar with him.

‘Don’t look at the window, Rahn, look instead at the altar beneath it. What do you see?’

Rahn noticed something very obvious and yes, the obvious was the most deceptive! Here, beneath the rotas window, there sat, innocently, a book bound in blue leather.





44


Unbrotherly Quarrels

‘How now, traitor!’ exclaimed Don Quixote.

Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote


Perhaps Rahn had never expected to see the Cathar treasure in his lifetime, and this is what made him hesitate. After all, one could argue that to have one’s dream come true might be a curse in itself. However, his hesitation was more to do with that part of him, a significant part, that didn’t want to know the key – the part that wanted to leave the Devil in his place.

Deodat must have guessed his thoughts because he took the book in his hands and looked at Rahn gravely. ‘To know the secret or the formula of God is to be God, and to know the secret or the formula of the Devil is to be the Devil. But to wish to be at the same time God and Devil is to absorb into one’s self the two most strained contrary forces. I believe that in this book we shall find the sign of Sorat, which can make one both a god and a devil.’

Deodat had just begun to open the book when La Dame called out.

‘Rahn!’

‘Not now, La Dame!’ he said, annoyed.