The Da Vinci Code Chapter 18-20

CHAPTER 18Fache sprinted down the Grand Gallery as Collets wireless blared oer the distant sound of the appal.He jumped Collet was yelling. Im showing the aim out on Place du Carrousel Outside the bathroom windowpane And its not move at all Jesus, I envisage Langdon has de compiledable committed suicideFache heard the vocalises, that they do no sense. He kept running. The hall focus seemed neer-ending. As he sprinted past Saunieres body, he focalize his sights on the p artistic creationitions at the far end of the Denon Wing. The alarm was stayting louder now. cargo area Collets voice blared again over the radio. Hes moving My God, hes alive. Langdons movingFache kept running, cursing the length of the hall agency with every step.Langdons moving faster Collet was n atomic physique 53theless yelling on the radio. Hes running down Carrousel. Wait hes picking up speed. Hes moving too fastArriving at the partitions, Fache snaked his way with them, saw the slackening ro om door, and ran for it.The walkie-talkie was skilful now audible now over the alarm. He must be in a car I think hes in a car I piece of asst Collets words were swallowed by the alarm as Fache finally burst into the mens room with his artillery unit drawn. Wincing against the piercing shrill, he s assned the area.The stalls were empty. The bathroom deserted. Faches eyes moved instantaneously to the shattered window at the far end of the room. He ran to the opening and looked over the edge. Langdon was nowhere to be seen. Fache could not theorize anyone risking a impede comparable this. Certainly if he had dropped that far, he would be badly injured.The alarm cut off finally, and Collets voice became audible again over the walkie-talkie. moving south faster crossing the Seine on Pont du Carrousel Fache under social structurecelled to his left over(p). The except vehicle on Pont du Carrousel was an enormous twin-bed Trailor delivery give-up the ghost consecrate truck moving southward away from the five. The trucks open-air bed was covered with a vinyl tarpaulin, roughly resembling a giant hammock. Fache matt-up a chill of apprehension. That truck, only moments ago, had probably been stopped at a red white directly beneath the abide room window.An insane risk, Fache told himself. Langdon had no way of knowing what the truck was adopting beneath that tarp. What if the truck were carrying steel? Or cementum? Or as yet garbage? A forty-foot ricochet? It was madness.The dot is bout Collet called. Hes turning the objurgate way on Pont des Saints-PeresSure enough, the Trailor truck that had crossed the bridge was slowing down and reservation a right turn onto Pont des Saints-Peres. So be it, Fache thought. Amazed, he watched the truck vaporize around the corner. Collet was already radioing the agents outside, pulling them off the Louvre perimeter and sending them to their patrol cars in pur display case, all the while broadcasting the tr ucks ever-changing location like some kind of bizarre play-by-play.Its over, Fache knew. His men would fork out the truck surrounded within minutes. Langdon was not going anywhere.Stowing his weapon, Fache exited the rest room and radioed Collet. Bring my car around. I want to be in that respect when we make the arrest.As Fache jogged gumption down the length of the Grand Gallery, he wondered if Langdon had yet survived the fall.not that it mattered.Langdon ran. Guilty as charged.Only fifteen yards from the rest room, Langdon and Sophie stood in the darkness of the Grand Gallery, their substantiates pressed to one of the large partitions that hid the bathrooms from the gallery. They had just managed to hide themselves before Fache had darted past them, gun drawn, and disappeared into the bathroom.The last sixty seconds had been a blur.Langdon had been standing inside the mens room refusing to run from a offensive he didnt commit, when Sophie began eyeing the plate-glass window and examining the alarm mesh running through it. because she peered downwards into the street, as if measuring the drop. With a little aim, you can lead out of here, she said. Aim? Uneasy, he peered out the rest room window.Up the street, an enormous twin-bed eighteen-wheeler was headed for the stoplight beneath the window. Stretched across the trucks massive cargo bespeak was a blue vinyl tarp, loosely covering 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 pocket until he found the tiny metallic disk. Sophie took it from him and strode straightaway to the sink. She grabbed a thick bar of soap, placed the tracking dot on top of it, and apply her thumb to push the disk down grueling into the bar. As the disk sank into the soft surface, she pinched the hole closed, firmly embedding the kink in the bar.Handing the bar to Langdon, Sophie retriev ed a heavy, cylindrical trash can from downstairs the sinks. Before Langdon could protest, Sophie ran at the window, holding the can before her like a battering 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 soap Sophie yelled, barely audible over the alarm. Langdon thrust the bar into her hand. Palming the soap, she peered out the shattered window at the eighteen-wheeler idling below. The tar outsmart was plenty big an expansive, stationary tarp and it was less than ten feet from the side of the edifice. As the traffic lights prepared to change, Sophie took a deep breath 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 cargo embayment just as the traffic light turned green.Congratulations, Sophie said, dragging him toward the door. You just escaped from the Louvre.Fleeing the mens room, they moved into the shadows just as Fache rushed past.Now, with the dismiss alarm silenced, Langdon could hear the sounds of DCPJ sirens tearing away from the Louvre. A police exodus.Fache had move off as well, leaving the Grand Gallery deserted.Theres an emergency stairwell most 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 say an other(a) word all evening. Sophie Neveu was clear a hell of a lot smarter than he was.CHAPTER 19The Church of Saint-Sulpice, it is said, has the most eccentric history of any building in Paris. Built over the ruins of an antiquated temple to the Egyptian goddess Isis, the perform possesses an architectural footprint matching that of notre Dame to within inches. The sanctuary has contend host to the baptisms of the Marquis de Sade and Baudelaire, as well as the labor union of Victor Hugo. The attached seminary has a we ll-documented history of unorthodoxy and was once the hush-hush meeting hall for numerous secret societies.Tonight, the cavernous nave of Saint-Sulpice was as understood as a tomb, the only summit of life the faint step of incense from mass earlier that evening. Silas sensed an uneasiness in child Sandrines demeanor as she led him into the sanctuary. He was not impress by this. Silas was accustomed to people being uncomfortable with his appearance.Youre an American, she said.French by birth, Silas responded. I had my calling in Spain, and I now study in the linked States. babe Sandrine nodded. She was a sharp charr with quiet eyes. And you start never seen Saint- Sulpice?I escort this is almost a sin in itself. She is more than beautiful by day. I am authorized. Nonetheless, I am acceptable that you would provide me this opportunity tonight. The abbe requested it. You obviously fork over powerful friends. You have no thinking, Silas thought.As he followed Sister San drine down the main aisle, Silas was surprised by the austerity of the sanctuary. Unlike Notre Dame with its colorful frescoes, gilded altar-work, and fervent wood, Saint- Sulpice was stark and cold, conveying an almost barren quality reminiscent of the abstinent cathedrals of Spain. The lack of decor made the interior look even more 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 fitted image, he thought. The brotherhoods 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 easily, 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 conceal place for their keystone.She should not be punished for the sins of others.I am embarrassed, Sister, that you were awoken on my behalf.Not at all. You are in Paris a brusk time. You should not miss Saint-Sulpice. Are 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 just wondered where to begin your pilgrimage.Silas felt his eyes focus on the altar. A tour is unnecessary. You have been more than kind. I can show myself around.It is no trouble, she said. afterwards 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 apparently walking into a house of God and taking a tour. Would you in narrateect if I took some time alone to pray before I look around?Sister Sandrine hesitated. Oh, of course. I shall wait in the develop of the church for you. Silas put a soft but heavy hand on her shoulder and peered down. Sister, I feel guilty already for having awoken you. To pray you to stay awake is too frequently. Please, you should return to bed. I can adore your sanctuary and then let myself out.She looked uneasy. Are you sure you wont feel run-down? Not at all. Prayer is a solitary joy. As you wish. Silas took his hand from her shoulder. Sleep well, Sister. May the peace of the Lord be with you. And also with you. Sister Sandrine headed for the stairs. Please be sure the door closes absurdly on your way out.I provide be sure of it. Silas watched her climb out of sight. thus he turned and knelt in the front pew, tactual sensation the cilice cut into his leg. darling God, I offer up to you this work I do forthwith .Crouching in the shadows of the choir balcony high above the altar, Sister Sandrine peered silently through the balustrade at the cloaked monk kneeling alone. The abrupt fright in her soul made it hard to stay still. For a hurry instant, she wondered if this mysterious visitor could be the enemy they had warned her about, and if tonight she would have to carry out the points 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 assemble a jigsaw puzzle in the dark. The newest aspect of this mystery was a late troubling one The captain of the Judicial Police is trying to assemble me for murderDo you think, he whispered, that maybe Fache wrote that substance on the tier? Sophie didnt even turn. Impossible. Langdon wasnt so sure. He seems pretty intent on making me look guilty. Maybe he thought writing my name on the floor would help his case?The Fibonacci sequence? The P. S. ? every last(predicate) the Da Vinci and goddess symbolization? T hat had to be my gramps.Langdon knew she was right. The symbolism of the clues meshed too perfectly the pentagram, TheVitruvian Man, Da Vinci, the goddess, and even the Fibonacci sequence. A coherent 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 message at the Louvre was his final effort to tell me something important, something he thought you could help me understand.Langdon frowned. O, Draconian agitate Oh, lame saint He wished he could comprehend the message, both for Sophies well-being and for his own. Things had definitely gotten worse since he first 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 police would see the biliousness in chasing down and arresting a bar of soap. The doorway isnt much farther, Sophie said. Do you think theres a possibility that the verse 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 scratch were clues as to how to decipher the other lines.Ive been thinking about the poem all night. Sums, quotients, products. I dont see anything. Mathematically, theyre coherent at random. Cryptographic gibberish.And yet theyre all part of the Fibonacci sequence. That cant be coincidence.Its not. apply Fibonacci numbers was my grandfathers way of waving another flag at me like writing the message in English, or arranging himself like my deary piece of art, or drawing a pentacle on himself. All of it was to catch my attention.The pentacle has message to you?Yes. I didnt get a play to tell you, but the pentacle was a special symbol amongst my grandfather and me when I was provokeing up. We used to play Tarot card gage for fun, an d my indicator card incessantly turned out to be from the suit of pentacles. Im sure he stacked the deck of cards, but pentacles got to be our little joke. Langdon felt a chill. They played Tarot? The medieval Italian card game was so replete with unnoticeable heretical symbolism that Langdon had dedicated an inviolate chapter in his new manuscript to the Tarot. The games twenty-two cards bore label like The Female Pope, The Empress, and The Star.Originally, Tarot had been devised as a secret meat to pass along ideologies banned by the Church. Now, Tarots mystical qualities were passed on by innovational fortune-tellers.The Tarot indicator suit for feminine 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, hurrying behind her, when he told you about the pentacle, did he mention goddess revere or any resentment of the Catholic Church?Sophie shook 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 number PHI?Of course. The heaven-sent Proportion. Her expression turned sheepish. In fact, he used to joke that I was half divine you know, because of the letters in my name. Langdon considered it a moment and then groaned.s-o-PHI-e.Still descending, Langdon refocused on PHI.He was starting to realize that Saunieres clues were even more consistent than he had first imagined.Da Vinci Fibonacci numbers the pentacle.Incredibly, all of these things were connected by a single concept so fundamental to art history that Langdon often spent several degree 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 number on the chalkboard.1. 618Langdon turned to face his sea of eager students. Who can tell me what this number is?A long-legged math major in back elevated his hand. Thats the number PHI. He pronounced it fee.Nice 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-point-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 short stopped, and Stettner gloated.As Langdon loaded his s lide projector, he explained that the number PHI was attaind from the Fibonacci sequence a progression notable not only because the sum of adjacent basis equaled the next term, but because the quotients of adjacent terms possessed the astound space of approaching the number 1. 618 PHIDespite PHIs seemingly mystical mathematical origins, Langdon explained, the very mind-boggling aspect of PHI was its role as a fundamental building block in nature. Plants, animals, and even human beings all possessed dimensional properties that adhered with eerie exactitude to the ratio of PHI to 1.PHIs ubiquity in nature, Langdon said, killing the lights, clearly exceeds coincidence, and so the ancients assumed the number PHI must have been preordained by the former of the universe. Early scientists heralded one-point-six-one-eight as the reverent Proportion.Hold on, said a young woman in the front row. Im a bio major and Ive never seen this Divine Proportion in nature.No? Langdon grinned. Ever study the family between females and males in a honeybee community?Sure. The female bees of all time outnumber the male bees.Correct. And did you know that if you divide the number of female bees by the number of male bees in any beehive in the demesne, you perpetually get the same number?You do? Yup. PHI. The girl gaped. NO expressive styleWay Langdon fired back, smiling as he projected a slide of a spiral seashell. Recognize this?Its a nautilus, the bio major said. A cephalopod 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 suspicious as she eyed the concentric arcs of the nautilus spiral. Langdon nodded. PHI. The Divine Proportion. maven-point-six-one-eight to one. The girl looked amazed.Langdon advance to the next slide a close-up of a sunflowers seed head. Sunflower seeds grow in opposing spirals. Can you guess the ratio of each rotations diame ter to the next? PHI? everyone said. Bingo. Langdon began racing through slides now spiraled pinecone petals, leaf arrangement on plant stalks, insect segmentation all dis acting 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. Glad you asked. He pulled up another slide a colour yellow parchment displaying Leonardo Da Vincis famous male nude sculpture The Vitruvian Man named for Marcus Vitruvius, the brilliant Roman architect who praised the Divine Proportion in his text De Architectura.Nobody understood unwrap than Da Vinci the divine structure of the human body. Da Vinci actually exhumed corpses to measure the exact proportions of human jampack structure. He was the first to show that the human body is literally made of building blocks whose proportional ratios always equal PHI.Everyone in class gave him a dubious look.Dont believe me? Langdon challenged. Next t ime youre in the shower, take a tape measure.A couple of football players snickered.Not just you uncertain jocks, Langdon prompted. All of you. Guys and girls. Try it. appreciate the distance from the tip of your head to the floor. then(prenominal) divide that by the distance 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. Want 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? Hip to floor divided by knee to floor. PHI again. flip joints. Toes. Spinal divisions. PHI. PHI. PHI. My friends, each of you is a walking tribute to the Divine Proportion. plain in the darkness, Langdon could see they were all astounded. He felt a acquainted(predicate) warmth inside. This is why he taught. My friends, as you can see, the chaos of the world has an underlying order. When the ancients discovered PHI, they were certain they had stumbled across Gods building block for the world, and they idolise Nature because of that. And one can understand why. Gods hand is evident in Nature, and even to this day there exist pagan, Mother Earth-revering religions. Many of us celebrate nature the way the pagans did, and dont even know it. May twenty-four hours is a perfect example, the celebration of spring the earth coming back to life to produce her bounty. The mysterious magic inherent in the Divine Proportion was write at the beginning of time. Man is simply playing by Natures rules, and because art is mans attempt to imitate the beauty of the Creators hand, you can imagine we might be visual perception a lot of instances of the Divine Proportion in art this semester.Over the next half hour, Langdon showed them slides of artwork by Michelangelo, Albrecht Durer, Da Vinci, and umpteen others, demonstrating each artists intentional and rigorous adher ence 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 Building in New York. PHI appeared in the organizational structures of Mozarts sonatas, Beethovens one-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 placement of the f-holes in the construction of his famous violins.In closing, Langdon said, walking to the chalkboard, we return to symbols He force five see lines that formed a five-pointed star. This symbol is one of the most powerful images you will see this term. Formally known 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 automati cally divide themselves into segments according to the Divine Proportion.Langdon gave the fry a proud nod. Nice job. Yes, the ratios of line segments in a pentacle allequal PHI, making this symbol the ultimate expression 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 sacred feminine.The girls in class beamed.One note, folks. Weve only touched 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 Last 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 Last Supper was about Jesus Langdon winked. There are symbols hidden in places you would never imagine.Come on, Sophie whispered. Whats wrong? Were almost there. HurryLangdon glanced up, feeling himself return from faraway thoughts. He realized he was standing at a dead stop on the stairs, paralyzed by sudden revelation.O, Draconian remonstrate Oh, lame 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 unexpectedly deciphered Saunieres code.O, Draconian friction match 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. peculiarly a simple one.You said it yourself. Langdons voice reverberated with excitement. Fibonacci numbers only have meaning in their proper order. Otherwise theyre mathematical gibberish.Sophie had no idea what he was talking about. The Fibonacci numbers? She was certain they had been intended as zip fastener more than a means to get the Crypt ography Department conglomerate tonight. They have another purpose? She plunged her hand into her pocket and pulled out the printout, analyse 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 same concept to the text. O, Draconian devil? Oh, lame saint? Those lines mean nothing.They are simply letters written out of order.Sophie needed only an instant to process Langdons implication, and it seemed laughably simple. You think this message is une anagramme? She stared at him. Like a word jumble from a newspaper?Langdon could see the skepticism on Sophies face and certainly understood. hardly a(prenominal) people realized that anagrammatize, despite being a trite modern amusement, had a rich history of sacred symbolism.The mys tical teachings of the Kabbala drew heavily on anagram rearranging the letters of Hebrew words to derive new meanings. French kings throughout the Renaissance 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