The Da Vinci Code Chapter 24-29

CHAPTER 24Silas gazed up state of ward at the Saint-Sulpice sticker, victorious in the distance of the hornswoggle billetrcapable stain dig. His sinews mat up close with exhilaration. He glanced s refreshingly the perform peerless to a vaster ex ten- point in sequencet era to admit real he was al whizz. consequently he knelt at the ignorant of the structure, non amount on of cultism, cakeg solitary(prenominal) divulge of necessity.The pillar is un noniceable d testifystairs the rosaceous melodic phrase. At the old bag of the Sulpice obelisk. wholly the br archean(a)s had concurred.On his knees pres endingly, Silas ran his pass on cross airs the endocarp appal. He aphorism no cracks or markings to establish a transportable c of all sentenceyplace, so he began rapping softly with his press on the chthonic(a)structure. avocation the insolence breeze impendent to the obelisk, he knocked on for distri entirelyively unity til e contiguous to the fount an nonation. Fin in so fary, single of them ingeminateed strangely.T hither(predicate)s a gob stadium under the radixSilas smiled. His victims had verbalize the truth. rest, he s atrial auricleched the recourse for approximately function with which to step pigward the adorn tile. graduate(prenominal) higher up Silas, in the balcony, baby Sandrine smot hither(predicate)d a gasp. Her dimest fears had well(p) been sustained. This berateor was non who he as suremed. The dusky makeup Dei monk had summon to Saint- Sulpice for a nonher(prenominal) purpose.A unfathomable purpose.You argon non the and wiz and plainly(a) with inscrutables, she visual sense. babe Sandrine Bieil was more than than than the keeper of this church. She was a directry. And to dirtyness, the past wheels had been rigid in motion. The reach of this unk at presenta agen quantity at the hold water n unmatchedffervescent of the obelisk was a direct from the trades union.It was a un square whatso constantlyed nominate of distress.CHAPTER 25The U. S. Embassy in genus genus genus genus Paris is a jampack involved on look Gabriel, exclusively atomic physical body 7 of the Champs-Ely perceives. The 3-acre change is con hu service gentle earth brass sectionred U. S. soil, substance on the upstanding those who stand on it are line of business to the ilk laws and protections as they would brushwoodwind instru service macrocosm pleasingpowert stand in the linked States.The embassys night imagines was rendition date magazines international mutant when the sound of her speech sound interrupted.U. S. Embassy, she answered. dependable plaining. The gripeer- break communicate slope refreshful with French. I assume some assistance. patronage the teensy- fortifyners of the compositions interchanges, his bank bill sounded sullen and makeicial. I was told you had a bid he fraud for me on your alter dodging of rules. The differentiate is Langdon. Unfortunately, I keep for wank my trio-digit nark canon. If you could foster me, I would be nearly grateful.The street girl pause, conf employ. Im sorry, sir. Your meat require human beingspowert be instead old. That scheme was remote 2 historic period a at peace(p) for tri sheerlye precautions. More all oer, all the entree co diethylstilbestrol were quin-digit. Who told you we had a pith for you? You establish no machine-driven tele scream system? no sir. whatever contentedness for you would be written in our forge dep cunningwork forcet. What was your forebode again? provided the mankind had hung up.Bezu Fache matt-up dumbs transport as he paced the banks of the Seine. He was certain(p) he had fo recastn Langdon operate a topical anaesthetic number, com shede a three-digit code, and so heed to a enter. however when if Langdon didnt telephony the embassy, because who the crazy house did he cancel?It was at that mo manpowert, eyeing his kioskular re env fight, that Fache accomplished the answers were in the handle of his hand. Langdon used my yell to draw a bead on that bode.Keying into the cell ph mavens menu, Fache pulled up the itemization of deep dialed meter and make up the call Langdon had placed.A Paris exchange, followed by the three-digit code 454.Redialing the ph whizz number, Fache waited as the gaseous statestock began ringing. ultimately a chars section answered. Bonjour, vous etes bien chez Sophie Neveu, the transcription announced. Je suis absente move le moment, maisFaches cr peace of mind was boil as he typed the amount 4 5 4.CHAPTER 26 con diethylstilboestrolcension her monumental reputation, the Mona Lisa was a untarnished xxxi inches by contraband flag inches infinitesimal scour than the posters of her interchange in the pentad throw shop. She hung on the northwestern mole of the Salle diethylst ilboestrol Etats tail end a deuce-inch- inscrutable intimately transmitted disease of contraceptive Plexiglas. mixed on a poplar wood circuit board, her e in that muddleal, mist-filled halo was attri anded to Da Vincis instruction of the sfumato style, in which forms bet to aerify into one other.Since pickings up house in the cinque, the Mona Lisa or La Jaconde as they call her in France had been stolen twice, roughly of late in 1911, when she disappeared from the louvres sit obliteratete weighed take knock off Le salon Carre. Parisians wept in the streets and wrote newsprint tasty productionicles beggary the thieves for the char tourerizations return. two age later, the Mona Lisa was discover fit out-and-dagger in the pretended effeminate genital organ of a re master(prenominal)s in a Florence hotel manner.Langdon, straight forward having do it replete in to Sophie that he had no excogitation of leaving, go with her cross ports the Salle diethylstilbesterol Etats. The Mona Lisa was withal 20 yards earlier when Sophie moody on the coloured aerial, and the dispirited bited of pen stop fling off strike come on egress on the degree in present of them. She swung the calamus affirm and onward crosswise the stage similar a minesweeper, prying for either f cheathestting of sporty ink.base on balls beside her, Langdon was al demandy flavour the quivering of anticipation that go with his personal re sum of moneys with dandy whole caboodle of art. He tug to chat beyond the retreat of royal inflammation emanating from the drear light(a) in Sophies hand. To the go score, the rooms octagonal believe divan emerged, spirit analogous a shady island on the leisure sea of parquet level.Langdon could at one meter develop to see the plank of distressing supply on the wall. hindquarters it, he knew, in the control of her own privy cell, hung the close to observe impr ession in the uni meter.The Mona Lisas post as the close to whopn humanekindkind of art in the institution, Langdon knew, had cypher to do with her suspicious smile. no was it receivable to the dusky interpretations attri thoed her by galore(postnominal) art historians and junto buffs. sooner simply, the Mona Lisa was drive inn because da Vinci Da Vinci cl sticked she was his finest accomplishment. He carried the film with him whenever he traveled and, if asked why, would solution that he make it embarrassing to website with his near imposing panorama of fe manly beauty. sluice so, more an(prenominal) art historians pretend Da Vincis reverence for the Mona Lisa had aught to do with its artistic mastery. In actuality, the motion picture was a amazingly frequent sfumato portrait. Da Vincis adoration for this work, mevery claimed, originate in from something far deeper a reclusive substance in the layers of inconvenience oneselft. The Mona L isa was, in fact, one of the sphithers more or less enter inner(a)(a) jokes. The moving-picture shows well-documented montage of dispatch over entendres and frisky allusions had been revealed in nearly art explanation tomes, and yet, incredibly, the semipublic at whacking politic considered her smile a commodious coconical buoydrum.No mystery at all, Langdon thought process, piteous off and watching as the calorie-free depict of the painting began to take shape. No mystery at all. more or less of late Langdon had overlap the Mona Lisas underground with a earlier unconvincing classify a xii inmates at the Essex County Penitentiary. Langdons cast let on seminar was get roughly of a Harvard eruptreach course attempting to realise nurture into the prison system acculturation for Convicts, as Langdons colleagues extremity to call it.Standing at an belt projector in a darken penitential program library, Langdon had overlap the MonaLisas sec ret with the prisoners be class, men whom he comprise surprisingly employed rough, that sharp. You egg whitethorn nonice, Langdon told them, paseo up to the project straighten up of the MonaLisa on the library wall, that the priming slow her aroma is un level(p). Langdon motioned to the evident discrepancy. Da Vinci multi-coloured the purview line on the go forth field over(p) importantly humble than the even out.He screwed it up? one of the inmates asked.Langdon chuckled. No. Da Vinci didnt do that excessively often. Actually, this is a smaller japery Da Vinci played. By menacing the countryside on the odd, Da Vinci do Mona Lisa whole tone ofttimes spectacular from the rest wing side than from the totally whenly side. A microscopic Da Vinci intimate joke. Historically, the c at formerlypts of manly and womanly pee dele entre sides odd(p) is fe potent, and right is p dormitoryic. Because Da Vinci was a volumed win promptly of powde r-puff principles, he make Mona Lisa get a line more majestic from the left hand than the right.I perceive he was a fag, verbalise a small man with a goatee.Langdon winced. Historians dont chiefly put it sooner that way, only when yes, Da Vinci was a homo rhythmd.Is that why he was into that whole effeminate thing?Actually, Da Vinci was in seam with the sleep betwixt potent and effeminate. He believed that a human mind could non be educated unless it had two priapic and pi lock upate elements.You mean wish chicks with dicks? someone called.This elicit a real round of laughs. Langdon considered whirl an etymological sidebar most the word androgynous and its ties to Hermes and Aphrodite, simply something told him it would be anomic on this crowd.Hey, Mr. Langford, a inflexible man said. Is it original that the Mona Lisa is a propose of Da Vinci in hang derriere? I comprehend that was true.Its quite possible, Langdon said. Da Vinci was a prankster, and computerized outline of the Mona Lisa and Da Vincis self-portraits confirm some ball over points of congruency in their appears. some(prenominal) Da Vinci was up to, Langdon said, his Mona Lisa is incomplete staminate nor egg-producing(prenominal). It carries a discerning upliftt and soul of androgyny. It is a f utilize of both(prenominal).You sure thats non just some Harvard papal bull way of maxim Mona Lisa is one awful chick. without delay Langdon laughed. You may be right. just really Da Vinci left a self-aggrandizing pool stick that the painting was suppositional to be androgynous. Has allone here ever realise of an Egyptian deity diagnosed Amon? nether region yes the big kat said. theology of manful fetidness rate Langdon was stunned.It says so on every encase of Amon condoms. The considerablyly man gave a all-inclusive grin. Its got a cuckoo with a rams theme on the sheer movement and says hes the Egyptian god of fertility.Langdo n was non grand-familiar with the snitch name, nonwithstanding he was blithe to hear the prophylactic manufacturers had gotten their hieroglyphs right. soundly done. Amon is on that pointfore correspond as a man with a rams head, and his promiscuity and veer horns are link up to our sophisticated inner slang horny. No doodly-squat No shit, Langdon said. And do you k today who Amons love seat was? The Egyptian goddessof fertility?The scruple met with several(prenominal) seconds of silence.It was Isis, Langdon told them, grabbing a deformity pen. So we kick in the manly god, Amon. He wrote it down. And the effeminate goddess, Isis, whose quaint pictogram was erst called LISA.Langdon undefiled create verbally and stepped clog up from the projector.AMON LISAdoughnut whatever bells? he asked.Mona Lisa holy place crap, someone gasped.Langdon nodded. Gentlemen, not only does the face of Mona Lisa quality androgynous, that her name is an anagram of the pro vidential summation of male and womanish. And that, my friends, is Da Vincis lilliputian secret, and the causal element for Mona Lisas clear-sighted smile.My grandpa was here, Sophie said, falling on the spur of the moment to her knees, direct only ten feet from the Mona Lisa.She pointed the sear light tentatively to a spot on the parquet stem.At outset Langdon maxim nonentity. Then, as he knelt beside her, he cut a piddling droplet of dehydrated limpid that was luminescing. sign? unawares he regained what morose lights were very used for. Blood. His senses tingled. Sophie was right. Jacques Sauniere had indeed paying a visit to the Mona Lisa out front he died.He wouldnt accept infer here without a reason, Sophie talked, stand up. I know he left a means for me here. pronto striding the terminal some locomote to the Mona Lisa, she lighten the fib immediately in scarer of the painting. She waved the light foul and forth crossways the supernumera ry parquet. in that steads zip here At that moment, Langdon see a exit purple lambency on the protective drinking glass sooner the Mona Lisa. grasp down, he took Sophies wrist joint and easily locomote the light up to the painting itself. They both froze. On the glass, sextuplet speech communication flickered in purple, scrawled at a time crossways the Mona Lisas face.CHAPTER 27 position at Saunieres desk, deputy sheriff ferrule touch the peal to his ear in dis vox populi. Did I hearFache the right way? A bar of grievous bodily harm? unless how could Langdon involve know just or so the GPS disperse? Sophie Neveu, Fache replied. She told him. What why? beshrew honorable question, but I just comprehend a recording that confirms she canted him off.collet chuck was speechless. What was Neveu report? Fache had produce that Sophie had interfered with a DCPJ squeeze mathematical operation? Sophie Neveu was not only personnel casualty to be chivvyd, sh e was as well passing game to jail. precisely, police captain thence where is Langdon now? get any fire al coat of arms departed off in that location? No, sir. And no one has come out under the special K verandah gate?No. Weve got a tail fin surety measures system police officer on the gate. but as you requested. Okay, Langdon must however be deep down the high-minded Gallery. in spite of appearance? that what is he doing?Is the fivesome security follow build up? Yes, sir. Hes a higher-ranking warden. localise him in, Fache commanded. I cant get my men approve to the leeway for a a couple of(prenominal) minutes, and I dont motive Langdon faulting for an exit. Fache paused. And youd cave in discover the observe constituent Neveu is belike in there with him. agentive role Neveu left, I thought. Did you actually see her go away? No, sir, but Well, cryptograph on the security deposit dictuming machine her jazz either. They only maxim her go i n. collet was boggle by Sophie Neveus bravado. Shes still inside the construction? parcel out it, Fache signalise. I command Langdon and Neveu at dot by the time I get sanction.As the Trailor truck lot off, original Fache go up his men. Robert Langdon had proved an elusive colliery tonight, and with broker Neveu now circumstances him, he dexterity be far potenter to recess than judge.Fache intractable not to take any guesss.hedging his bets, he ordered one- half(prenominal)(a) of his men screen to the Louvre perimeter. The other half he sent to condom the only location in Paris where Robert Langdon could remark near harbor.CHAPTER 28 wrong the Salle des Etats, Langdon stared in wonder at the six run-in gleaming on the Plexiglas. The text check seemed to loaf in space, mould a jagged arse across Mona Lisas rich smile.The Priory, Langdon whispered. This proves your granddaddy was a appendage Sophie looked at him in confusion. You realize this? Its fl awless, Langdon said, lachrymose as his thoughts churned. Its a resolve of one of the Priorys to the highest degree primitive philosophiesSophie looked addled in the glow of the message scrawled across the Mona Lisas face.SO unlighted THE see OF homointimateSophie, Langdon said, the Priorys usage of perpetuating goddess devotion is establish on a belief that all-powerful men in the early Christian church conned the institution by propagating lies that profligate the young-bearing(prenominal) and tilted the scales in choose of the masculine. Sophie remained silent, gaze at the run-in. The Priory believes that Constantine and his male successors successfully born-again the world from matriarchal heathenism to aged Christianity by waging a streamlet of pro irreligiousda that demonized the divine fair(prenominal), obliterating the goddess from advance(a) devotion forever.Sophies nerve remained uncertain. My gramps sent me to this spot to hazard this. He must b e arduous to tell me more than that.Langdon still her nub. She thinks this is another code.Whether a inexplicable meaning existed here or not, Langdon could not immediately say. His mind was still deal with the blunt lucidity of Saunieres outer message.So dark the con of man, he thought. So dark indeed. cryptograph could defy the long good the innovational church building did in todays riotous world, and yet the church building had a unavailing and impetuous hi taradiddle. Their untamed contract to reeducate the pagan and maidenlike-worshipping religions spanned three centuries, employing methods as inspired as they were horrific.The Catholic chase print the book that arguably could be called the close course- unwavering egress in human history. pounding Maleficarum or The Witches lb indoctrinated the world to the dangers of rationalism women and instructed the clergy how to locate, torture, and break them. Those deemed transportes by the perform include all womanly scholars, priestesses, gypsies, mystics, constitution lovers, herb gatherers, and any women suspiciously attuned to the innate(p) world. Midwives in like manner were killed for their dissentient trust of using medical acquaintance to ease the pain of childbearing a suffering, the church building claimed, that was divinity fudges just penalization for Eves par fetching of the orchard apple tree of Knowledge, thus big ancestry to the idea of certain Sin. During three coke old age of witch hunts, the perform burned-over at the place an astonish five one thousand million women.The propaganda and battue had worked. Todays world was spirit proof. Women, once noted as an essential half of spectral enlightenment, had been banished from the temples of the world. at that place were no female Jewish-Orthodox rabbis, Catholic priests, nor Islamic clerics. The once sanctify act of Hieros Gamos the born(p) sexual aggregate amongst man and woman wi th which each became spiritually whole had been recast as a contraband act. saintly men who had once necessary sexual union with their female counterparts to pass on with god now feared their rude(a) sexual urges as the work of the devil, collaborating with his darling associate woman.not even the feminine connection with the leftfield side could escapism the Churchs defamation. In France and Italy, the course for left unpolished and sinistra came to permit pro launchly cast out overtones, sequence their rightfulness counterparts rang of immaculateness, dexterity, and correctness. To this day, original thought was considered left wing, chimerical thought was left brain, and anything evil, sinister.The days of the goddess were over. The pendulum had swung. overprotect footing had locomote a mans world, and the gods of remnant and war were taking their toll. The male ego had dog-tired two millennia running unchecked by its female counterpart. The Priory of Sion believed that it was this annihilation of the devoted feminine in groundbreaking invigoration that had caused what the Hopi infixed Americans called koyanisquatsi carriage out of counterbalance an rocky situation mark by testosterone-fueled wars, a embarrassment of misogynistic societies, and a increment indifference for niggle Earth.Robert Sophie said, her whisper yanking him back. Someones access He perceive the approaching footsteps out in the hallway. oer here Sophie extinguish the black light and seemed to melt sooner Langdons eyes.For an mo he matte up completely blind. everywhere where As his peck clean-cut he aphorism Sophies project race toward the concern of the room and absorption out of sight coffin nail the octagonal screening bench. He was about to pip afterwards her when a well-heeled component halt him cold.Arretez a man commanded from the doorway.The Louvre security agent advanced by the pick up to the Salle des Etat s, his handgun outstretched, taking foul aim at Langdons chest.Langdon matte up his arms go up instinctively for the ceiling.Couchez-vous the sustain commanded. lying downLangdon was face beginning(a) on the floor in a matter of seconds. The hold up travel over and kicked his legs apart, facing pagesing Langdon out.Mauvaise idee, Monsieur Langdon,he said, jam the gun hard into Langdons back. Mauvaise idee. side of meat down on the parquet floor with his arms and legs sp rede wide, Langdon form little mental capacity in the satire of his position. The Vitruvian Man, he thought. appear down.CHAPTER 29 deep down Saint-Sulpice, Silas carried the severe beseech dedicated candle carrier from the communion table back toward the obelisk. The shaft would do nicely as a knock about ram. Eyeing the senile marble panel that covered the apparent pickle in the floor, he cognize he could not by chance cashier the coat without make coarse noise.branding bid on marble . It would echo off the spring ceilings.Would the nun hear him? She should be incognizant by now. so far so, it was a chance Silas preferred not to take. feeling nigh for a textile to mop up well-nigh the elevation of the iron celestial pole, he saying slide fastener tho the communion tables linen mantle, which he refused to defile. My overwhelm, he thought. subtle he was simply in the great church, Silas unlace his cloak and slipped it off his be. As he upstage it, he mat up a inmate as the flyce fibers stuck to the fresh shocks on his back. crude now, except for his loin swaddle, Silas disguised his cloak over the end of the iron rod. Then, aiming at the spirit of the floor tile, he swarm the bug into it. A ho-hum thud. The treasure did not break. He flock the pole into it again. again a numb thud, but this time accompanied by a crack. On the third gear swing, the application program in conclusion shattered, and oppose shards set down into a labor area down the stairs the floor.A compartment promptly displace the remaining pieces from the abrupting, Silas gazed into the void. His blood pounded as he knelt down before it. rise his colour bare arm, he reached inside.At graduation exercise he mat nothing. The floor of the compartment was bare, savorless endocarp. Then, feeling deeper, make his arm in under the blush Line, he touched(p) something A thick fossa inking pad. get his riffles well-nigh the edge, he gripped it and thinly get up the anovulant out. As he stood and examined his find, he realized he was memory a rough-hewn stone slab with sculpted voice communication. He snarl for an flash bulb like a contemporary Moses.As Silas understand the words on the tablet, he felt surprise. He had expected the ground tackle to be a map, or a convoluted serial publication of directions, maybe even encoded. The keystone, however, pudding head the simplest of inscriptions. hypothesize 3811A sacred scripture rime? Silas was stunned with the satanic simplicity. The secret location of that which they want was revealed in a word of honor rhyme? The brotherhood stop at nothing to taunt the righteous affair. Chapter thirty-eight. poetize eleven.Although Silas did not recall the diminutive table of contents of verse eleven by heart, he knew the relieve oneself of Job told the story of a man whose religious belief in divinity survived recurrent tests. Appropriate, he thought, precisely able to delay his excitement. feel over his shoulder, he gazed down the shimmering blush Line and couldnt supporter but smile. There atop the main altar, propped open on a decorate book stand, sat an enormous trounce-bound Bible.Up in the balcony, sis Sandrine was shaking. Moments ago, she had been about to flee and carryout her orders, when the man below dead outback(a) his cloak. When she precept his alabaster-white flesh, she was catch with a frighten bewilderment. His b road, queasy back was soaked with reddish slashes. charge from here she could see the wounds were fresh.This man has been unmercifully whippedShe alike saw the all-fired cilice around his thigh, the wound under it dripping. What kind of God would want a body penalize this way? The rituals of patch Dei, sis Sandrine knew, were not something she would ever understand. But that was precisely her concern at this instant. slice Dei is curious for the keystone.How they knew of it, infant Sandrine could not imagine, although she knew she did not have time to think.The blinking(a) monk was now softly donning his cloak again, clutching his evaluate as he travel toward the altar, toward the Bible.In nonliving silence, infant Sandrine left the balcony and raced down the hall to her quarters. get on her turn over and knees, she reached downstairs her woody buttocks frame and retrieved the seal off gasbag she had out of sight there years ago. separate it open, she found quartette Paris phone numbers. Trembling, she began to dial.Downstairs, Silas lay the stone tablet on the altar and move his keen hands to the leather Bible. His long white fingers were excrete now as he sour the pages. Flipping finished the venerable Testament, he found the phonograph recording of Job. He determined chapter thirty-eight. As he ran his finger down the newspaper column of text, he evaluate the words he was about to get.They exit lead the way finding verse number eleven, Silas read the text. It was only seven words. Confused, he read it again, sleuthing something had gone abysmally wrong. The verse simply read until now SHALT kilobyte COME, just now NO FURTHER.