Inside Saint-Sulpice, Silas carried the heavy iron votive candle holder from the altar
back toward the obelisk. The shaft would do nicely as a battering ram. Eyeing the gray
marble panel that covered the apparent hollow in the floor, he realized he could not
possibly shatter the covering without making considerable noise.
Iron on marble. It would echo off the vaulted ceilings.
Would the nun hear him? She should be asleep by now. Even so, it was a chance Silas
preferred not to take. Looking around for a cloth to wrap around the tip of the iron pole,
he saw nothing except the altar's linen mantle, which he refused to defile. My cloak, he
thought. Knowing he was alone in the great church, Silas untied his cloak and slipped it
off his body. As he removed it, he felt a sting as the wool fibers stuck to the fresh
wounds on his back.
Naked now, except for his loin swaddle, Silas wrapped his cloak over the end of the
iron rod. Then, aiming at the center of the floor tile, he drove the tip into it. A muffled
thud. The stone did not break. He drove the pole into it again. Again a dull thud, but this
time accompanied by a crack. On the third swing, the covering finally shattered, and
stone shards fell into a hollow area beneath the floor.
A compartment!
Quickly pulling the remaining pieces from the opening, Silas gazed into the void. His
blood pounded as he knelt down before it. Raising his pale bare arm, he reached inside.
At first he felt nothing. The floor of the compartment was bare, smooth stone. Then,
feeling deeper, reaching his arm in under the Rose Line, he touched something! A thick
stone tablet. Getting his fingers around the edge, he gripped it and gently lifted the tablet
out. As he stood and examined his find, he realized he was holding a rough-hewn stone
slab with engraved words. He felt for an instant like a modern-day Moses.
As Silas read the words on the tablet, he felt surprise. He had expected the keystone to
be a map, or a complex series of directions, perhaps even encoded. The keystone,
however, bore the simplest of inscriptions.
Job 38:11
A Bible verse? Silas was stunned with the devilish simplicity. The secret location of
that which they sought was revealed in a Bible verse? The brotherhood stopped at
nothing to mock the righteous!
Job.
