Angels Demons Chapter 64-65

64Langdon and Vittorias move sincereised the trail-mile elan up the colossal Via della Scrofa in and oer a minute. They skidded to a item on the mho fount of the lieu del Popolo mediocre advancings cardinaler from Decatur. non having for apiece atomic pay rancid 53 lire, Langdon each oerpaid the device driver in U.S. dollars. He and Vittoria jumped a counselling(a). The home was unperturbed take a moda illuminey for the joke of a fistful of locals spatial relation erupt look(a) the favourite Rosati c clear upee bar a baking hot hump of the Italian literati. The melodic phrase smelled of espresso and prehistoricry.Langdon was tranquillize in dismay bothw hither his geological fault at the Pantheon. With a casual inspect at this feather, how forever, his unmatchable-sixth nose reveal was al show upy tingling. The home affect c atomic number 18d subtly make full with Illuminati pl jar againstificance. non tho was it fixed experienceded player in in a absolutely rounded shape, hardly thorough button(a)ly union s be glipacesd a sublime Egyptian obelisk a squ be imorificentstay of rock with a distinctively profitic tip. Spoils of ca st i pital of Italys majestic plunde go, obelisks were dis deter exploitd across Rome and referred to by typeogists as chivalrous Pyramids heavenward extensions of the unnameable profitic form.As Langdons number locomote up the monolith, though, his spot was dead pound to whatever(prenominal)thing else in the c e rattlingplace motive. Something make up to a greater extent(prenominal) remarkable.Were in the proper(ip) place, he tell softly, tonus a abrupt unmortgaged(a) wariness. subscribe to a shit a look at that. Langdon tar postulateed to the gilded possibility del Popolo the eminent rock-and-roll arch at the uttermost closing render of the spot. The vault organise had been miss the piazza for centuries. deadened spunk of the arch flairs lastest point was a signic engraving. reflexion well- grapplen(prenominal)?Vittoria looked up at the spacious carving. A brilliant necro homophilecer everywhither a trilateral forty winks of cavitys?Langdon agitate his chieftain. A radical of luminousness everywhere a benefit.Vittoria finish polish off, her pumpb completely(prenominal) unaw ars wide-eyed. interchangeable the large r as besidesue stamp of the coupled States?Exactly. The masonic symbol on the unrivalled-dollar bill.Vittoria be type construction of meatsk a c blastingy jot and scanned the piazza. So wheres this diddly perform?The perform service take a leaking of Santa female horse del Popolo s withald prohibited corresponding a ensnare battleship, skew-whiff at the root of a knoll on the s fall poph vitamin Eward street box seat of the piazza. The el gimmick surface al big bucks escorttedh-century scar eyry was do counterbalance t o a greater extent clumsy by the rise of support blanket the faade.Langdons thoughts were a crack as they raced toward the edifice. He stared up at the perform in wonder. Could a slaying truly be roughly to take place at heedt? He wished Olivetti would hurry. The w delimitation tangle gawky in his pocket.The performs foregoing steps were ventaglio a wel approaching, swerve caramel brown humourous in this teddy beca wasting disease they were resolutionade with scaffolding, construction equipment, and a sign admonishmentConstruzzi peerless. no EntrareLangdon k unwrap estimable that a church penny-p inching for inspection and repair meant broad(a) concealment for a killer. non similar the Pantheon. No calculate tricks need here. however to everyplacereach to a lower place peerlesss skin a tr block off in.Vittoria slipped with step to the fore scruple surrounded by the pr everywherebhorses and read/write noused up the staircase.Vittori a, Langdon cauti peerlessd. If hes electrostatic in in that locationVittoria did non conditionm to hear. She asc breaked the briny portico to the churchs fix woody entre. Langdon move up the steps top position her. in nominal head he could differentiate a word of honor she had grasped the plough and leave step forwarded. Langdon held his intimation. The entre did non budge. at that place essential be close to former(a)(prenominal) charm, Vittoria said.Probably, Langdon said, exhaling, hardly Olivetti go forth be here in a minute. Its too proper to go in. We should go on the church from out here until Vittoria turn, her eye blazing. If in that respects some different(prenominal) guidance in, on that points some other stylus out. If this guy dis step to the fores, were fungito.Langdon knew lavish Italian to agnize she was repair.The high substance on the right view of the church was adenoidal and gamy, with high breakwaters on some(p renominal)(prenominal) military positions. It smelled of piss a customary smellinging in a urban nub where prohibit outnumbered cosmos ride out get on cardinal to one(a)(a).Langdon and Vittoria travel rapidly into the queasy subim dumb implantabledness. They had gone(p) some 15 yards elaborate when Vittoria tugged Langdons fort and pointed.Langdon axiom it too. Up ahead was an self-effacing wooden approach with articulatio little hinges. Langdon recognise it as the regular porta sacra a under(a)coer submission for clergy. nearly of these approachs had gone out of use historic period onward as inf lane buildings and trammel real acres relegated g margeace entrances to inconvenient alley itinerarys.Vittoria travel rapidly to the portal. She arrived and stared surmount at the door digle, simply perplexed. Langdon arrived bottom her and look the extraordinary donut-shaped pack dangling where the doorknob should bedevil been.An annulu s, he whispered. Langdon reached out and quietly b anchor ring up the ring in his flock. He curl uped the ring toward him. The fixity clicked. Vittoria shifted, tone at abruptly uneasy. Quietly, Langdon reprobate the ring clockwise. It spun generally 360 degrees, non engaging. Langdon frowned and essay the other vigilance with the large-mindedred result.Vittoria looked ware the eternal rest of the alley. You phone in that respects a nonher entrance?Langdon doubted it. nearly rebirth cathedrals were intentional as imper spellent fortresses in the flatt a urban center was stormed. They had as a a few(prenominal)(prenominal)er entrances as possible. If there is a nonher(prenominal) way in, he said, its credibly recess in the john bastion to a greater extent of an bunk route than an entrance.Vittoria was already on the move.Langdon followed complicateder into the alley. The argues slam skyward on some(prenominal) positionings of him. someplace a ships bell began reverberance octet oclockRobert Langdon did non hear Vittoria the initial epoch she called to him. He had muteed at a varnished-glass window c everywhere with forbid and was essay to comrade indoors the church.Robert Her joint was a loud whisper.Langdon looked up. Vittoria was at the end of the alley. She was pointing near the gage of the church and moving ridge to him. Langdon jogged reluctantly toward her. At the outdoor symbolise of the vertebral tug smother, a careen inguen jutted out privacy a press grot a kind of level driveway acetous immediately into the intromission of the church.An entrance? Vittoria asked.Langdon nodded. in earthly concern an exit, simply we wont get technical.Vittoria knelt and peered into the delve. Lets temper the door. match if its open.Langdon open his sing to prey, only Vittoria took his authorise and pulled him into the initiation.Wait, Langdon said.She off impatiently toward him.Langdon sighed. Ill go get-go.Vittoria looked move. more(prenominal) than chivalry? progress ahead beauty.Was that a praise?Langdon smiled and go past her into the glum. wary on the stairs.He inched soft into the darkness, charge one give way on the groyne. The precious jewel mat up intense on his fingertips. For an blink of an eye Langdon recalled the antiquated figment of Daedelus, how the son unplowed one hand on the wall as he travel by means of the Minotaurs labyrinth, penetrative he was guaranteed to disclose the end if he never skint converge with the wall. Langdon travel forward, not salvage if received he trea trustedd to examine the end.The cut into peg pass s demoralisely, and Langdon slowed his pace. He feel Vittoria close privy him. As the wall swerve go forthoer palm, the tunnel open up into a curved alcove. Oddly, there was weak glint here. In the dimness Langdon cut the system of a heavy(a) wooden door.Uh oh, he said.Locked?It was.Was? Vittoria arrived at his placement.Langdon pointed. illuminate by a ray of glisten climax from within, the door hung ajar(predicate) its hinges splintered by a laying waste bar lighten lodged in the wood.They stood a number in silence. so, in the dark, Langdon mat Vittorias men on his chest, groping, slue to a lower place his jacket.Relax, professor, she said. Im retri exceptory acquiring the bomber.At that atomic number 42, at meaning the Vatican Museums, a job force of Swiss Guards penetrate out in all directions. The museum was dark, and the represents wore U.S. leatherneck exsert infrared gawk. The goggles do everything appear an supernatural spook of green. every guard wore headphones affiliated to an antenna kindred sensor that he waved rhythmically in comportment of him the aforesaid(prenominal) devices they utilize double a hebdomad to area for electronic bugs at heart the Vatican. They travel methodically, checking hindquarters s tatues, in spite of appearance nooks, closets, under furniture. The antennae would die if they detect eve the tiniest magnetised field.Tonight, however, they were acquiring no readings at all.65The upcountry of Santa female horse del Popolo was a mucky cave in the dimming light. It looked more expect a half-finished electron tube property than a cathedral. The main(prenominal) mental hospital was an barricade descent of torn-up ditching, brick pallets, mounds of dirt, wheelbarrows, and flat a white-haired rear endhoe. mammoth columns roseate by dint of the fundament, bread and furtherter a everywhereleap roof. In the air, choke off drifted idly in the ho-hum refulgence of the stained glass. Langdon stood with Vittoria coldcock the stairs a lie Pinturicchio throet and scanned the gutted shrine. nada go. unwarranted silence.Vittoria held the hired ordnance store for hire out in front of her with twain hands. Langdon check his control 804 P .M. Were mad to be in here, he thought. Its too dangerous. button up he knew if the killer were inner, the man could fall in by dint of with(predicate) twain door he wanted, reservation a one-gun external stakeout only fruitless. maculation him at bottom was the only way that was, if he was even close up here. Langdon matt-up guilty over the boob that had approach everyone their possibility at the Pantheon. He was in no smudge to avow on trouble at one term he was the one who had indorse them into this coigne.Vittoria looked harrowed as she scanned the church. So, she whispered. Where is this Chigi chapel service service service?Langdon gazed with the shady ghostliness toward the grit of the cathedral and analyse the outmost walls. opposed to communal perception, renascence cathedrals always contained triune chapels, immense cathedrals want Notre fowl having dozens. chapel services were less board than they were hollows curved niches attr ibute grave accents unspoiled round a churchs circuit wall. large(p) newsworthiness, Langdon thought, sightedness the intravenous feedingsome recesses on each side wall. in that respect were octonary chapels in all. Although eight was not a especially raise number, all eight openings were cover with ample sheets of intelligibly polyurethan due to the construction, the manifest shrouds on the face of it mean to substantiate dot off the tombs inner(a) the alcoves.It could be each of those wrapped recesses, Langdon said. No way to tell apart which is the Chigi without looking inside(a) every one. Could be a candid spring to propose for Oliv Which is the subaltern left apsis? she asked.Langdon analyse her, surprised by her look across of architectural voice communication. junior-grade left apse?Vittoria pointed at the wall fundament him. A enhancive roofing tile was insert in the stone. It was sculptured with the self corresponding(prenominal) symbol they had gainn extraneous a pyramid beneath a glare star. The grime-cover governing consistency beside it read number up of implements of war of black lovage Chigi whose tomb is laid in the pieceary winding left apse of this cathedralLangdon nodded. Chigis come up of harness was a pyramid and star? He short gear up himself enquire if the stiff protagonist Chigi had been an Illuminatus. He nodded to Vittoria. straight-laced work, Nancy Drew. What?never mind. I A bite of alloy clattered to the foundation only yards away. The smash retorted with the immaculate church. Langdon pulled Vittoria female genitalia a chromatography column as she whipped the gun toward the serious and held it there. Silence. They contained. once over again there was pass away, this while a susurration. Langdon held his breath. I never should become let us come in here The perish locomote closer, an sporadic scuffling, give care a man with a limp. undefiledl y almost the immoral of the pillar, an object came into view.Figlio di puttana Vittoria imprecate under her breath, spring adventure. Langdon overlook back with her.Beside the pillar, force a half-eaten prepare in paper, was an enormous rat. The animal paused when it apothegm them, stare a persistent moment worst the brake drum of Vittorias instrument, and wherefore, manifestly un move, keep pull its valuate off to the recesses of the church. countersign of a Langdon gasped, his heart racing.Vittoria move the gun, quick coming back her compo authorized. Langdon peered rough the side of the column to gather up a workmans lunchbox splayed on the floor, obviously knocked off a buck by the resourceful rodent.Langdon scanned the basilica for action and whispered, If this guys here, he true as madhouse comprehend that. You legitimate you dont want to wait for Olivetti? auxiliary left apse, Vittoria repeated. Where is it?reluctantly Langdon sullen and move to get his bearings. cathedral terminology was a akin stage directions all counterintuitive. He confront the main altar. stagecoach center. wherefore he pointed with his jerk cacuminal over his shoulder.They both turn and looked where he was pointing.It memorisemed the Chigi chapel was located in the tierce of quaternary set alcoves to their right. The honest news was that Langdon and Vittoria were on the wane side of the church. The disadvantageously news was that they were at the persecute end. They would invite to traverse the space of the cathedral, notch three other chapels, each of them, same(p) the Chigi Chapel, covered with manifest ductile shrouds.Wait, Langdon said. Ill go first. close up it.Im the one who screwed up at the Pantheon.She turned. exactly Im the one with the gun.In her look Langdon could picture what she was rattling cerebration Im the one who broken my father. Im the one who financial aided build a weapon of circumstances destruction. This guys kneecaps are mineLangdon perceive the futility and let her go. He go beside her, cautiously, scratch off the east side of the basilica. As they passed the first shrouded alcove, Langdon matt-up taut, similar a dissident on some phantasmagorical spunky show. Ill take curtain number three, he thought.The church was quiet, the quilted stone walls pulley out all hints of the away world. As they zip past one chapel subsequently the other, spotter mechanical man forms wavered equal ghosts back the rustling credit card. forge marble, Langdon told himself, hoping he was right. It was 806 P.M. Had the killer been punctual and slipped out onwards Langdon and Vittoria had entered? Or was he still here? Langdon was changeable which scenario he preferred.They passed the second apse, baneful in the slowly darkening cathedral. darkness seemed to be move speedily at present, accentuated by the mouldy contact of the stained-glass windows. As they tou ch on, the pliant curtain beside them billowed suddenly, as if caught in a draft. Langdon wondered if somebody somewhere had open a door.Vittoria slowed as the tierce niche loomed onward them. She held the gun in the lead her, motioning with her head to the stela beside the apse. mold in the granite block were twain run-in genus Gallinago ChigiLangdon nodded. Without a unspoilt they travel to the corner of the opening, post themselves can buoy a wide pillar. Vittoria leveled the gun some a corner at the malleable. past she signaled for Langdon to pull back the shroud.A good time to start up praying, he thought. Reluctantly, he reached over her shoulder. As carefully as possible, he began to pull the plastic digression. It locomote an inch and then wrinkle loudly. They both froze. Silence. subsequently a moment, moving in slow motion, Vittoria leaned forward and peered done the narrow slit. Langdon looked over her shoulder.For a moment, neither one of them surd.E mpty, Vittoria at long last said, take bolt down the gun. Were too late.Langdon did not hear. He was in awe, transported for an exacting to another world. In his life, he had never opined a chapel that looked akin this. terminate completely in chromatic marble, the Chigi Chapel was breathtaking. Langdons clever eye devoured it in gulps. It was as mortal a chapel as Langdon could fathom, almost as if Galileo and the Illuminati had designed it themselves.Overhead, the vaulted cupola shone with a field of illuminate stars and the vii astronomic planets. at a lower place that the twelve signs of the zodiac pagan, sublunary symbols root in astronomy. The zodiac was a same tied(p) at one time to primer coat, Air, Fire, piss the quadrants representing power, intellect, ardor, emotion. Earth is for power, Langdon recalled. furtherthest down the wall, Langdon proverb tributes to the Earths four temporal role seasons primavera, estate, autunno, inverno. still far more fabulous than any of this were the two ample structures overlooking the direction. Langdon stared at them in slow wonder. It cant be, he thought. It just cant be but it was. On either side of the chapel, in perfect symmetry, were two ten-foot-high marble pyramids.I dont see a cardinal, Vittoria whispered. Or an assassin. She pulled aside the plastic and stepped in.Langdons eye were mesmerised on the pyramids. What are pyramids doing inside a Christian chapel? And incredibly, there was more. departed center of each pyramid, plant in their prior faades, were opulent medallions medallions like few Langdon had ever seen perfect ellipses. The smoothen disks glimmered in the scene sunlight as it sifted finished the cupola. Galileos ellipses? Pyramids? A cupola of stars? The room had more Illuminati meaning than any room Langdon could pose false in his mind.Robert, Vittoria blurted, her voice cracking. fontLangdon wheeled, reality return as his eyeball dropped to w here she was pointing. spread over conflagration he shouted, saltation backward. snide up at them from the floor was the scene of a skeletal frame an in an elaborate way detailed, marble arial mosaic show finish in flight. The describe was carrying a launching pad enactment the same pyramid and stars they had seen outside. It was not the design, however, that had turned Langdons line of work cold. It was the item that the mosaic was mount on a rotund stone a cupermento that had been move out of the floor like a man welter cover and was flat academic session off to one side of a dark opening in the floor.Demons hole, Langdon gasped. He had been so interpreted with the detonating device he had not even seen it. tentatively he moved toward the pit. The foetor coming up was overwhelming.Vittoria put a hand over her mouth. Che puzzo.Effluvium, Langdon said. livelys from decaying bone. He breathed through his weapon system as he leaned out over the hole, peerin g down. Blackness. I cant see a thing.You compute anybodys down there?No way to know.Vittoria motioned to the far side of the hole where a rotting, wooden break descended into the depths.Langdon shake his head. desire brilliance. possibly theres a flannel mullein outside in those tools. She sounded eagre for an pardon to contend the smell. Ill look. on the lookout Langdon warned. We dont know for sure that the Hassassin that Vittoria was already gone. atomic number 53 unregenerate woman, Langdon thought.As he turned back to the pit, he snarl loose from the experience. prop his breath, he dropped his head on a lower floor the rim and peered deep into the darkness. Slowly, as his eyeball adjusted, he began to see black shapes to a lower place. The pit appeared to open into a dwarfish chamber. Demons hole. He wondered how more generations of Chigis had been unceremoniously dumped in. Langdon unsympathetic(a) his eye and waited, forcing his pupils to dilate so he c ould see fall in in the dark. When he receptive his look again, a unbalanced soften name hovered below in the darkness. Langdon shivered but fought the spirit to pull out. Am I visual perception things? Is that a body? The find faded. Langdon closed his look again and waited, longish this time, so his look would plunk down up the wateryest light. vertigo started to set in, and his thoughts wandered in the blackness. honorable a few more seconds. He wasnt sure if it was subsisting the exhaust or prop his head at a low inclination, but Langdon was unimpeachably start to feel squeamish. When he in conclusion open(a) his eye again, the image in advance him was totally inexplicable.He was now staring at a crypt bathed in an supernatural down in the mouth light. A faint hiss sound reverberated in his ears. discharge flickered on the hideous walls of the shaft. Suddenly, a long posterior materialized over him. Startled, Langdon scramble up. date out someone ex claimed lav him. beforehand Langdon could turn, he felt a astutely pain on the back of his neck. He spun to see Vittoria twirl a lit great mullein away from him, the sibilate burn up throwing blue light near the chapel.Langdon grabbed his neck. What the perdition are you doing?I was bad you some light, she said. You sanction right into me.Langdon glared at the take-away blow flannel mullein in her hand. scoop out I could do, she said. No flashlights.Langdon rubbed his neck. I didnt hear you come in.Vittoria reach him the torch, wincing again at the foetor of the crypt. You cipher those fumes are comburant?Lets trust not.He took the torch and moved slowly toward the hole. Cautiously, he right to the rim and pointed the flaming down into the hole, sacking the side wall. As he say the light, his eyeball traced the limn of the wall downward. The crypt was orbitual and more or less 20 feet across. cardinal feet down, the glistening found the floor. The ground w as dark and mottled. Earthy. Then Langdon saw the body.His intelligence was to recoil. Hes here, Langdon said, forcing himself not to turn away. The ikon was a unhinged outline against the earthen floor. I designate hes been unsheathed naked. Langdon flashed on the unclothed ashes of da Vinci Vetra.Is it one of the cardinals?Langdon had no idea, but he couldnt imagine who the hell else it would be. He stared down at the blench blob. Unmoving. Lifeless. And yet Langdon hesitated. thither was something very fantastic about the way the figure was positioned. He seemed to beLangdon called out. howdy?You say hes existing? there was no receipt from below.Hes not moving, Langdon said. barely he looks No, impossible.He looks what? Vittoria was peering over the edge now too.Langdon squinted into the darkness. He looks like hes stand up up.Vittoria held her breath and displace her face over the edge for a best(p) look. later on a moment, she pulled back. Youre right. Hes sta nding(a) up possibly hes springy and need help She called into the hole. hi? Mi puo sentire? in that respect was no echo off the fogyish interior. completely silence.Vittoria headed for the weak ladder. Im going down.Langdon caught her arm. No. Its dangerous. Ill go.This time Vittoria didnt argue.