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Manila, Philippines
John Lee Ray was almost painfully aware of the gold triangle in his breast pocket, but he resisted the urge to take it out—to touch it, look at it—until he was safely ensconced within the lavishly appointed confines of his Gulfstream III jet, which sat idle at a private airstrip outside Manila, awaiting a destination. With only Scalpel and four other senior lieutenants present—all of them members of his inner circle and true believers in his cause—he took out the thick leather portfolio which contained the sum total of the knowledge he had acquired about the history the Templar conspiracy. He flipped through the file folders within until he found a sheaf of photographs which he removed and spread out on a table-top.
One photo showed a wide-angle shot of the ceiling of the secret chapel at the Hancock manor. The other pictures, dozens of them, showed the individual sigils, and marked on the back of each print was the corresponding geographical location. Many of them were known Templar fortresses and houses dating back to the Crusades. He knew many of these places well; he had thoroughly researched each of them, hoping in vain to find a shortcut to the secret Templar treasury. Several of the other symbols indicated prominent cities throughout Europe and the Middle East where there was no well established presence for the monastic order. Those were more problematic since there was no way to narrow the focus of the search.
Until now.
He shuffled through the photographs like playing cards, removing all those that did not contain a triangle in the sigil. To his dismay, that measure did not greatly reduce the number of possibilities; triangles figured prominently into most of them. He recalled an old riddle he’d come across in his investigations: Where is the Templar treasure? It's under a triangle so large only God can see.
Of course, Ray thought. The triangle is a Masonic symbol, with links to the Illuminati. It all makes sense.
The connection between the Freemasons and the Templar Knights had long been posited by scholars of the Templar conspiracy, but the Masonic influence was so ubiquitous that instead of shedding light on the mystery, this knowledge only obscured the truth.
He studied the medallion again, noting that none of its sides were even. Therein lay its secret. Like a puzzle piece, it might appear to fit in many different places, but would only match one.
If he couldn’t make a match with the photos, he would have to go back to Hancock’s estate.
He’d obtained the photographs three years earlier, learning about the secret chapel only after months of quiet inquiry and investigation. At first, he had hoped to join the secret fraternity; after all, who was a sacred warrior monk in the tradition of the Templars, if not he? He had discreetly approached some whom he knew to be among their number, and while none would confirm what he had discovered, their oblique refusals told him that he was being considered for membership. More importantly, they helped him identify other key figures in the ranks, including a rather shabby English lord with a run-down estate north of London. His surveillance of Edward Lord Hancock had paid off handsomely when, one summer evening, several of the men he suspected were Templars paid Hancock a visit, and took a walk in the nearby woods. When the meeting was concluded, Ray stole into the underground chapel and photographed everything. Soon, he had the whole story, but like the Templars themselves, had no way to decode the map and find the treasure vault.
Further complicating matters, as he got closer to the truth, the doors that had once been opened to him began to close. His attempts to join the order were met with stony silence, and he realized that, in trying to pierce their veil of secrecy, he had unwittingly discovered their grand scheme for world domination. The modern Templars were not the guardians of a sacred trust as he had once believed, but the puppet-masters of Western civilization, manipulating wealth and power to enslave humanity.
He was not alone in realizing this. For as long as the Templars had been spinning their web, others were actively working to disrupt their hegemony. This rival order, known simply as the Dominion, were the true holy knights; they were the spiritual heirs of the order, unlike the real Templars who had lost their way and become nothing more than avaricious bankers.
Ray took out a magnifying glass and began studying each of the triangular glyphs in the pictures. Even though the scale wasn’t correct, the angles should be consistent. “I need a protractor.” He turned to Scalpel. “The pilot should have a protractor.”
The other man nodded, but took advantage of the break in his employer’s concentration to address another concern. “John Lee, you should know that Hammer is overdue for a check-in.”
“Hammer?” Hammer was the only member of the inner circle not present. Like the others, he had foresworn his true name in favor of the operational callsign Ray had given him when they’d been in Special Forces. Hammer had also been with Scalpel during the original failed mission to take over Maddock’s boat, and like Scalpel had a personal score to settle. “He’s hunting the rest of Maddock’s team, right?”
Scalpel nodded. “He should have found them by now, or at least called in.”
“There’s not much we can do about that now,” answered Ray, tersely. “He’ll turn up. But we need to get moving. And I need a damned protractor.”
Scalpel shuffled away and Ray returned to perusing the photos. He was able to further winnow the selection, removing several that were obviously not a match. By the time Scalpel returned with the requested tool, he had figured out how to use the points of the gold triangle to check the pictures, and was able to start moving briskly through the stack.
He froze. He had found a picture that perfectly matched one point of the triangle. He turned it, checking another corner.
Yes!
He checked the third, even though simple geometry ensured that it too would be a match. It was.
Where?
He flipped the photograph over, looked at the corresponding location...and burst out laughing.
It was so obvious.