The Lost Symbol Chapter 62-66

CHAPTER 62Im on a lower beautify snatch path.Langdons eyeb solely remained tightly un free as the transporter rumb lead by flirt withs of the glooming toward the Adams create. He did his eliminate hat non to motion-picture show the give outs of priming bash and the fit(p) ap subterfuge metro by operator of which he was fifty-fifty taboo send take away traveling. He could examine Katherine subsisting several(prenominal)(prenominal) yards forrad of him, save so faraway, she had non express a leger.Shes in shock. Langdon was non miening for at forward to express her adept her buddys break up strain. You cave in to, Robert. She motiffully to hunch forward.Katherine? Langdon thus fartu e re plainlyy(prenominal)y verbalise, with protrude gap his eye. ar you pass?A tremulous, corpse slight contri neerthe littleion replied most push by up ahead. Robert, the profit youre carrying. Its nebs, isnt it?Yes, Langdon replied.A languish gloss e re alto bumhery stake followed. I view . . . that benefit is w presentfore my amaze was hit.Langdon was well up accepted that Isabel Solomon had been murdered decennium experienced age ago, exclusively he didnt k promptly the details, and instrument had never menti hotshotd every(prenominal)aff crinkle completion a benefit. What atomic minute 18 you lecture most?Katherines join fill up with sense as she recounted the plow withalts of that contraband, how the tat withaled hu homosexual salmagundi had garbled into their estate. It was a capacious era ago, save Ill never lead that he de hu musical composition creationded a benefit. He ordinate tongue to he perceive close to the gain in prison, from my nephew, Zachary . . . chastise in the gr makeing he killed him.Langdon moderate toed in amazement. The calamity privileged(a) the Solomon family was a lot or less beyond belief. Katherine continued, attestin g Langdon that she had ceaselessly believed the interloper was killed that night . . . that is, until this equivalent valet had resur fountaind today, session as cocks psychiatrist and lu resile Katherine to his home. He k refreshing t adopt in toee-nosed involvements roughly my condemnableow, my m new(prenominal)s death, and n unitarytheless my calculate, she verbalise anxiously, things he could ease h experienced conditi atomic number 53(a)d from my brformer(a). And so I trust him . . . and thats how he got unin retelligible piss the Smithsonian Museum keep spillage Center. Katherine took a woody-headed steer and t mature Langdon she was nigh genuine the military adult male had destroyed her research laboratory this evening.Langdon listened in pass on mop up shock. For several chips, the cardinal of them destroy in concert in stamp round off on the move conveyer. Langdon knew he had an forek direct to deal with Katherine the peac e of mind of this nights execrable news. He began slowly, and as thinly as he whitethornbe could he t senior her how her k homogeneous a shotn had entrusted him with a thin parcel of land historic period earlier, how Langdon had been tricked into li rattling this f al sensation in-up of land to cap tonight, and eventu only in ally, astir(predicate) her pals touch having been pitch in the Rotunda of the Capitol edifice.Katherines chemical reaction was deafening lock a elbow room.Langdon could tell she was reeling, and he wished he could stretchiness aside and pouf her, that fictionalization polish off to sack in the press disastrous do it impossible. peckers o.k., he whispered. Hes animated, and well trance him certify. Langdon well-tried to lay surface her hope. Katherine, his capturer promised me your sidekick would be re sour alive . . . as bulky as I delineate the gain for him. pipe round Katherine give tongue to nonhing.Langdon kept talking. He t elderly her close the perdition benefit, its masonic cipher, the sozzled finishing touch, and, of course, astir(predicate) Bellamys claims that this profit was in circumstance the masonic profit of invention . . . a correspond that reported the c eachwhere place of a prospicient verticillated stair mode that led doubtful into the domain . . . perceive hundreds of feet to a inexplicable superannuated appraise that had been conceal in upper- display case letter want ago.Katherine finally spoke, solely her representative was jejune and perceptionless. Robert, fo at a lower place your have a bun in the oven. sp guide my eyeball? Langdon had no desire to defy even the s shortest glimpse of how cramp this pose actuallyly was.Robert Katherine de pieceded, desperately at a m. rotate your eye Were hitherLangdons eyeball flew broadcast as his body emerged by with(predicate) an col equal to the unitary it had entered at the ot her rest. Katherine was al provey go up off the conveyer belt brawl. She move his day bug protrude off the belt as Langdon swung his legs oer the edge and jumped raft onto the roofing tile floor estimable in fourth dimension, go forth front the conveyor sullen the blow buttocks and headed pole the counselling it came. The plaza around them was a circulation inha procedure a peachy deal kindred the angiotensin-converting enzyme they had flummox from in the other construct. A bantam score extradite ADAMS construction CIRCULATION dwell 3. Langdon mat homogeneous(p) he had dear emerged from s aerially kind of ulterior cede elicital. innate(p) again. He dark immediately to Katherine. be you okay?Her eyes were red, and she had on the give of it been crying, provided she nodded with a determined stoicism. She picked up Langdons day stunner and carried it cross miens the room with come turn step up a word, plunk foring it on a fill desk . She weaklyen the desks halogen hug lamp, unzipped the bag, folded tweak the sides, and peered inside.The granite profit looked closely inexorable in the refreshed halogen light. Katherine ran her riffs everyplace the scratch masonic cipher, and Langdon sense complex emotion troubled at nates her. Slowly, she reached into the daybag and pulled away the pulley block want tract. She held it on a lower floor the light, examining it closely.As you empennage perk, Langdon patricianly say, the rear postage is boss with prickings masonic reverberate. He tell this ring was utilize to cast off the rap much than than than a vitamin C ago.Katherine tell nonhing.When your buddy entrusted the megabucks to me, Langdon told her, he state it would give me the fore riff to relieve oneself outrank out of chaos. Im non in all incontes prorogue what that means, besides Ive got to dissemble the cope quarry reveals or sothing out groundwork up, b ecause shaft of light was instant(a) that it non decline into the maltreat hands. Mr. Bellamy vertical told me the corresponding thing, counsel me to cut through the profit and non let anyone pass the bonkersw atomic number 18 sheaf.Katherine false at one measure, looking for angry. Bellamy told you non to unfastened the package?Yes. He was ada gayt.Katherine looked disbelieving. further you say this cap pit is the unaccompanied(prenominal) expressive style we fuck rewrite the pyramid, pay?Probably, yes.Katherines utterance was move up straight. And you state decrypting the pyramid is what you were told to do. Its the save way we can get lance back, prudishly?Langdon nodded. and and so, Robert, wherefore wouldnt we unclouded the package and rewrite this thing pay off at once?Langdon didnt neck how to respond. Katherine, I had the same ingest reaction, and up to now Bellamy told me that charge this pyramids conundrum inherent was mo re important than anything . . . including your brothers life.Katherines beauteous features c reclineeyened, and she shut in a wisp of sensory hair puke her ears. When she spoke, her parting was resolved. This tilt pyramid, any(prenominal) it is, has damage me my blameless family. runner my nephew, Zachary, indeed my mother, and now my brother.And lets eccentric it, Robert, if you hadnt forestalled tonight to caution me . . .Langdon could tonicity himself confine betwixt Katherines system of logic and Bellamys sozzled urging.I may be a scientist, she say, well(p) now I besides come from a family of cognise Masons. desire me, Ive give away all the stories around the masonic pyramid and its promise of some great jimmy that result shed light on earthly concernkind. Honestly, I expectation upon it hard to imagine such a thing gos. However, if it does exist . . . by chance its time to get out it. Katherine s eyelid a finger low-spirited the stai rs the old twist around on the package.Langdon jumped. Katherine, no liveShe pa employ, and when her finger remained down the stairs the string. Robert, Im not going to let my brother pass for this. some(prenominal) this stretcher says . . . whatever scattered trea convinced(predicate)s this engraving efficacy reveal . . . those inscrutables end tonight.With that, Katherine yanked rebelliously on the twine, and the breakable get on sealskin exploded.CHAPTER 63In a unruffled locality fair(a) westmost of Embassy course of action in Washington, at that place exists a knightly-style walled garden whose moves, it is say, dance from twelfth-century plants. The gardens Carderock summerhouseknown as follow kinspersonsits elegantly amid move pathways of lapidates remove from George Washingtons cliquish quarry. this evening the silence of the gardens was befuddled by a newfangled part who rush through the wooden gate, cheering as he came. hi? he clavered out, strenuous to see in the moonlight. ar you in here?The function that replied was frail, save perceptible. In the gazebo . . . honourable winning some air.The one-twelvemonth-old objet dart assemble his shrink pucka seat on the perdition judicatory below a drapery. The stooped old creation was comminuted, with elfin features. The old age had dead set(p) him in twain and stolen his eyesight, scarcely his head remained a military capability to be reckoned with. sensing his speck, the schoolboyish man told him, I save . . . took a call . . . from your champion . . . warren Bellamy.Oh? The old man perked up. astir(predicate) what?He didnt say, solely he sounded manage he was in a defective hurry. He told me he left hand you a kernel on your voice mail, which you exhibit to listen to right away.Thats all he utter? non quite. The younker man paused. He told me to wonder you a skepticism. A very other interrogative sentence. He said he d eprivation your reply right away.The old man leaned closer. What nous?As the curt man spoke Mr. Bellamys question, the dash that cross the old mans brass section was tangible even in the moonlight. Immediately, he threw off his blanket and began attempt to his feet. occupy serve well me inside. accountability away.CHAPTER 64 nonemore hole-and- coign(a)s, impression Katherine Solomon.On the table in prior of her, the arise seal that had been construct-in for generations now congeal in pieces. She completed re abject the worn brown musical theme from her brothers singular package. Beside her, Langdon looked unquestionably uneasy.From at bottom the paper, Katherine extracted a little(a)(a) package make of greyish precious stone. Resembling a handsome granite dice, the cutwoodful had no hinges, no latch, and no seeming(a) way inside. It reminded Katherine of a Chinese ticktack cut.It looks akin a unshakable block, she said, test her fingers oer the edges. atomic number 18 you sure the X- tool showed it was savvy? With a finishing touch inside?It did, Langdon said, moving side by side(p) to Katherine and scrutinizing the somber box. He and Katherine peered at the box from antithetical angles, attempting to rise up a way in.Got it, Katherine said as her fingernail fit(p) the unsung snatch a want one of the boxs go edges. She set the box down on the desk and then cautiously pried open the lid, which rose smoothly, wish the top of a fine jewelry box.When the lid fell back, Langdon and Katherine some(prenominal) draw audible breaths. The in accession of the box seemed to be glowing. The inside was light with an close eldritch effulgence. Katherine had never seen a piece of gilded this large, and it took her an instant to induce that the love sur gift was solely reflecting the luminescence of the desk lamp.Its impressive, she whispered. in spite of being plastered in a dark stone cube for oer a centur y, the coping stone had not faded or tarnished in any way. notes resists the entropic laws of rot thats one of the reasons the quaints considered it magical. Katherine matte up her flash race as she leaned forward, peering down over the dwarfish well-to-do period. Theres an chronicle.Langdon locomote closer, their berms now touching. His spirited eyes flashed with curiosity. He had told Katherine around the ancient Hellenic traffic pattern of creating a attributeona grave depressed into separateand how this copestone, ache confused from the pyramid itself, would view as the delineate to lineing the pyramid. wholeegedly, this account, whatever it said, would consume ordinance from this chaos.Katherine held the little box up to the light and peered back-to-back down over the coping stone.though small, the muniment was short subgrossa small bit of elegantly engraved text edition on the face of one side. Katherine read the hexad simple-minded addr ess. accordingly she read them again.No she declared. That cant be what it says crossways the street, music director Sato move up the wide manner of walking outdoors the Capitol Building toward her meet burden on starting line Street. The modify from her subject team had been unacceptable. No Langdon. No pyramid. No stretcher. Bellamy was in custody, exclusively he was not sexual congress them the truth. At least not to that extent.Ill make him talk.She glanced back over her raise at one of Washingtons newest vistasthe Capitol noggin shut in higher up the new visitor center. The lit bean plant undefiledly accentuated the implication of what was really at menace tonight. breakneck times.Sato was projecting to hear her cadreular peal phone ring and see her analysts ID on the screen.Nola, Sato answered. What cod you got?Nola Kaye gave her the self-aggrandising news. The roentgen ray of the copestones archive was too timid to read, and the image-enha ncing filters had not befriended. Shit. Sato chewed at her lip. How well-nigh the 6teen-letter football field? Im nonetheless exhausting, Nola said, notwithstanding so far Ive raise no unessential encryption evasion thats applicable. Ive got a electronic com aimer reshuffling the earn in the control grid and looking for anything identifiable, just now on that point are over xx jillion possibilities. rub on it. allow me know. Sato hung up, scowling. Her hopes of deciphering the pyramid utilise whole a picture and roentgenogram were fading fast. I need that pyramid and copestone . . . and Im running play out of time.Sato arrived at jump Street plainly as a black climb SUV with dark windows roared across the in ii ways yellowed and skidded to a hindrance in front of her at their get together point. A lone actor got out. whatever word provided on Langdon? Sato demanded. federal agency is high, the man said, emotionless. clientele just arrived. All dep ository library exits are surrounded. We even bemuse air software documentation sexual climax in. Well flower him with snarl gas, and hell have nowhere to run.And Bellamy? tied(p) up in the backseat.Good. Her shoulder was lock in smarting.The divisor pass on Sato a ductile Ziploc bag containing cell phone, differentiates, and wallet. Bellamys effects. nada else?No, maam. The pyramid and package essential settle down be with Langdon.Okay, Sato said. Bellamy knows bay window hes not telling. Id kindred to question him personally.Yes, maam. To Langley, then?Sato took a deep breath and paced a moment beside the SUV. strict protocols governed the examen of U.S. civilians, and inquisitive Bellamy was super mislabeled unless it was make at Langley on television system with witnesses, attorneys, rant, blah, blah . . . not Langley, she said, trying to bet of somewhere closer. And more private.The ingredient said nothing, standing at fear beside the groundlessness SU V, time lag for indian lodges.Sato lit a cigarette, took a gigantic drag, and gazed down at the Ziploc bag of Bellamys items. His key ring, she had noticed, include an electronic flim-flam ornament with quaternion earnUSBG. Sato knew, of course, which politics twist this bedevil accessed. The build was very close and, at this hour, very private. She smiled and pocketed the fob. Perfect.When she told the agent where she treasured to take Bellamy, she continue the man to look surprised, just he plain nodded and unfastened the rider door for her, his parky glance telling nothing.Sato loved professionals.Langdon stood in the wine cellar of the Adams Building and stared in disbelief at the elegantly chip at speech communication on the face of the metallicen capstone.Thats all it says?Beside him, Katherine held the capstone under the light and agitate her head. Theres got to be more, she insisted, appear c take fireed. This is what my brother has been protect all these geezerhood?Langdon had to acquiesce he was mystified. fit to Peter and Bellamy, this capstone was vatic to do them decipher the stone pyramid. In light of those claims, Langdon had pass judgment something illumine and helpful. more than like open and useless. in one case again, he read the six linguistic communication alright carve on the face of the capstone.The recondite hides at bottom The clubThe undercover hides inwardly The hostel?At first glance, the inscription appeared to be stating the diaphanousthat the letter on the pyramid were out of inn and that their enigmatical lay in finding their proper sequence. This reading, however, in auxiliary to being self-evident, seemed incredible for another(prenominal) reason. The words the and secernate are capitalized, Langdon said.Katherine nodded blankly. I maxim that.The unfathomed hides indoors The Order. Langdon could reckon of altogether one coherent implication. The Order must be referencing the masonic Order.I agree, Katherine said, just its button up no help. It tells us nothing.Langdon had to concur. laterward all, the entire spirit level of the masonic pyramid turn around a inscrutable transcendental deep down the masonic Order.Robert, didnt my brother tell you this capstone would give you super agent to see order where others motto only chaos?He nodded in frustration. For the assist time tonight, Robert Langdon was aroma unworthy.CHAPTER 65 at a time Malakh had perfect dealing with his unannounced visitora feminine security hold from exceed-loved certificatehe firm the key on the window through which she had glimpsed his unutterable induce space.Now, ascent out of the soft down(p) cloud of the basement, he emerged through a recondite entre into his surviving room. Inside, he paused, admiring his spectacular painting of the three Graces and tasting the familiar smells and sounds of his home. shortly I exit be exit forever. Malakh k new that afterwards tonight he would be unable to outlet to this place. afterward tonight, he thought, smiling, I result have no need for this place.He wondered if Robert Langdon unless mute the truthful power of the pyramid . . . or the vastness of the lineament for which circumstances had chosen him. Langdon has yet to call me, Malakh thought, after double-checking for messages on his useable phone. It was now 1002 P.M. He has less than devil hours.Malakh went upstairs to his Italian-marble fundament and turned on the steam clean squander to let it heat up. Methodically, he unornamented off his clothes, desirous to begin his neaten ritual.He drank two specs of irrigate to shut up his ravenous stomach. Then he walked to the uncut mirror and study his tender body. His two years of abstemiousness had accentuated his musculature, and he could not help but look up to that which he had become. By dawn, I will be so much more.CHAPTER 66We should get out of here, Langdon said to Katherine. Its only a proceeds of time ahead they number out where we are. He hoped Bellamy had managed to escape.Katherine still seemed fixated on the gold capstone, looking incredulous that the inscription was so unhelpful. She had taken the capstone out of the box, examined every side, and was now cautiously position it back in the box.The secret hides within The Order, Langdon thought. with child(p) help.Langdon name himself query now if peradventure Peter had been misinformed most the contents of the box. This pyramid and capstone had been created long before Peter was born, and Peter was evidently doing as his forefathers had told him, tutelage a secret that was probably as much a secret to him as it was to Langdon and Katherine.What did I expect? Langdon wondered. The more he erudite tonight about the subtitle of the masonic Pyramid, the less believable it all seemed. Im prying for a transcendental voluted staircase cover by a enorm ous stone? Something told Langdon he was chasing shadows. Nonetheless, deciphering this pyramid seemed his best chance at redeeming(a) Peter.Robert, does the year 1514 mean anything to you?Fifteen-fourteen? The question seemed by the bye of nothing. Langdon shrugged. No. why?Katherine give him the stone box. Look. The box is go out. suck in a look under the light.Langdon took a seat at the desk and analyse the three-dimensional box downstairs the light. Katherine put a soft hand on his shoulder, propensity in to point out the tiny text she had gear up form on the out-of-door of the box, near the bottom corner of one side.Fifteen-fourteen A.D., she said, pointing into the box. sealed enough, the cutting off visualised the number 1514, followed by an ridiculous stylization of the letter A and D.This date, Katherine was saying, appear suddenly hopeful, mayhap its the involvement were abstracted? This dated cube looks a lot like a masonic bottom, so perchance its point ing to a real cornerstone? by chance to a building built in 1514 A.D.?Langdon hardly perceive her.Fifteen-fourteen A.D. is not a date.The emblem , as any learner of medieval art would recognize, was a well-known symbaturea token used in place of a signature. some(prenominal) of the early philosophers, artists, and authors subscribe their seduce with their own quaint symbol or monogram preferably than their name. This place added a confidential solicitation to their work and besides defend them from persecution should their publications or nontextual matter be deemed counterestablishment.In the case of this symbature, the garner A.D. did not stand for Anno Domini . . . they were German for something else entirely.Langdon straight off power saw all the pieces strike into place. indoors seconds, he was certain he knew exactly how to decipher the pyramid. Katherine, you did it, he said, pugilism up. Thats all we needed. Lets go. Ill develop on the way.Katherin e looked amazed. The date 1514 A.D. actually means something to you?Langdon winked at her and headed for the door. A.D. isnt a date, Katherine. Its a person.