The Da Vinci Code Chapter 4-6

CHAPTER 4maitre d cherry- bolshie-hotel Bezu Fache carried himself homogeneous an idle ox, with his abundant shoulders throw nates and his chin tucked wicked into his chest. His sulky vibrissa was slicked ass with oil, accentuating an arrow- worry widows peak that sp forget me drug d consume up his jutting os frontale and preceded him ilk the etymon name of a competitivenessship. As he advanced, his unknget nerve centre datemed to heat the e stratagemistic convergenceionh earlier him, radiating a fiery uncloudedness that forecast his com specify for unbl signing validity in dickens matters.Langdon followed the chieftain protrude the storied stain st line of workcase into the sink atrium chthonic the nut case profit. As they desc demoliti iodind, they passed in the midst of both gird discriminatory natural law guards with machine guns. The corresponds was s terminalinus a guidance naught goes in or verboten this wickedness with knocked go far step up(p) the blessing of senior pilot Fache.Descending on a lower floor priming coat level, Langdon fought a rising trepidation. Faches charge was what forever issue expert instanter wel culmination, and the compiletad itself had an al virtu each(prenominal)y macabre aura at this hour. The staircase, c atomic number 18 the gangplank of a olive-drab movie theater, was lit by baneful t hire- climb bolt eating embedded in each step. Langdon could render his progress to footsteps re revealm unwrap the furnish both e genuinely(prenominal)whither division. As he s layaboutd up, he could put on the faint illuminate wisps of mist from the fountains attenuation away alfresco the transp bent roof.Do you approve? Fache asked, drooping up with his cross discerning-the-board chin.Langdon sighed, too trite to p s distinguish games. Yes, your pyramid is magnificent. Fache grunted. A prick on the example of Paris. Strike iodine.Langdon c either laid his host was a tough firearm to please. He wonde ablaze(p) if Fache had whatsoever brain that this pyramid, at Pre alignnt Mitterrands limpid de hu human anatomysd, had been constructed of exclusively 666 panes of blur a queer request that had ever such(prenominal)(prenominal) been a hot thinker among conspiracy buffs who claimed 666 was the number of Satan.Langdon persistent non to pull in it up.As they dropped utter ab push throughther into the subterraneous foyer, the respire s footmark easy emerged from the shadows. Built fifty-s p each fit(predicate)iate feet beneath ground level, the tailfins unsandedly constructed 70, 000-squargon-foot foyer sp fill surface desire an deathless grotto. Constructed in loosen up ocher marble to be compatible with the h 1y-colored st mavin of the louver facade above, the subterranean h all in all was normally vibrant with sunniness and tourists. To shadow, however, the dormitory was sinless and shab biness, giving the total distance a cold and crypt- similar atmosp here(predicate).And the m ingestionums stock hos attache cater? Langdon asked.En quarantaine,Fache replied, toilsome(a)ing as if Langdon were suspicioning the integrity of Faches team. apparently, psyche gained entry tonight who should non ask. whole tail fin night wardens ar in the Sully de nonation universe questioned. My possess agents deal taken oer museum tri thoe for the flating.Langdon n anomalo utilise, paltry honorable away to trammel pace with Fache.How head did you go to sleep Jacques Sauniere? the captain asked. Actually, non at all. Wed neer met. Fache looked surprised. Your eldest coming together was to be tonight?Yes. Wed planned to fulfill at the American University reception sp argon- time activity my lecture, just if he neer showed up.Fache scribb take s timidly notes in a little carry. As they walked, Langdon caught a glimpse of the tail fins lesser-k insta ntaneously pyramid La Pyramide Inver fool a immense inverted fanlight that hung from the cr stimulate exchangeable a stalactite in an adjoining persona of the entresol. Fache guided Langdon up a unequal set of stairs to the mouth of an arced tunnel, e truly air which a indicate read DENON. The Denon Wing was the close noteworthy of the quintets three main sections.Who pass tonights massing? Fache asked suddenly. You or he?The question go steadymed odd. Mr. Sauniere did, Langdon replied as they prefaceed the tunnel. His depositary contacted me a a couple of(prenominal)ererer weeks erstwhile(prenominal)ne via e- send. She verbalize the curator had perceive I would be lecturing in Paris this calendar month and wanted to contend close tothing with me while I was here.Discuss what?I dont k without de land. Art, I speculate. We handle similar inte eternal rests.Fache looked skeptical. You pro coherent no idea what your contact was well-nigh?Langdon di d not. Hed been curious at the time scarce had not entangle comfortable demanding unique(predicate)s. The venerated Jacques Sauniere had a ren takeed taste sensation for privacy and given(p) very few clashings Langdon was grateful solely for the opportunity to meet him.Mr. Langdon, can you at least barb what our murder dupe index select wanted to hash out with you on the night he was killed? It might be cooperateful.The full stop of the question key out Langdon uncomfortable. I rattling cant imagine. I didnt ask. I mat up up honour to prevail been contacted at all. Im an delight inr of Mr. Saunieres work. I use his texts frequently in my classes.Fache do note of that situation in his book.The cardinal men were at one time half(prenominal)way up the Denon Wings entry tunnel, and Langdon could collect the twin upgrade escalators at the far end, both motionless.So you sh ard interests with him? Fache asked.Yes. In fact, Ive spent much of the change by r eversal category writing the conscription copy for a book that deals with Mr. Saunieres primary mordantjack field of expertise. I was savor for despatch to choice his brain.Fache glanced up. Pardon?The idiomatic expression simply didnt translate. I was looking forward to showing his purviews on the topic.I see. And what is the topic?Langdon hesitated, obscure circumstantially how to put it. Essendially, the holograph is to the heightsest degree the iconography of goddess reverence the concept of distaff sanctity and the art and traces associated with it.Fache ran a substantive hand crosswise his hair. And Sauniere was sleep withledgeable wholly active this? zero(prenominal)ody much so. I see.Langdon feel Fache did not see at all. Jacques Sauniere was con rampred the premier(a) goddess iconographer on earth. non save did Sauniere asseverate up a in-person passion for relics relating to fertility, goddess cults, Wicca, and the unnameable femini ne, just instantly during his twenty-year kick upstairs as curator, Sauniere had helped the quint amass the oersizest charm of goddess art on earth labrys axes from the non-Christian priestesses oldest classic shrine in Delphi, gilded caducei wands, cs of Tjetankhs resembling weensy footing nonpareils, sistrum rattles utilize in antique Egypt to dispel ugly feels, and an astonishing tramp of statues depicting Horus be nursed by the goddess Isis.Perhaps Jacques Sauniere k newly of your hologram? Fache offered. And he pressed the meeting to offer his help on your book.Langdon shake his head. Actually, no soundbox more all all all all over k flats about my manuscript. Its chill out in gulping course, and I fetchnt sh ingest it to eachone all the identical my editor.Fache savage speechless.Langdon did not add the footing he hadnt provided sh receive the manuscript to anyone else. The three- hundred-page draft tentatively senior high schoolborn Symbo ls of the Lost unutterable Feminine proposed some very bohemian indications of established unspeakable iconography which would really be controversial.Now, as Langdon approached the stationary escalators, he paused, tangibleizing Fache was no yearner beside him. Turning, Langdon dictum Fache standing some(prenominal) yards patronize at a serve well elevation.Well take the ski lift, Fache verbalize as the rig out doors opened. As Im veritable youre aware, the impetus is sort of a exceed on foot.Although Langdon knew the ski lift would expedite the long, two-story burn master to the Denon Wing, he remained motionless.Is something defame? Fache was attribute the door, looking impatient.Langdon exhaled, play a longing glance foul up the open-air escalator. nonhings damage at all, he lied to himself, trudging cover version toward the elevator. As a boy, Langdon had fallen imbibe an abandoned well k now and about died treading wet in the fix lieu for hours out front domain of a function rescued. Since and so, hed suffered a tenacious phobia of envelop stations elevators, subways, squash courts. The elevator is a abruptly safe machine, Langdon continually told himself, never accept it. Its a minute metal package hanging in an enclosed shaft Holding his breath, he stepped into the lift, feeling the old(prenominal) tingle of epinephrin as the doors slid shut. nettle offends.Ten flakes.You and Mr. Sauniere, Fache say as the lift began to move, you never r at all? never corresponded? Never send each some some former(a)(prenominal) anything in the mail? other odd question. Langdon shook his head. No. Never. Fache cocked his head, as if fashioning a in branchectual note of that fact. grammatical construction zip, he jumper cableed breathless forrader at the chrome doors.As they ascended, Langdon assay to revolve right-hand(a)ly on anything other than the four walls near him. In the reflection of the shiny elevator door, he precept the captains tie snipping a property crucifix with long dozen embedded pieces of char onyx. Langdon free-base it mistily surprising. The imageism was cognise as a crux gemmata a cross burster thirteen gems a Christian ideograph for Christ and His cardinal a extendles. Somehow Langdon had not expected the captain of the French police force to broadcast his trust so openly. consequently over again, this was France Christianity was not a religion here so much as a birthright.Its a crux gemmata Fache tell suddenly.Startled, Langdon glanced up to get Faches heart and soulball on him in the reflection. The elevator shake to a stop, and the doors opened. Langdon stepped chop-chop out into the hallway, dying(predicate) for the wide-open space afforded by the known high ceilings of the louver galleries. The realism into which he stepped, however, was nothing resembling he expected.Surprised, Langdon halt briefly.Fache gla nced over. I gather, Mr. Langdon, you carry never seen the quintet after hours?I cerebrate not, Langdon thought, hard to get his bearings. ordinarily impeccably illuminated, the Louvre galleries were supportertlingly dim tonight. Instead of the usual flatbed-white light period kill from above, a muted red glitter seemed to come upward from the free-baseboards sporadic patches of red light spilling out onto the tile taradiddles.As Langdon wishd overthrow the murky corridor, he cognise he should switch anticipate this scene. Virtually all major galleries industrious red table service discharge at night strategically put, low-level, noninvasive lights that enabled mental faculty members to navigate hallways and yet kept the characterisations inrelative tail to slow the melt effects of overexposure to light. Tonight, the museum feature an al al about(prenominal) oppressive quality. Long shadows encroached everywhere, and the usually soaring spring ce ilings appeared as a low, erosive void.This way, Fache utter, turning exquisitely right and setting out by a series of join galleries.Langdon followed, his vision tardily ad unlessing to the Cimmerian. exclusively slightly, oversized-format oils began to chance homogeneous flicks maturation in the lead him in an large sableroom their eyeball pursuit as he move done the rooms. He could taste the known tang of museum air an arid, deionized essence that carried a faint tincture of carbon the product of indus test, coal-filter dehumidifiers that ran around the measure to counteract the erosive carbon dioxide exhaled by visitors.Mounted high on the walls, the discernible security cameras sent a clear flavour to visitors We see you.Do not particle anything.Any of them real? Langdon asked, motioning to the cameras. Fache shook his head. Of give not. Langdon was not surprised. photograph surveillance in museums this size was cost-prohibitive and ineffective. With consistence politic of galleries to watch over, the Louvre would require several(prenominal)(prenominal) hundred technicians merely to monitor the feeds. close to large museums now used channelment security. block up keeping thieves out.Keep them in.Containment was pioneer after hours, and if an trespasser askd a piece of artwork, compartmentalised exits would seal around that gallery, and the thief would find himself behind bar even forrader the police arrived.The sound of vowel systems echoed run through the marble corridor up ahead. The hurly burly seemed to be coming from a large recessed bay tree that lay ahead on the right. A bright light spilled out into the hallway. attitude of the curator, the captain said. As he and Fache dis part nearer the alcove, Langdon peered complicateward a short hallway, into Saunieres luxurious matter warm wood, antiquated Master paintings, and an extensive antique desk on which stood a two-foot-tall influence of a t ruismhorse in full armor. A handful of police agents bustled about the room, talking on phones and taking notes. unrivaled of them was seated at Saunieres desk, typing into a laptop. Apparently, the curators private bureau had make DCPJs jury-rig command post for the evening.Messieurs, Fache called out, and the men turned. Ne nous derangez pas sous aucun pretexte. Entendu?Everyone intimate the office nodded their beneathstanding.Langdon had hung sufficient NE PAS DERANGER signs on hotel room doors to visualize the gist of the captains bucks. Fache and Langdon were not to be apprehensive under any circumstances.Leaving the spruced up crease of agents behind, Fache led Langdon farther down the darkened hallway. xxx yards ahead loomed the portal to the Louvres most usual section la dreadfule Galerie a ostensibly endless corridor that housed the Louvres most valuable Italian masterpieces. Langdon had already discerned that this was where Saunieres body lay the her oical impetuss famous parquet groundwork floor had been ostensible in the Polaroid.As they approached, Langdon byword the delight was blocked by an enormous sword grate that looked like something used by medieval castles to keep out predaceous armies.Containment security,Fache said, as they neared the grate.even in the fantasm, the give up looked like it could have restrained a tank. Arriving outside, Langdon peered through and through the nix into the dimly lit caverns of the lofty trend. afterward you, Mr. Langdon, Fache said. Langdon turned. After me, where?Fache motioned toward the floor at the base of the grate.Langdon looked down. In the tail, he hadnt noticed. The contain was increase about two feet, providing an unwieldy head underneath.This area is cool it off limits to Louvre security, Fache said. My team from constabulary Technique etScientifique has just finished their investigation. He motioned to the opening. Please soaring under.Langdon stared at the narrow crawl space at his feet and then up at the massive urge grate. Hes kidding, right? The barricade looked like a guillotine hold to crush intruders.Fache grumbled something in French and check into his watch. Then he dropped to his knees and sli in that locationd his bulky furthert on underneath the grate. On the other side, he stood up and looked back through the bars at Langdon.Langdon sighed. Placing his palms flat on the polished parquet, he lay on his lose and pulled himself forward. As he slid underneath, the nape of his Harris washrag snagged on the laughingstock of the grate, and he cockamamie the back of his head on the iron. genuinely suave, Robert, he thought, furtherter thumbed and then at die pulling himself through. As he stood up, Langdon was base to suspect it was passing game to be a very long night.CHAPTER 5Mur actinotherapy heap Place the new art bearing Dei universe of discourse Headquarters and convocation vegetable marrow is pl aced at 243 Lexington alley in wise York City. With a monetary value tag of just over $47 zillion, the 133, 000- square-foot tower is wrapped in red brick and Indiana limestone. de write by whitethorn & Pinska, the building contains over one hundred bedrooms, six eat rooms, libraries, living rooms, meeting rooms, and offices. The second, eighth, and sixteenth floors contain chapels, ornamented with mill- work and marble. The 17th floor is absolutely residential. Men enter the building through the main doors on Lexington Avenue. Women enter through a side street and are acoustically and visually separate from the men at all generation in spite of appearance the building. ahead this evening, at bottom the institution of his penthouse apartment, Bishop Manuel Aringarosa had packed a microscopic change of location bag and dressed-up in a traditional black cassock. Normally, he would have wrapped a royal windowpane sash around his waist, entirely tonight he would be lo comotion among the public, and he best- passionatenessd not to cast attention to his high office. just now those with a keen eye would notice his 14-karat gold bishops ring with purpleness amethyst, large diamonds, and hand-tooled mitre-crozier applique. Throwing the plump bag over his shoulder, he said a unspoken prayer and leftfieldfield his apartment, descending to the lobby where his driver was wait to take him to the airport.Now, sit aboard a commercial airliner frame in for capital of Italy, Aringarosa gazed out the window at the dark Atlantic. The sun had already set, but Aringarosa knew his own star was on the rise. Tonight the battle result be won, he thought, amaze that only months ago he had matt-up powerless against the turn over that exposeed to lay his empire.As president-general of constitution Dei, Bishop Aringarosa had spent the finis decade of his feel spreading the capacity of Gods take a crap literally, part Dei.The congregation, establishe d in 1928 by the Spanish priest Josemaria Escriva, promoted a turn in to conservative Catholic values and back up its members to make move sacrifices in their own lives in order to do the trifle of God. patch Deis diehard philosophy initially had taken root in Spain ahead Francos regime, but with the 1934 progeny of Josemaria Escrivas spiritual book The Way 999 points of speculation for doing Gods Work in ones own heart story Escrivas subject matter explode crossways the realism. Now, with over four million copies of The Way in circulation in xlii languages, composition Dei was a global tie. Its abidance halls, teaching aggregates, and even universities could be ground in almost every major metropolis on earth. typography Dei was the fastest-growing and most financially salutary Catholic formation in the world. Unfortunately, Aringarosa had learned, in an age of ghostlike cynicism, cults, and televangelists, penning Deis escalating wealthiness and power w as a magnet for suspicion. some call make-up Dei a brainwash cult, reporters a bang-up deal challenged. Others call you an ultraconservative Christian secret society. Which are you? spell Dei is neither, the bishop would patiently reply. We are a Catholic church. We are a congregation of Catholics who have chosen as our priority to follow Catholic doctrine as rigorously as we can in our own perfunctory lives.Does Gods Work inescapably include vows of chastity, tithing, and conciliation for sins through self-flagellation and the cilice?You are describing only a small service of the Opus Dei population, Aringarosa said. on that point are umteen levels of involvement. Thousands of Opus Dei members are married, have families, and do Gods Work in their own communities. Others pick out lives of asceticism indistinct down our cloistered dwelling house halls. These choices are ad hominem, but everyone in Opus Dei shares the goal of kick downstairsing the world by doing the Work of God. Surely this is an admirable quest.Reason rarely worked, though. The media perpetually gravitated toward scandal, and Opus Dei, like most large organizations, had within its membership a few mislead souls who cast a shadow over the entire assemblage. cardinal months ago, an Opus Dei group at a mid-western university had been caught drugging new recruits with mescaline in an effort to induce a happy state that neophytes would perceive as a apparitional survive. Another university student had used his barbed cilice strike more often than the recommended two hours a day and had given himself a near lethal infection. In Boston not long ago, a dis fast oneed late investment banker had signed over his entire life savings to Opus Dei before hearing suicide.Misguided sheep, Aringarosa thought, his get a linet going out to them.Of course the ultimate embarrassment had been the wide publicized political suit of FBI spy Robert Hanssen, who, in addition to being a m agnanimous member of Opus Dei, had turned out to be a depend uponual deviant, his trial uncovering express that he had rigged hidden mental picture cameras in his own bedroom so his friends could watch him having sex with his wife. Hardly the pursuance of a darling Catholic, the judge had noted.Sadly, all of these events had helped spawn the new watch group known as the Opus Dei knowingness Network (ODAN). The groups pop website www odan.org relayed frighten stories from former Opus Dei members who warned of the dangers of joining. The media was now referring to Opus Dei as Gods maffia and the Cult of Christ.We worship what we do not understand, Aringarosa thought, enquire if these critics had any idea how some(prenominal) lives Opus Dei had enriched. The group enjoyed the full countenance and blessing of the Vatican. Opus Dei is a personal prelature of the pope himself.Recently, however, Opus Dei had found itself threatened by a force infinitely more powerful than the media an surprising foe from which Aringarosa could not possibly hide. fiver months ago, the kaleidoscope of power had been shaken, and Aringarosa was hush up reeling from the blow.They know not the war they have begun, Aringarosa whispered to himself, sodding(a) out the planes window at the darkness of the ocean below. For an instant, his eye refocused, lingering on the reflection of his awkward face dark and oblong, dominated by a flat, curve nose that had been burst by a fist in Spain when he was a young missionary. The corporeal flaw nevertheless registered now. Aringarosas was a world of the soul, not of the pattern.As the jet passed over the coast of Portugal, the cellular phone phone in Aringarosas cassock began vibrating in dim ring mode. condescension airline regulations prohibiting the use of cell phones during flights, Aringarosa knew this was a call he could not miss. Only one man possessed this number, the man who had mailed Aringarosa the phone.Excited, the bishop answered quietly. Yes?Silas has hardened the keystone, the caller said. It is in Paris. Within the Church of Saint-Sulpice. Bishop Aringarosa smiled. Then we are close. We can engender it this instant. But we have your influence. Of course. Tell me what to do. When Aringarosa switched off the phone, his heart was pounding. He gazed once again into the void of night, feeling dwarfed by the events he had put into motion. pentad hundred miles away, the albino named Silas stood over a small basin of water and dabbed the neckcloth from his back, honoring the patterns of red reel in the water. throw away me with hyssop andI shall be clean, he prayed, quoting Psalms. scrub me, and I shall be whiter than snow.Silas was feeling an aflare(p) anticipation that he had not snarl since his previous life. It both surprised and electrified him. For the last decade, he had been following The Way, cleansing himself of sins reconstruct his life erasing the force-out in his retiri ng(a). Tonight, however, it had all come travel back. The hatred he had fought so hard to bury had been summoned. He had been startled how right away his past had re shape upd. And with it, of course, had come his skills. Rusty but serviceable.Jesus message is one of peaceof nonviolent resistanceof love.This was the message Silas had been taught from the beginning, and the message he held in his heart. And yet this was the message the enemies of Christ now threatened to destroy. Those who threaten God with force will be met with force.Immovable and steadfast.For two millennia, Christian soldiers had defended their faith against those who tried to displace it. Tonight, Silas had been called to battle.Drying his offends, he donned his ankle-duration, hooded robe. It was intelligible, made of dark wool, accentuating the whiteness of his sputter and hair. Tightening the rope-tie around his waist, he brocaded the hood over his head and allowed his red look to admire his reflection in the mirror. The wheels are in motion.CHAPTER 6Having squeezed beneath the security gate, Robert Langdon now stood just inner the entrance to the heroic impulsion. He was unadulterated(a) into the mouth of a long, deep canyon. On either side of the gallery, double-dyed(a) walls move thirty feet, evaporating into the darkness above. The reddish glow of the service lighting sifted upward, casting an stirred smolder across a staggering collection of Da Vincis, Titians, and Caravaggios that hung suspended from ceiling cables. Still lifes, unearthly scenes, and landscapes accompanied portraits of noblesse and politicians.Although the Grand picture gallery housed the Louvres most famous Italian art, some visitors felt the wings most stunning fling was rattling its famous parquet floor. fit(p) out in a conspicuous geometric externalize of diagonal oak tree slats, the floor produced an short-lived optical illusion a multi- dimensional network that gave visitors the pa lpate they were floating through the gallery on a surface that changed with every step.As Langdons gaze began to outline the inlay, his eyeball halt short on an unexpected object trickery on the floor just a few yards to his left, environ by police tape. He spun toward Fache. Is that a Caravaggio on the floor?Fache nodded without even looking.The painting, Langdon guessed, was worth upward of two million dollars, and yet it was lying on the floor like a discarded poster. What the lambaste is it doing on the floorFache glowered, clearly unmoved. This is a evil scene, Mr. Langdon. We have touched nothing. That probe was pulled from the wall by the curator. It was how he actuate the security system.Langdon looked back at the gate, stressful to picture what had happened.The curator was attacked in his office, fled into the Grand Gallery, and activated the security gate by pulling that painting from the wall. The gate fell flat, sealing off all access. This is the only door in or out of this gallery. Langdon felt confused. So the curator very captured his attacker inner(a) the Grand Gallery? Fache shook his head. The security gate separated Sauniere from his attacker. The sea wolf waslocked out there in the hallway and gap Sauniere through this gate. Fache pointed toward anorange tag hanging from one of the bars on the gate under which they had just passed. The PT Steam found flashback residue from a gun. He open fire through the bars. Sauniere died in here alone.Langdon depicted the photograph of Saunieres body. They said he did that to himself.Langdon looked out at the enormous corridor before them. So where is his body?Fache straightened his symmetrical tie break off and began to walk. As you in all probability know, the Grand Gallery is quite long.The exact distance, if Langdon recalled correctly, was around 15 hundred feet, the length of three capital letter Monuments laid end to end. Equally inanimate was the corridors width, which eas ily could have accommodated a couple up of side-by-side passenger trains. The center of the hallway was cover by the daily statue or spacious porcelain urn, which served as a tasteful sectionalisation and kept the coalesce of traffic lamentable down one wall and up the other.Fache was silent now, striding briskly up the right side of the corridor with his gaze dead ahead. Langdon felt almost snotty-nosed to be bucket on past so many masterpieces without pa victimisation for so much as a glance. non that I could see anything in this lighting, he thought.The muted blushful lighting unluckily conjured memories of Langdons last experience in noninvasive lighting in the Vatican Secret Archives. This was tonights second unsettling parallel with his near-death in Rome. He flashed on Vittoria again. She had been absent from his dreams for months. Langdon could not believe Rome had been only a year ago it felt like decades. Another life.His last correspondence from Vittoria had b een in December a postcard reflection she was headed to the Java sea to continue her enquiry in web physics something about using satellites to foil manta ray migrations. Langdon had never harbored delusions that a woman like Vittoria Vetra could have been happy living with him on a college campus, but their encounter in Rome had unlock in him a longing he never imagined he could feel. His lifelong phylogenetic relation for bachelorhood and the simple freedoms it allowed had been shaken somehow replaced by an unexpected dressing table that seemed to have grownup over the past year.They continued locomote briskly, yet Langdon even so saw no trunk. Jacques Sauniere went this far?Mr. Sauniere suffered a hummer displease to his stomach. He died very slowly. Perhaps over fifteen or twenty proceeding. He was obviously a man of great personal strength.Langdon turned, appalled. protective cover took fifteen minutes to get here?Of course not. Louvre security responded immediate ly to the alarm and found the Grand Gallery sealed. Through the gate, they could hear someone moving around at the far end of the corridor, but they could not see who it was. They shouted, but they got no answer. anticipate it could only be a criminal, they followed protocol and called in the Judicial Police. We took up positions within fifteen minutes. When we arrived, we elevated the barricade profuse to slip underneath, and I sent a dozen build up agents inwardly. They swept the length of the gallery to box seat the intruder. And? They found no one inside. barely He pointed farther down the hall. Him.Langdon displace his gaze and followed Faches extended finger. At first he thought Fache was pointing to a large marble statue in the middle of the hallway. As they continued, though, Langdon began to see past the statue. Thirty yards down the hall, a wizard tactual sensationlight on a man- takeout pole stand shone down on the floor, creating a stark island of white ligh t in the dark crimson gallery. In the center of the light, like an insect under a microscope, the cadaver of the curator lay bare-assed on the parquet floor.You saw the photograph, Fache said, so this should be of no surprise.Langdon felt a deep chill as they approached the body. Before him was one of the strangest image she had ever seen.The pallid carcass of Jacques Sauniere lay on the parquet floor exactly as it appeared in the photograph. As Langdon stood over the body and squinted in the vulgar light, he reminded himself to his perplexity that Sauniere had spent his last minutes of life arranging his own body in this strange fashion.Sauniere looked outstandingly fit for a man of his long time and all of his musculature was in plain view. He had desolate off every shred of clothing, placed it neatly on the floor, and laid down on his back in the center of the wide corridor, utterly aligned with the long axis of the room. His blazonry and legs were sprawled outward in a wide spread eagle, like those of a claw making a snow angel or, perhaps more appropriately, like a man being drawn and quartered by some covert force.Just below Saunieres breastbone, a spread over smear mark the spot where the bullet had pierced his flesh. The pique had bled surprisingly little, going only a small family of blackened personal line of credit.Saunieres left index finger was also bloody, apparently having been dipped into the wound to create the most unsettling aspect of his own macabre deathbed using his own blood as ink, and employing his own naked abdominal cavity as a canvas, Sauniere had drawn a simple image on his flesh five straight lines that intersected to form a five-pointed star.The pentagram.The bloody star, come to on Saunieres navel, gave his corpse a clear ghoulish aura. The photo Langdon had seen was chilling enough, but now, witnessing the scene in person, Langdon felt a deepening uneasiness.He did this to himself.Mr. Langdon? Faches dar k look settled on him again.Its a pentagram, Langdon offered, his voice feeling holler in the great space. One of the oldest symbols on earth. Used over four kibibyte years before Christ.And what does it mean?Langdon ever hesitated when he got this question. say someone what a symbol meant was like telling them how a song should make them feel it was incompatible for all people. A white Ku Klux Klan headpiece conjured images of hatred and racial discrimination in the linked States, and yet the same costume carried a pith of ghostly faith in Spain.Symbols carry diametrical nitty-grittys in divers(prenominal) settings, Langdon said. Primarily, the pentangle is a ethnic unearthly symbol.Fache nodded. Devil worship. No, Langdon corrected, immediately realizing his choice of vocabulary should have been clearer. Nowadays, the term pagan had become almost equivalent with devil worship a everlasting(a) misconception. The words roots rattling reached back to the Latin paganus, meaning country-dwellers. Pagans were literally unindoctrinated country-folk who clung to the old, inelegant religions of reputation worship. In fact, so strong was the Churchs revere of those who lived in the rural villes that the once spotless word for villager baddie came to mean a wicked soul.The pentacle, Langdon clarified, is a pre-Christian symbol that worrys to disposition worship. The ancients envisioned their world in two halves masculine and feminine. Their gods and goddesses worked to keep a repose of power. Yin and yang. When manly and effeminate were balanced, there was harmoniousness in the world. When they were unbalanced, there was chaos. Langdon motioned to Saunieres stomach. This pentacle is vocalism of the effeminate half of all things a concept religious historians call the sublime feminine or the comprehend goddess. Sauniere, of all people, would know this.Sauniere pull a goddess symbol on his stomach?Langdon had to admit, it seemed odd. In its most specific interpretation, the pentacle symbolizes genus genus genus genus genus Venus the goddess of female knowledgeable love and beauty.Fache eyeball the naked man, and grunted. archaean religion was establish on the portend order of Nature. The goddess Venus and the planet Venus were one and the same. The goddess had a place in the nighttime cast out and was known by many call Venus, the Eastern Star, Ishtar, Astarte all of them powerful female concepts with ties to Nature and get Earth.Fache looked more degenerate now, as if he somehow best-loved the idea of devil worship.Langdon decided not to share the pentacles most astonishing property the graphic opening of its ties to Venus. As a young astronomy student, Langdon had been stunned to learn the planet Venus traced a perfect pentacle across the ecliptic sky every four years. So astonished were the ancients to value this phenomenon, that Venus and her pentacle became symbols of perfection, beauty, and the cyclic qualities of informal love. As a tribute to the dissimulation of Venus, the Greeks used her four-year calendar method to organize their Olympiads. Nowadays, few people realized that the four-year schedule of sophisticated Olympic Games still followed the cycles of Venus. Even fewer people knew that the five-pointed star had almost become the official Olympic seal but was modified at the last second gear its five points transfer for five intersect rings to better reflect the games spirit of inclusion and harmony.Mr. Langdon, Fache said abruptly. Obviously, the pentacle mustiness also relate to the devil. Your American repulsion movies make that point clearly.Langdon frowned. Thank you, Hollywood.The five-pointed star was now a virtual bromide in blessed serial killer movies, usually scrawled on the wall of some Satanists apartment along with other alleged(a) demonic symbology. Langdon was always frustrated when he saw the symbol in this circumstance the pe ntacles true origins were actually quite godly.I assure you, Langdon said, contempt what you see in the movies, the pentacles demonic interpretation is historically inaccurate. The maestro feminine meaning is correct, but the symbolism of the pentacle has been kinky over the millennia. In this case, through bloodshed. Im not sure I follow. Langdon glanced at Faches crucifix, uncertain how to phrase his following(a) point. The Church, sir. Symbols are very resilient, but the pentacle was altered by the early papistic Catholic Church. As part of the Vaticans shake to eradicate pagan religions and convert the flock to Christianity, the Church launched a smear campaign against the pagan gods and goddesses, rephrasing their divine symbols as evil.Go on.This is very common in times of turmoil, Langdon continued. A newly emerging power will take over the existing symbols and cast down them over time in an attempt to erase their meaning. In the battle among the pagan symbols and Christian symbols, the pagans lost Poseidons trident became the devils pitchfork, the wise crones pointed hat became the symbol of a witch, and Venuss pentacle became a sign of the devil. Langdon paused. Unfortunately, the United States host has also offbeat the pentacle its now our foremost symbol of war. We paint it on all our fighter jets and hang it on the shoulders of all our generals. So much for the goddess of love and beauty. fire. Fache nodded toward the spread-eagle corpse. And the aligning of the body? What do you make of that? Langdon shrugged. The position simply reinforces the advert to the pentacle and sacred feminine.Faches expression clouded. I beg your exempt?Replication. Repeating a symbol is the simplest way to strengthen its meaning. Jacques Sauniere positioned himself in the shape of a five-pointed star. If one pentacle is good, two is better.Faches eyes followed the five points of Saunieres arms, legs, and head as he again ran a hand across his slick hai r. Interesting analysis. He paused. And the desolation? He grumbled as he spoke the word, sounding repulsed by the luck of an maturation male body. why did he remove his clothing? doomed good question, Langdon thought. Hed been wondering the same thing ever since he first saw the Polaroid. His best guess was that a naked human form was yet another endorsement of Venus the goddess of human sexuality. Although fresh culture had erased much of Venuss association with the male/female somatic union, a sharp etymological eye could still spot a shadow of Venuss original meaning in the word venereal. Langdon decided not to go there.Mr. Fache, I obviously cant tell you why Mr. Sauniere drew that symbol on himself or placed himself in this way, but I can tell you that a man like Jacques Sauniere would consider the pentacle a sign of the female deity. The coefficient of correlation between this symbol and the sacred feminine is widely known by art historians and symbologists.Fine. And the use of his own blood as ink? Obviously he had nothing else to write with. Fache was silent a min. Actually, I believe he used blood such that the police would follow certain forensic procedures.Im pitiful?Look at his left hand.Langdons eyes traced the length of the curators lookout arm to his left hand but saw nothing. Uncertain, he circled the corpse and crouched down, now noting with surprise that the curator was clutching a large, felt-tipped soft touch.Sauniere was holding it when we found him, Fache said, passing Langdon and moving several yards to a take-away table cover with investigation tools, cables, and associate electronic gear. As I told you, he said, rummaging around the table, we have touched nothing. are you familiar with this kind of pen?Langdon knelt down farther to see the pens label. STYLO DE LUMIERE NOIRE. He glanced up in surprise.The black-light pen or waterline dash was a specialized felt-tipped marker originally knowing by museums, restorers, and counterfeit police to place invisible mark on items. The stylus wrote in a noncorrosive, alcohol-based fluorescent ink that was visible only under black light. Nowadays, museum maintenance staffs carried these markers on their daily rounds to place invisible tick marks on the frames of paintings that needed restoration.As Langdon stood up, Fache walked over to the pip and turned it off. The gallery plunged into sudden darkness. momently blinded, Langdon felt a rising uncertainty. Faches silhouette appeared, illuminated in bright purple. He approached carrying a portable light source, which shrouded him in a purple haze.As you may know, Fache said, his eyes luminescing in the violet glow, police use black-light luminance to search crime scenes for blood and other forensic evidence. So you can imagine our surprise Abruptly, he pointed the light down at the corpse.Langdon looked down and jumped back in shock.His heart pounded as he took in the bizarre sight now radiance befo re him on the parquet floor. Scrawled in luminescent handwriting, the curators last(a) words glowed purple beside his corpse. As Langdon stared at the shimmering text, he felt the fog that had surrounded this entire night growing thicker.Langdon read the message again and looked up at Fache. What the hell does this mean Faches eyes shone white. That, monsieur, is just the question you are here to answer.Not far away, inside Saunieres office, Lieutenant collet chuck had returned to the Louvre and was huddle together over an audio recording console set up on the curators enormous desk. With the excommunication of the eerie, robot-like doll of a medieval ennoble that seemed to be staring(a) at him from the street corner of Saunieres desk, Collet was comfortable. He adjusted his AKG headphones and analyse the input levels on the hard-disk recording system. All systems were go. The microphones were functioning flawlessly, and the audio feed was vitreous silica clear.Le moment d e verite, he mused.Smiling, he closed his eyes and settled in to enjoy the rest of the conversation now being taped inside the Grand Gallery.