Bev walked slowly back up the stairs to their room in Thompson Hall, physically drained and emotionally exhausted by the events of the past two days.  She had just watched her husband not blow himself up with the "cryptex," as he called it, that they had discovered inside the leather-bound box that he had received earlier that day at the music store.  That on top of everything that Michael had already told her and the kids about the mysterious People of the Southwind and this Ryan Waldron, the society's "grand master," whom Michael now believed to be behind everything that had happened so far, had finally brought her to the breaking point.  She loved, trusted and respected her husband, but as his wife of almost twenty years she felt that she deserved to know everything that there was to know about what they'd gotten themselves into.

"All right, honey," she said firmly to Michael once they had all reached their room and had closed the door, "out with it.  I want to know everything you know about these People of the Southwind and this Ryan Waldron character and these Walshian Body Worshippers and this, this crypt-whatever-it-is thing that I thought was going to blow up in your face.  And this Holy Grail you keep talking about.  After all that's happened, you owe it to me and to the kids."

Michael looked at his wife and children.  He could tell from his wife's expression that she meant business.

"You're right," he said, taking a deep breath.  "You all deserve to know what I know about all this, although I will say that I don't know all that there is to know.  What I know that I know, I know; what I know that I don't know, I don't know.  Of course, what I don't know that I don't know is up for grabs, so..."

"You're sounding like Donald Rumsfeld," Bev interrupted.

"Sorry," Michael replied.  "It's just that it's somewhat difficult to explain."  He took another deep breath, then sat down on the bed and put the leather box on his lap.  "Take another look at this cryptex," he said, lifting the box's lid and removing the device from within.

"I still don't trust that that thing's safe," Bev said.

"I'm sure it's harmless, honey," Michael replied, chuckling.  "I'm still in one piece."

He held the device up for his children to see.  "Katherine, remember these symbols you saw on the end pieces?" he asked his daughter.

"Yeah," she said, moving closer to look at them again.  "A bunch of short lines and 'greater-than' and 'less-than' signs."

"Yes, three different kinds of symbols," her father said, rising from the bed and walking over to study desk where he had decoded the "indefatigable" clue earlier.  "Three simple symbols that represent the greatest secret of all time."

"'The greatest secret of all time'?" Bev repeated dubiously.  She was well familiar with her husband's tendency toward hyperbole.

"Yes," he replied, taking out another sheet of paper and beginning to draw.  "A deep secret from the dawn of time, represented by the symbols on this cryptex."

"Katherine, here are your 'short line' and your 'greater-than' and 'less-than' signs, although these signs actually point up and down, not right and left," Michael said as he finished drawing.  "As I said, they are very basic symbols, but they conceal an ancient secret."

"Oh, yeah," Jeff said, leaning over to see, "we talked about this too when we were talking about Dan Brown's novel The Da Vinici Code at school.  Well, some of it, at least," he added, taking a closer look.  "Dan Brown didn't talk about straight lines, but the 'V'-shaped symbol he said was the chalice, which represents the female womb, and the upward-pointing symbol he called the blade, which represents the male... um..."

Jeff fumbled for words, obviously suddenly embarrassed by the direction his description had taken.

"Jeff," his father said reassuringly, "there's nothing to be embarrassed about.  We've already told all of you long ago about the birds and the bees and where babies come from.  There's nothing dirty about the word.  As you were saying, according to Dan Brown, the 'V'-shaped symbol represents the female womb and the upward-pointing symbol represents the male... thingy."

"Right," Jeff said, laughing, as the rest of the kids starting laughing too.  Bev breathed a sigh of relief, glad to know that the FCC wouldn't be shutting down this Web site after all.

"The problem with Dan Brown's interpretation of these upward- and downward-pointing symbols," Michael continued, "is that he's got goddess worship coming out the yin-yang.  He wants to take true religion and make it all be about sex and nothing more.  Now, as I said before," he said, turning back to the paper on the desk, "these symbols do conceal a deep secret, but nothing at all like what Dan Brown imagined.  Watch."

He took out another sheet of paper and drew a single symbol on it.

"What do you all see?" he asked his family.

"It's a letter 'V,'" Bev said.

"Yes, it is," Michael said, "but look again.  Look with the eyes of a child."

The kids took a closer look, the girls paying special attention since they were the youngest.

"What are we looking for?" Graham asked.

Michael turned toward his youngest daughter.  "Emily," he said, "draw for me a bird in flight."

"I can't draw a bird!" Emily replied, laughing.

"I don't mean for you to draw a detailed, life-like picture of a bird, like Michael or Graham might draw in their art class," her father said.  "I want you to draw for me a bird in flight the way you would draw it at school."

Emily walked over to the desk and took the pen in her hand.  She gave her father an uncertain smile, not really certain what was going on.  Finally she put the pen to the paper and began to draw.  After a moment she finished and handed the pen back to her father.

"Thanks, Sweetie," Michael said, kissing his daughter on the head.  He held the paper up again.  "Here's Emily's bird.  What do you all see?"

"It's a little 'm,'" his son Michael said, laughing.

"Or an upside-down, rounded 'w,'" Graham added.

"A little 'm' or an upside-down 'w,'" his father repeated, placing the paper back onto the desk and drawing yet again.  "A child-like, universal symbol of a bird in flight, flapping its wings.  Now remove the 'rounding' from the upside-down 'w' and you end up with this."  He held the paper up again.

"Now it looks like a capital 'M,'" Katherine said.

"Yes," her father said, drawing still again.  "And if you take away the downstrokes on either side that represent the bird flapping its wings, what do you see at the heart of the 'M'?"

"The 'V' again," Bev said, now intrigued herself.

"Yes, the 'V' again," her husband repeated.  "And even at the heart of what Emily drew you can still see the 'V.'  Now, if the 'm' or upside-down 'w' represents a bird in flight flapping its wings, what kind of bird is symbolized by the 'V' at its heart?"

Bev and the kids were silent for a moment, trying to visualize what kind of bird the 'V' might represent.

"Well," younger Michael finally spoke up, "if the 'm' is a bird in flight, maybe the 'V' is a bird gliding in for a landing."

"Right," his father said, "a bird gliding in for a landing.  But what is absolutely necessary for it to land?"

Bev and the kids were stumped.  None of this yet seemed to be making any sense.  "Feet?" Graham finally suggested, laughing.

"In order for the bird to land," Michael said, drawing again, "there must be land, or earth, beneath it.

"Oh, so that's where the short line comes in," Graham said.

"Right," his father said.  "But remember, I said that these symbols represent a deep secret from the very dawn of time.  What happened at the very beginning of time?"

"Oh!  I know!" Emily shouted.  "God created the heavens and the earth."

"Yes," Michael said.  "But do you know what the earth looked like when God created it?"

They were all silent for a moment.  Michael then opened the desk drawer, pulled out a Bible from inside it (which he knew was there from their previous stays in Thompson Hall) and opened it to the very beginning.  "'In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,'" he read.  "'The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters.'"  He put down the Bible on the desk.  "'The Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters,'" he repeated to his family.  "According to Genesis, the earth was all water in the beginning."

"So what does this have to do with the 'V' and the line you drew?" Katherine asked.

"Think back to Sunday School and church," Michael replied.  "Whenever you've seen representations of the Holy Spirit or heard sermons about it, how is the Spirit always depicted?"

"Oh!  As a bird!" Katherine said excitedly.

"Any particular kind of bird?" Michael asked.

"A dove!" the kids said in unison.

"Yes, a dove," he said.  "Specifically, a dove descending from heaven to earth.  Now, look back to Genesis again," he said, picking up the Bible and reading again.  "'The Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters.'  Now, the English word 'moving' here is a perfectly good translation of the original Hebrew word rachaph, but it's not as picturesque as it could be.  More precisely, rachaph here in its participial form means 'to brood' or 'to hover.'  What kind of animal broods or hovers?"

"A bird!" Bev said, beginning to think that her husband might be on to something after all.

"Yes, a bird," Michael said.  "So a more accurate rendering of this verse in English would be, 'The Spirit of God was hovering or brooding over the face of the waters,' reaffirming the imagery of a bird to represent the Spirit of God.  In fact, the only other use of rachaph that refers to God in the Bible is here," he said, flipping forward through the pages, "in Deuteronomy 32:11, in the famous 'Song of Moses.'  The Lord is depicted as leading his people to the promised land 'like an eagle that stirs up its nest, that hovers over its young, spreading out its wings, catching them, bearing them on its pinions.'"  He placed the Bible back onto the desk.  "Both uses of rachaph in the Bible that refer to God depict God or the Spirit of God as a hovering bird."

"So this symbol that you just showed us," Bev said,

"the 'V' over the line, represents the Spirit of God hovering like a bird or a dove over the earth."

"Yes," Michael said, "or more specifically, hovering over the waters of creation, since according to Genesis the waters existed before there was dry land."  Once again Michael picked up the Bible, opened it and asked his family, "Now, can you think of another place in the Bible where it speaks of a bird flying over the waters?"

The kids thought for a moment.  "Oh!  The flood!" Graham said.  "Noah's ark!"

"That's right," Michael said.  "In Genesis chapter eight Noah releases a dove three times from the ark.  The first time it finds no place to land and returns to the ark, the second time it returns with an olive leaf, and the third time it flies out and never returns, confirming that the waters have subsided and that Noah and his family have been saved from the flood.  So," he said, putting down the Bible and picking up the paper on which he had been drawing, "we have this symbol of a bird over the waters, representing both the Spirit of God hovering over the waters at creation and the dove Noah sent from the ark hovering over the waters after the flood.  First it symbolizes creation in Genesis chapter one, and second it symbolizes salvation in Genesis chapter eight.  And yet in both stories the symbol of the bird hovering over the waters is incomplete.  The bird, the dove, has no place to land."

"Honey," Bev interrupted, "this is all very interesting and all, but what does any of this have to do with the People of the Southwind and the secret messages and the cryptex in the box?"

"I'm getting to that, honey," he replied.  "It will all make sense shortly, trust me.  Now, as I was saying," he continued, "in the stories of both creation and salvation from the flood in Genesis the symbol of the bird over the waters is incomplete because it doesn't land.  It can't.  But there is another story in the Bible about the Spirit of God descending as a dove over the waters, only in this story there's a big difference.  Anyone know what I'm talking about?"

Bev and the kids were silent for a few seconds, then younger Michael spoke up again.  "Well," he said a little uncertainly, "in the New Testament the Spirit of God comes down like a dove at Jesus' baptism."

"Precisely," his father said, "but unlike in the story of creation or of the flood, what does this dove over the water do?"

They were all again silent.  Michael waited for a few seconds, then he turned forward in the Bible to Matthew's Gospel and began to read.  "Matthew chapter three, verses sixteen and seventeen: 'And when Jesus was baptized, he went up immediately from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and alighting on him; and lo, a voice from heaven, saying, 'This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.'"

Michael closed the Bible and put it back into the desk.  "What does the Spirit or dove do here that it didn't do in the first two stories?" he asked.

"It lands," Jeff said.

"Where?" his father prompted.

"On Jesus!" Emily said.

"On Jesus," Michael repeated.  "This is the key.  In the first two stories the Spirit or dove hovers over the waters, as represented by this symbol:

"The third story," Michael continued, "in which the Spirit descends as a dove and alights on Jesus at his baptism, completes and fulfills the symbolism of the first two stories.  There, creation and salvation are represented by the incomplete symbol of the Spirit or dove hovering over the waters with no place to land.  Here, the Spirit's lighting on Jesus in the waters of baptism represents nothing less than the joining of heaven and earth, of the human and the divine, in the person of Jesus.  It completes the symbolism of creation and salvation in the first two stories.  And in being thus completed, the separate symbols of the dove or Spirit above and the waters beneath come together to symbolize the Incarnation of the Son of God, the joining of heaven and earth, of God and man.  Thus," he said, drawing on the paper again, "the first symbol

"This final symbol, representing the consummation of creation and salvation in the Incarnation, is at the heart of the secret that is guarded by the People of the Southwind."

Michael fell silent.  His wife and kids alternately stared at him and at the new symbol he had drawn.  Bev finally spoke up.

"Honey, this is all very intriguing and inspiring," she said, taking the paper in her hand and studying the new symbol, "but I still don't see what any of this has to do with the People of the Southwind or all those secret messages or all that we've been through since we went to that Kansas concert the other night."

"Stand it up and make it walk," Michael replied.

"What?" Bev asked, perplexed.

"The last symbol I drew, the one representing the Incarnation," he answered.  "Stand it up and make it walk."

Bev clearly still didn't understand what he was getting at.  Michael stood up, took the paper from her hand and turned it before her.  "Rotate it ninety degrees to the right," he said, "and

becomes ."

"Not just any 'K,'" Michael replied. "The Sacred K."