Mean~while back at the Temple~
"The energy was growing.
Mal'akh could feel it pulsing within him, moving up and down his body as he wheeled Peter Solomon towards the alter...all that remained now was to locate the final ingredient.
"Verbum significatium," he whispered to himself. "Verbum omnificum."
Mal`akh parked Peter's wheelchair besides the alter and then cirle around and unzipped the heavy daybag that sat on Peter's lap. Reaching inside, he lifted out the stone pyramid..."all these years," he taunted, "and you never knew how the pyramid kept her secrets"..."and this tailisman,"he continued, extracting the golden capstone, "did indeed bring order from chaos, exactly as promised...
Behold, your symbolon is complete"
(TLS 427).
"Peter's face contorted, and he tried in vain to speak...Mal`akh roughly yanked out the gag...."Katherine..."
"Please," Peter begged, his voice ragged. "send an ambulance for her..."
"I will do exactly that. But first you must tell me how to access the secret staircase."
Peter's expression turned to one of disbelief.
"What?!"
"The staircase. Masonic legend speaks of stairs that that descends hundreds of feet to the secret location where the Lost Word is buried."
Peter now looked panicked.
"You know the legend," Mal`akh baited.
"a secret staircase hidden beneath a stone..."
(TLS 427-8).
A staircase beneath a stone??
"Obviously, this is the right place. The entrance to the staircase must be hidden on one of the floors beneath us."
"There is no secret staircase in this building!"
Peter shouted...
"Peter, I have all night..."
"Katherine, however, does not. If you want her to live, you will tell me how to access the staircase..."
Mal`akh calmly produced the sheet of paper on which he had reorgainized the grid of symbols from the base of the pyramid.
"This is the masonic Pyramid's final message. Your friend Robert Langdon helped me decipher it."
Mal`akh raised the paper and held it in front of Peter's eyes...
Not only had the sixty four symbols been orgainized into clearly meaningful groups...
but an actual image had materialized out of chaos.
An image of a staircase...beneath a pyramid"
(TLS 428).
"Peter Solomon stared in disbelief at the grid of symbols before him. The Masonic Pyramid had kept its secret for generations.
Now, suddenly, it was being unveiled...he could understand why the tattooed man believed what he believed...
The pyramids final code...
He thinks there is a hidden staircase beneath the pyramid called Heredom.
He misunderstands these symbols.
"Where is it?"
The tattooed man demanded.
"Tell me how to find the staircase, and I will save Katherine."
I wish I could do that...But the staircase is not real. The myth of the staircase was purely symbolic...
The man with the tattoos simply stared at him...
You know how to find it, Mal`akh thought. You know something you're not telling me...
The Lost word is not a metaphor...
it is real...
The Word is capable of bring unfathomable power to anyone who grasps its true meaning...
"Peter," Mal`akh now said, staring into his captives eyes, "when you looked at the grid of symbols...you say something...this grid means something to you.Tell me.
"I will tell you nothing until you send help to Katherine!"
Mal`akh smiled at him...he turned to Langdon's daybag and started removing the items he packed in his basement...
A folded silk cloth. Pure white
A silver censor. Egyptian myrrh.
A vial of Peter's blood. Mixed with ash.
A black crow's fearther. His sacred stylus.
The sacrificial knife.
Forged of the iron from a meteorite in the desert of Canaan.
"You think I am afraid to die?" Peter shouted...
"If Katherine is gone, I have nothing left!
You've murdered my entire family!
You've taken everything from me!"
"Not everything," Mal`akh replied...
He reached into the daybag and pulled out the laptop...
He turned it on and looked over at his captive.
"I'm afraid you have not yet grasped the true nature of your predicament"
(TLS 428-30).
