Apocalypsis 1.04 Baphomet Read Online Free PDF Page B

of their marvelous hometown. From the moment Peter and Maria entered the small charterhouse that was located on a hill overlooking the Rhône, they knew that, this time, they were in the right place.
    Bingo!
    The monastery complex was not large. Behind a small Gothic church was a u-shaped group of low buildings enclosing a little courtyard. But what was standing in this courtyard was anything but hidden or subtle, and a rather self-confident sign: a small open temple with eight pillars, which looked at first sight like a secluded gazebo in a palatial park. But Peter recognized the layout right away.
    »That’s how the Templars used to build their churches!« he called out. »Octagonally like Solomon’s Temple!«
    He did not waste a second and began to examine the little temple. It didn’t take him long to find something.
    »I don’t believe this! Maria, take a look at this. They were totally brazen!«
    He pulled Maria into the small temple and pointed at a relief under the vaulted ceiling. It showed a depiction of the three-headed Baphomet.
    »These Templar guys must have felt pretty safe in Avignon.«
    Maria seemed skeptical. »A little bit too obvious, don’t you think?«
    Peter was electrified. »Perhaps these are only clues to the real hiding place,« he called out, »continue to look around.«
    They checked each and every corner of the little temple, Peter on the outside, Maria on the inside. On one of the exterior walls of the temple, Peter found a second relief. A square divided into 25 smaller squares. Each of the squares seemed to have some sort of inscription, but 700 years of weather and cold winters had done so much harm to the sandstone that it was impossible to decipher the writing.
    »Damn it, what could this be?«
    Maria ran her fingers over the relief.
    »I know what this is!« she called out. »It’s a Sator Square!«
    »A what?«
    »A magical formula from the early Christian times. In Austria, alpine dairy farmers still decorate their front doors with these squares as a protection against demons.«
    »What does it mean?«
    »It’s a palindrome, some form of magical square that contains letters instead of numbers. The letters can be read horizontally and vertically and in both cases they form the same Latin sentence. If you read it from top to bottom, it says, ›Sator Arepo Tenet Opera Rotas.‹«

    Peter thought for a moment and then he furrowed his brow, visibly dissatisfied. »What does Arepo mean?«
    »Nobody knows that. It might be a name.«
    Peter made a first attempt at a translation. »The sower Arepo struggles to hold the wheels?«
    »Not bad. But it could also mean, ›The sower holds the works.‹«
    »And, of course, no one has ever found out what these words mean and the entire world has been speculating for centuries about what kind of secret knowledge might be hidden in this nonsense.«
    »Otherwise it would not be a magical formula.«
    Peter was not satisfied. »Let’s keep searching.«
    »I already found something. Come.«
    She led him to a place in the interior of the open octagon and pointed at a spot on the stone wall, which was approximately at head height and almost exactly opposite the Sator Square. At first, Peter couldn’t see anything.
    »It’s pretty weathered,« Maria said. She took his hand and let it slide over the rough stone. His fingers felt grooves in the stone, straight and crossed grooves and pits. Then Peter recognized what it was that had been weathering in the sandstone for the last 700 years. His hand jerked away as if he had received an electric shock.
    »The symbol!«

XXXVIII
    May 13, 2011, Headquarters of the Swiss Guards, Vatican City
    T he machine in question is a ground-penetrating radar,« reported Guard Egger in his stereotypically slow Bernese accent. »It is used to…«
    Bühler interrupted him harshly. »I know what a GPR is used for,« he said. »But what business did these people have taking a ground-penetrating radar into the Necropolis?