'The Da Vinci Code Chapter 78-80\r'

'CHAPTER 78\r\nSophie entangle a wild excitement as she cradled the cryptex and began dialing in the letters. An ancient word of wisdom frees this scroll.Langdon and Teabing seemed to hold back stop breathing as they looked on.\r\nS… O… F…\r\nâ€Å"C atomic number 18fully,” Teabing urged. â€Å"Ever so carefully.”\r\n… I… A.\r\nSophie aligned the lowest dial. â€Å"Okay,” she whispered, glancing up at the others. â€Å"Im release to pull it apart.”\r\nâ€Å" mean the acetum,” Langdon whispered with fearful exhilaration. â€Å"Be careful.”\r\nSophie knew that if this cryptex were like those she had feeling-to-heart in her y bug exposeh, each she would need to do is enchant the cylinder at both(prenominal) mop ups, comely beyond the dials, and pull, applying slow, steady pressure in opposite directions. If the dials were mightily aligned with the password, then one of the ends would slide off, often l ike a lens toughie, and she could reach at bottom and remove the rolled papyrus document, which would be military mantled around the ampoule of vinegar. However, if the password they had entered were incorrect, Sophies kayoedward legions on the ends would be transferred to a hinged lever inside, which would bowling pin downward into the cavity and apply pressure to the scum phial, eventu on the wholey shattering it if she pulled too hard.\r\nPull gently, she told herself.\r\nTeabing and Langdon both leaned in as Sophie wrapped her palms around the ends of the cylinder. In the excitement of deciphering the code word, Sophie had almost forgotten what they pass judgment to find inside. This is the Priory key rock n roll.According to Teabing, it contained a map to the Holy Grail, instauration the tomb of Mary Magdalene and the Sangreal rate… the ultimate treasure trove of hush-hush truth.\r\nNow gripping the gemstone tube, Sophie double-checked that all of the lett ers were properly aligned with the indicator. Then, slowly, she pulled. naught happened. She app be a little more force. Suddenly, the stone slid apart like a well-crafted telescope. The heavy end piece detached in her helping hand. Langdon and Teabing almost jumped to their feet. Sophies heart rate climbed as she set the end cap on the table and tipped the cylinder to ally inside.\r\nA scroll!\r\nPeering down the hollow of the rolled paper, Sophie could see it had been wrapped around a cylindric target area †the vial of vinegar, she assumed. Strangely, though, the paper around the vinegar was non the customary delicate papyrus simply rather, vellum. Thats odd, she thought, vinegar cant dissolve a lambskin vellum.She looked oer again down the hollow of the scroll and realized the object in the center was not a vial of vinegar after all. It was something else entirely. â€Å"Whats wrong?” Teabing guideed. â€Å"Pull out the scroll.” Frowning, Sophie grabbe d the rolled vellum and the object around which it was wrapped, pulling them both out of the container.\r\nâ€Å"Thats not papyrus,” Teabing said. â€Å"Its too heavy.” â€Å"I write out. Its padding.” â€Å"For what? The vial of vinegar?”\r\nâ€Å"No.” Sophie unrolled the scroll and revealed what was wrapped inside. â€Å"For this.”\r\nWhen Langdon cut the object inside the sheet of vellum, his heart sank.\r\nâ€Å"deity help us,” Teabing said, slumping. â€Å"Your grandfather was a pitiless architect.”\r\nLangdon stared in amazement. I see Sauniere has no intention of do this easy.\r\nOn the table sat a back up cryptex. Smaller. Made of black onyx. It had been nested within the first. Saunieres passion for dualism. devil cryptexes.Everything in pairs. Double entendres.Male female.Black nested within white.Langdon felt the sack of symbolism stretching onward. White gives birthto black.\r\nEvery man sprang from woman. Whi te †female. Black †male.\r\nReaching over, Langdon lifted the littler cryptex. It looked identical to the first, except half the size and black. He hear the familiar gurgle. Apparently, the vial of vinegar they had heard earlier was inside this weakeneder cryptex.\r\nâ€Å"Well, Robert,” Teabing said, sliding the rascal of vellum over to him. â€Å"Youll be pleased to hear that at least were flying in the right direction.” Langdon examined the dull vellum sheet. Written in ornate penmanship was other four-line verse. Again, in iambic pentameter. The verse was cryptic, unless Langdon needful to read only as far as the first line to realize that Teabings plan to ejaculate to Britain was loss to pay off.\r\nIN LONDON LIES A KNIGHT A POPE INTERRED.\r\nThe re chief(prenominal)der of the poem clearly implied that the password for opening the second cryptex could be found by visiting this knights tomb, somewhere in the city.\r\nLangdon phone numbered excited ly to Teabing. â€Å"Do you take a crap both idea what knight this poem is referring to?”\r\nTeabing grinned. â€Å"Not the foggiest. solely I know in precisely which crypt we should look.”\r\nAt that moment, fifteen land miles a bespeak of them, six Kent police cars move down rain-soaked streets toward Biggin Hill Executive Airport.\r\nCHAPTER 79\r\ndeputy collet helped himself to a Perrier from Teabings refrigerator and strode back out through the drawing room. Rather than accompanying Fache to capital of the United Kingdom where the reach was, he was now baby-sitting the PTS team that had disseminate out through Chateau Villette.\r\nSo far, the shew they had show was unhelpful: a single bullet interred in the floor; a paper with several(prenominal)(prenominal) symbols scrawled on it along with the words blade and chalice; and a bloody spiked swath that PTS had told ferrule was associated with the conservative Catholic group Opus Dei, which had caused a s tir recently when a news architectural plan exposed their aggressive recruiting practices in Paris.\r\n collet sighed. total luck making sense of this unlikely melange.\r\n contemptible down a lavish hallway, collet entered the colossal ballroom study, where the chief PTS examiner was busy dusting for fingerprints. He was a corpulent man in suspenders. â€Å"Anything?” Collet asked, entering. The examiner shook his head. â€Å"Nothing new. Multiple sets coordinated those in the rest of the house.” â€Å"How somewhat the prints on the cilice belt?” â€Å"Interpol is still working. I uploaded everything we found.”\r\nCollet motioned to two pie-eyed evidence bags on the desk. â€Å"And this?” The man shrugged. â€Å"Force of habit. I bag anything peculiar.” Collet walked over. Peculiar?\r\nâ€Å"This Brits a fantastical one,” the examiner said. â€Å"Have a look at this.” He sifted through the evidence bags and selected on e, handing it to Collet.\r\nThe photo showed the main accounting entry of a Gothic cathedral †the traditional, providedt archway, narrowing through multiple, ribbed layers to a small doorway.\r\nCollet studied the photo and turned. â€Å"This is peculiar?” â€Å" develop it over.” On the back, Collet found notations scrawled in English, describing a cathedrals long hollow nave as a secret pagan tribute to a womans womb. This was strange. The notation describing the cathedrals doorway, however, was what galvanise him. â€Å"Hold on! He thinks a cathedrals entrance represents a womans…”\r\nThe examiner nodded. â€Å"Complete with receding labial ridges and a nice little cinquefoil push button above the doorway.” He sighed. â€Å"Kind of makes you want to go back to church.”\r\nCollet picked up the second evidence bag. Through the plastic, he could see a bountiful glossy photograph of what appeared to be an old document. The point at the top read:\r\nLes Dossiers Secrets †Number 4o lm1 249\r\nâ€Å"Whats this?” Collet asked.\r\nâ€Å"No idea. Hes got copies of it all over the place, so I bagged it.” Collet studied the document.\r\nPRIEURE DE SIGN †LES NAUTONIERS/GRAND master\r\n dungaree DE GISORS\r\n1188-1220\r\nMARIE DE SAINT-CLAIR\r\n1220-1266\r\nGUILLAUME DE GlSORS\r\n1266-1307\r\nEDOUARD DE demote\r\n1307-1336\r\nJEANNE DE BAR\r\n1336-1351\r\nJEAN DE SAINT-CLAIR\r\n1351-1366\r\nBLANCE DEVREUX\r\n1366-1398\r\nNICOLAS FLAMEL\r\n1398-1418\r\nRENE DANJOU\r\n1418-1480\r\nIOLANDE DE BAR\r\n1480-1483\r\nSANDRO BOTTICELLI\r\n1483-1510\r\nLEONARDO DA VINCI\r\n1510-1519\r\nCONNETABLE DE BOURBON\r\n 1519-1527\r\nFERDINAND DE GONZAQUE\r\n1527-1575\r\nLOUIS DE NEVERS\r\n1575-1595\r\nROBERT FLUDD\r\n1595-1637\r\nJ. VALENTIN ANDREA\r\n1637-1654\r\nROBERT BOYLE\r\n1654-1691\r\nISAAC NEWTON\r\n1691-1727\r\nCHARLES RADCLYFFE\r\n1727-1746\r\nCHARLES DE LORRAINE\r\n1746-1780\r\nMAXIMILIAN DE LORRAINE\ r\n1780-1801\r\nCHARLES NODIER\r\n1801-1844\r\nVICTOR HUGO\r\n1844-1885\r\nCLAUDE DEBUSSY\r\n1885-1918\r\nJEAN COCTEAU\r\n1918-1963\r\n Prieure de Sion? Collet wondered.\r\nâ€Å"deputy?” Another agent stuck his head in. â€Å"The switchboard has an urgent call for Captain Fache, but they cant reach him. Will you take it?” Collet returned to the kitchen and took the call. It was Andre Vernet.\r\nThe bankers subtile accent did little to mask the tension in his voice. â€Å"I thought Captain Fache said he would call me, but I establish not even so heard from him.”\r\nâ€Å"The captain is quite busy,” Collet replied. â€Å"May I help you?”\r\nâ€Å"I was sure I would be kept abreast of your show up tonight.”\r\nFor a moment, Collet thought he recognized the timbre of the mans voice, but he couldnt quite place it. â€Å"Monsieur Vernet, I am currently in knock of the Paris investigation. My name is Lieutenant Collet.”\r\nThere was a long pause on the line. â€Å"Lieutenant, I pick out another call coming in. Please condone me. I go out call you later.” He hung up.\r\nFor several seconds, Collet held the receiver. Then it dawned on him. I knew I recognized that voice! The revelation do him muck upp.\r\nThe fit car driver.With the fake Rolex. Collet now mute why the banker had hung up so quickly. Vernet had remembered the name Lieutenant Collet †the officer he blatantly lied to earlier tonight.\r\nCollet pondered the implications of this bizarre development. Vernet is involved.Instinctively, he knew he should call Fache. Emotionally, he knew this lucky break was going to be his moment to shine.\r\nHe immediately called Interpol and pass on every shred of information they could find on the Depository Bank of Zurich and its president, Andre Vernet.\r\nCHAPTER 80\r\nâ€Å"Seat belts, please,” Teabings pilot burner announced as the Hawker 731 descended into a puritanical morning drizzle . â€Å"Well be landing in fiver minutes.”\r\nTeabing felt a joyous sense of income tax return when he saw the misty hills of Kent spreading abundant beneath the descending plane. England was less than an hour from Paris, and yet a world away. This morning, the damp, spring green of his native land looked particularly welcoming. My clock in France is over.I am travel to England victorious.The keystone has been found.The question remained, of course, as to where the keystone would eventually lead. Somewhere in the United Kingdom.Where exactly, Teabing had no idea, but he was already tasting the glory.\r\nAs Langdon and Sophie looked on, Teabing got up and went to the far side of the cabin, then slid aside a wall panel to reveal a discreetly hidden wall safe. He dialed in the combination, unresolved the safe, and extracted two passports. â€Å"Documentation for Remy and myself.” He then outback(a) a thick stack of fifty-pound notes. â€Å"And documentation for you two.” Sophie looked leery. â€Å"A bribe?” â€Å"Creative diplomacy. Executive airfields make certain(prenominal) allowances. A British customs official will greet us at my hangar and ask to board the plane. Rather than permitting him to come on, Ill tell him Im travelling with a cut celebrity who prefers that nobody knows she is in England †press considerations, you know †and Ill offer the official this charitable tip as gratitude for his discretion.”\r\nLangdon looked amazed. â€Å"And the official will sustain?”\r\nâ€Å"Not from anyone, they wont, but these people all know me. Im not an arms dealer, for heavens sake. I was knighted.” Teabing smiled. â€Å"Membership has its privileges.”\r\nRemy approached up the aisle now, the Heckler Koch pistol cradled in his hand. â€Å"Sir, my docket?” Teabing glanced at his servant. â€Å"Im going to have you stay onboard with our leaf node until we return.\r\nWe cant ver y well drag him all over London with us.”\r\nSophie looked wary. â€Å"Leigh, I was serious about the French police finding your plane before we return.”\r\nTeabing laughed. â€Å"Yes, deem their surprise if they board and find Remy.”\r\nSophie looked surprised by his cavalier attitude. â€Å"Leigh, you transported a bound hostage crosswise international borders. This is serious.”\r\nâ€Å"So are my lawyers.” He scowled toward the monastic in the rear of the plane. â€Å"That animal broke into my denture and almost killed me. That is a fact, and Remy will corroborate.” â€Å"But you trussed him up and flew him to London!” Langdon said. Teabing held up his right hand and feigned a courtroom oath. â€Å"Your honor, forgive an quality old knight his foolish prejudice for the British court system. I realize I should have called the French authorities, but Im a snob and do not trust those laissez-faire French to act on properly. Thi s man almost murdered me. Yes, I made a rash decision forcing my manservant to help me influence him to England, but I was under great stress. Mea culpa. Mea culpa.”\r\nLangdon looked incredulous. â€Å" flood tide from you, Leigh, that just might fly.”\r\nâ€Å"Sir?” the pilot called back. â€Å"The tower just radioed. Theyve got some kind of maintenance problem out near your hangar, and theyre asking me to bring the plane now to the terminal instead.”\r\nTeabing had been flying to Biggin Hill for over a decade, and this was a first. â€Å"Did they mention what the problem is?”\r\nâ€Å"The controller was vague. Something about a gas leak at the pumping put? They asked me to park in front of the terminal and delay everyone onboard until further notice. Safety precaution. Were not supposed to deplane until we get the all clear from aerodrome authorities.”\r\nTeabing was skeptical. moldiness be one hell of a gas leak.The pumping station wa s a good half mile from his hangar.\r\nRemy also looked concerned. â€Å"Sir, this sounds highly sec.”\r\nTeabing turned to Sophie and Langdon. â€Å"My friends, I have an unpleasant suspicion that we are about to be met by a welcoming committee.”\r\nLangdon gave a unfinished sigh. â€Å"I guess Fache still thinks Im his man.”\r\nâ€Å"Either that,” Sophie said,” or he is too deep into this to admit his error.\r\nTeabing was not listening. Regardless of Faches mind-set, action needed to be taken fast. Dontlose sight of the ultimate goal.The Grail.Were so dose.Below them, the landing gearing descended with a clunk.\r\nâ€Å"Leigh,” Langdon said, sounding deeply remorseful,” I should turn myself in and sort this out legally. Leave you all out of it.”\r\nâ€Å"Oh, heavens, Robert!” Teabing waved it off. â€Å"Do you really think theyre going to let the rest of us go? I just transported you illegally. Miss Neveu assisted i n your incline from the Louvre, and we have a man tied up in the back of the plane. Really now! Were all in this together.”\r\nâ€Å"Maybe a different airport?” Sophie said.\r\nTeabing shook his head. â€Å"If we pull up now, by the time we get clearance anywhere else, our welcoming company will include army tanks.”\r\nSophie slumped.\r\nTeabing sensed that if they were to have any chance of postponing confrontation with the British authorities long enough to find the Grail, bold action had to be taken. â€Å"Give me a minute,” he said, hobbling toward the cockpit.\r\nâ€Å"What are you doing?” Langdon asked.\r\nâ€Å"Sales meeting,” Teabing said, wondering how much it would cost him to deviate his pilot to perform one highly irregular maneuver.\r\n'