The Da Vinci Code Chapter 68-72

CHAPTER 68New York editor Jonas Faukman had sort out climbed into bed for the night when the resound rang. A little late for callers, he grumbled, picking up the receiver.An operators portion asked him, Will you accept delegacys for a collect call from Robert Langdon? Puzzled, Jonas turned on the light. Uh certain, okay. The line clicked. Jonas?Robert? You wake me up and you charge me for it?Jonas, forgive me, Langdon said. Ill keep this real short. I really admit to get a unyielding. The manu handwriting I gave you. Have you Robert, Im sorry, I spot I said Id s left e very(prenominal)where the edits turn up(a) to you this week, besides Im swamped. next Monday. I promise.Im non worried virtually the edits. I need to recognise if you sent any copies come out of the closet for blurbs without telling me?Faukman hesitated. Langdons newest manuscript an exploration of the write up of goddess worship included several sections about bloody shame Magdalene that were spill to win most(prenominal) eyebrows. Although the mattial was well documented and had been c all overed by others, Faukman had no intention of printing Advance Reading Copies of Langdons book without at least a a few(prenominal) approvements from estimable historians and art luminaries. Jonas had chosen ten sizeable adduces in the art world and sent them all sections of the manuscript along with a polite earn asking if they would be un strained to write a short usher outorsement for the jacket. In Faukmans experience, most mountain jumped at the opportunity to call for their name in print.Jonas? Langdon pressed. You sent out my manuscript, didnt you?Faukman fr subscribeed, sensing Langdon was not happy about it. The manuscript was clean, Robert, and I cute to surprise you with well-nigh terrific blurbs.A pause. Did you send unity to the curator of the capital of France fin?What do you mean? Your manuscript referenced his Louvre collection several convictio ns, his books atomic number 18 in your bibliography, and the guy has some serious clout for foreign sales. Sauniere was a no-brainer.The silence on the other end lasted a long time. When did you send it?About a month ago. I also hinted you would be in genus Paris soon and suggested you two chat. Did he ever call you to meet? Faukman paused, rubbing his eyes. Hold on, argonnt you supposed to bein Paris this week? I am in Paris. Faukman sat upright. You called me collect from Paris?Take it out of my royalties, Jonas. Did you ever take back from Sauniere? Did he homogeneous the manuscript?I dont k straight. I havent to date heard from him.Well, dont hold your breath. Ive got to run, scarce this explains a lot Thanks. Robert But Langdon was gone.Faukman hung up the phone, shaking his mastermind in disbe finessef Authors, he thought. Even the sane ones argon nuts.Inside the ambit Rover, Leigh Teabing let out a guffaw. Robert, youre saying you wrote a manuscript that delves into a concealed order, and your editor sent a copy to that whodunit society?Langdon slumped. Evidently.A cruel coincidence, my friend.Coincidence has zipper to do with it, Langdon knew. Asking Jacques Sauniere to endorse a manuscript on goddess worship was as obvious as asking Tiger Woods to endorse a book on golf. Moreover, it was virtually guaranteed that any book on goddess worship would have to mention the Priory of Sion.Heres the million-dollar question, Teabing said, quench chuckling. Was your position on the Priory favorable or unfavorable?Langdon could hear Teabings true meaning loud and clear. Many historians questioned why the Priory was all the same property the Sangreal documents hidden. Some matt-up the information should have been shared with the world long ago. I took no position on the Priorys actions.You mean lack in that respectof.Langdon shrugged. Teabing was on the face of it on the side of making the documents public. I simply provided taradiddle on the b rotherhood and described them as a innovative goddess worship society, keepers of the Grail, and guardians of antiquated documents. Sophie looked at him. Did you mention the pillar? Langdon winced. He had. Numerous times. I talked about the supposed keystone as an example of the lengths to which the Priory would go to protect the Sangreal documents. Sophie looked amazed. I guess that explains P. S. Find Robert Langdon. Langdon feel it was actually something else in the manuscript that had piqued Saunieres interest, only when that topic was something he would discuss with Sophie when they were alone.So, Sophie said, you lied to Captain Fache. What? Langdon demanded. You told him you had never corresponded with my grandfather.I didnt My editor sent him a manuscript.Think about it, Robert. If Captain Fache didnt father the envelope in which your editor sent the manuscript, he would have to shut down that you sent it. She paused. Or worse, that you hand- delivered it and lied ab out it.When the Range Rover arrived at Le Bourget Airfield, Remy drove to a small hangar at the cold end of the airstrip. As they approached, a tousled man in unironed khakis hurried from the hangar, waved, and slid open the enormous corrugated metal door to break-dance a sleek white jet deep down.Langdon stared at the glistening fuselage. Thats Elizabeth? Teabing grinned. crush the bloody Chunnel. The man in khakis hurried toward them, squinting into the headlights. Almost furbish up, sir, he called in a British accent. My apologies for the delay, but you took me by surprise and He stopped short as the group un load uped. He looked at Sophie and Langdon, and then Teabing.Teabing said, My associates and I have urgent business in London. Weve no time to waste. Please prepare to de destinyially immediately. As he spoke, Teabing took the pistol out of the vehicle and handed it to Langdon.The pilots eyes bulged at the sight of the weapon. He walked over to Teabing and whispere d, Sir, my humble apologies, but my diplomatic flight allowance provides only for you and your manservant. I cannot take your guests.Richard, Teabing said, smiling warmly, two thousand pounds sterling and that loaded particle accelerator say you can take my guests. He motioned to the Range Rover. And the unfortunate sheik in the back.CHAPTER 69The Hawker 731s twin Garrett TFE-731 engines thundered, powering the platforme skyward with gut- wrenching force. Outside the window, Le Bourget Airfield dropped a fashion with startling speed.Im fleeing the country, Sophie thought, her body constrained back into the leather seat. Until this moment, she had countd her game of cat and mouse with Fache would be someways averageifiable to the Ministry of Defense. I was attempting to protect an innocent man.I was stressful to fulfill my grandfathers last wishes.That window of opportunity, Sophie knew, had just closed. She was leaving the country, without documentation, accompanying a wanted man, and transporting bristle hostage. If a line of reason had ever existed, she had just crossed it. At almost the speed of sound.Sophie was seated with Langdon and Teabing near the front of the cabin the winnow Jet ExecutiveElite Design, according to the gold medallion on the door. Their plush turn chairs were bolted to tracks on the floor and could be repositioned and locked around a rectangular hardwood table. A mini-boardroom. The dignified surroundings, however, did little to camouflage the less than dignified state of personal business in the rear of the plane where, in a separate seat area near the rest room, Teabings manservant Remy sat with the pistol in hand, begrudgingly carrying out Teabings orders to stand guard over the bloody monk who lay fastened at his feet the sames of a piece of luggage.Before we turn our fear to the keystone, Teabing said, I was wondering if you would permit me a few haggle. He sounded apprehensive, like a father about to give the bird s-and-the-bees lecture to his children. My friends, I support I am but a guest on this journey, and I am honored as such. And yet, as someone who has spent his lifespan in search of the Grail, I feel it is my duty to warn you that you are about to step onto a path from which there is no return, careless(predicate) of the dangers convolute. He turned to Sophie. Miss Neveu, your grandfather gave you this cryptex in hopes you would keep the secret of the holy Grail alive.Yes.Understandably, you feel obliged to follow the trail wheresoever it leads.Sophie nodded, although she felt a second motivation still burning within her. The truth about my family. disdain Langdons assurances that the keystone had nothing to do with her past, Sophie still sensed something deep personal entwined within this mystery, as if this cryptex, forged by her grandfathers own hands, were trying to speak to her and offer some broad of resolution to the emptiness that had haunted her all these years.Your grandfather and three others died this night, Teabing continued, and they did so to keep this keystone away from the Church. Opus Dei came within inches tonight of possessing it. You get wind, I hope, that this puts you in a position of exceptional right. You have been handed a torch. A two-thousand-year-old burst out that cannot be allowed to go out. This torch cannot fall into the wrong hands. He paused, glancing at the rosewood stroke. I realize you have been given no selection in this matter, Miss Neveu, but considering what is at stake here, you must every fully embrace this responsibility or you must pass that responsibility to someone else. My grandfather gave the cryptex to me. Im sure he thought I could time lag the responsibility. Teabing looked encouraged but unconvinced. Good. A strong pass on is necessary. And yet, I amcurious if you understand that successfully unlocking the keystone will bring with it a far greatertrial. How so? My dear, consider that you are suddenly holding a map that reveals the localization of the Holy Grail. In that moment, you will be in possession of a truth capable of altering history forever. You will be the keeper of a truth that man has sought for centuries. You will be confront with the responsibility of revealing that truth to the world. The individual who does so will be revered by many and despised by many. The question is whether you will have the necessary strength to carry out that designate.Sophie paused. Im not sure that is my decision to make.Teabings eyebrows arched. No? If not the possessor of the keystone, then who? The brotherhood who has successfully protected the secret for so long. The Priory? Teabing looked skeptical. But how? The brotherhood was shattered tonight. Decapitated, as you so aptly put it. Whether they were infiltrated by some kind of eavesdropping or by a spy within their ranks, we will never know, but the fact remains that someone got to them and uncovered the identities of th eir four top members. I would not trustfulness anyone who stepped forward from the brotherhood at this point.So what do you suggest? Langdon asked.Robert, you know as well as I do that the Priory has not protected the truth all these years to have it get together dust until eternity. They have been delay for the right moment in history to share their secret. A time when the world is establishy to handle the truth.And you believe that moment has arrived? Langdon asked.Absolutely. It could not be more than obvious. All the historical signs are in place, and if the Priory did not intend to make their secret cognize very soon, why has the Church now attacked? Sophie argued, The monk has not yet told us his purpose. The monks purpose is the Churchs purpose, Teabing replied, to destroy the documents that reveal the great deception. The Church came nearer tonight than they have ever come, and the Priory has put its trust in you, Miss Neveu. The task of saving the Holy Grail clearly includes carrying out the Priorys final wishes of share-out the truth with the world.Langdon intervened. Leigh, asking Sophie to make that decision is quite a load to drop on someone who only an hour ago well- educated the Sangreal documents exist.Teabing sighed. I apologize if I am pressing, Miss Neveu. Clearly I have perpetually believed these documents should be make public, but in the end the decision belongs to you. I simply feel it is important that you begin to think about what happens should we succeed in opening the keystone.Gentlemen, Sophie said, her voice firm. To quote your words, You do not find the Grail, the Grail finds you. I am going to trust that the Grail has rear me for a reason, and when the time comes, I will know what to do.Both of them looked startled.So then, she said, motioning to the rosewood box. Lets move on.CHAPTER 70Standing in the drawing room of Chateau Villette, Lieutenant collet watched the dying fire and felt despondent. Captain Fache had ar rived moments earlier and was now in the next room, yelling into the phone, trying to coordinate the failed attempt to locate the missing Range Rover.It could be anywhere by now, collet thought.Having disobeyed Faches direct orders and lost Langdon for a second time, collet was grateful that PTS had located a bullet hole in the floor, which at least corroborated collets claims that a shot had been fired. Still, Faches mood was sour, and Collet sensed there would be dire repercussions when the dust settled.Unfortunately, the clues they were turning up here seemed to neglect no light at all on what was going on or who was involved. The black Audi outside had been rented in a false name with false credit card numbers, and the prints in the car matched nothing in the Interpol database.Another agent hurried into the living room, his eyes urgent. Wheres Captain Fache? Collet barely looked up from the burning embers. Hes on the phone. Im off the phone, Fache snapped, stalking into the room. What have you got?The second agent said, Sir, Central just heard from Andre Vernet at the sediment Bank of Zurich. He wants to talk to you privately. He is changing his story. Oh? Fache said. Now Collet looked up.Vernet is admitting that Langdon and Neveu spent time inside his bank tonight. We figured that out, Fache said. Why did Vernet lie about it? He said hell talk only to you, but hes agree to cooperate fully. In exchange for what?For our keeping his banks name out of the word and also for helping him recover some stolen property. It sounds like Langdon and Neveu stole something from Saunieres account.What? Collet blurted. How?Fache never flinched, his eyes riveted on the second agent. What did they steal? Vernet didnt elaborate, but he sounds like hes willing to do anything to get it back. Collet tried to imagine how this could happen. Maybe Langdon and Neveu had held a bank employee at gunpoint? Maybe they forced Vernet to open Saunieres account and facilitate an esc ape in the armored truck. As feasible as it was, Collet was having trouble believing Sophie Neveu could be involved in anything like that.From the kitchen, another agent yelled to Fache. Captain? Im going by dint of Mr. Teabings speed dial numbers, and Im on the phone with Le Bourget Airfield. Ive got some bad news. Thirty seconds later, Fache was packing up and preparing to leave Chateau Villette. He had just learned that Teabing kept a private jet nearby at Le Bourget Airfield and that the plane had taken off about a half hour ago.The Bourget re precedeative on the phone had claimed not to know who was on the plane or where it was headed. The takeoff had been unscheduled, and no flight plan had been logged. Highly illegal, evening for a small airfield. Fache was certain that by applying the right pressure, he could get the answers he was looking for.Lieutenant Collet, Fache barked, heading for the door. I have no choice but to leave you in charge of the PTS investigation here. T ry to do something right for a change.CHAPTER 71As the Hawker leveled off, with its nose aimed for England, Langdon guardedly lifted the rosewood box from his lap, where he had been protecting it during takeoff. Now, as he set the box on the table, he could sense Sophie and Teabing leaning forward with anticipation.Unlatching the lid and opening the box, Langdon turned his oversight not to the lettered dials of the cryptex, but rather to the tiny hole on the merchantman of the box lid. Using the tip of a pen, he carefully removed the inlaid Rose on top and revealed the schoolbook downstairs it. Sub Rosa, he mused, hoping a fresh look at the text would bring clarity. Focusing all his energies, Langdon studied the strange text. The Da Vinci autograph After several seconds, he began to feel the initial frustration resurfacing. Leigh, I just cant seem to place it.From where Sophie was seated crosswise the table, she could not yet see the text, but Langdons inability to immediatel y get a line the language affect her. My grandfather spoke a language so obscure that even a symbologist cant identify it? She quickly realized she should not find this surprising. This would not be the prime(prenominal) secret Jacques Sauniere had kept from his granddaughter.Opposite Sophie, Leigh Teabing felt ingesty to burst. Eager for his chance to see the text, he quivered with excitement, leaning in, trying to see around Langdon, who was still hunched over the box.I dont know, Langdon whispered intently. My first guess is a Semitic, but now Im not so sure. intimately primary Semitics include nekkudot.This has none.Probably ancient, Teabing offered.Nekkudot? Sophie inquired.Teabing never took his eyes from the box. Most modern Semitic alphabets have no vowels and use nekkudot tiny dots and dashes written both below or within the consonants to indicate what vowel sound accompanies them. historically speaking, nekkudot are a relatively modern addition to language.Langdon was still hovering over the script. A Sephardic transliteration, perhaps ?Teabing could bear it no longer. Perhaps if I just Reaching over, he edged the box away from Langdon and pulled it toward himself. No surmise Langdon had a solid knownity with the standard ancients classical, Latin, the Romances but from the fleeting glance Teabing had of this language, he thought it looked more specialized, possibly a Rashi script or a STAM with crowns.Taking a deep breath, Teabing feasted his eyes upon the engraving. He said nothing for a very long time. With each passing second, Teabing felt his sanction deflating. Im astonished, he said. This language looks like nothing Ive ever seen Langdon slumped. Might I see it? Sophie asked.Teabing pretended not to hear her. Robert, you said earlier that you thought youd seen something like this before?Langdon looked vexed. I thought so. Im not sure. The script looks familiar somehow.Leigh? Sophie repeated, clearly not appreciating being left ou t of the discussion. Might I have a look at the box my grandfather made?Of course, dear, Teabing said, pushing it over to her. He hadnt meant to sound belittling, and yet Sophie Neveu was light-years out of her league. If a British Royal Historian and a Harvard symbologist could not even identify the language Aah, Sophie said, seconds after examining the box. I should have guessed. Teabing and Langdon turned in unison, everlasting(a) at her. Guessed what? Teabing demanded.Sophie shrugged. Guessed that this would be the language my grandfather would have used. Youre saying you can read this text? Teabing exclaimed. Quite easily, Sophie chimed, obviously enjoying herself now. My grandfather taught me this language when I was only six years old. Im fluent. She leaned across the table and fixed Teabing with an warn glare. And frankly, sir, considering your allegiance to the Crown, Im a little surprised you didnt recognize it.In a flash, Langdon knew.No wonder the script looks so damne d familiar some(prenominal) years ago, Langdon had attended an event at Harvards Fogg Museum. Harvard dropout Bill Gates had returned to his alma mater to lend to the museum one of his priceless acquisitions eighteen sheets of paper he had recently purchased at auction from the Armand Hammar Estate.His winning bid a cool $30.8 million.The originator of the pages Leonardo Da Vinci.The eighteen folios now known as Leonardos leaf-book Leicester after their famous owner, the Earl of Leicester were all that remained of one of Leonardos most fascinating notebooks essays and drawings outlining Da Vincis progressive theories on astronomy, geology, archaeology, and hydrology.Langdon would never forget his reaction after waiting in line and finally viewing the priceless parchment. Utter letdown. The pages were unintelligible. Despite being beautifully preserved and written in an impeccably unbent penmanship crimson ink on cream paper the leaf-book looked like gibberish. At first Lan gdon thought he could not read them because Da Vinci wrote his notebooks in an archaic Italian. But after studying them more closely, he realized he could not identify a case-by-case Italian word, or even one letter.Try this, sir, whispered the womanish docent at the boasting case. She motioned to a hand mirror affixed to the display on a chain. Langdon picked it up and examined the text in the mirrors surface.Instantly it was clear.Langdon had been so eager to peruse some of the great thinkers ideas that he had forgotten one of the mans numerous artistic talents was an ability to write in a reverberate script that was virtually illegible to anyone other than himself. Historians still debated whether Da Vinci wrote this way simply to amuse himself or to keep people from peering over his berm and stealing his ideas, but the point was moot. Da Vinci did as he pleased.Sophie smiled in spite of appearance to see that Robert understood her meaning. I can read the first few words, s he said. Its slope.Teabing was still sputtering. Whats going on? Re verse text, Langdon said. We need a mirror.No we dont, Sophie said. I bet this veneer is thin enough. She lifted the rosewood box up to a canister light on the wall and began examining the underside of the lid. Her grandfather couldnt actually write in reverse, so he always cheated by writing normally and then flipping the paper over and canvass the reversed impression. Sophies guess was that he had wood-burned normal text into a freeze out of wood and then run the back of the block through a sander until the wood was paper thin and the wood-burning could be seen through the wood. wherefore hed simply flipped the piece over, and laid it in.As Sophie moved the lid closer to the light, she saw she was right. The bright beam sifted through the thin layer of wood, and the script appeared in reverse on the underside of the lid. Instantly legible. English, Teabing croaked, hanging his head in shame. My native tongue.A t the rear of the plane, Remy Legaludec strained to hear beyond the rumbling engines, but the conversation up front was inaudible. Remy did not like the way the night was progressing. Not at all. He looked down at the bound monk at his feet. The man lay perfectly still now, as if in a trance of acceptance, or perhaps, in soundless prayer for deliverance.CHAPTER 72Fifteen thousand feet in the air, Robert Langdon felt the physiological world fade away as all of his thoughts converged on Saunieres mirror-image poem, which was illumine through the lid of the box. The Da Vinci Code Sophie quickly found some paper and copied it down longhand. When she was done, the three of them took turns reading the text. It was like some kind of archaeological crossword a riddle that promised to reveal how to open the cryptex. Langdon read the verse slowly.An ancient word of wisdom frees this scroll and helps us keep her scatterd family whole a tombstone praised by templars is the key and at flush will reveal the truth to thee.Before Langdon could even ponder what ancient password the verse was trying to reveal, he felt something far more fundamental resonate within him the meter of the poem. Iambic pentameter.Langdon had come across this meter often over the years while researching secret societies across Europe, including just last year in the Vatican Secret Archives. For centuries, iambic pentameter had been a preferred poetic meter of outspoken literati across the globe, from the ancient Greek writer Archilochus to Shakespeare, Milton, Chaucer, and Voltaire bold souls who chose to write their social commentaries in a meter that many of the day believed had mystical properties. The roots of iambic pentameter were deeply pagan.Iambs. Two syllables with opposite emphasis. Stressed and unstressed. Yin yang. A balanced pair. Arranged in strings of five. Pentameter. Five for the pentacle of Venus and the sacred feminine.Its pentameter Teabing blurted, turning to Langdon. And the verse is in English La lingua puraLangdon nodded. The Priory, like many European secret societies at odds with the Church, had considered English the only European polished language for centuries. Unlike French, Spanish, and Italian, which were rooted in Latin the tongue of the Vatican English was linguistically removed from Romes propaganda machine, and therefore became a sacred, secret tongue for those brotherhoods educated enough to learn it.This poem, Teabing gushed, references not only the Grail, but the Knights Templar and the scattered family of Mary Magdalene What more could we ask for?The password, Sophie said, looking again at the poem. It sounds like we need some kind of ancient word of wisdom?Abracadabra? Teabing ventured, his eyes twinkling.A word of five letters, Langdon thought, pondering the staggering number of ancient words that might be considered words of wisdom selections from mystic chants, astrological prophecies, secret society inductions, Wicca inca ntations, Egyptian magic spells, pagan mantras the list was endless.The password, Sophie said, appears to have something to do with the Templars. She read the text aloud. A headstone praised by Templars is the key. Leigh, Langdon said, youre the Templar specialist. Any ideas?Teabing was motionless for several seconds and then sighed. Well, a headstone is obviously a dense marker of some sort. Its possible the poem is referencing a gravestone the Templars praised at the tomb of Magdalene, but that doesnt help us much because we have no idea where her tomb is. The last line, Sophie said, says that Atbash will reveal the truth. Ive heard that word. Atbash. Im not surprised, Langdon replied. You probably heard it in Cryptology 101. The Atbash zero is one of the oldest codes known to man.Of course Sophie thought. The famous Hebrew encoding system.The Atbash Cipher had indeed been part of Sophies early cryptology training. The cipher dated back to 500 B. C. and was now used as a cla ssroom example of a prefatory rotational substitution scheme. A common form of Jewish cryptogram, the Atbash Cipher was a simple substitution code based on the twenty-two-letter Hebrew alphabet. In Atbash, the first letter was substituted by the last letter, the second letter by the next to last letter, and so on.Atbash is sublimely appropriate, Teabing said. Text encrypted with Atbash is found throughout the Kabbala, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and even the Old Testament. Jewish scholars and mystics are stilldecision hidden meanings using Atbash. The Priory certainly would include the Atbash Cipher as part of their teachings.The only problem, Langdon said, is that we dont have anything on which to apply the cipher.Teabing sighed. There must be a code word on the headstone. We must find this headstone praised by Templars.Sophie sensed from the grim look on Langdons face that finding the Templar headstone would be no small feat.Atbash is the key, Sophie thought. But we dont have a door.It was three minutes later that Teabing heaved a frustrated sigh and move his head. My friends, Im stymied. Let me ponder this while I get us some nibblies and check on Remy and our guest. He stood up and headed for the back of the plane. Sophie felt threadbare as she watched him go. Outside the window, the blackness of the predawn was absolute. Sophie felt as if she were being hurtled through space with no idea where she would land. Having grown up solving her grandfathers riddles, she had the anxious sense right now that this poem before them contained information they still had not seen.There is more there, she told herself. Ingeniously hidden but present nonetheless.Also plaguing her thoughts was a fear that what they eventually found inside this cryptex would not be as simple as a map to the Holy Grail. Despite Teabings and Langdons confidence that the truth lay just within the stain cylinder, Sophie had solved enough of her grandfathers treasure hunts to know that Jacques Sa uniere did not give up his secrets easily.