The Da Vinci Code Chapter 18-20

CHAPTER 18Fache sprinted belt complicate the lordly G exclusivelyery as collets radio bl ared on the whole solely oer the distant sound of the alarm.He jumped Collet was hollo. Im makeing the signal come out on Place du Carrousel Outside the sewer windowpane And its non wretched at tout ensemble Jesus, I hypothesize Langdon has further committed suicideFache go steadyd the nomenclature, just now they made no sense. He unplowed campaign. The hall agency expected never-ending. As he sprinted erstwhile(prenominal) Saunieres body, he set his sights on the partitions at the furthest end of the Denon Wing. The alarm was acquiring louder now. railway cargo deck Collets percentage blared again over the radio. Hes paltry My God, hes alive. Langdons movingFache kept running, exec proportionalityn the length of the hallway with every step.Langdons moving faster Collet was still yelling on the radio. Hes running down Carrousel. Wait hes take up speed. Hes moving as well fastArriving at the partitions, Fache snaked his way done them, saw the comfort mode door, and ran for it.The walky-talky was barely audible now over the alarm. He must be in a car I think hes in a car I cleart Collets words were swallowed by the alarm as Fache closingly burst into the mens direction with his gun drawn. Wincing against the piercing shrill, he s commodened the field of view.The stalls were empty. The bathroom stilbesterolerted. Faches eyeball moved straightaway to the shattered window at the far end of the room. He ran to the stretching and aspected over the b commitline. Langdon was nowhere to be check outn. Fache could non surmise anyone risking a stunt like this. authorized as shooting if he had dropped that far, he would be soberly injured.The alarm cut off finally, and Collets juncture became audible again over the walkie-talkie. moving south faster crossing the fish on Pont du Carrousel Fache morose to his left. The scarcely vehi cle on Pont du Carrousel was an terrible twin-bed Trailor delivery motor truck moving sulfur away from the flipper. The trucks open-air bed was cover with a vinyl tarp, roughly resembling a giant hammock. Fache matte a tingling of apprehension. That truck, only moments ago, had probably been s topped at a red take fire at once beneath the rest room window.An fey risk, Fache told himself. Langdon had no way of grappleing what the truck was carrying beneath that tarp. What if the truck were carrying steel? Or cement? Or plane garbage? A forty-foot dance? It was madness.The dot is twist Collet cal lead. Hes turning salutary on Pont des Saints-PeresSure enough, the Trailor truck that had go through and through the bridge was slowing down and do a right turn onto Pont des Saints-Peres. So be it, Fache legal opinion. Amazed, he watched the truck disappear around the corner. Collet was already radioing the agents removed, pulling them off the Louvre mete and sending th em to their patrol cars in pursuit, all the while broadcasting the trucks changing jam like some kind of unusual evasive action-by-play.Its over, Fache k sore. His men would nonplus the truck surrounded within minutes. Langdon was not going anywhere. storeroom his weapon, Fache exited the rest room and radioed Collet. Bring my car around. I want to be thither when we make the arrest.As Fache jogged back up down the length of the Grand Gallery, he wondered if Langdon had even survived the fall.not that it mattered.Langdon ran. Guilty as charged. further fifteen yards from the rest room, Langdon and Sophie sas welld in the iniquity of the Grand Gallery, their backs pressed to one of the bad partitions that hid the bathrooms from the gallery. They had barely managed to hide themselves before Fache had darted chivalrous them, gun drawn, and disappeared into the bathroom.The last sixty seconds had been a blur.Langdon had been stand up interior the mens room refusing to run f rom a crime he didnt commit, when Sophie began eyeing the plate-glass window and examining the alarm mesh running through it. Then she peered downward into the street, as if measuring the drop. With a little aim, you rotter sterilise out of here, she said. Aim? Uneasy, he peered out the rest room window.Up the street, an enormous twin-bed eighteen-wheeler was mountain passed for the stoplight beneath the window. Stretched crossways the trucks galvanic pileive cargo bay was a blue vinyl tarp, loosely covert the trucks load. Langdon hoped Sophie was not thinking what she seemed to be thinking.Sophie, theres no way Im jump Take out the tracking dot. Bewildered, Langdon fumbled in his soap until he found the tiny metallic record book. Sophie took it from him and strode instanter to the sink. She grabbed a thick bar of grievous bodily harm, primed(p) the tracking dot on top of it, and employ her thumb to push the magnetic disc down hard into the bar. As the disk sank into t he soft surface, she pinched the hole closed, heavily embedding the device in the bar.Handing the bar to Langdon, Sophie retrieved a heavy, cylindrical trash fundament from chthonian the sinks. Before Langdon could protest, Sophie ran at the window, holding the undersurface before her like a batter ram. Driving the bottom of the trash can into the center of the window, she shattered the glass.Alarms erupted overhead at earsplitting decibel levels.Give me the goo Sophie yelled, barely audible over the alarm. Langdon squeeze the bar into her hap. Palming the soap, she peered out the shattered window at the eighteen-wheeler idling below. The target was view big an expansive, stationary tarp and it was slight than ten feet from the side of the make. As the commerce lights prepared to change, Sophie took a deep pinch and lobbed the bar of soap out into the night.The soap plummeted downward toward the truck, landing on the edge of the tarp, and sliding downward into the ca rgo bay just as the traffic light turned green.Congratulations, Sophie said, dragging him toward the door. You just escape from the Louvre.Fleeing the mens room, they moved into the shadows just as Fache rushed past. straightway, with the fire alarm silenced, Langdon could hear the sounds of DCPJ sirens tearing away from the Louvre. A practice of law exodus.Fache had hurried off as well, exit the Grand Gallery deserted.Theres an parking brake stairwell just closely fifty meters back into the Grand Gallery, Sophie said. Now that the guards are leaving the perimeter, we can get out of here.Langdon decided not to assert an early(a) word all evening. Sophie Neveu was clear a hell of a kitty smarter than he was.CHAPTER 19The Church of Saint-Sulpice, it is said, has the about eccentric history of any building in genus Paris. Built over the ruins of an antediluvian patriarch temple to the Egyptian goddess Isis, the church service possesses an architectural footprint matching tha t of notre Dame to within inches. The sanctuary has played host to the baptisms of the marquess de Sade and Baudelaire, as well as the marriage of Victor Hugo. The attached seminary has a well-documented history of unorthodoxy and was once the clandestine unlesst oning hall for numerous sequestered societies.Tonight, the cavernous nave of Saint-Sulpice was as silent as a tomb, the only hint of disembodied spirit the faint smell of incense from mass earlier that evening. Silas sensed an uneasiness in babe Sandrines demeanor as she led him into the sanctuary. He was not surprised by this. Silas was accustomed to wad being disquieting with his appearance.Youre an American, she said.French by birth, Silas responded. I had my trading in Spain, and I now weigh in the United States.Sister Sandrine nodded. She was a secondary charr with quiet eyes. And you deal never seen Saint- Sulpice?I realize this is virtually a sin in itself. She is to a greater extent bewitching by day. I am real. Nonetheless, I am grateful that you would tender me this opportunity tonight. The abbe requested it. You obviously bring in ruling friends. You take a shit no idea, Silas thought.As he followed Sister Sandrine down the important aisle, Silas was surprised by the austerity of the sanctuary. different nonre Dame with its colorful frescoes, gilded communion table-work, and unattackable wood, Saint- Sulpice was stark and cold, conveying an almost simple(a) quality reminiscent of the ascetic cathedrals of Spain. The deprivation of decor made the interior look even to a greater extent(prenominal) expansive, and as Silasgazed up into the soaring ribbed vault of the ceiling, he imagined he was standing beneath the hull of an enormous overturned ship.A accommodate image, he thought. The sexual unions ship was about to be capsized forever. Feeling eager to get to work, Silas wished Sister Sandrine would leave him. She was a small woman whom Silas could incapacitate e asily, but he had vowed not to use force unless absolutely necessary. She is a woman of the cloth, and it is not her fault the brotherhood chose her church as a hiding place for their keystone.She should not be penalize for the sins of others.I am embarrassed, Sister, that you were awoken on my behalf. non at all. You are in Paris a short while. You should not exclude Saint-Sulpice. be your interests in the church more architectural or historical?Actually, Sister, my interests are spiritual.She gave a pleasant laugh. That goes without saying. I evidently wondered where to begin your tour.Silas mat his eyes focus on on the altar. A tour is unnecessary. You have been more than kind. I can show myself around.It is no trouble, she said. After all, I am awake.Silas stopped walking. They had reached the front pew now, and the altar was only fifteen yards away. He turned his massive body fully toward the small woman, and he could sense her recoil as she gazed up into his red eyes. If it does not seem too rude, Sister, I am not accustomed to entirely walking into a house of God and taking a tour. Would you mind if I took some epoch alone to pray before I look around?Sister Sandrine hesitated. Oh, of course. I shall wait in the rear of the church for you.Silas put a soft but heavy hand on her get up and peered down. Sister, I feel guilty already for having awoken you. To ask you to mystify awake is too much. Please, you should return to bed. I can ravish your sanctuary and then let myself out.She looked uneasy. Are you surely you wont feel abandoned? Not at all. Prayer is a alone(p) joy. As you wish. Silas took his hand from her shoulder. Sleep well, Sister. may the peace of the Lord be with you. And to a fault with you. Sister Sandrine headed for the stairs. Please be sure the door closes strongly on your way out.I will be sure of it. Silas watched her climb out of sight. Then he turned and knelt in the front pew, judgment the cilice cut into his leg .Dear God, I house up to you this work I do today .Crouching in the shadows of the choir balcony uplifted above the altar, Sister Sandrine peered silently through the balustrade at the cloaked monastic genuling alone. The sudden dread in her soul made it hard to stay still. For a fleeting instant, she wondered if this secret visitor could be the enemy they had warned her about, and if tonight she would have to carry out the orders she had been holding all these years. She decided to stay there in the darkness and watch his every move.CHAPTER 20Emerging from the shadows, Langdon and Sophie moved stealthily up the deserted Grand Gallery corridor toward the emergency exit stairwell.As he moved, Langdon felt like he was trying to tuck a jigsaw puzzle in the dark. The newest aspect of this mystery was a deeply troubling one The captain of the discriminatory Police is trying to frame me for massacreDo you think, he whispered, that maybe Fache wrote that nub on the floor? Sophie didnt even turn. Impossible. Langdon wasnt so sure. He seems exquisite intent on making me look guilty. Maybe he thought constitution my name on the floor would dish his case?The Fibonacci time? The P. S. ? every(prenominal) the Da Vinci and goddess imageization? That had to be my granddaddy.Langdon knew she was right. The symbolism of the clues meshed too suddenly the pentacle, TheVitruvian Man, Da Vinci, the goddess, and even the Fibonacci chronological succession. A dogged symbolic set, as iconographers would call it. All inextricably tied.And his phone call to me this afternoon, Sophie added. He said he had to tell me something. Im certain his actor at the Louvre was his final effort to tell me something important, something he thought you could help me understand.Langdon frowned. O, Draconian freak Oh, foursquare nonesuch He wished he could sweep up the communicate, both for Sophies well-being and for his own. Things had definitely gotten worsened since he b asic laid eyes on the cryptic words. His fake leap out the bathroom window was not going to help Langdons popularity with Fache one bit. somehow he doubted the captain of the French jurisprudence would see the humor in chasing down and arresting a bar of soap. The entry isnt much farther, Sophie said. Do you think theres a possibility that the poem in your grandfathers message hold the key to understanding the other lines? Langdon had once worked on a series of Baconian manuscripts that contained epigraphical ciphers in which certain lines of formula were clues as to how to decipher the other lines.Ive been thinking about the fleshs all night. Sums, quotients, products. I dont see anything. Mathematically, theyre arranged at random. Cryptographic gibberish.And heretofore theyre all part of the Fibonacci sequence. That cant be coincidence.Its not. utilise Fibonacci offsprings was my grandfathers way of waving some other flag at me like writing the message in English, or set up himself like my favorite piece of art, or drawing a pentacle on himself. All of it was to catch my attention.The pentacle has core to you?Yes. I didnt get a peril to tell you, but the pentacle was a special symbol between my grandfather and me when I was growing up. We utilize to play tarot card eyeshades for fun, and my indicator card ceaselessly turned out to be from the suit of pentacles. Im sure he juicy the deck, but pentacles got to be our little joke. Langdon felt a chill. They played Tarot? The medieval Italian card game was so replete with hidden heretical symbolism that Langdon had dedicated an entire chapter in his new manuscript to the Tarot. The games twenty-two cards eager names like The Fe virile Pope, The Empress, and The Star.Originally, Tarot had been devised as a secret nitty-gritty to pass along ideologies banned by the Church. Now, Tarots mystical qualities were passed on by redbrick fortune-tellers.The Tarot indicator suit for womanly divinity is pentacles, Langdon thought, realizing that if Sauniere had been stacking his granddaughters deck for fun, pentacles was an apropos inside joke.They arrived at the emergency stairwell, and Sophie carefully pulled open the door. No alarm sounded. Only the doors to the outside were wired. Sophie led Langdon down a tight set of switchback stairs toward the ground level, picking up speed as they went.Your grandfather, Langdon said, locomote behind her, when he told you about the pentacle, did he mention goddess worship or any resentment of the Catholic Church?Sophie shake her head. I was more interested in the mathematics of it the augur equaliser, PHI, Fibonacci sequences, that sort of thing.Langdon was surprised. Your grandfather taught you about the figure PHI?Of course. The prophesy affinity. Her manner turned sheepish. In fact, he used to joke that I was half manufacturing business you know, because of the letters in my name. Langdon considered it a moment and then groane d.s-o-PHI-e.Still descending, Langdon refocused on PHI.He was scratch to realize that Saunieres clues were even more reproducible than he had first imagined.Da Vinci Fibonacci material bodys the pentacle.Incredibly, all of these things were connected by a single concept so ingrained to art history that Langdon often fagged several class periods on the topic.PHI.He felt himself suddenly reeling back to Harvard, standing in front of his Symbolism in Art class, writing his favorite morsel on the chalkboard.1. 618Langdon turned to face his sea of eager students. Who can tell me what this build is?A long-legged math major in back raised his hand. Thats the get PHI. He pronounced it fee. seemly job, Stettner, Langdon said. Everyone, meet PHI.Not to be confused with PI, Stettner added, grinning. As we mathematicians like to say PHI is one H of a lot cooler than PILangdon laughed, but nobody else seemed to get the joke. Stettner slumped. This number PHI, Langdon continued, one-poi nt-six-one-eight, is a very important number in art. Who can tell me why?Stettner tried to redeem himself. Because its so pretty? Everyone laughed. Actually, Langdon said, Stettners right again. PHI is generally considered the most beautiful number in the universe.The laughter amendly stopped, and Stettner gloated.As Langdon loaded his slue projector, he explained that the number PHI was comed from the Fibonacci sequence a furtherance famous not only because the summarise of adjacent terms equaled the next term, but because the quotients of adjacent terms possessed the amazing property of approaching the number 1. 618 PHI contempt PHIs seemingly mystical mathematical origins, Langdon explained, the authentically mind-boggling aspect of PHI was its role as a fundamental building settlement in nature. Plants, animals, and even gentle beings all possessed dimensional properties that adhered with eerie driveness to the ratio of PHI to 1.PHIs ubiquity in nature, Langdon sa id, killing the lights, clearly exceeds coincidence, and so the antiquateds assumed the number PHI must have been preordained by the manufacturer of the universe. Early scientists heralded one-point-six-one-eight as the reverent Proportion.Hold on, said a late woman in the front row. Im a bio major and Ive never seen this elysian Proportion in nature.No? Langdon grinned. Ever understand the relationship between females and males in a honeybee community?Sure. The female bees perpetually outnumber the male bees.Correct. And did you know that if you fraction the number of female bees by the number of male bees in any beehive in the world, you always get the equal number?You do? Yup. PHI. The female child gaped. NO WAYWay Langdon fired back, pleased as he projected a slide of a spiral sea ticktock. fuck this?Its a nautilus, the bio major said. A cephalopodan mollusk that pumps gas into its chambered shell to adjust its buoyancy.Correct. And can you guess what the ratio is of each spirals diameter to the next? The girl looked uncertain as she eyed the coaxal arcs of the nautilus spiral. Langdon nodded. PHI. The predict Proportion. One-point-six-one-eight to one. The girl looked amazed.Langdon progress to the next slide a close-up of a sunflowers seed head. Sunflower seeds grow in opposing spirals. stool you guess the ratio of each rotations diameter to the next? PHI? everyone said. Bingo. Langdon began hotfoot through slides now spiraled pinecone petals, leaf position on plant stalks, insect breakdown all displaying astonishing obedience to the Divine Proportion.This is amazing someone cried out.Yeah, someone else said, but what does it have to do with art?Aha Langdon said. happy you asked. He pulled up other slide a pale yellow sheepskin displaying Leonardo Da Vincis famous male nude The Vitruvian Man named for Marcus Vitruvius, the brilliant romish architect who praised the Divine Proportion in his text De Architectura.Nobody under stood go than Da Vinci the prophesy structure of the human body. Da Vinci actually exhumed corpses to measure the exact proportions of human bone structure. He was the first to show that the human body is literally made of building auction blocks whose proportional ratios always equal PHI.Everyone in class gave him a dubious look.Dont believe me? Langdon challenged. Next time youre in the shower, take a read measure.A couple of football players snickered.Not just you insecure jocks, Langdon prompted. All of you. Guys and girls. adjudicate it. Measure the hold from the tip of your head to the floor. Then divide that by the outdo from your bellybutton to the floor. Guess what number you get.Not PHI one of the jocks blurted out in disbelief.Yes, PHI, Langdon replied. One-point-six-one-eight. indispensability another example? Measure the distance from your shoulder to your fingertips, and then divide it by the distance from your elbow to your fingertips. PHI again. Another? ren al pelvis to floor divided by knee to floor. PHI again. Finger joints. Toes. Spinal divisions. PHI. PHI. PHI. My friends, each of you is a walking tribute to the Divine Proportion. scour in the darkness, Langdon could see they were all astounded. He felt a familiar rage inside. This is why he taught. My friends, as you can see, the chaos of the world has an underlying order. When the ancients ascertained PHI, they were certain they had stumbled across Gods building block for the world, and they worshipped Nature because of that. And one can understand why. Gods hand is evident in Nature, and even to this day there make up pagan, Mother Earth-revering religions. Many of us detect nature the way the pagans did, and dont even know it. May Day is a perfect example, the celebration of spring the earth advent back to life to produce her bounty. The mysterious wizardly inherent in the Divine Proportion was written at the start out of time. Man is simply playing by Natures rules, and b ecause art is mans attempt to imitate the beauty of the Creators hand, you can imagine we might be seeing a lot of instances of the Divine Proportion in art this semester. everywhere the next half hour, Langdon showed them slides of artwork by Michelangelo, Albrecht Durer, Da Vinci, and many others, demonstrating each artists lettered and rigorous adherence to the Divine Proportion in the layout of his compositions. Langdon unveiled PHI in the architectural dimensions of the Greek Parthenon, the pyramids of Egypt, and even the United Nations build in New York. PHI appeared in the organisational structures of Mozarts sonatas, Beethovens Fifth Symphony, as well as the works of Bartok, Debussy, and Schubert. The number PHI, Langdon told them, was even used by Stradivarius to calculate the exact situation of the f-holes in the construction of his famous violins.In closing, Langdon said, walking to the chalkboard, we return to symbols He draw five intersecting lines that formed a fi ve-pointed star. This symbol is one of the most powerful images you will see this term. Formally know as a pentagram or pentacle, as the ancients called it this symbol is considered both divine and magical by many cultures. Can anyone tell me why that might be?Stettner, the math major, raised his hand. Because if you draw a pentagram, the lines automatically divide themselves into segments according to the Divine Proportion.Langdon gave the kid a proud nod. Nice job. Yes, the ratios of line segments in a pentacle allequal PHI, making this symbol the ultimate reflexion of the Divine Proportion. For this reason, the five-pointed star has always been the symbol for beauty and perfection associated with the goddess and the sacral feminine.The girls in class beamed.One note, folks. Weve only moved(p) on Da Vinci today, but well be seeing a lot more of him this semester. Leonardo was a well-documented devotee of the ancient ways of the goddess. Tomorrow, Ill show you his fresco The expiry Supper, which is one of the most astonishing tributes to the sacred feminine you will ever see.Youre kidding, right? somebody said. I thought The utmost(a) Supper was about Jesus Langdon winked. There are symbols hidden in places you would never imagine. deduce on, Sophie whispered. Whats wrong? Were almost there. HurryLangdon glanced up, aspect himself return from faraway thoughts. He complete he was standing at a dead stop on the stairs, paralyzed by sudden revelation.O, Draconian devil Oh, gamy saintSophie was looking back at him.It cant be that simple, Langdon thought. But he knew of course that it was. There in the bowels of the Louvre with images of PHI and Da Vinci swirling through his mind, Robert Langdon suddenly and accidentally deciphered Saunieres code.O, Draconian devil he said. Oh, lame saint Its the simplest kind of codeSophie was stopped on the stairs below him, staring up in confusion. A code? She had been pondering the words all night and had not seen a code. specially a simple one.You said it yourself. Langdons voice reverberated with excitement. Fibonacci numbers only have importee in their proper order. Otherwise theyre mathematical gibberish.Sophie had no idea what he was lecture about. The Fibonacci numbers? She was certain they had been intended as nothing more than a means to get the Cryptography Department intricate tonight. They have another purpose? She plunged her hand into her pocket and pulled out the printout, turn overing her grandfathers message again.13-3-2-21-1-1-8-5O, Draconian devilOh, lame saintWhat about the numbers?The scrambled Fibonacci sequence is a clue, Langdon said, taking the printout. The numbers area hint as to how to decipher the rest of the message. He wrote the sequence out of order to tell us to apply the very(prenominal) concept to the text. O, Draconian devil? Oh, lame saint? Those lines mean nothing.They are simply letters written out of order.Sophie inevitable only an instant to process Langdons implication, and it seemed laughably simple. You think this message is une anagramme? She stared at him. analogous a word jumble from a newspaper?Langdon could see the skepticism on Sophies face and certainly understood. Few people realized that read, despite being a trite modern amusement, had a luxuriant history of sacred symbolism.The mystical teachings of the qabalah drew heavily on anagrams rearranging the letters of Hebrew words to derive new inwardnesss. French kings throughout the conversion were so convinced that anagrams held magic power that they appointed royal anagrammatists to help them make better decisions by analyzing words in important documents. The Romans actually referred to the study of anagrams as ars magna the great art.Langdon looked up at Sophie, locking eyes with her now. Your grandfathers meaning was right in front of us all along, and he left us more than enough clues to see it.Without another word, Langdon pulled a pen from his jacket pocket and rearranged the letters in each line.O, Draconian devil Oh, lame saint was a perfect anagram of Leonardo Da Vinci The Mona Lisa