Chapter 96: The Secret of the Devonshire Family
William stared at the Da Vinci-style cryptex assembled on the table. It was a cylinder with eight rotating rings, each marked with the 26 letters of the English alphabet. Only the correct password would open it. Any attempt to force it open would break a vial inside, and the corrosive liquid would destroy the documents held within.
Following his grandfather Henry's instructions, William entered the pinyin of his father's Chinese name: Chen Jing. The cryptex clicked open. That was just like Henry, William thought. So old-fashioned. No one would ever guess his father's name.
Inside the cryptex were two vacuum-sealed plastic bags, each containing a rolled-up file. William opened one and found what he assumed were the legendary Oxford documents. Unsealing the file, he saw a line of text written in pen: *A Knight a Pope interred in London. His deeds vexed the Holy See. The holy sphere should rest upon the hero's tomb.*
William read the lines over and over, but couldn't decipher their meaning. He turned the page and found another line written on the back: *'Neath ancient Rosslyn a masterpiece waits. She rests in peace, gazing at the stars, dreaming.*
These sentences only deepened William's confusion. There were no obvious clues. *God, what does any of this even mean?* he thought.
William turned to the last page, which read: *We are the guardians of the light, the defenders of the truth. Holiness and faith are with us. The Knights Templar are eternal.*
This was the sentence from the third page. This was what he needed to photograph and give to the Duke of Devonshire. As William considered the words, a thought struck him. The Devonshire family was likely descended from the Knights Templar. What truth had they been guarding for hundreds of years, in the name of the light and their faith?
Rummaging in the file bag, William finally found a small note. He picked it up and recognized his grandfather Henry's handwriting. "William, I am glad you are able to read this note. You have reclaimed the Devonshire legacy. For generations, our family has guarded a secret that could destroy the Holy See."
"Go to France and find Jacques Saunière at the Louvre. He will tell you everything. Remember, William, we are guardians and defenders. Sometimes, sacrifice and bloodshed are inevitable. This is the foundation of our family. Anyone who wishes to destroy it is our enemy. Yes, you understand. An enemy."
The final word on the note, "enemy," was written in red ink. William knew what Henry meant. He must not be lenient with his enemies—they had to be eliminated.
He thought about it for a long time but couldn't make sense of it all. He decided to put it aside for now. He would get his answers once he found this Jacques Saunière.
William photographed the Knights Templar sentence on the third page. Then, he carefully packed all the documents back into the vacuum bag, rolled it up, and placed it back inside the cryptex. He picked up the second vacuum bag and opened it. Inside, there was only a single diary.
As William read, he was shocked to learn that the ancestors of the Devonshire family had been members of the Crusades. They had discovered an immense treasure in the Mines of King Solomon. This treasure had been fought over for ten centuries by kings, pharaohs, and emperors, growing in size with each conquest, until it magically vanished. It remained lost until William's ancestors, the original knights, found it.
Perhaps it was due to a noble morality, or perhaps for other, unspoken purposes, but these knights felt the treasure was too vast. Entrusting it to any single nation would break the balance of power in Europe. So they secretly transported the treasure back to Europe, hid it, and established the Knights Templar to protect it.
Hundreds of years passed, and the Knights Templar grew powerful across Europe. Many of its members became rulers, and their faith began to change. They no longer adhered to their duty of protecting the treasure; instead, they coveted it for themselves, leading to infighting and war.
The last faction of Knights still loyal to their ancestral oath secretly transported the treasure to the Americas, which was then a vast wilderness. There, they established the Brotherhood of Stone.
But hundreds of years later, the situation changed once more. The United States declared its independence, and the Revolutionary War began. To prevent the British army from seizing the treasure, several of the Founding Fathers hid it again. The map leading to it was ingeniously concealed, but when the password of a secret protector was lost, the treasure could no longer be found.
Everything the Brotherhood had done led William's ancestors to believe that the Americans had betrayed the Knights Templar and kept the treasure for themselves. This began the Devonshire family's 200-year quest to find it, a search that continued all the way down to Henry's generation. For over two centuries, the Devonshire family tirelessly sought the treasure of King Solomon.
William sighed and rubbed his forehead, looking at the diary in his hands. It was another mission with no clear starting point. He flipped to the last page, where a piece of antique paper was tucked in. On it was written: *The secret lies with Charlotte. —Thomas Gates, 1783*
It seemed he would have to go to the United States and find the descendants of this Thomas Gates to see what they knew. William looked back at the diary, which recorded the treasure's contents: over 140 tons of gold, plus an unknown quantity of antiques, artworks, gold coins, and jewelry.
The gold alone was worth over $4 billion at current prices. No wonder the Devonshire family had been obsessed with this treasure; more than a dozen generations had never stopped searching.
Thinking about that massive fortune, William's heart pounded. He was staggered by the sheer scale of it, and a voice echoed in his mind. *Find it. Find it, and it will be yours.*
William made a secret resolution. *God, with a fortune that large, you'd have to be a fool not to look for it.*
He placed the diary into his personal storage space and put the cryptex with the other documents into the safe room's vault. After locking the door, William went upstairs to shower and sleep.
He slept until 7 o'clock the next morning. It was the day he was scheduled to see his team off. After getting ready, William went down to the dining room and saw his mother, Lina, already directing the maids as they set the table.
He walked over to his mother and hugged her. "Good morning, Mother."
"Good morning, William. Go see if our guests are awake. We'll have breakfast at 8 o'clock," Lina said.
William nodded. "Alright, Mother. I'll go now."
After breakfast, William first saw the lawyer off. Then he had one of the castle's drivers take the six members of his team to the private airport. William had called the day before to charter a plane to fly directly to New York. As they said their goodbyes with hugs and handshakes, William felt a bit reluctant to see them go.
Barney stepped forward and handed him a small box. "Boss, for you. It's a gift from all of us. Hope you like it."
William opened it and saw a skull ring, almost identical to the one Barney wore, except his was gold with two rubies set into the eyes.
He slipped the ring onto the ring finger of his left hand. It was a perfect fit and looked great. William made a fist and bumped it against Barney's. "Thanks, Barney. It's perfect. I love it."
Barney grinned. "Glad you like it, Boss."
William bumped fists with the rest of the team members before sending them off to the plane. After watching it take off, he got back in the car and returned to the castle.
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