ALEX STARTED WITH PSALM 23, “THE LORD IS MY SHEPHERD.” IT DIDN’T yield any cryptic clues or messages, he thought, nothing unusual. So he doubled the number, treating the number twenty-three as a half, and making of it a whole. It brought him to Psalm 46; and he counted the same number of words—or paces—forward. He wrote down the word this brought him to on the back of Will’s postcard from Chartres. Then he counted the same number of words backward, and wrote down this second word beside the first. Alex’s breathing hushed and background noise seemed stilled. He’d created an intriguing new compound word of iconic significance. It produced something utterly extraordinary when he married it to the name he’d written right at the start, William.

He tossed the pencil onto the table and mouthed the whole thing, then laughed. Max looked up at him, puzzled. He had to show this to Lucy: she was in this with him. In the labyrinth.

LUCY REACHED THE LAST STEP OF THE LAST LOOPING COIL OF THE PATH before she emerged from the intensity of candlelight and flame. She was barely aware of anyone else’s presence. She had understood the vital words on this document that accompanied the key. Someone’s omega had been her alpha. What I am is what you will see. She had seen. She knew the name. She had to tell Alex.

She kissed the verger, put some money in the guide’s hand, and ran with light dancing steps from the great cathedral, out onto the North Porch. She switched on her cell phone and dialed the number, hardly pausing for breath.

“Hello?” Slight excitement in his voice. The synchronicity didn’t surprise him.

She wanted to tell him immediately how she felt, that she was sorry for being stubborn when he’d rung earlier; but someone was walking quite close to her, and she felt self-conscious, so she began differently. “I’ve got to tell you something. Well, perhaps, actually, I want to ask you something. Maybe I should come back tomorrow.” Her thoughts were in a whirl: how much to say, how to express thoughts that scorched her brain like a thousand candles.

“I want to see you too.” Alex was steady but his voice was resonating. “I don’t want you to spoil your weekend, but I’ve come to a realization and I’ve got to show you something absolutely extraordinary. I’ve solved the riddle in the text that you have with you.”

“Yes, so have I! Look, Alex.” She said his name again, and he waited patiently for her to talk. It was difficult. She was trying to find words to ask a strange and complicated question and confide complex emotions, but there were people around. Yet she was bursting inside, and she had to share it—with him alone. “Alex? Are you there?”