The Meaning

9781483541501

Prologue

1944 - Time of War

The Germen soldiers patrolling outside the Vatican’s gates did not concern the American Colonel. His battle will come with the Church’s hierarchy within.

With an arm raised in the halt position and his weapon readied, one soldier forced the Colonel's black Mercedes to a stop.

Papers, he shouted at the driver.

Another soldier peered through the closed rear window at the Colonel. The driver handed the soldier some documents as the Colonel sat motionless with a pistol in his hand hidden beneath a black Bishop's robe. A moment passed, then two, before the soldier waved them towards the gate. The Colonel then turned and smiled at the soldier peering in on him.

Once inside the Swiss Guard escorted the Colonel to a room in a small building next to St. Peter's Basilica. The Colonel opened the door without knocking and entered the room closing the door behind him, leaving the Swiss Guard solders outside. He was now alone in the room with the Cardinal Prefect.

I do not understand why you insisted on coming here in person, the Cardinal sternly told the Colonel. And dressed as a member of the clergy for heavens sake. Anything that needed to be communicated could have been accomplished in a more convent manner.

There lies the core of the problem. You just don't seem to understand the gravity of entire situation. the Colonel replied showing no respect for the Cardinal. I will not provide the Germans any opportunity to gain access to the knowledge we've protected for so long.

Then do not talk about it. We surely are not. the Cardinal replied.

However, the girl can't seem to keep her mouth shut. the Colonel fired back. I know she wrote down what she knows and I know she sent it to the Pope.

First of all she is a young woman now, and a nun. Second, you have no reason to worry about the Sister. She is hidden away in Spain.

I know where she is. the Colonel shot back. And if I know where she is the Germans probably do as well. So do not tell me not to worry. Hitler cannot get his hands on this. If he does, it could sway the war. He already has possession of some ancient documents containing secrets that no man should ever learn. If his people can translate them then the contents of the letter will be all he needs to gain absolute power and control of the world. And I'm sure he will no longer show any tolerance for you're institution.

What do you want me to do? the Cardinal asked. The Pope has the letter secured in a safe place and the Sister has been reminded of her responsibilities.

What I want you to do is to understand that we will not allow this girl to become a liability to humanity. We will do what is necessary to keep her silent. I have people with eyes on her and if we suspect the Germans are showing any interest we will eliminate the threat.

When you say you'll eliminate the threat I assume you are speaking of the Germans, the Cardinal replied portentously.

Assume what you will. Now, we have some things we need to do. the Colonel replied as he removed the Bishop robe, revealing his officer's uniform. The Allied forces should make it to Rome within the next few weeks. I will remain here until the city is secure. My first act will be to aid you in writing a decoy letter to use if necessary as a final line of defense."

I told you the Pope has the original hidden away.

Good for him. Now let us get started. After we complete this task we have much more to accomplish over the next few weeks,

Chapter 1

Present day

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

With a rapid shake of his head John Thomas tried to toss out the unsolicited thought. Such intrusions into his conscious mind had become almost commonplace now that the radio in the old Chevy was not working. And, with a long commute from his home on the outskirts of Tucson, to the Whipple observatory at the top of Mount Hopkins, he liked to use the time to work out personal problems. His problems were actually trivial by the standards of most, but all too often, he would twist them around and blow things out of proportion.

John slowed as he approached the Base Camp at the foot of Mount Hopkins. He pulled up next to the guard shack and rolled down the window. The hot desert air rushed in as if he had opened the door to an oven. Morning George, he shouted through the shack’s closed window.

George, who was sitting at his desk on the other side of the shack, looked up and gave him a nonchalant wave. Instead of getting up and coming over to the window, he looked back down at his logbook and continued to write. After a few moments, he pried his torso, which appeared to be about one meal shy of four hundred pounds, out of the chair and slowly shuffled over to the window.

Morning John, he said in his deep raspy voice, and in a tone that suggested that he was irritated. I hope it’s hot enough for ya?

Yea, it’s hard to believe that it’s actually November, John replied.

Well, I told you the other night you were going to end up burning in hell, George reminded him. But then this is Tucson you know.

But it has to be close to a hundred degrees. And it’s only seven-thirty in the morning for God’s sake. According to the Weather Channel all this weird weather is being caused by that huge hurricane down there off the Mexican coast. It’s just been sitting there churning away and pumping all of this hot air up here. They said it’s supposed to move on shore today though.

That has to be like the fifteenth one this year, George remarked, his paunchy jowls swaying with each word.

It’s actually only the twelfth, John corrected him. But they just keep getting bigger. John had always been an avid weather buff, a bit unusual for someone living in Tucson where the weather changed about as often as the seasons. He would often spend more time watching the weather than sports. And he would purposely try to annoy his wife Jenny by switching from her program over to the weather whenever she would leave the room. When she returned he would just smile and say, Sunny again tomorrow honey. But there had not been much time lately for watching television with the busy schedule of his two daughters. With Mary’s dance classes and Ann’s soccer practice, his evenings, and weekends, had been hectic to say the least.

Well, however many there’s been it’s still a lot more than normal, George replied. The weather’s been really weird all year.

They say it’s because of global warming, John shot back. But I don’t believe it. I think there’s a lot more to it than that. If you want my opinion I say all the weird things that have been happening lately are being caused by disruptions in the Earth’s magnetic field.

I’m not surprised that you would disagree with the experts, George said in a derogatory tone. You always have to disagree with everything people say.

Are you still upset over that cool debate we had on Saturday? You’re just as bad as Jenny.

Well, maybe you should listen to your wife more often, George fired back. She tried to warn you to tone it down, but you wouldn’t listen to her. You had everyone pissed off. Why do you think they all started leaving the party so early? I don’t know what it is with you but after you have a few beers you start talking like a madman.

Hey, it was my birthday and I was having a good time.

Well no one else was. And if you weren’t built like Arnold Swartz... whatever his name is, you probably would’ve gotten your ass kicked. I’ll tell you something, if you don’t stop stirring things up like that you probably won’t be around to have a party for your thirty-first birthday.

Jeez George, I wasn’t trying to make anyone mad. I just like getting people involved in lively discussions.

Well, when you get as old as I am maybe you’ll learn that you never discuss religion or politics at parties. Especially not at the same time.

Ok grandpa, John replied in jest, I’ll try to remember that, and I’m sorry if I upset you the other night. Now why don’t you just get over it and give me one of those radios so I can get going.

You know there’s a cold front that’s supposed to move through later today, don’t you? George inquired as he eyed the old Chevy. The weather might get nasty up there. Why don’t you take one of the Jeeps? It’s Monday so we won’t need it for visitors.

When bad weather was in the forecast John would typically drive his gas sucking SUV up to the observatory. Although the old Chevy had a better ride, and after traveling the same road nearly every day for four years, it practically knew the way on its own. Although it handled the mountain road fairly well at moderate speeds, it could act more like a sled when the weather turned bad.

I’ll be OK, John replied, trying to ease George’s concern regarding the winding mountain road, which was treacherous in spots even under ideal conditions. I have to leave early anyway. Mary has her dance recital tonight and Jenny told me to get home early so we don’t have to rush around to get her there on time.

Oh yea, Mary was telling me about it on Saturday. She even performed part of her routine for me. I thought it was cute.

Well it may be cute when you see it for the first time, but it gets a little old after she makes you watch her practice everyday for three months.

Well tell her I said to break a leg, George replied with a chuckle that made his whole body jiggle. He then handed John a two-way radio and said, Well take it easy, and don’t ever start anymore debates while I’m around or I’ll never come over to your place again.

John tossed the radio next to his briefcase on the seat beside him and pulled away just as George slammed the shack’s window shut. John didn’t care much for the routine of stopping at the guard shack every day, even though George was usually a bit friendlier. The requirement to check in and pick up a radio seemed like a waste of time to him. But then he didn’t care much for many of the rules forced on those who traveled up and down Summit road. He did think the new radios were kind of neat though. They had many features that the older ones did not have. One feature he did not care much for, however, was their global positioning system, which allowed George to keep track of everyone’s whereabouts.

John squirmed in his seat to get comfortable as his thoughts shifted to his wife, Jenny. She had begun feeling a little ill as he was leaving for work, and he was concerned that she might be pregnant. Although he loved his two daughters, Mary who was 9 and Ann 7, he had no interests in dealing with a newborn again. And Jenny was a devout Catholic, so she would never consider an abortion.

John believed in God too, but in an aimless sort of way. Jenny had made numerous attempts over the years to persuade him to commit to Catholicism, but he always countered them with apathy. To John, committing ones self to a single religion was a sign of weakness. He would tell her that it causes individuals to develop narrow-minded attitudes. And committing to a specific denomination within the Christian faith made even less sense to him. He attended church on Sundays with Jenny and the girls to portray a family image. However, after staying up late most Saturday nights, he commonly slept right through mass. Although there were many things about John’s character that troubled Jenny, it was this lack of commitment to the Catholic faith that caused her the most concern. John’s devotions were to his job and his family, and usually in that order.

John landed his job at the Whipple Observatory after graduating from the University of Arizona with a doctorate degree in astronomy. Fortunately, at the time of his graduation, the University had been in the process of putting together a team of astronomers for a new project. The goal of the project was to create a three dimensional map of the known universe. At the core of the sophisticated endeavor was a new, and powerful, multiple mirror telescope they all called the MMT. Other astronomers used the MMT to gather images of the immense galaxy formations throughout the universe, while it was John’s responsibility to catalog the collected data. He would sit at a computer the entire day, sorting through reams of data files. At the end of the day, he would upload the formatted data to the university’s supercomputer where it could be analyzed by the project coordinators and incorporated into the developing map. Although he found his job interesting, he actually wanted a position with the group creating the maps.

The projected eight-year project was nearing its halfway point and things were progressing better than anticipated. Occasionally, though, mechanical breakdowns or strings of cloudy nights would bring the project to a halt. John actually welcomed these slow periods. He was a wizard with computers, and had been using the down times to develop his own program for displaying three-dimensional images of galaxy formations. Always the rebel, he was trying to outclass his colleagues at the university. No one was aware of his efforts, however. Nor were they aware that he had been using the project’s data files to test his program. Those in charge of the project were very protective of the data. They could react harshly if they realized he had been keeping copies of the files. He also knew his job could be on the line if they found out that he was using his unrestricted access to the supercomputer to download other classified astrological data.

Chapter 2

As John made his way up the mountain, leaving the suffocating heat of the Arizona desert behind, he turned off the air conditioner and opened the windows. The cool dry breeze that swirled around him had a hypnotic effect, causing his mind to wander. As he approached a tough stretch of road, he slowed down and his mind broke free for a moment to concentrate on the curves ahead. He enjoyed driving through the curves, as long as he did not look down at the ravine hundreds of feet below, and no one was coming the other way. Once the curves were behind him, his mind began to wander again.

He was never sorry that he dropped out of medical school to study astronomy. After nearly three years of academic difficulty, he was forced to abandon his initial desire to become a biophysicist. He had been failing his courses in ‘gene splicing’ and ‘molecular structures of the living cell’ when he met Jenny in his sophomore year. With her help, his grades started to improve. They married at the end of the semester and Jenny became pregnant with Mary right away. The pregnancy caused her to become moody, and John’s grades began to fall off again. He found his elective astronomy classes to be fascinating and easy to understand. They were also a nice getaway from his other courses, as well as from a moody wife. Jenny supported his decision to switch majors, although her interest in astronomy was about as strong as John’s interest in becoming a Catholic. Her only reluctance was regarding their financial future. After all, she would say, what type of job can you get with a degree in astronomy? Her apprehension eased when John landed the job at the Whipple Observatory.

Along with his job and two daughters, meeting Jenny was the best thing that ever happened in his life. The beauty of her dark brown eyes, and long silky hair to match, had drawn him in. However, it was her level headedness and constant support for his ambitions that caused him to fall in love with her. And his feelings for her, after nearly a decade, had not changed. Neither time, nor two pregnancies, had diminished her beauty, despite a few extra pounds.

Arriving at the observatory, John pulled up next to the building that housed the MMT. Parking was never a problem since only three people worked in the building during the day and there were not any visitors on Mondays. He got out of the car, leaving his keys in the ignition. After all, who was going to steal it?

Morning Craig, John said to Craig Harvard as he walked into the building. I didn’t expect to see you here already. Did the wife kick you out of the house?

Morning John, Craig replied. Nah, they called us in to fix the cryogenic unit. It crapped out last night. Craig was a man of small stature and small conversation. Standing next to John, he appeared to be one of the worlds vertically challenged people, even though he was actually five foot five.

Well why are you standing here with two cups of coffee in your hands if you’re supposed to be working on the cryogenic unit? John asked jokingly, but in a belittling tone.

I was just getting me and Rich some coffee. He’s over there working on the thing, Craig replied, referring to his coworker Rich Hoyle. Along with Rich, Craig’s main responsibility was to perform maintenance and set-up the telescope for the astronomers who would use them at night. The two of them worked really well together, making the whole complex run like clockwork

Oh, before I forget, I need you to help me remember to leave before two o’clock today, John said while looking down at the top of Craig’s head. It’s Mary’s big night, her first dance recital you know, and if I’m late Jenny will kill me,

Well, John, you can probably leave anytime you want. There ain’t no new data for you to catalog because the scope was down all night. This cryogenic problem has screwed everybody up. We’re getting a handle on it, though, and hopefully we’ll have the scope ready for tonight. You can help us work on it if you want, Craig said, as he turned and walked towards the cryogenic unit.

John yelled back to him, over the sound of an impact wrench, Yea, right. Do I look like a grease monkey to you? I’ll just use the time to catch up on some stuff I’ve been working on.

Turning around, John walked past the MMT, into the data collection room, and pulled himself up to a computer terminal. The room was like a small bunker. With concrete block walls, and no windows, it provided little opportunity for distractions. However, John did not mind, because he usually became completely engrossed with the images on the monitor anyway, just like a kid with a new video game.

For weeks, John had been looking forward to just such a slow day. His clandestine program was nearly complete, and it was now capable of producing discernible three-dimensional images out of his pilfered data. Its capacity for displaying these images from alternate perspectives was a distinctive feature that gave him a feeling of superiority over his colleagues. The analogy John used for the feature was that if the galaxy images were actually a forest, it would be like viewing it from a plane instead of walking through it.

He opened his briefcase and removed some CD’s containing optical data files collected by the MMT a few days earlier. Then he loaded some gamma ray files, collected by a government satellite on the same area of the sky, which he had downloaded from the university’s supercomputer the week before. As his program started crunching the data, John leaned back in his chair waiting for an image to appear. He, like the rest of the astrophysical community, had been perplexed for years by the strange groupings of galaxies found throughout the universe. Astronomers had given names to many of these groupings, which described their unique appearance. Groupings such as the Great Wall, Stick Man, and Wormy were a few of John’s favorites. Theory suggested that there should be a uniform spacing between the galaxies throughout the universe, but obviously, the universe was defying theory.

Once an image appeared on the monitor, John moved the cursor to a spot near the edge of the screen and clicked the mouse. The viewing perspective changed to some point in space that was billions of light years from the photographed area. He clicked the mouse a few more times, refining the image. With a final click, he leaned back in his chair and watched as the image began to rotate slowly. Wow! That’s cool! he said aloud to himself.

What’s cool? Craig asked him, poking his head into the room.

Oh nothing, John replied as he swiveled the monitor away from Craig’s view. I was just talking to myself.

Hey, me and Rich are getting ready to take a break and get some coffee. You wanna join us? He pushed the door open wider and stepped into the room. We’ve made pretty good progress on the cryogenic problem and we should have the scope ready well before the astronomers arrive.

Well, I’m kind of on a roll here, but I could use a caffeine fix, John said, pushing his chair away from the desk.

John followed a few steps behind Craig as they walked to the break room at the other side of the building. Rich Hoyle was already sitting at the break room table finishing a doughnut. Rich was a stocky middle-aged man with a wit that could make a grieving widow laugh. His black bushy mustache nearly covered his entire mouth, making it difficult to tell that he always smiled at his own jokes.

Hey John, Rich said loudly as a few doughnut crumbs fell from his mustache. You’ve been awfully quiet this morning. What have you been doing back there for the last two hours, surfing the net for porn?

Yea and I found some good stuff that I bet you can use to keep your love life going for the next week or two, John replied. He began pouring himself a cup of coffee, awaiting a reply to the stupid comment. But it didn’t come. So he looked over at Rich and said, Actually I’ve just been playing around with some old data.

Well, I guess for you that’s probably more exciting than porn, Rich shot back. By the way, did George give you hell this morning? He seemed pretty pissed about the way you were acting the other night.

Yea, but he’ll get over it.

I don’t think he liked the way you were trashing everyone’s religious beliefs, Craig jumped in. But then he’s not around you all day, so he doesn’t know that you always talk like a jerk."

By the way, Rich interrupted, George just called up here to let you know that the cold front was going to move through around noon. He said if you want to get off of this molehill you better be leaving soon.

What time is it anyway? John asked.

Twenty after ten, Craig said, looking at his watch.

Well, I think I’ll just go shut the computer down and take off, John mumbled. He finished his coffee in one big gulp and returned to the data collection room. Sitting down at the terminal, he was about to start shutting down the system when the rotating image on the monitor caught his eye. That’s really a strange configuration, he said to himself. Instead of saving the image onto a CD and shutting down the computer, he started to play around with it, enhancing its appearance by zooming in and out and changing the contrast. The more he played around with the image the more bizarre it became. All of the sudden he pushed his chair away from the desk, almost falling over as he did. My God! I can’t believe it, he shouted almost uncontrollably. Those galaxies have formed a helical vortex.

What are you babbling about in there? Rich yelled from the break room.

Nothing, John shouted back. He saved the image onto a CD and fumbled to load some new data into the system from a different area of the sky. He stared intently at the monitor in anticipation as the program crunched the data. Several minutes later another vortex appeared on the monitor. Amazing, he said to himself as he tried to enhance the image. A short time later, he snapped out of his euphoric state and turned around to look at the clock on the wall behind him. Damn, it’s eleven thirty, he muttered. I need to get out of here. He placed a blank CD into the system and made copies of the image files. He then threw all of the CDs into his briefcase and shut down the computer. Bolting from the data collection room he yelled, See you jerks later, and ran out to his car.

I’ve never seen him move like that, Craig said.

Ah, he’s henpecked. He’s afraid if he makes the wife mad she’ll cut him off, Rich said, his bushy mustache twitching over the top of his hidden smile.

John jumped into the Chevy, threw his briefcase onto the seat next to him, and slapped on his seatbelt. As he took off down the mountain, a light rain began to fall. In his haste to leave, he had forgotten to call down to Base Camp to let George know that he was on his way down, a rule that was always strictly enforced. Instead of stopping, he decided to wait and call him on the radio when he got to the next pull-off.

The road was starting to get slick as the rain loosened the grime embedded in its surface. John, however, was nearly oblivious to anything happening around him as the image of the vortex rotated through his head. The image was virtually dominating his entire conscious, and most of his subconscious mind, as he tried to understand how millions of galaxies could become oriented into a grouping like that.

It was now raining heavily and the back end of the car began to slide a bit as he rounded a curve. John snapped out of his stupor and quickly regained control. Then, just as quickly, he allowed his mind to drift off again into a deep meditation. The thoughts running through his head were as numerous as the galaxies in his data files. All of those groupings of galaxies that we’ve been seeing are just a small piece of the puzzle, he said to himself. We haven’t been looking at the big picture.

Then it came to him like a slap in the face. He had seen the configuration before. He felt a tugging sensation at the root of every hair on his body as he shouted, My God they’re strands of DNA! New thoughts suddenly overtook him. They were the thoughts of imminent fame and fortune he knew would be his. The two things that he always proclaimed would come to him in time.

While rounding a curve the interior of the car was suddenly engulfed by light. Turn off your brights you jerk, John shouted at the top of his lungs. The intense glare screened his view of anything beyond the windshield. Fear instantly replaced all the other euphoric emotions he had been experiencing, and he hit the brakes hard.

Chapter 3

Well, I think that’s got it, Craig said as he flipped a breaker switch and a loud hissing sound escaped from the cryogenic unit. At the same moment, the phone on the wall started ringing. It made him jump a bit because he was not expecting the sudden additional noise. Snatching the phone off the hook with a startled move, he shouted, Observatory, Craig speaking.

Craig, its me, George said, surprised by the way Craig had shouted into the phone. Hey, we had to close down the road, so you guys may be stuck up there for a while.

Why? Craig asked. Don’t tell me the storm washed out the road again.

No. I don’t think the road is washed out, George replied, "but apparently you haven’t looked outside lately. We got some snow and the road is impassable. It stopped a little bit ago and the snowplow is working to clear it off. It’ll take a