The Da Vinci Code Chapter 33-37

CHAPTER 33Sophies SmartCar tore by the diplomatic quarter, weaving past embassies and consulates, at long last racing unwrap a fount street and taking a right magic spell jeopardize onto the massive thoroughf argon of Champs-Elysees.Langdon sat white-knuckled in the passenger seat, twisted supportward, scanning behind them for any signs of the police. He on the spur of the moment wished he had non decided to run. You didnt, he reminded himself. Sophie had made the decision for him when she threw the GPS de cig atomic number 18tte turn show up the bathroom window. Now, as they sped a fashion from the embassy, serpentining by means of sparse affair on Champs-Elysees, Langdon felt his options deteriorating. Although Sophie seemed to experience baffled the police, at least for the moment, Langdon doubted their mass would abide for long.Behind the wheel Sophie was fishing in her sweater hammock. She removed a sm both metal object and held it expose for him. Robert, y oud better gift a bear at this. This is what my granddaddy leave me behind bloody shame of the Rocks.Feeling a shiver of anticipation, Langdon took the object and examined it. It was heavy and shaped manage a cruciate. His basic instinct was that he was holding a funeral pieu a miniature version of a memorial spike designed to be stuck into the ground at a gravesite. But hence he remark the shaft protruding from the cruciform was prismatic and triangular. The shaft was also pockmarked with hundreds of tiny hexagons that appeared to be finely tooled and scattered at random.Its a laser-cut de railwayate, Sophie told him. Those hexagons are analyse by an electric eye.A signalise? Langdon had never seen anything homogeneous it.Look at the new(prenominal) view, she said, changing lanes and sailing through an intersection.When Langdon sour the advert, he felt his jaw drop. there, intricately embossed on the total of the cross, was a stylized fleur-de-lis with the initi als P. S. Sophie, he said, this is the seal I told you approximately The official device of the Priory of Sion. She nodded. As I told you, I saw the light upon a long time ago. He told me never to speak of it again. Langdons look were hushed riveted on the embossed key. Its high-tech tooling and age-oldsymbolism exuded an eerie fusion of antique and modern manhoods.He told me the key opened a box where he kept many enigmas.Langdon felt a chill to imagine what lovable of secrets a man corresponding Jacques Sauniere might keep. What an ancient brotherhood was doing with a futuristic key, Langdon had no idea. The Priory existed for the sole purpose of protect a secret. A secret of incredible indicator. Could this key delay something to do with it? The horizon was overwhelming. Do you k turn outright what it opens?Sophie looked disappointed. I was hoping you knew.Langdon remained silent as he turn the cruciform in his hand, examining it.It looks Christian, Sophie pressed .Langdon was not so sure astir(predicate) that. The head of this key was not the traditional long-stemmed Christian cross precisely rather was a substantive cross with four ramifications of equal length which predated Christianity by fifteen hundred years. This kind of cross carried none of the Christian connotations of excruciation associated with the longer-stemmed Latin Cross, originated by Romans as a torture device. Langdon was always strike how few Christians who gazed upon the crucifix recognise their symbols violent history was reflected in its really appellation cross and crucifix came from the Latin verb cruciare to torture.Sophie, he said, all I can declaim you is that equal-armed crosses comparable this one are con fontred peaceful crosses. Their square configurations lead them impractical for use in crucifixion, and their balanced vertical and level elements convey a natural union of male and female, making them symbolically consis tennert with Priory ph ilosophy.She gave him a weary look. You have no idea, do you? Langdon frowned. not a clue. Okay, we have to wreak off the road. Sophie look into her rearview mirror. We demand a safe place to figure out what that key opens.Langdon panorama yearningly of his comfortable room at the Ritz. Obviously, that was not an option. How about my phalanxs at the American University of capital of France?Too obvious. Fache will check with them. You must know people. You persist here. Fache will run my border and e-mail records, talk to my coworkers. My contacts are compromised, and determination a hotel is no good because they all require identification.Langdon wondered again if he might have been better off taking his chances letting Fache get a cable him at the Louvre. Lets call the embassy. I can explain the situation and have the embassy send someone to meet us somewhere.Meet us? Sophie saturnine and stared at him as if he were crazy. Robert, youre dreaming. Your embassy has no ju risdiction except on their own property. Sending someone to recollect us would be considered aiding a fugitive of the French government. It wont happen. If you walk into your embassy and request temporary asylum, thats one thing, that asking them to take action against French law enforcement in the dramaturgy? She shook her head. Call your embassy right now, and they are pass to tell you to neutralise further damage and turn yourself over to Fache. whence theyll promise to chase after diplomatic channels to get you a fair trial. She gazed up the line of elegant storefronts onChamps-Elysees. How much currency do you have?Langdon checked his wallet. A hundred dollars. A few euro. Why? Credit card game? Of course.As Sophie accelerated, Langdon sensed she was formulating a jut. Dead ahead, at the end of Champs-Elysees, stood the emission de Triomphe Napoleons 164-foot-tall tri ande to his own military potency encircled by Frances largest rotary, a nine-lane behemoth.Sophies eyes were on the rearview mirror again as they approached the rotary. We lost them for the time being, she said, but we wont last other five minutes if we bear on in this car.So steal a different one, Langdon mused, now that were c boundinals. What are you going to do? Sophie gunned the SmartCar into the rotary. Trust me. Langdon made no response. Trust had not gotten him precise far this hush uping. Pulling indorse the sleeve of his jacket, he checked his lodge a vintage, collectors-edition Mickey Mouse articulatio radiocarpeawatch that had been a gift from his adverts on his tenth birth daylight. Although its juvenile dial often drew odd looks, Langdon had never owned any other watch Disney animations had been his first introduction to the joke of form and color, and Mickey now served as Langdons daily reminder to stay young at heart. At the moment, however, Mickeys arms were skewed at an clumsy angle, indicating an equally awkward hour.251 A. M.Interesting watch, Sop hie said, glancing at his wrist and maneuvering the SmartCar around the wide, counterclockwise rotary.Long story, he said, pulling his sleeve back down.I imagine it would have to be. She gave him a quick smile and exited the rotary, promontory due north, away from the city center. Barely making deuce spurt lights, she reached the third intersection and took a hard right onto Boulevard Malesherbes. Theyd go away the rich, tree-lined streets of the diplomatic neighborhood and plunged into a darker industrial neighborhood. Sophie took a quick left, and a moment later, Langdon realized where they were. Gare Saint-Lazare. Ahead of them, the field glass- crowned chain terminal resembled the awkward subject of an airplane hangar and a greenhouse. European curb berths never slept. rase at this hour, a half-dozen taxi sidled near the main adit. Vendors do work carts of sandwiches and mineral water while grungy kids in backpacks emerged from the transport guide their eyes, spir it around as if attempting to remember what city they were in now. Up ahead on the street, a couple of city policemen stood on the curb giving directions to some confused tourers.Sophie pulled her SmartCar in behind the line of taxis and parked in a red zone despite plenty of legal parking across the street. Before Langdon could ask what was going on, she was out of the car. She hurried to the window of the taxi in front of them and began speaking to the driver.As Langdon got out of the SmartCar, he saw Sophie hand the taxi driver a big wad of cash. The taxi driver nodded and then, to Langdons bewilderment, sped off without them.What happened? Langdon demanded, joining Sophie on the curb as the taxi disappeared.Sophie was already heading for the train position entrance. Come on. Were buying devil slatings on the next train out of Paris.Langdon hurried along beside her. What had begun as a one-mile dash to the U. S. Embassy had now die a full-fledged evacuation from Paris. Lan gdon was liking this idea less and less.CHAPTER 34The driver who collected Bishop Aringarosa from Leonardo Da Vinci International Airport pulled up in a small, un awe-inspiring black ordination sedan. Aringarosa recalled a day when all Vatican transports were big luxury cars that sported grille-plate medallions and flags emblazoned with the seal of the beatified See. Those days are gone.Vatican cars were now less ostentatious and al just about always unmarked. The Vatican claimed this was to cut be to better serve their dioceses, but Aringarosa suspected it was more of a aegis measure. The world had gone mad, and in many parts of Europe, advertising your passion of Jesus Christ was like video a bulls-eye on the roof of your car.Bundling his black cassock around himself, Aringarosa climbed into the back seat and make up ones mindtled in for the long drive to Castel Gandolfo. It would be the same ride he had interpreted five months ago.Last years trip to Rome, he sighed. The lo ngest night of my life. volt months ago, the Vatican had phoned to request Aringarosas immediate presence in Rome. They offered no explanation. Your tickets are at the airport.The blessed See worked hard to retain a veil of mystery, regular(a) for its highest clergy.The mysterious summons, Aringarosa suspected, was probably a photo opportunity for the pontiff and other Vatican officials to piggyback on report Deis recent public success the shutting of their World Headquarters in New York City. Architectural Digest had called Opus Deis building a shining beacon of Catholicism sublimely merged with the modern landscape, and lately the Vatican seemed to be drawn to anything and all(prenominal)thing that included the word modern.Aringarosa had no choice but to accept the invitation, albeit reluctantly. non a fan of the occurrent papal administration, Aringarosa, like most conservative clergy, had watched with grave concern as the new Pope settled into his first year in office. An rare liberal, His Holiness had secured the papacy through one of the most controversial and droll conclaves in Vatican history. Now, rather than being strumbled by his unexpected countermand to power, the Holy Father had wasted no time flexing all the pass associated with the highest office in Christendom. Drawing on an unsettling tide of liberal curb within the College of Cardinals, the Pope was now declaring his papal mission to be rejuvenation of Vatican doctrine and updating Catholicism into the third millennium.The translation, Aringarosa feared, was that the man was actually controlling enough to think he could rewrite idols laws and win back the paddy wagon of those who felt the demands of genuine Catholicism had become too inconvenient in a modern world.Aringarosa had been using all of his policy-making sway self-colored considering the size of the Opus Dei constituency and their bankroll to persuade the Pope and his advisers that softening the Churchs la ws was not just faithless and cowardly, but political suicide. He reminded them that previous anneal of Church law the Vatican II fiasco had left a waste legacy Church attendance was now lower than ever, donations were drying up, and there were not even enough Catholic priests to preside over their churches.People hold structure and direction from the Church, Aringarosa insisted, not coddling and indulgenceOn that night, months ago, as the Fiat had left the airport, Aringarosa was surprised to surface himself heading not toward Vatican City but rather eastward up a sinuous mountain road. Where are we going? he had demanded of his driver.Alban Hills, the man replied. Your meeting is at Castel Gandolfo.The Popes summer star sign hall? Aringarosa had never been, nor had he ever desired to see it. In gain to being the Popes summer vacation home, the sixteenth-century citadel housed the Specula Vaticana the Vatican Observatory one of the most advanced astronomical observatori es in Europe. Aringarosa had never been comfortable with the Vaticans historical need to dabble in acquisition. What was the rationale for fusing science and faith? Unbiased science could not possibly be performed by a man who possess faith in God. Nor did faith have any need for sensual confirmation of its beliefs.Nonetheless, there it is, he thought as Castel Gandolfo came into view, rising against a star- modify November sky. From the access road, Gandolfo resembled a great s spook monster pondering a suicidal leap. Perched at the very edge of a cliff, the castle leaned out over the cradle of Italian civilization the valley where the Curiazi and Orazi clans fought long in the beginning the founding of Rome.Even in silhouette, Gandolfo was a sight to behold an impressive example of tiered, defensive architecture, echoing the potency of this dramatic cliff side setting. Sadly, Aringarosa now saw, the Vatican had ruined the building by constructing two Brobdingnagian aluminium telescope domes a expire the roof, leaving this once dignified edifice looking like a proud warrior wearing a couple of political party hats.When Aringarosa got out of the car, a young Jesuit priest hurried out and greeted him. Bishop, welcome. I am Father Mangano. An astronomer here.Good for you.Aringarosa grumbled his conflagrationo and followed his host into the castles foyer a wide- open space whose decor was a ungraceful blend of Renaissance art and astronomy images. Following his escort up the wide travertine marble staircase, Aringarosa saw signs for conference centers, science lecture halls, and tourist information services. It amazed him to think the Vatican was failing at every turn to provide coherent, stringent guidelines for spiritual growth and yet somehow still found time to give astrophysics lectures to tourists.Tell me, Aringarosa said to the young priest, when did the tail start wagging the dog? The priest gave him an odd look. Sir? Aringarosa waved it off, de ciding not to institute into that particular offensive again this evening. The Vatican has gone mad.Like a lazy parent who found it easier to acquiesce to the whims of a spoiled child than to stand firm and teach values, the Church just kept softening at every turn, trying to reinvent itself to accommodate a culture gone astray.The top floors corridor was wide, lushly appointed, and led in only one direction toward a huge set of oak doors with a brass sign.BIBLIOTECA ASTRONOMICAAringarosa had heard of this place the Vaticans astronomy Library rumored to contain more than twenty-five thousand volumes, including rare industrial plant of Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, Newton, and Secchi. Allegedly, it was also the place in which the Popes highest officers held private meetings those meetings they preferred not to hold within the walls of Vatican City.Approaching the door, Bishop Aringarosa would never have imagined the shocking news he was about to receive inside, or the deadly chai n of events it would vex into motion. It was not until an hour later, as he staggered from the meeting, that the devastating implications settled in. Six monthsfrom now he had thought. God help usNow, seated in the Fiat, Bishop Aringarosa realized his fists were clenched just thinking about that first meeting. He rel substituted his clutch and forced a slow inhalation, relaxing his muscles.Everything will be fine, he told himself as the Fiat wound higher into the mountains. Still, he wished his cell phone would ring. Why hasnt the Teacher called me? Silas should have the keystone by now.Trying to ease his nerves, the bishop meditated on the regal amethyst in his ring. Feeling the textures of the mitre-crozier applique and the facets of the diamonds, he reminded himself that this ring was a symbol of power far less than that which he would soon attain.CHAPTER 35The inside of Gare Saint-Lazare looked like every other train station in Europe, a gaping indoor- outdoor cavern dot wit h the usual suspects homeless men holding cardboard signs, collectings of bleary-eyed college kids sleeping on backpacks and zoning out to their portable MP3 players, and clusters of blue-clad baggage porters smoking cigarettes.Sophie elevated her eyes to the enormous departure board overhead. The black and white tabs reshuffled, ruffling downwards as the information refreshed. When the update was finished, Langdon eyed the offerings. The topmost listing read LYON RAPIDE 306I wish it left sooner, Sophie said, but Lyon will have to do. Sooner? Langdon checked his watch 259 A. M. The train left in seven minutes and they didnt even have tickets yet.Sophie guided Langdon toward the ticket window and said, Buy us two tickets with your credit card.I thought credit card usage could be traced by Exactly. Langdon decided to halt trying to keep ahead of Sophie Neveu. Using his Visa card, he purchased two coach tickets to Lyon and handed them to Sophie.Sophie guided him out toward the tracks, where a familiar tone chimed overhead and a P. A. announcer gave the final boarding call for Lyon. Sixteen shed light on tracks spread out before them. In the distance to the right, at quay three, the train to Lyon was belching and wheezing in preparation for departure, but Sophie already had her arm through Langdons and was guiding him in the exact opposite direction. They hurried through a side lobby, past an all-night cafe, and finally out a side door onto a quiet street on the west side of the station.A lone taxi sat idling by the doorway.The driver saw Sophie and flicked his lights.Sophie jumped in the back seat. Langdon got in after her.As the taxi pulled away from station, Sophie took out their newly purchased train tickets and tore them up.Langdon sighed. Seventy dollars swell up spent.It was not until their taxi had settled into a monotonous northbound hum on experience de Clichy that Langdon felt theyd actually escaped. Out the window to his right, he could see Montmartre and the beautiful dome of Sacre-Coeur. The image was interrupted by the bodacious of police lights sailing past them in the opposite direction.Langdon and Sophie ducked down as the sirens faded.Sophie had told the cab driver simply to head out of the city, and from her firmly set jaw, Langdon sensed she was trying to figure out their next move.Langdon examined the cruciform key again, holding it to the window, bringing it close to his eyes in an effort to recoup any markings on it that might indicate where the key had been made. In the sporadic glow of passing streetlights, he saw no markings except the Priory seal.It doesnt make sense, he finally said. Which part? That your grandfather would go to so much bustle to give you a key that you wouldnt know what to do with.I agree.Are you sure he didnt write anything else on the back of the painting?I searched the whole area. This is all there was. This key, wedged behind the painting. I saw the Priory seal, stuck the key in my pocket, then we left.Langdon frowned, peering now at the brusk end of the triangular shaft. Nothing. Squinting, he brought the key close to his eyes and examined the rim of the head. Nothing there either. I think this key was cleaned recently. Why? It smells like rubbing alcohol. She off. Im sorry? It smells like somebody polished it with a unsoiled. Langdon held the key to his nose and sniffed. Its stronger on the other side. He flipped it over. Yes, its alcohol-based, like its been buffed with a cleaner or Langdon stopped. What? He angled the key to the light and looked at the polish up surface on the broad arm of the cross. It seemed to shimmer in places like it was wet. How well did you look at the back of this key before you put it in your pocket?What? Not well. I was in a hurry.Langdon turned to her. Do you still have the black light?Sophie reached in her pocket and produced the UV penlight. Langdon took it and switched it on, shining the beam on the back of the ke y.The back luminesced instantly. There was writing there. In penmanship that was hurried but legible.Well, Langdon said, smiling. I anticipate we know what the alcohol smell was.Sophie stared in amazement at the purple writing on the back of the key.24 Rue HaxoAn address My grandfather wrote down an addressWhere is this? Langdon asked.Sophie had no idea. Facing front again, she leaned forward and excitedly asked the driver,Connaissez-vous la Rue Haxo?The driver thought a moment and then nodded. He told Sophie it was out near the tennis stadium on the western outskirts of Paris. She asked him to take them there immediately.Fastest route is through Bois de Boulogne, the driver told her in French. Is that okay?Sophie frowned. She could think of far less scandalous routes, but this evening she was not going to be picky. Oui. We can shock the visiting American.Sophie looked back at the key and wondered what they would possibly find at 24 Rue Haxo. A church? Some kind of Priory headqua rters?Her mind filled again with images of the secret ritual she had witnessed in the basement grotto ten years ago, and she heaved a long sigh. Robert, I have a hand out of things to tell you. She paused, locking eyes with him as the taxi raced westward. But first I want you to tell me everything you know about this Priory of Sion.CHAPTER 36 after-school(prenominal) the Salle des Etats, Bezu Fache was fuming as Louvre warden Grouard explained how Sophie and Langdon had disarmed him. Why didnt you just shoot the unsaved paintingCaptain? Lieutenant collet chuck loped toward them from the direction of the command post. Captain, I just heard. They located Agent Neveus car. Did she make the embassy? No. Train station. Bought two tickets. Train just left.Fache waved off warden Grouard and led collet to a nearby alcove, addressing him in hushed tones. What was the destination?Lyon.Probably a decoy. Fache exhaled, formulating a plan. Okay, jovial the next station, have the train stoppe d and searched, just in case. guide her car where it is and put plainclothes on watch in case they try to come back to it. Send men to search the streets around the station in case they fled on foot. Are buses running from the station?Not at this hour, sir. Only the taxi queue.Good. Question the drivers. See if they saw anything. Then contact the taxi company dispatcher with descriptions. Im calling Interpol.Collet looked surprised. Youre putt this on the wire?Fache regretted the virileial embarrassment, but he saw no other choice.Close the net fast, and close it tight.The first hour was critical. Fugitives were foreseeable the first hour after escape. They always needed the same thing. Travel.Lodging.Cash.The Holy Trinity. Interpol had the power to make all three disappear in the nictation of an eye. By broadcast-faxing photos of Langdon and Sophie to Paris travel authorities, hotels, and banks, Interpol would leave no options no way to leave the city, no place to hide, and no way to withdraw cash without being recognized. Usually, fugitives panicked on the street and did something stupid. Stole a car. Robbed a store. Used a bank card in desperation. Whatever erroneous belief they committed, they quickly made their whereabouts know to local authorities.Only Langdon, right? Collet said. Youre not signalize Sophie Neveu. Shes our own agent.Of course Im flagging her Fache snapped. What good is flagging Langdon if she can do all his dirty work? I plan to run Neveus employment file friends, family, personal contacts anyone she might turn to for help. I dont know what she thinks shes doing out there, but its going to cost her one hell of a lot more than her jobDo you want me on the phones or in the field?Field. Get over to the train station and coordinate the team. Youve got the reins, but dont make a move without talking to me.Yes, sir. Collet ran out.Fache felt rigid as he stood in the alcove. Outside the window, the glass pyramid shone, its reflection r ippling in the windswept pools. They slipped through my fingers.He told himself to relax.Even a trained field agent would be lucky to put out the pressure that Interpol was about to apply.A female cryptologist and a schoolteacher?They wouldnt last till dawn.CHAPTER 37The heavily forested park known as the Bois de Boulogne was called many things, but the Parisian cognoscenti knew it as the Garden of worldly concernborn Delights. The epithet, despite sounding flattering, was quite to the contrary. Anyone who had seen the lurid Bosch painting of the same propose understood the jab the painting, like the forest, was dark and twisted, a purgatory for freaks and fetishists. At night, the forests braid lanes were lined with hundreds of glistening bodies for hire, earthly delights to satisfy ones belatedlyest unspoken desires male, female, and everything in between.As Langdon gathered his thoughts to tell Sophie about the Priory of Sion, their taxi passed through the wooded entrance to the park and began heading west on the cobblestone cross fare. Langdon was having trouble concentrating as a scattering of the parks nocturnal residents were already emerging from the shadows and flaunting their wares in the glare of the headlights. Ahead, two topless teenage girls shot smoldering gazes into the taxi. beyond them, a well-oiled black man in a G-string turned and flexed his buttocks. Beside him, a gorgeous blond woman lifted her miniskirt to grass that she was not, in fact, a woman.Heaven help me Langdon turned his gaze back inside the cab and took a deep breath. Tell me about the Priory of Sion, Sophie said. Langdon nodded, ineffectual to imagine a less congruous a backdrop for the invention he was about to tell. He wondered where to begin. The brotherhoods history spanned more than a millennium an astonishing chronicle of secrets, blackmail, betrayal, and even brutal torture at the pass on of an angry Pope.The Priory of Sion, he began, was founded in Jerusalem in 1099 by a French king named Godefroi de Bouillon, immediately after he had conquered the city. Sophie nodded, her eyes riveted on him. King Godefroi was allegedly the possessor of a right on secret a secret that had been in his family since the time of Christ. Fearing his secret might be lost when he died, he founded a secret brotherhood the Priory of Sion and charged them with protecting his secret by quietly passing it on from generation to generation. During their years in Jerusalem, the Priory learned of a stash of hidden documents buried under the ruins of Herods temple, which had been built atop the earlier ruins of Solomons Temple. These documents, they believed, corroborated Godefrois fibrous secret and were so volatile in nature that the Church would stop at nothing to get them. Sophie looked un plastered.The Priory vowed that no matter how long it took, these documents must be recovered from the detritus beneath the temple and protected forever, so the truth woul d never die. In order to retrieve the documents from within the ruins, the Priory created a military arm a group of nine knights called the Order of the Poor Knights of Christ and the Temple of Solomon. Langdon paused. to a greater extent commonly known as the Knights Templar.Sophie glanced up with a surprised look of recognition. Langdon had lectured often enough on the Knights Templar to know that almost everyone on earth had heard of them, at least abstractedly. For academics, the Templars history was a precarious world where fact, lore, and misinformation had become so intertwined that extracting a pristine truth was almost impossible. Nowadays, Langdon hesitated even to mention the Knights Templar while lecturing because it invariably led to a bombardment of convoluted inquiries into assorted conspiracy theories.Sophie already looked troubled. Youre saying the Knights Templar were founded by the Priory of Sion to retrieve a collection of secret documents? I thought the Templa rs were created to protect the Holy Land.A common misconception. The idea of protection of pilgrims was the guise under which the Templars ran their mission. Their true goal in the Holy Land was to retrieve the documents from beneath the ruins of the temple.And did they find them?Langdon grinned. Nobody knows for sure, but the one thing on which all academics agree is this The Knights detect something down there in the ruins something that made them wealthy and powerful beyond anyones wildest imagination.Langdon quickly gave Sophie the standard academic sketch of the accepted Knights Templar history, explaining how the Knights were in the Holy Land during the Second Crusade and told King Baldwin II that they were there to protect Christian pilgrims on the roadways. Although unpaid and sworn to poverty, the Knights told the king they required basic shelter and requested his permission to take up conformity in the stables under the ruins of the temple. King Baldwin granted the sold iers request, and the Knights took up their meager residence inside the devastated shrine.The odd choice of lodging, Langdon explained, had been anything but random. The Knights believed the documents the Priory sought were buried deep under the ruins beneath the Holy of Holies, a sacred chamber where God Himself was believed to reside. Literally, the very center of the Jewish faith. For almost a decade, the nine Knights lived in the ruins, excavating in total secrecy through solid rock.Sophie looked over. And you said they discovered something?They certainly did, Langdon said, explaining how it had taken nine years, but the Knights had finally found what they had been probing for. They took the treasure from the temple and traveled to Europe, where their incline seemed to solidify overnight.Nobody was certain whether the Knights had blackmailed the Vatican or whether the Church simply tried to buy the Knights silence, but Pope Innocent II immediately issued an unprecedented papa l bull that afforded the Knights Templar unbounded power and declared them a law unto themselves an autonomous army unconditional of all interference from kings and prelates, both religious and political.With their new carte blanche from the Vatican, the Knights Templar spread out at a staggering rate, both in numbers and political force, amassing vast estates in over a dozen countries. They began extending credit to founder royals and charging interest in return, thereby establishing modern banking and broadening their wealth and influence still further.By the 1300s, the Vatican sanction had helped the Knights amass so much power that Pope Clement V decided that something had to be done. Working in concert with Frances King Philippe IV, the Pope devised an ingeniously planned sting effect to quash the Templars and seize their treasure, thus taking control of the secrets held over the Vatican. In a military maneuver worthy of the CIA, Pope Clement issued secret sealed orders t o be opened simultaneously by his soldiers all across Europe on Friday, October 13 of 1307.At dawn on the thirteenth, the documents were open up and their appalling contents revealed. Clements letter claimed that God had visited him in a deal and warned him that the Knights Templar were heretics guilty of devil worship, homosexuality, defiling the cross, sodomy, and other blasphemous behavior. Pope Clement had been asked by God to cleanse the earth by rounding up all the Knights and torturing them until they confessed their crimes against God. Clements Machiavellian operation came off with clockwork precision. On that day, countless Knights were captured, hurt mercilessly, and finally burned at the stake as heretics. Echoes of the tragedy still resonated in modern culture to this day, Friday the thirteenth was considered unlucky.Sophie looked confused. The Knights Templar were obliterated? I thought fraternities of Templars still exist today?They do, under a variety of names. di sdain Clements false charges and best efforts to eradicate them, the Knights had powerful allies, and some managed to escape the Vatican purges. The Templars potent treasure trove of documents, which had apparently been their source of power, was Clements true objective, but it slipped through his fingers. The documents had long since been entrusted to the Templars shadowy architects, the Priory of Sion, whose veil of secrecy had kept them safely out of range of the Vaticans onslaught. As the Vatican closed in, the Priory smuggled their documents from a Paris preceptory by night onto Templar ships in La Rochelle.Where did the documents go?Langdon shrugged. That mysterys answer is known only to the Priory of Sion. Because the documents remain the source of constant investigation and speculation even today, they are believed to have been moved and rehidden several times. Current speculation places the documents somewhere in the United Kingdom.Sophie looked uneasy.For a thousand years, Langdon continued, legends of this secret have been passed on. The entire collection of documents, its power, and the secret it reveals have become known by a hotshot name Sangreal. Hundreds of books have been written about it, and few mysteries have caused as much interest among historians as the Sangreal.The Sangreal? Does the word have anything to do with the French word sang or Spanish sangre meaning blood?Langdon nodded. Blood was the dorsum of the Sangreal, and yet not in the way Sophie probably imagined. The legend is complicated, but the important thing to remember is that the Priory guards the proof, and is purportedly awaiting the right moment in history to reveal the truth. What truth? What secret could possibly be that powerful? Langdon took a deep breath and gazed out at the underbelly of Paris leering in the shadows. Sophie, the word Sangreal is an ancient word. It has evolved over the years into another term a more modern name. He paused. When I tell you its mode rn name, youll realize you already know a lot about it. In fact, almost everyone on earth has heard the story of the Sangreal. Sophie looked skeptical. Ive never heard of it. Sure you have. Langdon smiled. Youre just used to hearing it called by the name Holy Grail.