"You know he does!" Yonnie said, slapping a seat back.
"Well, what's this symbol look like-the Bedhet thing that we should keep an eye out for?" Jose asked, looking at Carlos and then Damali.
"Two winged serpents, one that looks to the east and another to the west, with the sun in the middle, and inside the sun, the six-pointed star represents Sepedet-an upside-down triangle, or female form, for Aset-and a pyramid-for Ausar-put together-"
"Forms a Star of David," Dan said, jumping up to stand by Yonnie. "That's why you got the Enoch references and had to look at the Kabbalah!"
"It's called the Thirteenth or Royal Arch Degree," Cordell said. "I know. I'm a Mason . . . and Enoch is also associated with the Royal Arch. All fits."
"Go back to the pyramid," Carlos said, too wired to sit. He stood and smoothed a palm over his hair. "If the pyramid in the Sepedet refers to Ausar, then Yonnie broke the code." He looked at Yonnie and slowly pounded his fist. "If you were the Ultimate Darkness that was operating in the shadows, you'd do the unthinkable in front of the cross, and before Ausar who's bested you in the past with his son . . . you'd use his own phallus, that is marked at the base by the symbol of the first Kemetic family, Ausar and Aset, in front of the White House-which is a metaphor for their palace-and you'd screw them with the monument that allowed them to give birth to their heir, Heru . . . the son who beat you. You'd defy the Masons, who gated you in the Metatron's Cube and set their symbol beside that in the streets, the Masonic Compass, to let all who knew how to read the architecture that they wereall not necessarily responsible for what would arise from the pentagram-even if, perhaps, some of their early brethren who'd crossed over to the darkside might have laid those original streets in a satanic barter."
"Lotto!"Yonnie yelled in the bus.
"The Washington Monument is also the number of man," Cordell offered, fully turning in his seat as heidled the engine and put on the van's hazard lights. "Five. The Antichrist is coming as a man . . . and the monument is fifty-five-feet wide at the base and five-hundred-and-fifty-five-feet in height, a ten-to-one ratio just like the other tekhenwy in Egypt, or obelisks, as the Greeks called them."
"Hidden in plain sight," Damali murmured. "We've just gotta figure out how and where that pupa is hidden near the monument."
They waited in the van, anticipation zinging through the group. Cordell was supposed to try to gain access to the private lodge and send mental pics back to the group's seers, but the pomp and circumstance of it all was making everyone crazy. Yet, there was nothing to do but sit and wait in the van like a silently ticking time bomb. Then the first image hit her. It was the pyramid on the dollar bill.
"He's in," Damali announced quickly. "Pyramids . . . he's looking at pyramids in the library," she added in a quieter tone as her Guardian sister's eyelids began to flutter."Cross section. Tekhen . . . he doesn't know what we need and we can't tell him because we don't know-he could be in there for hours! Dollar bill, thirteen steps on that pyramid . . . eagle tail feathers, nine.All-seeing eye. He's trying to do numerology combinations. I don't know what to tell him. Valley of the Kings built on the west bank of the Nile, our famous necropolis and many memorials to dead presidents are on the west bank of the Potomac. He's all over the place and it isn't his fault."
"Pyramids-because those are secret and they are strong and that's where the dead kings used to be buried," the pearl shouted from her bag. "It's so horrible, but that's where it's growing. I'm afraid, Damali. I don't like this at all!"
"Go back to the pyramid-cross section," Marlene said calmly. "Overlay the Queen's Chamber inside the apex of the traditional pyramid with the street design of where the Washington Monument sits across from the White House. Just like the Queen's Chamber is offset from the King's Chamber, so, too, is the Washington Monument from the White House."
"The Washington Monument could be the womb, the Queen's Chamber, offset from the male energy of the King's Chamber-the White House," Damali murmured.
"Oh, yeah, old Lu is sick . . . making Ausar's phallus symbol offset like it's female energy," Yonnie said, chuckling in disbelief, "by screwing with the ground years ago so the humans couldn't build the damned thing where they'd wanted to."
"Tell him to stay with cross sections of pyramids," Carlos said, leaning over a seat.
Damali nodded and conveyed the message. In a few moments, words began to flow from her mouth as Dan, Jose, and J.L. furiously scribbled notes.
"Potomac Avenue is equivalent to the Descending Passage and Pennsylvania Avenue to the Ascending Passage and Grand Gallery in a Giza pyramid. The old canal simulates the well shaft in those Kemetic structures. The point of the relieving stones above the King's Chamber is a direct match to Scott Circle north of the White House . . . and the junction of the Ascending and Descending Passages is a direct match to the junction of Potomac and Pennsylvania Avenues." Damali began rocking as she spoke, drawing the team in closer. "If you follow Potomac southwest in direction, right out into the river, there's a secret subterranean vault or chamber, just like in the Kemetic pyramids."
"I say we follow the juncture points and then check the vault," Carlos said. "We can't bust into the King's chamber, the White House-and the likelihood of getting smoked in the Washington Monument by human gunfire is too real-but I'd put money on it that he's hiding his heir in an easy route back to the monument. So let's start at those two places on the map," he said, pointing at where he'd drawn along with Damali's description. "We hit the junction point or head toward the Potomac."
The moment the words came out of Carlos's mouth a police cruiser pulled up beside the van and put on its popcorn lights. The team looked at one another. Doug slid into the driver's seat as Marjorie stepped up to take the pretend role as tour guide.
"Can I help you, officer?" she said brightly as Doug opened the door.
Two policemen stood wide-legged with the strap popped on their weapons.
"Step away from the vehicle, ma'am," the first cop said as more vehicles entered the street.
"Sure, no problem, sir," Marj said in her most pleasant suburban tone. "Have we violated any parking rules by stopping our tour van so these folks could take pictures?If so, I'm so sorry."
The tension in the bus crackled as Guardians held their breaths. Damali and Carlos saw it at the same time. Just behind the mirror aviator sunglasses, black static demon eyes flashed as Marj hit the bottom step. A swift tactical yank by Carlos snatched Marj off her feet and back into the bus. Reacting on instinct as Marj hit the floor and cops drew, Doug shut the door and sealed it with a tactical charge, while Carlos flung up a shield.
"Drive!" Shabazz hollered, hitting the cruisers' engines with enough charge to blow them.
Damali was up and out of her seat, sending mental darts to Cordell. "Get out of there!" she yelled at the same time she sent the mental image and the van slammed onto the pavement to begin a wild chase.
"He'll never make it," Doug screamed, careening off the curb and into oncoming traffic. "Throw him a tactical shield or something!"
Out of nowhere, three fast-moving bicycle messengers whizzed by the two demons disguised as police. Instant recognition coiled a new level of tension within Carlos and Damali as their eyes met. The two ebony-hued sister Guardians from Philly skidded out in opposite directions, while an unknown, almond-hued male Guardian momentarily drew the demons' attention. Three names and faces pierced the Neterus' minds-Zulma, Kenyetta, Craig. Thencame the urgent message to avoid a friendly-fire mistake:Don't shoot us, we're in the Light. We came to give you cover -get out of the grid!
Snub-nosed revolvers came out of cyclist Windbreaker jackets in a flash to spit silver shells. Demons dove behind the cruiser doors for cover and to take aim, but the cyclists' athletic maneuvers were too swift. They'd blended into the urban environment and were gone before they could be hit. Then Craig circled back around as Kenyetta slid in from one street, Zulma raced in from an adjacent one, all three now toting pump shotguns. In a split second, weapon hammers clicked back. Three blasts released, a demon splattered the cruiser interior and then burned to ash as the second one rolled under the vehicle chassis snarling. Like erratic, fast-moving lightning, the Guardians were once again gone. But they had created enough of a diversion to give the older Guardian who'd been trapped in the building time to hear the telepathic 911 and to get out.