The Da Vinci Code Chapter 13-17

CHAPTER 13For s invariablyal seconds, Langdon st ard in wonder at the photograph of Saunieres postscript. P. S. scrape Robert Langdon.He tangle as if the story were tilting at a lower place his feet. Sauniere remaining a postscript with my pre god on it? In his wildest aspirations, Langdon could non permeate w present(p scarleticate)fore. pre displacely do you exit into, Sophie express, her eyeb in all scabiesnt, wherefore Fache ordered you here to shadow, and wherefore you be his primary suspect?The unless involvement Langdon unders excessivelyd at the minute of arc was wherefore Fache had count unrivaledd so smug when Langdon suggested Sauniere would hurt charge his killer by realize.Find Robert Langdon. wherefore would Sauniere write this? Langdon de patchded, his confusion promptly give way to anger. Why would I urgency to kill Jacques Sauniere?Fache has yet to uncover a motive, goodly he has been recording his inherent conversation with you ton ight in hopes you ability reveal unmatched.Langdon opened his m awayh, exactly console no manner of speaking came.Hes fitted with a elucidation microph champion, Sophie explained. Its connected to a transmitter in his sackful that radios the signal back to the involve post.This is im shine-at-able, Langdon stammered. I deport an alibi. I went aright away back to my hotel after my lecture. You rump involve the hotel desk.Fache al filmy did. His report shows you retrieving your room key discover from the concierge at around ten- thirty. Unfortunately, the beat of the execution of instrument was closer to eleven. You easily could have left(a) hand your hotel room unseen.This is insanity Fache has no demonstrationSophies count on widened as if to say No evidence? Mr. Langdon, your call d take is written on the off land up beside the consistency, and Saunieres date book says you were with him at approximately the age of the arrive at. She pa apply. Fache has very much than equal evidence to take you into custody for questioning.Langdon perfectly perceived that he demand a lawyer. I didnt do this.Sophie sighed. This is not American television, Mr. Langdon. In France, the laws protect the police, not criminals. Unfortunately, in this case, at that place is also the media consideration. Jacques Sauniere was a very(prenominal) prominent and well-loved figure in Paris, and his murder will be naked as a jaybirds in the morning. Fache will be under immediate pres sure enough to make a statement, and he looks a lot conk out having a suspect in custody al memorizey. Whether or not you be guilty, you most surely will be held by DCPJ until they can figure out what really happened.Langdon felt exchangeable a caged animal. Why argon you coition me all this?Because, Mr. Langdon, I study you are innocent. Sophie looked away for a moment and and so back into his eyes. And also because it is part my spot that youre in disorder.Im c riminal? Its your fault Sauniere is nerve-wracking to pull up me?Sauniere wasnt unmatchablerous to frame you. It was a mistake. That kernel on the floor was meant for me.Langdon packed a minute to att sack that iodine. I beg your pardon?That mental object wasnt for the police. He wrote it for me.I think he was labored to do everything in such a hurry that he full didnt examine how it would look to the police. She paused. The numbered codification is meaningless. Sauniere wrote it to make sure the investigation included cryptographers, ensuring that I would see as soon as possible what had happened to him.Langdon felt himself lo depravityg touch fast. Whether or not Sophie Neveu had lost her mind was at this full restrain up for grabs, and at least Langdon straight off understood why she was trying to help him. P. S.Find Robert Langdon.She patently believed the curator had left her a mystifying postscript telling her to find Langdon. scarce why do you think his m essage was for you?The Vitruvian Man,she utter instantlyly. That bad-tempered sketch has everlastingly been my darling Da Vinci work. Tonight he used it to acquire my attention.Hold on. Youre saying the curator knew your favorite piece of art? She nodded. Im sorry. This is all sexual climax out of order. Jacques Sauniere and ISophies fathom caught, and Langdon comprehend a sudden melancholy there, a painful past, simmering moreover on a lower floor the surface. Sophie and Jacques Sauniere apparently had some kind of spare relationship. Langdon studied the beautiful youthfulness adult female in the beginning him, well aware that develop men in France often took novel mistresses. Even so, Sophie Neveu as a kept woman somehow didnt seem to fit.We had a falling-out ten historic period ago, Sophie said, her go a whisper now. Weve barely spoken since. Tonight, when Crypto got the press that he had been murdered, and I saw the figures of his body and text on the floor, I effected he was trying to send me a message. Because of The Vitruvian Man? Yes. And the allowters P. S.Post book of account?She shook her head. P. S. are my initials. But your name is Sophie Neveu. She looked away. P. S. is the nickname he called me when I lived with him. She blushed. It stood for Princesse SophieLangdon had no response.Silly, I cope, she said. But it was years ago. When I was a itsy-bitsy girl. You knew him when you were a pocket-size girl? Quite well, she said, her eyes welling now with emotion. Jacques Sauniere was my grandfather.CHAPTER 14Wheres Langdon? Fache demanded, exhaling the last of a rear as he paced back into the remainderrain post.Still in the mens room room, sir. police lieutenant collet had been expecting the question. Fache grumbled, Taking his time, I see. The overlord eyed the GPS dot over collets shoulder, and collet chuck could almost hear the wheels turning. Fache was fighting the urge to go check on Langdon. Ideally, the fi eld of study of an observation was allowed the most time and immunity possible, lulling him into a false sense of tribute. Langdon needed to return of his own volition. Still, it had been almost ten minutes.Too massive.Any chance Langdon is onto us? Fache asked.Collet shook his head. Were still seeing dwarfish movements inside the mens room, so the GPS dot is evidently still on him. Perhaps he lives ill? If he had engraft the dot, he would have remote it and tried to run. Fache checked his watch. Fine.Still Fache seemed preoccupied. wholly evening, Collet had sensed an atypical intensity level in his chieftain.Usually detached and calm down under pressure, Fache tonight seemed emotionally engaged, as if this were somehow a personal weigh for him.Not surprising, Collet archetype. Fache needs this fit desperately.Recently the Board of Ministers and the media had become to a greater extent openly critical of Faches aggressive tactics, his clashes with powerful contrar y embassies, and his gross over budgeting on new technologies. Tonight, a high-tech, high-profile tweak of an American would go a long way to ease Faches critics, helping him secure the job a fewer much years until he could retire with the lucrative pension. God knows he needs the pension, Collet thought. Faches zeal for engineering science had hurt him both(prenominal) professionally and personally. Fache was rumored to have invested his entire savings in the applied science craze a few years back and lost his shirt. And Fache is a man who wears all the finest shirts.Tonight, there was still stool of time. Sophie Neveus odd interruption, though calamitous, had been only a minor wrinkle. She was gone now, and Fache still had tease to p place down. He had yet to inform Langdon that his name had been scrawled on the floor by the victim. P. S.Find Robert Langdon.The Americans answer to that little bit of evidence would be telling indeed.Captain? one of the DCPJ agents now called from across the office. I think you better take this call. He was holding out a telephone receiver, looking concerned.Who is it? Fache said.The agent frowned. Its the managing director of our Cryptology Department. And? Its closely Sophie Neveu, sir. Something is not quite right.CHAPTER 15It was time.Silas felt bullnecked as he stepped from the black Audi, the shadow breeze rustling his loose-fitting robe. The winds of castrate are in the air.He knew the task to begin with him would require more finesse than force, and he left his handgun in the gondola. The thirteen-round heckler Koch USP 40 had been provided by the Teacher.A limb of death has no place in a house of God.The plaza before the great church was deserted at this hour, the only visible souls on the farthermost side of Place Saint-Sulpice a correspond of teenage hookers showing their wares to the late night tourist traffic. Their nubile bodies sent a familiar longing to Silass loins. His thigh flexed ins tinctively, causation the barbed cilice belt to cut sorely into his flesh.The lust evaporated instantly. For ten years now, Silas had faithfully denied himself all sexual indulgence, even self-administered. It was The Way.He knew he had sacrificed much to follow Opus Dei, however he had received much more in return. A vow of sexual abstention and the relinquishment of all personal assets scarce seemed a sacrifice. Considering the poverty from which he had come and the sexual horrors he had endured in prison, virtue was a welcome change.Now, having re sullen to France for the first time since being arrested and shipped to prison in Andorra, Silas could feel his homeland testing him, dragging unwarranted memories from his redeemed soul. You have been reborn, he reminded himself. His attend to to God today had required the sin of murder, and it was a sacrifice Silas knew he would have to hold silently in his mall for all eternity.The monetary standard of your faith is the me asure of the pain you can endure, the Teacher had told him. Silas was no stranger to pain and felt earnest to prove himself to the Teacher, the one who had assured him his actions were ordain by a higher power.Hago la obra de Dios,Silas whispered, mournful now toward the church entrance.Pausing in the shadow of the massive doorway, he took a deep breathing time. It was not until this instant that he truly realized what he was nigh to do, and what awaited him inside.The key orchestra pit. It will lead us to our final goal.He raised his ghost-white fist and banged three times on the door. Moments later, the bolts of the coarse wooden portal began to move.CHAPTER 16Sophie wondered how long it would take Fache to figure out she had not left the building. Seeing that Langdon was clearly overwhelmed, Sophie questioned whether she had by dint of with(p) the right thing by cornering him here in the mens room.What else was I hypothetic to do?She pictured her grandfathers body, naked and spread-eagle on the floor. There was a time when he had meant the world to her, yet tonight, Sophie was surp leap out to feel almost no sorrowfulness for the man. Jacques Sauniere was a stranger to her now. Their relationship had evaporated in a ace instant one March night when she was twenty-two. Ten years ago.Sophie had come home a few days early from graduate university in England and mistakenly witnessed her grandfather engaged in something Sophie was manifestly not supposed to see. It was an image she barely could believe to this day.If I hadnt seen it with my own eyesToo ashamed and stupid(p) to endure her grandfathers pained attempts to explain, Sophie immediately locomote out on her own, taking notes she had saved, and getting a small flat with some roommates. She vowed neer to speak to allone about what she had seen. Her grandfather tried desperately to setting her, sending cards and letters, begging Sophie to take care him so he could explain. Explain how? Sophie neer responded except once to forbid him ever to call her or try to make for her in public. She was afraid his explanation would be more terrifying than the incident itself.Incredibly, Sauniere had never given up on her, and Sophie now have a decades worth of isotropy unopened in a amour propre drawer. To her grandfathers credit, he had never once disobeyed her crave and phoned her.Until this afternoon.Sophie? His voice had sounded startlingly old on her respondent machine. I have abided by your wishes for so long and it pains me to call, but I essential speak to you. Something direful has happened.Standing in the kitchen of her Paris flat, Sophie felt a chill to hear him once more after all these years. His gentle voice brought back a flood of friendly childhood memories.Sophie, please listen. He was dissertation English to her, as he always did when she was a little girl. Practice french at school.Practice English at home. You cannot be mad forever. Have you no t read the letters that Ive sent all these years? Do you not yet understand? He paused. We must speak at once. Please grant your grandfather this one wish. Call me at the Louvre. Right away. I believe you and I are in grave danger. Sophie stared at the answering machine. danger? What was he lecture about?Princess Her grandfathers voice cracked with an emotion Sophie could not place. I know Ive kept things from you, and I know it has cost me your love. But it was for your own safety. Now you must know the truth. Please, I must tell you the truth about your family.Sophie on the spur of the moment could hear her own heart. My family? Sophies parents had died when she was only four. Their car went off a bridge into fast-moving water. Her nan and younger brother had also been in the car, and Sophies entire family had been erased in an instant. She had a recess of newspaper clippings to confirm it.His words had sent an unexpected surge of longing through her bones. My family In that f leeting instant, Sophie saw images from the dream that had awoken her countless times when she was a little girl My family is alive They are approaching home But, as in her dream, the pictures evaporated into oblivion.Your family is fallen, Sophie. They are not approaching home.Sophie her grandfather said on the machine. I have been waiting for years to tell you. Waiting for the right moment, but now time has run out. Call me at the Louvre. As soon as you get this. Ill wait here all night. I fear we both whitethorn be in danger. Theres so much you need to know.The message ended.In the tranquillize, Sophie stood trembling for what felt like minutes. As she considered her grandfathers message, only one possibility do sense, and his true intent dawned.It was bait.Obviously, her grandfather cute desperately to see her. He was trying anything. Her disgust for the man deepened. Sophie wondered if maybe he had fallen terminally ill and had intractable to attempt any ploy he could th ink of to get Sophie to visit him one last time. If so, he had chosen wisely.My family.Now, stand in the darkness of the Louvre mens room, Sophie could hear the echoes of this afternoons phone message. Sophie, we both may be in danger.Call me.She had not called him. Nor had she mean to. Now, however, her skepticism had been deeply challenged. Her grandfather lay murdered inside his own museum. And he had written a code on the floor.A code for her.Of this, she was certain.Despite not understanding the meaning of his message, Sophie was certain its cryptic nature was additional proof that the words were intended for her. Sophies passion and aptitude for coding were a product of growing up with Jacques Sauniere a fanatic himself for codes, word games, and puzzles. How umpteen Sundays did we spend doing the cryptograms and crosswords in the newspaper?At the age of twelve, Sophie could finish the Le Monde crossword without any help, and her grandfather graduated her to crosswords in English, mathematical puzzles, and substitution ciphers. Sophie devoured them all. Eventually she turn her passion into a profession by becoming a code breakers for the Judicial Police.Tonight, the cryptographer in Sophie was coerce to respect the efficiency with which her grandfather had used a simple code to tie two total strangers Sophie Neveu and Robert Langdon.The question was why?Unfortunately, from the bewildered look in Langdons eyes, Sophie sensed the American had no more nous than she did why her grandfather had thrown them together.She press again. You and my grandfather had planned to meet tonight. What about?Langdon looked truly perplexed. His secretary set the concourse and didnt offer any specific campaign, and I didnt ask. I assumed hed heard I would be lecturing on the non-Jew iconography of French cathedrals, was interested in the topic, and thought it would be fun to meet for drinks after the talk.Sophie didnt buy it. The connection was flimsy. Her grand father knew more about pagan iconography than anyone else on earth. Moreover, he an exceptionally private man, not person prone to chatting with random American professors unless there were an important reason.Sophie took a deep breath and probed further. My grandfather called me this afternoon and told me he and I were in grave danger. Does that mean anything to you? Langdons blue thistle eyes now clouded with concern. No, but considering what just happened Sophie nodded. Considering tonights events, she would be a slang not to be frightened. Feeling drained, she walked to the small plate-glass windowpane at the far end of the bathroom and gazed out in tranquillise through the mesh of alarm commemorate implant in the glass. They were high up twoscore feet at least.Sighing, she raised her eyes and gazed out at Pariss dazzling landscape. On her left, across the Seine, the illuminated Eiffel Tower. Straight ahead, the trend de Triomphe. And to the right, high atop the sloping rise of Montmartre, the graceful arabesque dome of Sacre-Coeur, its polished stone glowing white like a resplendent sanctuary.Here at the west tip of the Denon Wing, the north-south thoroughfare of Place du teetotum ran almost flush with the building with only a narrow sidewalk separating it from the Louvres out of doors wall. Far below, the usual caravan of the citys nighttime delivery trucks sat idling, waiting for the signals to change, their test lights seeming to twinkle mockingly up at Sophie.I dont know what to say, Langdon said, coming up behind her. Your grandfather is obviously trying to tell us something. Im sorry Im so little help.Sophie turned from the window, detective work a sincere regret in Langdons deep voice. Even with all the trouble around him, he obviously cute to help her. The teacher in him, she thought, having read DCPJs workup on their suspect. This was an academic who clearly despise not understanding.We have that in common, she thought.As a code breaker, Sophie do her life-time extracting meaning from seemingly senseless data. Tonight, her take up guess was that Robert Langdon, whether he knew it or not, possessed information that she desperately needed. Princesse Sophie, Find Robert Langdon.How much clearer could her grandfathers message be? Sophie needed more time with Langdon. Time to think. Time to branch out this mystery together. Unfortunately, time was trail out.Gazing up at Langdon, Sophie make the only play she could think of. Bezu Fache will be taking you into custody at any minute. I can get you out of this museum. But we need to act now. Langdons eyes went wide. You want me to run? Its the smartest thing you could do. If you let Fache take you into custody now, youll spend weeks in a French jail epoch DCPJ and the U. S. Embassy fight over which courts try your case. But if we get you out of here, and make it to your embassy, hence your government will protect your rights man you and I prove you had nothi ng to do with this murder.Langdon looked not even vaguely positive(p). occlude it Fache has armed guards on every single exit Even if we get out without being shot, running away only makes me look guilty. You need to tell Fache that the message on the floor was for you, and that my name is not there as an accusation.I will do that, Sophie said, speaking hurriedly, but after youre safely inside the U. S. Embassy. Its only about a mile from here, and my car is parked just outside the museum. Dealing with Fache from here is too much of a gamble. Dont you see? Fache has made it his mission tonight to prove you are guilty. The only reason he postponed your arrest was to run this observance in hopes you did something that made his case stronger. Exactly. Like running The jail cell phone in Sophies sweater pocket suddenly began ringing. Fache probably.She oscilloscopeed in her sweater and turned off the phone.Mr. Langdon, she said hurriedly, I need to ask you one last question. And y our entire future may depend on it. The writing on the floor is obviously not proof of your guilt, and yet Fache told our squad he is certain you are his man. bum you think of any other reason he might be convinced youre guilty?Langdon was silent for several seconds. none whatsoever.Sophie sighed. Which means Fache is lying.Why, Sophie could not begin to imagine, but that was hardly the issue at this point. The event remained that Bezu Fache was determined to put Robert Langdon behind interdict tonight, at any cost. Sophie needed Langdon for herself, and it was this plight that left Sophie only one reasonable conclusion.I need to get Langdon to the U. S. Embassy. spell toward the window, Sophie gazed through the alarm mesh embedded in the plate glass, down the dizzying forty feet to the pavement below. A leap from this heyday would leave Langdon with a couple of low-spirited legs. At best.Nonetheless, Sophie made her decision.Robert Langdon was about to escape the Louvre, wh ether he wanted to or not.CHAPTER 17What do you mean shes not answering? Fache looked incredulous. Youre calling her cell phone, right? I know shes carrying it.Collet had been trying to reach Sophie now for several minutes. Maybe her batteries are pulseless. Or her ringers off.Fache had looked distressed ever since talking to the director of Cryptology on the phone. by and by hanging up, he had marched over to Collet and demanded he get Agent Neveu on the line. Now Collet had failed, and Fache was pacing like a caged lion.Why did Crypto call? Collet now ventured.Fache turned. To tell us they found no references to Draconian devils and lame saints. Thats all? No, also to tell us that they had just identified the numerics as Fibonacci be, but they surmise the series was meaningless.Collet was confused. But they already sent Agent Neveu to tell us that. Fache shook his head. They didnt send Neveu. What?According to the director, at my orders he paged his entire team to look at the images Id wired him. When Agent Neveu arrived, she took one look at the photos of Sauniere and the code and left the office without a word. The director said he didnt question her behavior because she was distinctly vex by the photos.Upset? Shes never seen a picture of a dead body?Fache was silent a moment. I was not aware of this, and it seems neither was the director until a coworker informed him, but apparently Sophie Neveu is Jacques Saunieres granddaughter.Collet was speechless.The director said she never once mentioned Sauniere to him, and he assumed it was because she probably didnt want preferential treatment for having a famous grandfather.No wonder she was upset by the pictures.Collet could barely conceive of the unfortunate coincidence that called in a young woman to decipher a code written by a dead family member. Still, her actions made no sense. But she obviously recognized the numbers as Fibonacci numbers because she came here and told us. I dont understand why she would leave the office without telling anyone she had calculate it out.Collet could think of only one scenario to explain the troubling developments Sauniere had written a numeric code on the floor in hopes Fache would involve cryptographers in the investigation, and and so involve his own granddaughter. As for the rest of the message, was Saunie recommunicating in some way with his granddaughter? If so, what did the message tell her? And how did Langdon fit in? in front Collet could ponder it any further, the silence of the deserted museum was shattered by an alarm. The toll sounded like it was coming from inside the potassium Gallery.Alarme one of the agents yelled, eyeing his feed from the Louvre security center. GrandeGalerie Toilettes MessieursFache wheeled to Collet. Wheres Langdon?Still in the mens room Collet pointed to the fucking(a) red dot on his laptop schematic. He must have broken the window Collet knew Langdon wouldnt get far. Although Paris grow codes required w indows above fifteen meters in public buildings be breakable in case of fire, exiting a Louvre second-story window without the help of a hook and take to the woods would be suicide. Furthermore, there were no trees or grass on the western end of the Denon Wing to cushion a fall. straight beneath that rest room window, the two-lane Place du Carrousel ran within a few feet of the outer wall. My God, Collet exclaimed, eyeing the privacy. Langdons moving to the window shelfBut Fache was already in motion. Yanking his Manurhin MR-93 revolver from his shoulder holster, the captain dashed out of the office.Collet watched the screen in bewilderment as the blinking dot arrived at the window ledge and then did something utterly unexpected. The dot locomote outside the circuit of the building.Whats going on? he wondered. Is Langdon out on a ledge or Jesu Collet jumped to his feet as the dot shot farther outside the wall. The signal seemed to shudder for a moment, and then the blinking dot came to an abrupt stop about ten yards outside the perimeter of the building.Fumbling with the controls, Collet called up a Paris street map and recalibrated the GPS. Zooming in, he could now see the exact localisation principle of the signal.It was no longer moving.It lay at a dead stop in the middle of Place du Carrousel. Langdon had jumped.