Angels Demons Chapter 64-65

64Langdon and Vittorias taxi completed the wiz-mile sprint up the ample Via della Scrofa in just entirely all over a minute. They skidded to a stop on the s poph spot of the Piazza del Popolo just ahead eighter from Decatur. non having whatsoever lire, Langdon overpaid the driver in U.S. dollars. He and Vittoria jumped out. The piazza was quiet except for the jape of a handful of locals seated outback(a) the popular Rosati Cafe a hot spot of the Italian literati. The breeze smelled of espresso and pastry.Langdon was tranquillise in semiconsciousness over his mistake at the Pantheon. With a cursory glance at this squ be, however, his sixth sense was al find outy tingling. The piazza seemed subtly filled with Illuminati meaning. no only was it laid out in a perfectly oviform shape, but dead center stood a towe besiege Egyptian dagger a squ atomic number 18 pillar of st ace with a distinctively pyramidic tip. Spoils of Romes imperial plundering, obelisks were scatter ed across Rome and referred to by symbologists as towering Pyramids skyward extensions of the sacred pyramidal form.As Langdons eyes locomote up the monolith, though, his sight was suddenly drawn to something else in the background. Something until now more remarkable.Were in the right place, he said quietly, feeling a sudden overt wariness. Have a look at that. Langdon pointed to the imposing Porta del Popolo the full(prenominal) stone archway at the further end of the piazza. The vaulted mental synthesis had been overlooking the piazza for centuries. exanimate center of the archways highest point was a exemplary engraving. font familiar?Vittoria looked up at the huge carving. A flare star over a triangular pile of stones?Langdon shook his head. A source of Illumination over a pyramid.Vittoria turned, her eyes suddenly long. equivalent the Great Seal of the United States?Exactly. The Masonic symbol on the one-dollar bill.Vittoria took a deep breath and scanned the pia zza. So wheres this damn church?The Church of Santa maria del Popolo stood out homogeneous a misplaced battleship, askew at the sales booth of a hill on the south tocopherol corner of the piazza. The eleventh-century stone eyrie was made even more clumsy by the tower of scaffolding covering the façade.Langdons thoughts were a blur as they raced toward the edifice. He stared up at the church in wonder. Could a murder really be well-nigh to take place at heart? He wished Olivetti would hurry. The gun felt unskilful in his pocket.The churchs front stairs were ventaglio a welcoming, curved fan humorous in this case beca aim they were blocked with scaffolding, construction equipment, and a sign modelConstruzzione.Non EntrareLangdon realized that a church closed for renovation meant total retirement for a killer. Not like the Pantheon. No fancy tricks needed here. tho to find a way in.Vittoria slipped without hesitation between the sawhorses and headed up the staircase.Vi ttoria, Langdon cautioned. If hes still in in that respectVittoria did non seem to hear. She ascended the main portico to the churchs sole woody entry. Langdon hurried up the stairs seat her. Before he could learn a word she had grasped the handle and leave offed. Langdon held his breath. The door did non budge. there moldiness be a nonher entrance, Vittoria said.Probably, Langdon said, exhaling, but Olivetti will be here in a minute. Its too dangerous to go in. We should cover the church from out here until Vittoria turned, her eyes blazing. If theres another way in, theres another way out. If this abuse disappears, were fungito.Langdon knew enough Italian to admit she was right.The alley on the right spatial relation of the church was pinched and dark, with high rings on both placements. It smelled of urine a common aroma in a city where bars out topiced frequent rest live twenty to one.Langdon and Vittoria hurried into the fetid dimness. They had gone virtually fifteen yards stilt when Vittoria tugged Langdons arm and pointed.Langdon saw it too. Up ahead was an retiring wooden door with laboured hinges. Langdon recognized it as the standard opening move sacra a private entrance for clergy. Most of these entrances had gone out of use years ago as encroaching buildings and limited real realm relegated side entrances to inconvenient alleyways.Vittoria hurried to the door. She arrived and stared down at the doorknob, evidently perplexed. Langdon arrived behind her and eyed the peculiar donut-shaped hoop hanging where the doorknob should have been.An annulus, he whispered. Langdon reached out and quietly lifted the ring in his hand. He pulled the ring toward him. The fixture clicked. Vittoria shifted, looking suddenly uneasy. Quietly, Langdon twisted the ring clockwise. It spun loosely 360 degrees, not engaging. Langdon frowned and tried the other direction with the same result.Vittoria looked down the remainder of the alley. You deem the res another entrance?Langdon doubted it. Most conversion cathedrals were designed as temporary fortresses in the event a city was stormed. They had as fewer entrances as possible. If there is another way in, he said, its probably recessed in the support bastion more of an escape route than an entrance.Vittoria was already on the move.Langdon followed deeper into the alley. The walls shot skyward on both sides of him. Somewhere a campana began ringing eight oclockRobert Langdon did not hear Vittoria the first time she called to him. He had slowed at a stained-glass window covered with bars and was trying to consort inside the church.Robert Her voice was a loud whisper.Langdon looked up. Vittoria was at the end of the alley. She was pointing some the back of the church and waving to him. Langdon jogged reluctantly toward her. At the base of the rear wall, a stone bulwark jutted out concealing a constringe grotto a kind of compressed passageway cutting without delay into th e foundation of the church.An entrance? Vittoria asked.Langdon nodded. Actually an exit, but we wont grab technical.Vittoria knelt and peered into the dig. Lets check the door. cod if its open.Langdon opened his mouth to object, but Vittoria took his hand and pulled him into the opening.Wait, Langdon said.She turned impatiently toward him.Langdon sighed. Ill go first.Vittoria looked surprised. More chivalry?Age before beauty.Was that a compliment?Langdon smiled and go past her into the dark. Careful on the stairs.He inched slowly into the darkness, keeping one hand on the wall. The stone felt sharp on his fingertips. For an news bulletin Langdon recalled the ancient myth of Daedelus, how the boy kept one hand on the wall as he move through the Minotaurs labyrinth, knowing he was guaranteed to find the end if he never broke contact with the wall. Langdon go forward, not entirely certain he involveed to find the end.The tunnel narrowed slightly, and Langdon slowed his pace. He sensed Vittoria close behind him. As the wall curved left wing, the tunnel opened into a semicircular alcove. Oddly, there was rickety light here. In the dimness Langdon saw the outline of a heavy wooden door.Uh oh, he said.Locked?It was.Was? Vittoria arrived at his side.Langdon pointed. Lit by a fizgig of light coming from within, the door hung ajar its hinges splintered by a ruination bar still lodged in the wood.They stood a moment in silence. and so, in the dark, Langdon felt Vittorias hands on his chest, groping, sliding beneath his jacket.Relax, professor, she said. Im just acquire the gun.At that moment, inside the Vatican Museums, a task force of Swiss Guards interruption out in all directions. The museum was dark, and the guards wore U.S. Marine issue infrared gawk. The goggles made every(prenominal)thing appear an eerie shade of green. Every guard wore headphones affiliated to an antennalike detector that he waved rhythmically in front of him the same devices th ey use twice a week to sweep for electronic bugs inside the Vatican. They moved methodically, checking behind statues, inside niches, closets, under furniture. The antennae would sound if they detected even the tiniest magnetized field.Tonight, however, they were getting no readings at all.65The interior of Santa Maria del Popolo was a murky cave in the dimming light. It looked more like a half-finished tubing station than a cathedral. The main sanctuary was an obstacle course of torn-up flooring, brick pallets, mounds of dirt, wheelbarrows, and even a rusty backhoe. Mammoth columns rose through the floor, supporting a vaulted roof. In the air, silt drifted lazily in the muted effulgence of the stained glass. Langdon stood with Vittoria beneath a sprawling Pinturicchio fresco and scanned the gutted shrine.Nothing moved. Dead silence.Vittoria held the gun out in front of her with both hands. Langdon checked his retard 804 P.M. Were crazy to be in here, he thought. Its too dangero us. solace he knew if the killer were inside, the man could leave through each door he wanted, making a one-gun outside stakeout totally fruitless. Catching him inside was the only way that was, if he was even still here. Langdon felt guilty over the blunder that had cost everyone their chance at the Pantheon. He was in no position to insist on precaution now he was the one who had backed them into this corner.Vittoria looked harrowed as she scanned the church. So, she whispered. Where is this Chigi Chapel?Langdon gazed through the dusky ghostliness toward the back of the cathedral and studied the outer walls. Contrary to common perception, Renaissance cathedrals invariably contained multiple chapels, huge cathedrals like Notre Dame having dozens. Chapels were less rooms than they were hollows semicircular niches belongings tombs around a churchs perimeter wall.Bad news, Langdon thought, beholding the four recesses on each side wall. There were eight chapels in all. Although e ight was not a particularly overwhelming number, all eight openings were covered with huge sheets of clear polyurethane due to the construction, the unequivocal curtains plain intended to keep dust off the tombs inside the alcoves.It could be any of those draped recesses, Langdon said. No way to know which is the Chigi without looking inside every one. Could be a good reason to wait for Oliv Which is the substitute(prenominal) left apse? she asked.Langdon studied her, surprised by her command of architectural terminology. tributary left apse?Vittoria pointed at the wall behind him. A enhancive tile was embedded in the stone. It was engraved with the same symbol they had seen outside a pyramid beneath a shining star. The grime-covered plaque beside it readCoat of arms of Alexander Chigi whose tomb is located in the secondary left apse of this CathedralLangdon nodded. Chigis coat of arms was a pyramid and star? He suddenly found himself wondering if the wealthy patron Chigi had been an Illuminatus. He nodded to Vittoria. Nice work, Nancy Drew. What?Never mind. I A piece of surface clattered to the floor only yards away. The clang echoed through the entire church. Langdon pulled Vittoria behind a pillar as she whipped the gun toward the sound and held it there. Silence. They waited. Again there was sound, this time a rustling. Langdon held his breath. I never should have let us make in here The sound moved closer, an intermittent scuffling, like a man with a limp. Suddenly around the base of the pillar, an object came into view.Figlio di puttana Vittoria blasted under her breath, jumping back. Langdon fell back with her.Beside the pillar, dragging a half-eaten prepare in paper, was an enormous rat. The creature paused when it saw them, staring a persistent moment down the barrel of Vittorias weapon, and then, apparently unmoved, continued dragging its apprize off to the recesses of the church.Son of a Langdon gasped, his heart racing.Vittoria lowere d the gun, quickly indemnification her composure. Langdon peered around the side of the column to see a workmans lunchbox splayed on the floor, apparently knocked off a sawhorse by the resourceful rodent.Langdon scanned the basilica for accomplishment and whispered, If this guys here, he sure as hell heard that. You sure you dont want to wait for Olivetti?Secondary left apse, Vittoria repeated. Where is it?Reluctantly Langdon turned and tried to get his bearings. Cathedral terminology was like stage directions totally counterintuitive. He approach the main altar. Stage center. Then he pointed with his thumb backward over his shoulder.They both turned and looked where he was pointing.It seemed the Chigi Chapel was located in the threesome of four recessed alcoves to their right. The good news was that Langdon and Vittoria were on the correct side of the church. The bad news was that they were at the wrong end. They would have to traverse the continuance of the cathedral, passin g three other chapels, each of them, like the Chigi Chapel, covered with translucent moldable shrouds.Wait, Langdon said. Ill go first.Forget it.Im the one who screwed up at the Pantheon.She turned. exactly Im the one with the gun.In her eyes Langdon could see what she was really thinking Im the one who lost my father. Im the one who helped build a weapon of mass destruction. This guys kneecaps are mineLangdon sensed the futility and let her go. He moved beside her, cautiously, down the east side of the basilica. As they passed the first shrouded alcove, Langdon felt taut, like a protester on some surreal game show. Ill take curtain number three, he thought.The church was quiet, the thick stone walls blocking out all hints of the outside world. As they hurried past one chapel afterward the other, pale humanoid forms wavered like ghosts behind the rustling plastic. Carved marble, Langdon told himself, hoping he was right. It was 806 P.M. Had the killer been punctual and slipped o ut before Langdon and Vittoria had entered? Or was he still here? Langdon was unsure which scenario he preferred.They passed the second apse, ominous in the slowly darkening cathedral. Night seemed to be falling quickly now, accentuated by the musty tint of the stained-glass windows. As they pressed on, the plastic curtain beside them billowed suddenly, as if caught in a draft. Langdon wondered if someone somewhere had opened a door.Vittoria slowed as the third niche loomed before them. She held the gun before her, motioning with her head to the stela beside the apse. Carved in the granite block were two wordsCapella ChigiLangdon nodded. Without a sound they moved to the corner of the opening, positioning themselves behind a wide pillar. Vittoria leveled the gun around a corner at the plastic. Then she signaled for Langdon to pull back the shroud.A good time to start praying, he thought. Reluctantly, he reached over her shoulder. As carefully as possible, he began to pull the plasti c aside. It moved an inch and then crinkled loudly. They both froze. Silence. After a moment, moving in slow motion, Vittoria leaned forward and peered through the narrow slit. Langdon looked over her shoulder.For a moment, neither one of them breathed.Empty, Vittoria finally said, lowering the gun. Were too late.Langdon did not hear. He was in awe, transported for an instant to another world. In his life, he had never speculated a chapel that looked like this. Finished entirely in chromatic marble, the Chigi Chapel was breathtaking. Langdons trained eye devoured it in gulps. It was as temporal a chapel as Langdon could fathom, almost as if Galileo and the Illuminati had designed it themselves.Overhead, the domed cupola shone with a field of illuminated stars and the seven astronomical planets. Below that the twelve signs of the zodiac pagan, earthly symbols rooted in astronomy. The zodiac was also tied directly to footing, Air, Fire, Water the quadrants representing power, int ellect, ardor, emotion. Earth is for power, Langdon recalled.Farther down the wall, Langdon saw tributes to the Earths four temporal seasons primavera, estate, autunno, inverno. But far more incredible than any of this were the two huge structures dominating the room. Langdon stared at them in silent 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 eyes were mesmerized on the pyramids. What are pyramids doing inside a Christian chapel? And incredibly, there was more. Dead center of each pyramid, embedded in their anterior façades, were capital medallions medallions like few Langdon had ever seen perfect ellipses. The burnished disks glimmered in the fit sun as it sifted through the cupola. Galileos ellipses? Pyramids? A cupola of stars? The room had more Illuminat i significance than any room Langdon could have fabricated in his mind.Robert, Vittoria blurted, her voice cracking. LookLangdon wheeled, reality returning as his eyes dropped to where she was pointing. Bloody hell he shouted, jumping backward.Sneering up at them from the floor was the image of a skeleton an intricately detailed, marble mosaic depicting death in flight. The skeleton was carrying a tablet portraying the same pyramid and stars they had seen outside. It was not the image, however, that had turned Langdons blood cold. It was the fact that the mosaic was mounted on a circular stone a cupermento that had been lifted out of the floor like a manhole cover and was now sitting off to one side of a dark opening in the floor.Demons hole, Langdon gasped. He had been so taken with the ceiling he had not even seen it. Tentatively he moved toward the pit. The stench coming up was overwhelming.Vittoria put a hand over her mouth. Che puzzo.Effluvium, Langdon said. Vapors from dec aying bone. He breathed through his sleeve as he leaned out over the hole, peering down. Blackness. I cant see a thing.You think anybodys down there?No way to know.Vittoria motioned to the far side of the hole where a rotting, wooden ladder descended into the depths.Langdon shook his head. Like hell. peradventure theres a common mullein outside in those tools. She sounded eager for an excuse to escape the smell. Ill look.Careful Langdon warned. We dont know for sure that the Hassassin But Vittoria was already gone.One strong-willed woman, Langdon thought.As he turned back to the pit, he felt light-headed from the fumes. Holding his breath, he dropped his head below the rim and peered deep into the darkness. Slowly, as his eyes adjusted, he began to see faint shapes below. The pit appeared to open into a small chamber. Demons hole. He wondered how many generations of Chigis had been unceremoniously dumped in. Langdon closed his eyes and waited, forcing his pupils to dilate so he co uld see better in the dark. When he opened his eyes again, a pale muted telephone number hovered below in the darkness. Langdon shivered but fought the disposition to pull out. Am I seeing things? Is that a body? The figure faded. Langdon closed his eyes again and waited, longer this time, so his eyes would woof up the faintest light.Dizziness started to set in, and his thoughts wandered in the blackness. Just a few more seconds. He wasnt sure if it was breathing the fumes or holding his head at a low inclination, but Langdon was definitely starting time to feel squeamish. When he finally opened his eyes again, the image before him was totally inexplicable.He was now staring at a crypt bathed in an eerie bluish light. A faint bird sound reverberated in his ears. Light flickered on the steep walls of the shaft. Suddenly, a long shadow materialized over him. Startled, Langdon scrambled up.Look out someone exclaimed behind him.Before Langdon could turn, he felt a sharp pain on the back of his neck. He spun to see Vittoria twisting a lit flannel mullein away from him, the hissing flame throwing blue light around the chapel.Langdon grabbed his neck. What the hell are you doing?I was giving you some light, she said. You backed right into me.Langdon glared at the portable blowtorch in her hand.Best I could do, she said. No flashlights.Langdon rubbed his neck. I didnt hear you add in.Vittoria handed him the torch, wincing again at the stench of the crypt. You think those fumes are combustible?Lets hope not.He took the torch and moved slowly toward the hole. Cautiously, he advanced to the rim and pointed the flame down into the hole, lighting the side wall. As he directed the light, his eyes traced the outline of the wall downward. The crypt was circular and astir(predicate) twenty feet across. Thirty feet down, the glow found the floor. The ground was dark and mottled. Earthy. Then Langdon saw the body.His instinct was to recoil. Hes here, Langdon said, forcin g himself not to turn away. The figure was a queasy outline against the earthen floor. I think hes been stripped naked. Langdon flashed on the nude statue corpse of Leonardo 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 pale blob. Unmoving. Lifeless. And yet Langdon hesitated. There was something very strange about the way the figure was positioned. He seemed to beLangdon called out. Hello?You think hes alive?There was no response from below.Hes not moving, Langdon said. But he looks No, impossible.He looks what? Vittoria was peering over the boundary line now too.Langdon squinted into the darkness. He looks like hes standing up.Vittoria held her breath and lowered her face over the edge for a better look. After a moment, she pulled back. Youre right. Hes standing up Maybe hes alive and needs help She called into the hole. Hello? Mi puo sentire?There was no echo off the mossy interior. Only silence .Vittoria headed for the rickety ladder. Im going down.Langdon caught her arm. No. Its dangerous. Ill go.This time Vittoria didnt argue.