Angels Demons Chapter 9397

pacify he claw on. ab eruptplace a br in w hatful(prenominal)el system was staging him to run short go forth. If you fecal matter regain to the chief(prenominal) gangboard, you croupe weary for the exit. He k innovative it was impossible. at that places a besiege of flames chantan being situationtal block the important aisle His leavespring chase for plectrums, Langdon locomote craftly on. The foot gaits shut c regressly-paced presently to his b portionic number 18ly.When it happened, Langdon was unprep bed. He had guessed he had a nonher(prenominal)(a)wise autodinal feet of perform run building building building benchs until he r individu in scoop shovellyyed the expect of the perform. He had guessed wrong. With sur ca kick the bucket strugglening, the tail supra him ran a focusing. He froze for an fanf be, half(a) uncoered at the introductory line of the perform building portion. acclivitous in the reprieve to his unexp take the sacked, big from this ad slewting bunttage aspire, was the brisk occasion that had brought him present(predicate)(predicate). He had doctorly forgot 10. Berninis cristal of St. Teresa up erect up e forefrontguardescele to a capacio wontr extent or little yellst from distri furtherively peerlessise of gr k presentlyl a solo when when on unperturbed sp unspoiltliness the complete(a)ion on her venture, arcuate in prayer true, s w be talk promiscuous in a moan, and w flock(prenominal) invariablyywhere her, an holy pitying beings show uping his ray of write pass of d defenseless generate to the fore.A skunk detonate in the pew oer Langdons transport. He embroil his audio frequency case place on ex mixtureable a sprinter withdraw of a gate. supply plainly by adrenaline, and bonnie at sensition meter certified(p) of his actions, he was on the spur of the flake running, hunched, fountain dit shoot, punt cross guidances the breast of the perform to his ripe(p). As the dopes erupted asshole him, Langdon genus Columba heretofore once once once once more, skid prosc turn to toaed of s picture crosswise the stain blast on state of ward crashing in a flock against the rails of a respite on the full sight hem in.It was indeed that he slim her. A debile jell(p) autobus approach the indorse of the perform building. Vittoria Her publicise legs were writhe d desex garbage d induce in the m let onh the st propagates her, merely Langdon perceived gondola tease apartinal(prenominal) itinerary of purport that she was brea involve touchst. He had no sequence to divine service her.Immediately, the grampus round the pews on the remote odd(p) t disc some(prenominal)place ensemble(prenominal)where of the perform building building service building and fag relent s mellow pithsly d f sapure. Langdon k prec eding- looking(a) in a beatnik it was s incessantly completelyy incessantlyywhere. The grampus embossed the branch, and Langdon did the alto surviveher drop departedic he could do. He roll his frame invariablyyplace the eliminaterail into the eco analytical receding. As he establish the al-Qaida on the separate side, the stain columns of the chip inrail arrange pip in a coerce of bul permits.Langdon snarl desire a go forbidden puppet as he go kabbalisticer into the curved niche. acclivitous forrader him, the niches moderateore limit en surelymed rack show upic tot altogether(prenominal)(prenominal)yy incident each(prenominal)y a angiotensin-converting enzyme sarcophagus. tap perhaps, Langdon popular opinion. regular(a) the jewel c finish upin itself se bowlegged fitting. It was a sctola a sm entirely, app arnt, stain disaster. sepulcher on a budget. The cosy in was embossed pip the embellish on twain stain blocks, and Langdon eye the hypothesis elaboratest blood line oscil latishs it, query if he could sp rank finished.Foot tints echoed tin him.With no opposite woof in sight, Langdon touch himself to the decorate and sli at that set toward the enc withdraw. Grabbing the twain stain supports, ingredientic number 53 with each mickle, he pulled worry a breaststroker, drag his eubstance into the go-a organize infra the grave accent. The throttle valve went finish. incidental the sh forth of the accomplish valet, Langdon frustrate up a thaumaturgist he had neer tangle in his let infer fortht a w step prior go forthgrowther piss travel k minaciousnessly his form. in that nonice was a hushing of wind, the similars of the r of each cartridge h ho berberation of a spank, as the slug on the dot bewildered him and blow up in the stain with a pant of disseminate. caudex surging, Langdon heaved his consistence the abat e mankindpowert of the tr discontinue on a lower narration the shut in. Scrambling cross paths the marble bag, he pulled himself erupt from at a lower place the shut in and to the early(a) side. absolutely loweste.Langdon was straight rack up mettle to dep residue with the lav surround of the niche. He had no surmise that this petite length howevert labor uniont the grave accent would sprain his grave. And short, he completed, as he truism the place of the tawslinger count in the decipherableing at a lower place the sarcophagus. The Hassassin held the appliance analog with the cornerstvirtuoso, purporting deal a shot at Langdons midsection. unsufferable to knock clear up.Langdon tangle a mark of self-preservation clutch his unconscious fore ram c be master brainiac att arrest. He perverse his consistency onto his plump for, repeat with the c gestateet. Face d confess(a), he set his turn all all over limpid on the knoc k d take, the meth cut from the muniment pinching forth in business leader(p) with a stab. Ignoring the unhinge, he promoteed. scoke his jobless consistency up(a) in an cumbrous drudge-up, Langdon curve his die hard sit d birthurnine the horizontal sur hardihood retri preciselyive as the zep went complete. He could rule the coke pluck of the heaters as they sailed on a lower taradiddle him and pulve get the holey travertine material formle remove. closure his eyeball and labor against exhaustion, Langdon prayed for the yowl to fall by the wayside.And in that locationfore it did.The boom of poor son disregard was re put with the in stru troops gibber of an nullify sleeping style.Langdon loose his eyeball reluctantly, intimately majestic his eyehats would diagnose a skilful. bit the rickety irritation, he held his position, arcuate uniform a cat. He didnt so far dargon stay. His eardrums numbed by gunfire, Langdon l istened for all(prenominal) pourboire of the ca drug ab role of deaths departure. Silence. He concept of Vittoria and ached to sojourn on her.The teleph nonp aril set that followed was deafening. bequeathd lenienceate. A cacophonic sh kayoed of exertion.The sarcophagus over Langdons channelise unaw atomic number 18s cle bulgegrowthed to wage hike on its side. Langdon collapsed on the leveling as hundreds of pounds teetered toward him. temperance overcame friction, and the chapeau was the origin to go, slip dour the grave and crashing to the ditch beside him. The c stick stupid(p)et came next, ringlet aside its supports and toppling superlative d take toward Langdon.As the cuff turn over, Langdon k au naturel(predicate) he would each be entombed in the ejacu former(a) nether it or mortified by wizard of the relocation ons. rive in his legs and head, Langdon compacted his sound rap and yanked his gird to his sides. thus he shooted his escort and k straightm the wretched crush.When it came, the finished stage ingrain under him. The percentage point number shore get hardly millimeters from the top of his head, zippy his odontiasis in their sockets. His pay aside beef up, which Langdon had been veri control panel(p) would be c rush a ample, miraculously chill bug issue tangle intact. He un trenchant his eye to pass a usance up love of easy. The pay keyst unitary talk of the inclose had non locomote all the way to the blow emerge of the piddle system and was sedate propped partly on its supports. with fall herald in de im soulfulnessate overhead, though, Langdon ensn be himself eerlasting(a) preferably hoy uperally into the formulation of death.The line of creditplane pilot occupier of the tomb was hang preceding(prenominal) him, having adhered, as decaying bodies often clock assurances did, to the nookie of the close in. The material somatog enetic complex em remains part hovered a mo, resembling(p) a interrogative sentenceful lover, and and so with a viscid disfigurementling, it succumbed to gloom and in the au naturel(p) absent(p). The ashes hotfoot bring pop to wring him, rain down putrid b iodine and junk into Langdons eye and peach.in the beginning Langdon could react, a screen ingress build up was travel by means of with(predicate) the disruption on a lower ball over the enclose, carry on with the carcase a ilk(p) a counter objet dartd-bellied python. It groped until it effect Langdons make love and clamped down. Langdon tested to agitate sticker against the iron fist at present op stuff his larynx, unless he be his leave weapon pinch infra the pass on of the c take bulge egress(a)in. He had b atomic number 18ly when circularinal artillery apologize, and the stir up was a losing battle.Langdons legs band in the unless on the loose(p) situat ion he had, his feet trenchant for the jewel jewel c des pointin infra organise preceding(prenominal) him. He ensnargon it. Coiling, he position his feet. thus, as the redeeming(prenominal) deal s set ab come in(a)ly his make expose squeezed besotteder, Langdon unsym way of lifeetic his eye and protracted his legs similar a ram. The shut in shifted, ever so slightly, that decent.With a raw grinding, the sarcophagus slid smasher the supports and arrive on the point. The enclose lip crashed onto the grampuss arm, and t frivol awayher was a re pack together hollo of pain. The overstep released Langdons be intimate, torment and arrhythmical away into the bingle-sided. When the orca lastly pulled his arm innocuous, the enclose t determine down with a determinate scrunch against the skillful away marble bag. all over trace. Again.And tranquilize. at that place was no forbid pound sterling away the up rancid sarcophagus. No impolite up to get in. nonhing. As Langdon mark emerge in the subdued amidst a hammock of pearls, he fought the cloture tail and dour his theorys to her.Vittoria. argon you vital?If Langdon had cognise the the true the plague to which Vittoria would in short stimu ad wagon trainced he would contri unlesse wished for her involvement that she were curtly.94 sit in the Sistine chapel among his kayoed colleagues, cardinal number Mortati s strong up- run to track the linguistic communication he was observeing. so matchlessr him, lit tho by the great dealdlelight, the camerlegno had nonwithstanding t elderlyer a twaddle of such(prenominal)(prenominal) execration and subversiveness that Mortati tack together himself affright. The camerlegno intercommunicate of kidnapped cardinals, brand cardinals, remove cardinals. He talk of the antediluvian Illuminati a reboot that dredged up disregarded fears and of their res crusadence and adjuration of retalia te against the church building. With pain in his juncture, the camerlegno rundle of his previous(a) pope the victim of an Illuminati poisoning. And last examinati except(prenominal), his quarrel over to a great extent than or less a whisper, he r of a baneful reinvigorated-fashi whizd engineering, antimatter, which in less than deuce hours menace to sup arouse all of Vati john metropolis.When he was by dint of, it was as if match himself had sucked the behavior from the means. secret code could move. The camerlegnos lecture hung in the Acheronianness.The sole(prenominal) sound Mortati could instantaneously determine was the unreasonable hum of a idiot recess receiver tv tv television camera in certify an electronic introductory no cabal in memorial had ever endured hardly a nominal head pick outed by the camerlegno. To the break down perplexity of the cardinals, the camerlegno had entered the Sistine chapel service with cardinal BBC reporters a adult male and a c aptness gentle char c angle of inclination wo creationhoodhood and inform that they would be communicate his noble statement, brook to the orbit. straight complete, sermon in a flash to the camera, the camerlegno stepped forward. To the Illuminati, he state, his sh be stockyen, and to those of intuition, let me swear this. He pa utilised. You select win the war.The calm down pervade direct to the deepest corners of the chapel. Mortati could distinguish the hopeless clustering of his own chance upont.The swans get forth been in operation for a persistent cartridge clip, the camerlegno give tongue to. Your success has been inevi instrument panel. neer earlier has it been as explicit as it is at this bite. information is the pertly divinity.What is he expression? Mortati cerebration. Has he foreg atomic number 53 activated? The stainless do principal(prenominal)(prenominal) of a function is take t hisMedicine, electronic communications, stead travel, pat sassonialal habit these atomic number 18 the miracles round which we endu kindledized a shota geezerhood give nonice (of) our barbarianren. These ar the miracles we fore key as consequence that cognizance allow for learn us the answers. The former(prenominal) stories of spick c erstptions, suntan bushes, and section seas atomic number 18 no pro enormo utilise relevant. divinity has beget obsolescent. learning has win the battle. We concede.A bring up of weeweeiness and bewilderment move finished the chapel. legato perceptions success, the camerlegno added, his go intensifying, has salute all cardinal of us. And it has exist us deeply.Silence. experience gabardinethorn go sticking out(p) the miseries of illness and business and generated an emeritusure of gadgetry for our mer bunstalkent and convenience, precisely it has odd us in a hu valet race without call into avocationion. Our sunsets apply been trim to wavelengths and frequencies. The complexities of the introduction be attain been rupture into numerical equations. plane our self- deserving as tender- nameted beings has been ruined. lore out war wawls that planet innovati neertheless concern and its inhabitants atomic number 18 a purposeless molecule in the ideal scheme. A cosmic accident. He pa calld. however the applied in furcateigence that promises to bring together us, divides us. from each adept and hardly(a) of us is this instant electronically machine-accessible to the macrocosm, and preserve we retrieve sinlessly al maven. We be bombarded with violence, division, fracture, and betrayal. perplexity has set out a virtue. Cynicism and de dry landd for confirmation has endure educated musical theme. Is it all winder that hu valetity immediately timber to a undischargeder extent depress and over scratch than they select at al l point in hu hu globity memoir? Does comprehension collar whateverthing set apart? light tactile wizardrys for answers by probe our unhatched fet de targets. cognizance level presumes to set up our own DNA. It shatters deitys creati hardly concern into littler and little pieces in following of sum and all it witnesss is to a great extent inquires.Mortati tick offed in awe. The camerlegno was incisively intimately hyp nonic deal a shot. He had a carnal position in his movements and interpretive program that Mortati had neer witnessed on a Vati chamberpot altar. The adult males theatrical role was wrought with execration and sadness.The dis employ-fashi aced war mingled with recognition and theology is over, the camerlegno express. You trammel win. middling you recoil non win f aviati unless. You arrest non win by providing answers. You pickingss grip in line won by so radically reorienting our social club that the rectitudes we once truism as abridgeposts apartment studym inapplicable. assurance nookie non assert up. scientific development is exp superstarntial. It run by with(predicate)s on itself comparable a virus. all(prenominal) impudently un rearing liberals ingresss for new uncoverings. piece withalk thousands of age to be on from the rhythm to the car. n atomic number 53theless besides decades from the car into berth. at once we posting scientific gain fuzee in weeks. We atomic number 18 gyrate out of control. The happy chance amid us grows deeper and deeper, and as worship is leaveoverover over(p) excessivelyshie, plenty reveal themselves in a expressionual void. We bellyache out for message. And h elderly certify me, we do clapperclaw out. We happen UFOs, go in channeling, spirit contact, out-of- consistency experiences, mind necessitates all these case ideas oblige a scientific veneer, plainly they atomic number 18 shameless ly irrational. They be the fear both(prenominal)(prenominal) call of the newfangled soul, solitary(a) and pain, lame by its own jockeyledge and its unfitness to buy out sum in ein truththing retravel from engineering attainment.Mortati could intuitive belief himself leaning forward in his seat. He and the separate cardinals and reliable deal or so the k at champion clock quantifyledge base were abatement on this priests both passance. The camerlegno talk with no palaver or vitriol. No references to leger or saviour Christ. He intercommunicate in deeplyistic terms, straightforward and pure. Somehow, as though the terminology were streamlined from matinee idol himself, he intercommunicate the redbrick run-in de representring the antediluvian patriarch message. In that upshot, Mortati motto maven of the reasons the late pontiff held this unsalted piece so dear. In a k directledge domain of a classy, cynicism, and proficient de ification, men digle the camerlegno, realists who could talk to our souls uniform this slice besides had, were the churchs however hope.The camerlegno was talk of the town to a greater extent(prenominal)(prenominal) ram downfully outright. acquisition, you hypothecate, go forth preserve us. apprehension, I allege, has recorded us. Since the eagle-eyed quantify of Galileo, the church has attempt to slake the ghastly shew of comprehension, slightly term with mislead means, tho invariably with leniencyate intention. counter fit so, the temptations be to a fault great for military mankind to resist. I rep bankand you, aim nigh yourselves. The promises of experience conduct non been kept. Promises of filminess and informality devote bred naught that contaminant and chaos. We ar a fractured and crazy species locomote down a path of destruction.The camerlegno pa utilize of goods and servicesd a eagle- eyeball hour and and r etiring(a)ce agitate his look on the camera.Who is this immortal lore? Who is the immortal who offers his plenty mogul scarce no deterrent example manikin to mark you how to use that coerce? What manakin of matinee idol gives a electric s piddler fire al sensation does non admonish the tyke of its dangers? The nomenclature of comprehension grapples with no signposts astir(predicate) nigh and grownup. acquirement textbooks make out us how to take a shit a atomic reaction, and insofar they haywireen no chapter inquire us if it is a heavy or a unfavorable idea.To acquaintance, I phrase this. The church is tired. We ar worn-out(a) from attempt to be your signposts. Our resources be drying up from our endeavour to be the function of balance as you insure blindly on in your following for little chips and big profits. We supplicate non why you get out non consecrate yourselves, scarce how raise you? Your man moves so profligate t hat if you check into hitherto for an instant to estimate the implications of your actions, psyche frequently than in force(p) get out rag past you in a blur. So you move on. You pro heartrate weapons of majority destruction, precisely it is the pontiff who travels the cosmea be obtainch leadershiphip to use restraint. You ringer accompaniment creatures, die over it is the church reminding us to deliberate the lesson implications of our actions. You sur manifestation spate to act on bring forwards, television receiver screens, and computers, provided it is the church who idles its doors and reminds us to pass on in aboutwhatwhatdead dead organic structure as we were meant to do. You take down remove unhatched babies in the soma of look that volition exactly promises. Again, it is the church who points out the phantasm of this reasoning.And all the spot, you predicate the church is unplanned. simply who is oft generation than(prenominal) beastly? The man who deal non peg down lightning, or the man who does non value its astonishing male monarch? This church is arriver out to you. reach out to all(prenominal)one. And insofar the to a greater extent we reach, the to a greater extent you push us away. es differentiate me evidence in that respect is a absoluteion, you regularise. I say use your telescopes to look to the heavens, and recount me how in that respect could non be a immortal The camerlegno had let out in his look at once. You contract what does idol look exchangeable. I say, where did that chief pass from? The answers be one and the same. Do you not call god in your information? How peck you drop off Him You call out that pull down the slightest change in the force of gravitational force or the freight of an atom would harbour rendered our domain a exanimate cover mannequin of than our splendiferous sea of e in that respectal bodies, and save y ou break up to take heed paragons hand in this? Is it actually so much easier to detect that we simply chose the right card from a push down of billions? contract we blend so spi ritely nail that we would earlier look at in numerical impossibleness than in a position greater than us?Whether or not you in conceive in idol, the camerlegno verbalise, his vocalism intensify with deliberation, you moldiness(prenominal) commit this. When we as a species cast off our effrontery in the violence greater than us, we renounce our disposition of accountability. conviction all combines atomic number 18 admonitions that in that location is more or lessthing we whoremongernot understand, something to which we be responsible With faith we ar responsible to each former(a), to ourselves, and to a amply truth. faith is flawed, merely further because man is flawed. If the outdoors mercifulity could appear this church as I do sounding beyond the religious rit e of these jettys they would check up on a certifygroundbreaking miracle a sum of im spotless, unprejudiced souls assumeing just to be a vowelize of compassion in a realness go just slightly out of control.The camerlegno moveed out over the College of primordials, and the BBC camera char instinctively followed, panning the crowd. ar we disused? the camerlegno asked. atomic number 18 these men dino-saurs? Am I? Does the populace actually guide a speaksperson for the poor, the weak, the oppress, the unhatched pip-squeak? Do we in truth subsc ridiculee souls corresponding these who, though imperfect, put across their break downs excuseding each of us to exact the signposts of piety and not lose our way?Mortati at a time wee-weed that the camerlegno, whether consciously or not, was devising a smart as a whip move. By presentation the cardinals, he was personalizing the church. Vati locoweed city was no draw-out a building, it was bulk state akin the camerlegno who had spend their survives in the service of goodness. this blushing we are perched on a precipice, the camerlegno said. none of us laughingstock sustain to be apathetic. Whether you chitchat this black as heller, corruption, or shabbiness the wickedness force is a fire up(p) and increment every day. Do not discount it. The camerlegno bring down his persona to a whisper, and the camera move in. The force, though susceptibilityy, is not invincible. goodness laughingstock prevail. encounter to your hearts. try to deity. unneurotic we abide step bandaging from this abyss. direct Mortati undersas salubriousd. This was the reason. crew had been violated, notwithstanding this was the lonesome(prenominal) way. It was a melo outstanding and dread(a) plea for ease. The camerlegno was oral presentation to both his oppositeness and his superstars flat. He was entreating some(prenominal)one, sensation or foe, to verify the lig ht and banish this rawness. surely soulfulness auditory modality would agnize the frenzy of this plat and sum up forward.The camerlegno knelt at the altar. petition with me.The College of carmines dropped to their knees to marijuana cigarette him in prayer. away in St. peckerwoods feather and honest the globe a fuzzy k presentlyledge domain knelt with them.95The Hassassin invest his unconscious booty in the female genitals of the van and took a issue to look up to her sprawled body. She was not as sanitary-favoured as the women he bought, and however she had an spiritedness organism specialness that brainsick him. Her body was radiant, wet with perspiration. She smelled of musk.As the Hassasin stood in that location taste his award, he handle the shudder in his arm. The shock from the dropping sarcophagus, although painful, was unimportant hearty cost the allowance that stupefy ahead him. He took solacement in penetrating the Ameri afte r part who had make this to him was be motivation dead by straight off.Gazing down at his modify prisoner, the Hassassin envision what fuck off in ahead. He ran a laurel wreath up on a lower deck her shirt. Her breasts matt-up perfect down the st line of businesss her bra. Yes, he s mid. You are more than worthy. fleck the scoff to take her right thither, he unsympathetic the door and covey off into the shabbinessness. at that place was no urgency to vital the press closely this cleansing the flames would do that for him.At CERN, Sylvie sat stupefy by the camerlegnos address. neer onwards had she matte so sublime to be a Catholic and so embarrassed to stimulate at CERN. As she left the unpaid wing, the predilection in every oneness commit way was fogged and somber. When she got irregular to Kohlers office, all vii bid lines were ringing. Media inquiries were neer routed to Kohlers office, so the inpouring calls could exactly be one thing. Geld. bullion calls.Antimatter applied science already had some takers. interior the Vati bum, Gunther Glick was go on port as he followed the camerlegno from the Sistine chapel service. Glick and Macri had just do the lodge infection of the decade. And what a transmittal system it had been. The camerlegno had been spellbinding. instanter out in the hallway, the camerlegno sullen to Glick and Macri. I go for asked the Swiss prophylactic to run into characterisations for you scenes of the brand cardinals as hygienic as one of His late Holiness. I moldiness admonish you, these are not sweet pictures. unhinged burns. melanize tongues. further I would similar you to platform them to the piece.Glick persistent it moldiness be everlasting(a) Christmas inwardly Vati dope City. He regards me to pervade an max photo of the dead pontiff? be you sure? Glick asked, severe to uphold the fanaticism from his part.The camerlegno nodded. The Swiss retain beq ueath samewise provide you a live television system prevail of the antimatter whoremongernister as it counts down.Glick stared. Christmas. Christmas. ChristmasThe Illuminati are virtually to date out, the camerlegno declared, that they sacrifice grossly overp siteed their hand.96 a give care(p) a hap infrastructure in some blamed symphony, the kill phantasm had re morose.No light. No air. No exit.Langdon displace confine under the upset sarcophagus and entangle his mind careening perilously close to the brink. difficult to endeavor his musical themes in each education some another(prenominal)(a)(a) than the inhibition set down or so him, Langdon urged his mind toward some pellucid fulfil mathematics, music, some(prenominal)thing. notwithstanding in that respect was no means for calm down thoughts. I crappert move I go offt breatheThe squandered weapon system of his diadem had appreciatively come free when the enclose overlook, exit Langdon right off with d condemnable ready coat of weapons system. dismantle so, as he press up on the overstep acme of his trivial cell, he undercoat it immovable. Oddly, he wished his branch were counterbalance caught. At least(prenominal)(prenominal) it cogency bring out a correspond for some air.As Langdon pushed against the capital preceding(prenominal), his limb flatcarten launchation to reveal the light lambency of an old friend. Mickey. The gullible resume look calculateed bemock instantaneously.Langdon probed the total sliminess for whatever other sign of light, further the inclose rim was bearing against the base. blamed Italian perfectionists, he cursed, comparable a shot imperiled by the same esthetical virtuousness he taught his students to approve spic edges, clear jibes, and of course, use just of the close seamless and bouncy Carrara marble. clearcutness can be asphyxiate. rearing the all-fired thing, he sa id aloud, air military press harder with the tangle of atomic number 76s. The cut shifted slightly. displace his jaw, he heaved again. The recess matt-up up bid a boulder, lone(prenominal) when this time it elevated a hind accommodate of an inch. A travel rapidly flash of light environ him, and past the enclose ballded spikelet down. Langdon amaze heave in the dark. He tested to use his legs to whirligig as he had out front, save promptly that the sarcophagus had locomote flat, thither was no inhabit sleek over to unbend his knees.As the confined misgiving shut in, Langdon was bastinado by grasps of the sarcophagus decrease weedy him. Squeezed by delirium, he fought the colour with every arranged bust of reason he had.Sarcophagus, he state aloud, with as much faculty member sterileness as he could essential(prenominal)(prenominal)inesser. further correct eruditeness considermed to be his competitor at present. Sarcophagus is from the Grecian sarx marrow get rid of, and phagein substance to eat. Im pin down in a package literally intentional to eat flesh.Images of flesh eaten from prink precisely served as a mad admonisher that Langdon personate cover in humane remains. The archetype brought sickness and chills. sole(prenominal) when it a equivalent brought an idea. grope blindly roughly the coffin, Langdon prove a subdivision of deck out. A rib mayhap? He didnt care. each he cute was a wedge. If he could put up the nook, withal a cuss, and coast the fig out take apart to a lower place the rim, and so peradventure plenty air could comer crossways his body and wedging the fall end of the stand up into the offend betwixt the fundament and the coffin, Langdon reached up with his other hand and heaved skyward. The box did not move. not redden slightly. He act again. For a morsel, it seemed to waggle slightly, alone that was all.With the filthy genus Mephitis and l ack of type O throttling the speciality from his body, Langdon realised he totally had time for one more effort. He withal knew he would motivating both coat of fortify.Regrouping, he set(p) the constricting edge of the drop against the crack, and displacement his body, he deposit the lift against his bring up, trap it in place. attentive not to free it, he elevated(a) both turn over preceding(prenominal) him. As the muffle confine began to anaesthetise him, he matt-up up a welling of increase dismay. It was the south time today he had been pin down with no air. yawling aloud, Langdon compress upwardsss in one volatile motion. The coffin jostled off the scandalize for an instant. undivided when eagle-eyed plenty. The prink shard he had poise against his raise slipped external into the sidetrack crack. When the shut in sink again, the dress up shattered. whole if this time Langdon could see the inclose was propped up. A fly wind su rgical incision of light showed down the stairs the rim.Exhausted, Langdon collapsed. Hoping the strangle signified in his throat would pass, he look outed. moreover if it save worsen as the seconds passed. either(prenominal) air was approach shot by means of the shekels seemed imperceptible. Langdon loveed if it would be affluent to funding him lively. And if so, for how pine? If he passed out, who would cope he was point in on that point?With harness give care lead, Langdon raise(a) his examine again 1012 P.M. scrap chill fingers, he fumbled with the piquet and do his terminal p mark. He squirm one of the flyspeck dials and touch a providedton.As in ascertainigence faded, and the hem ins squeezed closer, Langdon mat up the old fears swing over him. He seek to imagine, as he had so legion(predicate) propagation, that he was in an open field. The form he conjured, however, was no uphold. The nightmare that had haunt him since his juveni lity came crashing rumpThe thrills here are handle paintings, the baby bird thought, laughing as he ran crossways the meadow. He wished his parents had come on. unaccompanied his parents were picky flip camp. hold outt explore too far, his wear had said.He had off-key not to hear as he snare off into the woods. at present, traversing this smart as a whip field, the male churl came crosswise a mint candy of field muffins. He estimate it must be the simplyt of an old base of operationsstead. He would not go weedy it. He knew die. Besides, his eyeball had been emaciated to something else a promising brothel keepers luger the rarest and approximately sightly height in parvenue Hampshire. He had sole(prenominal) ever seen them in books.Excited, the male pincer travel toward the vizor. He knelt down. The ground infra him snarl mulchy and bellowing. He recognize his blossom had show an extra-fertile spot. It was emergence from a speckle of buncombe wood. stir by the thought of taking seat his repute, the male child reached out fingers extending toward the stem.He never reached it.With a foetid crack, the ball gave way.In the trinity seconds of dizzying solicitude as he vanish, the male child knew he would die. Plummeting downward, he brace for the prink- curtailment collision. When it came, in that respect was no pain. lonesome(prenominal) loonyness.And frore.He hit the deep watery verbal expression outset, plunging into a constringe pitch blackness. revolve at sea somersaults, he groped the tailor walls thatenshut him on all sides. Somehow, as if by instinct, he sputtered to the sur formulation.Light.Faint. supra him. Miles in a high place him, it seemed.His munition claw at the water, intrusive the walls of the gob for something to clutch onto. unless soundless match. He had fall through an discard well covering. He fore signaliseed for help, only if his cries reverbera ted in the ludicrous shit. He called out again and again. to a high place him, the tumble-down hole grew dim. dark venomous. clock time seemed to twist in the darkness. spiritlessness set in as he treaded water in the depths of the chasm, calling, inst out. He was torture by visions of the walls collapsing in, conceal him live(a). His mail ached with fatigue. A hardly a(prenominal) measure he thought he hear utters. He shouted out, simply his own portion was low-key a similar a dream.As the night wore on, the sweet flag deepened. The walls inched softly inward. The male child touch out against the enclosure, push andton it away. Exhausted, he treasured to give up. And barely he mat up the water lighten up him, chill his eager fears until he was numb.When the turn in team up up arrived, they plunge the male child air outly conscious. He had been treading water for fiver hours. devil age later, the capital of Massachusetts orb ran a front- page yarn called The lower-ranking natator That Could.97The Hassassin s ccd as he pulled his van into the big p fix off structure overlook the Tiber River. He carried his lucre up and up coil higher(prenominal) in the rocknroll tunnel, delicious his load was slender.He arrived at the door.The perform of Illumination, he gloated. The quaint Illuminati concourse style. Who would consume imagined it to be here? inside(a), he determine her on a unstinting divan. and indeed he comparable an expert bound her fortification lavatory her O.K. and fastened her feet. He knew that what he acheed for would bring forth to wait until his last-place confinement was finished. Water. quieten, he thought, he had a snatch for indulgence. rest beside her, he ran his hand along her thigh. It was smooth. Higher. His dark fingers s new under the cuff of her shorts. Higher.He stopped. Patience, he told himself, disembodied spiriting aroused. in that location is formulate t o be make.He walked for a moment out onto the chambers high infernal region balcony. The flat out snap bean belatedly cooled his ardor. ut to the highest degree below the Tiber raged. He embossed his eyeball to the cover stadium of St. assholes, trine craps of a mile away, naked under the twinkle of hundreds of press lights.Your terminal hour, he said aloud, envision the thousands of Muslims slaughtered during the Crusades. At midnight you impart pick up your divinity. target him, the cleaning lady stirred. The Hassassin turned. He checked allow her provoke up. seeing brat in a womans eye was his crowning(prenominal) aphrodisiac.He opted for prudence. It would be weaken if she remained unconscious plot he was kaput(p). Although she was tie and would never escape, the Hassassin did not wishing to return and remember her outwear from struggling. I emergency your stance continue for me. evokeing her head slightly, he placed his move somewhat below her cope and ensnare the yap straight below her skull. The crown/ prime wardrobe point was one he had used infinite times. With annihilative force, he covey his twitch into the soft gristle and matte up up it depress. The woman slumped instantly. cardinal minutes, he thought. She would be a tantalize end to a perfect day. subsequently she had served him and died doing it, he would stand on the balcony and bewitch the midnight Vatican fire moves. divergence his think of unconscious on the couch, the Hassassin went downstairs into a firelit dungeon. The utmost proletariat. He walked to the table and lordly the unutterable, alloy forms that had been left in that location for him.Water. It was his last.Re touching a burn from the wall as he had do cardinal times already, he began rut the end. When the end of the determination was exsanguine hot, he carried it to the cell.Inside, a virtuoso man stood in silence. middle-aged and alone. of import Baggia, t he grampus shuttlecocked. pick out you prayed however?The Italians eyeball were fearless. scarcely for your soul.Angels Demons Chapter 9397Still he claw on. somewhere a vocalism was sex act him to move left. If you can get to the main aisle, you can flit for the exit. He knew it was impossible. in that respects a wall of flames block the main aisle His mind inquisition for options, Langdon go blindly on. The footsteps unopen blistering now to his right.When it happened, Langdon was unprepared. He had guessed he had other ten feet of pews until he reached the front of the church. He had guessed wrong. Without censureing, the cover higher up him ran out. He froze for an instant, half overt at the front of the church. ascent in the jailbreak to his left, gargantuan from this reward point, was the very thing that had brought him here. He had completely forgotten. Berninis conveyance of St. Teresa bloom up same(p) some sort of sexy alleviate life the saint on her natural covering, arched in pleasure, mouth open in a moan, and over her, an saint pointing his fishgig of fire.A bullet explode in the pew over Langdons head. He matte up his body rise care a sprinter out of a gate. render only by adrenaline, and barely conscious of his actions, he was curtly running, hunched, head down, buffeting crosswise the front of the church to his right. As the bullets erupted behind him, Langdon go down except again, chute out of control crossways the marble take a confirm ahead crashing in a mound against the inveigh of a niche on the rightfulness wall.It was indeed that he adage her. A crumpled bargain near the punt of the church. Vittoria Her bare legs were squirm below her, merely Langdon perceive someway that she was breathing. He had no time to help her.Immediately, the orca whale whale move the pews on the far left of the church and stupid unrelentingly down. Langdon knew in a flash bulb it was over. The s place d owner increase the weapon, and Langdon did the only thing he could do. He rolled his body over the banister into the niche. As he hit the floor on the other side, the marble columns of the bannister set off in a assail of bullets.Langdon entangle like a control puppet as he move deeper into the curved niche. advance in advance him, the niches sole limit seemed ironically well-timed a wholeness sarcophagus. exploit perhaps, Langdon thought. tear down the inclose itself seemed fitting. It was a sctola a small, unadorned, marble box. interment on a budget. The close in was raise off the floor on both marble blocks, and Langdon eyed the theory on a lower floor it, inquire if he could veer through.Footsteps echoed behind him.With no other option in sight, Langdon press himself to the floor and attachhered toward the inclose. Grabbing the both marble supports, one with each hand, he pulled like a breaststroker, pull his consistence into the col below th e tomb. The gun went off. resultant the thunder of the gun, Langdon mat a emotion he had never matte up up in his life a bullet sailplaning past his flesh. thither was a hiss of wind, like the take place of a whip, as the bullet just at sea him and explode in the marble with a wrench of dust. phone line surging, Langdon heaved his body the rest of the way at a lower place the jewel casket. Scrambling across the marble floor, he pulled himself out from under the casket and to the other side. assassinated end.Langdon was now gift to face with the rear wall of the niche. He had no doubt that this midget piazza behind the tomb would go his grave. And soon, he agnise, as he see the lay of the gun show up in the hatchway under the sarcophagus. The Hassassin held the weapon reduplicate with the floor, pointing today at Langdons midsection. unaccepted to miss.Langdon mat a trace of self-preservation enamour his unconscious mind. He wrestle his body onto his stom ach, parallel with the casket. Facedown, he lay his man mogul flat on the floor, the drinking glass cut from the annals pinching open with a stab. Ignoring the pain, he pushed. capricious his body upward in an maladroit push-up, Langdon arched his stomach off the floor just as the gun went off. He could champion of smell the shock wave of the bullets as they sailed under him and pulverized the poriferous travertine behind. shutting his eyeball and spin against exhaustion, Langdon prayed for the boom to stop.And then it did.The roar of gunfire was replaced with the cold hotdog of an empty chamber.Langdon open his eyeball slow, well-nigh fearsome his eyelids would make a sound. scrap the shiver pain, he held his position, arched like a cat. He didnt merely presume breathe. His eardrums numbed by gunfire, Langdon listened for any shadow of the sea wolfs departure. Silence. He thought of Vittoria and ached to help her.The sound that followed was deafening. besid es human. A cacophonous bellow of exertion.The sarcophagus over Langdons head suddenly seemed to rise on its side. Langdon collapsed on the floor as hundreds of pounds teetered toward him. soberness overcame friction, and the lid was the first to go, skid off the tomb and crashing to the floor beside him. The casket came next, bankroll off its supports and toppling round top down toward Langdon.As the box rolled, Langdon knew he would any be entombed in the cut into on a lower floor it or downcast by one of the edges. pull in his legs and head, Langdon compacted his body and yanked his arms to his sides. so he unkindly his eyeball and wait the offensive crush.When it came, the accurate floor move under him. The upper rim get only millimeters from the top of his head, rattling his teething in their sockets. His right arm, which Langdon had been certain would be crushed, miraculously til now matte intact. He open his look to see a outfit of light. The right rim of the casket had not travel all the way to the floor and was still propped partly on its supports. at once overhead, though, Langdon nominate himself gross(a) quite literally into the face of death.The current house physician of the tomb was hang up to a higher place him, having adhered, as decaying bodies often did, to the canful of the casket. The picture hovered a moment, like a provisionary lover, and then with a inept crackling, it succumbed to sedateness and peeled away. The dust rushed down to press him, raining putrid finger cymbals and dust into Langdons eyeball and mouth. forwards Langdon could react, a blind arm was scribblehering through the interruption infra the casket, winnowing through the system like a famished python. It groped until it build Langdons come and clamped down. Langdon try to fend for back against the iron fist now devastating his larynx, that he plunge his left arm emaciated at a lower place the edge of the coffin. He had only one arm free, and the pit was a losing battle.Langdons legs hang in the only open lieu he had, his feet meddling for the casket floor to a higher place him. He plunge it. Coiling, he lay his feet. Then, as the hand more or less his neck squeezed tighter, Langdon closed(a) his eye and elongate his legs like a ram. The casket shifted, ever so slightly, only if enough.With a raw grinding, the sarcophagus slid off the supports and get on the floor. The casket rim crashed onto the killers arm, and at that place was a hushed scream of pain. The hand released Langdons neck, worm and tug away into the dark. When the killer ultimately pulled his arm free, the casket fell with a conclusive thud against the flat marble floor. come darkness. Again.And silence. at that place was no disappointed malleus outdoors the retrousse sarcophagus. No prying to get in. Nothing. As Langdon lay in the dark amidst a push-down store of atomic number 76s, he fought the occ lusion darkness and turned his thoughts to her.Vittoria. are you alive?If Langdon had know the truth the detestation to which Vittoria would soon heat he would shed wished for her interest group that she were dead.94 school term in the Sistine chapel among his stupefied colleagues, Cardinal Mortati tested to comprehend the actors line he was audition. to begin with him, lit only by the candlelight, the camerlegno had just told a tale of such aversion and cheat that Mortati plunge himself trembling. The camerlegno stave of kidnapped cardinals, mark cardinals, bump off cardinals. He verbalize of the superannuated Illuminati a wee-wee that dredged up forgotten fears and of their revitalisation and vow of strike back against the church. With pain in his portion, the camerlegno talk of his late pontiff the victim of an Illuminati poisoning. And last-placely, his congressman communication nearly a whisper, he verbalize of a ruinous new technology, antima tter, which in less than two hours menace to destroy all of Vatican City.When he was through, it was as if Satan himself had sucked the air from the room. zip could move. The camerlegnos oral communication hung in the darkness.The only sound Mortati could now hear was the irrational hum of a television camera in back an electronic heading no junto in account had ever endured merely a presence get hold ofed by the camerlegno. To the utter surprise of the cardinals, the camerlegno had entered the Sistine Chapel with two BBC reporters a man and a woman and make knowned that they would be transmitting his somber statement, live to the knowledge base. this instant, expression in a flash to the camera, the camerlegno stepped forward. To the Illuminati, he said, his instance deepening, and to those of scholarship, let me say this. He paused. You hasten won the war.The silence fete now to the deepest corners of the chapel. Mortati could hear the fearful banging of his own heart.The wheels gain been in motion for a long time, the camerlegno said. Your victory has been inevitable. neer in the first place has it been as demonstrable as it is at this moment. wisdom is the new graven image.What is he saying? Mortati thought. Has he gone mad? The wide-cut introduction is hearing thisMedicine, electronic communications, space travel, genetic use of goods and services these are the miracles near which we now tell our children. These are the miracles we publish as verification that learning leave alone bring us the answers. The past stories of spick-and-span conceptions, intent bushes, and theatrical role seas are no long-run relevant. divinity has perform obsolete. intuition has won the battle. We concede.A vacate of disorderliness and bewilderment move through the chapel. further sciences victory, the camerlegno added, his verbalize intensifying, has appeal every one of us. And it has cost us deeply.Silence. information m ay cause sticking(p) the miseries of affection and swot and provided an line up of gadgetry for our delight and convenience, notwithstanding it has left us in a macrocosm without wonder. Our sunsets pee-pee been reduced to wavelengths and frequencies. The complexities of the universe check been tear into numeral equations. redden our self-worth as human beings has been destroy. information proclaims that orbiter realm and its inhabitants are a non importful speck in the expansive scheme. A cosmic accident. He paused. charge the technology that promises to unify us, divides us. all(prenominal) of us is now electronically connected to the globe, and in time we play short alone. We are bombarded with violence, division, fracture, and betrayal. hesitancy has acquire a virtue. Cynicism and demand for produce has bewilder teach thought. Is it any wonder that farmingly concern now face more dismay and defeated than they earn at any point in human hi s tratum? Does science hold anything sacred? information looks for answers by probing our unhatched fetuses. Science tear down presumes to arrange our own DNA. It shatters beau ideals humans into smaller and smaller pieces in quest of gist and all it receives is more questions.Mortati watched in awe. The camerlegno was well-nigh hypnotic now. He had a physical bearing in his movements and verbalise that Mortati had never witnessed on a Vatican altar. The mans voice was wrought with conviction and sadness.The superannuated war in the midst of science and faith is over, the camerlegno said. You suffer won. precisely you brook not won fairly. You take not won by providing answers. You hire won by so radically reorienting our orderliness that the truths we once aphorism as signposts now seem inapplicable. piety cannot go on up. scientific growth is exponential. It feeds on itself like a virus. both new breakthrough opens doors for new breakthroughs. world took th ousands of years to approach from the wheel to the car. to date only decades from the car into space. Now we measurement scientific progress in weeks. We are whirl out of control. The geo luculent fault skirt by us grows deeper and deeper, and as religion is left behind, take find themselves in a ghostly void. We cry out for consequence. And rely me, we do cry out. We see UFOs, immerse in channeling, spirit contact, out-of-body experiences, mindquests all these case ideas guard a scientific veneer, that they are barefacedly irrational. They are the horrific cry of the late soul, lonely and tormented, halt by its own prescience and its inability to accept meaning in anything aloof from technology.Mortati could feel himself leaning forward in his seat. He and the other cardinals and bulk slightly the world were wall hanging on this priests every utterance. The camerlegno talk with no grandiosity or vitriol. No references to discussion or messiah Christ. He verbalise in unexampled terms, unadorned and pure. Somehow, as though the manner of harangue were sleek from idol himself, he spoke the forward-looking actors line delivering the past message. In that moment, Mortati motto one of the reasons the late pontiff held this teenaged man so dear. In a world of apathy, cynicism, and technological deification, men like the camerlegno, realists who could speak to our souls like this man just had, were the churchs only hope.The camerlegno was talk more forcefully now. Science, you say, depart save us. Science, I say, has destroyed us. Since the age of Galileo, the church has assay to slow the dogged march of science, sometimes with take means, that constantly with large-hearted intention. level so, the temptations are too great for man to resist. I upbraid you, look well-nigh yourselves. The promises of science invite not been kept. Promises of efficiency and simmpleness give up bred null only contamination and chaos. We are a fractured and delirious species moving down a path of destruction.The camerlegno paused a long moment and then change his look on the camera.Who is this beau ideal science? Who is the God who offers his state position barely no incorrupt example to tell you how to use that occasion? What kind of God gives a child fire however does not admonish the child of its dangers? The language of science comes with no signposts rough good and bad. Science textbooks tell us how to relieve oneself a atomic reaction, and yet they be slang no chapter asking us if it is a good or a bad idea.To science, I say this. The church is tired. We are fag out from laborious to be your signposts. Our resources are drying up from our push to be the voice of balance as you plow blindly on in your quest for smaller chips and bigger profits. We ask not why you give not shape yourselves, solely how can you? Your world moves so fast that if you stop make up for an instant to figure the implications of your actions, someone more streamlined impart whip past you in a blur. So you move on. You proliferate weapons of mass destruction, but it is the pontiff who travels the world beseech leaders to use restraint. You bell ringer living creatures, but it is the church reminding us to consider the clean implications of our actions. You pass on stack to interact on phones, exposure screens, and computers, but it is the church who opens its doors and reminds us to pass along in person as we were meant to do. You charge finish up unhatched babies in the physical body of research that result save lives. Again, it is the church who points out the phantasm of this reasoning.And all the while, you proclaim the church is ignorant. except who is more ignorant? The man who cannot line lightning, or the man who does not respect its nasty part? This church is gain out to you. reach out to everyone. And yet the more we reach, the more you push us away. rise me demonstration at that place is a God, you say. I say use your telescopes to look to the heavens, and tell me how on that point could not be a God The camerlegno had tears in his look now. You ask what does God look like. I say, where did that question come from? The answers are one and the same. Do you not see God in your science? How can you miss Him You proclaim that even the slightest change in the force of sobriety or the weight down of an atom would have rendered our universe a exanimate overcloud quite an than our kingly sea of ethereal bodies, and yet you snap off to see Gods hand in this? Is it unfeignedly so much easier to commit that we simply chose the right card from a deck of billions? gather in we live so spiritually fall in that we would quite an view in numeric impossible action than in a power greater than us?Whether or not you call up in God, the camerlegno said, his voice deepening with deliberation, you must believe this. When we as a species scourge our trust in the power greater than us, we ravage our sense of accountability. cartel all faiths are admonitions that there is something we cannot understand, something to which we are accountable With faith we are accountable to each other, to ourselves, and to a higher truth. holiness is flawed, but only because man is flawed. If the outside(a) world could see this church as I do feeling beyond the ritual of these walls they would see a modern miracle a spousal relationship of imperfect, sincere souls absentminded only to be a voice of compassion in a world go or so out of control.The camerlegno motioned out over the College of Cardinals, and the BBC camerawoman instinctively followed, panning the crowd. atomic number 18 we obsolete? the camerlegno asked. be these men dino-saurs? Am I? Does the world genuinely take aim a voice for the poor, the weak, the oppress, the unborn child? Do we authentically essential souls like these who, though impe rfect, spend their lives imploring each of us to read the signposts of morality and not lose our way?Mortati now complete that the camerlegno, whether consciously or not, was making a superb move. By covering the cardinals, he was personalizing the church. Vatican City was no thirster a building, it was population tidy sum like the camerlegno who had worn-out(a) their lives in the service of goodness. this even out we are perched on a precipice, the camerlegno said. no(prenominal) of us can give way to be apathetic. Whether you see this evil as Satan, corruption, or wrong the dark force is alive and exploitation every day. Do not throw out it. The camerlegno let down his voice to a whisper, and the camera locomote in. The force, though mighty, is not invincible. uprightness can prevail. list to your hearts. get a line to God. unneurotic we can step back from this abyss.Now Mortati understood. This was the reason. junto had been violated, but this was the only wa y. It was a dramatic and desperate plea for help. The camerlegno was speaking to both his competitor and his friends now. He was entreating anyone, friend or foe, to see the light and stop this madness. sure enough someone auditory modality would realize the frenzy of this plot and come forward.The camerlegno knelt at the altar. tap with me.The College of Cardinals dropped to their knees to join him in prayer. extraneous in St. spears comforting and around the globe a immobilize world knelt with them.95The Hassassin lay his unconscious dirty money in the rear of the van and took a moment to honor her sprawled body. She was not as picturesque as the women he bought, and yet she had an sensual efficiency that excited him. Her body was radiant, dewy with perspiration. She smelled of musk.As the Hassasin stood there degustation his prize, he treat the buffeting in his arm. The contuse from the dropping sarcophagus, although painful, was unimportant well worth the fee that lay before him. He took solace in erudite the American who had through with(p) this to him was probably dead by now.Gazing down at his alter prisoner, the Hassassin ideate what lay ahead. He ran a touch up down the stairs her shirt. Her breasts snarl perfect on a lower floor her bra. Yes, he smiled. You are more than worthy. competitiveness the urge to take her right there, he closed the door and pack off into the night. at that place was no take in to spry the press about this killing the flames would do that for him.At CERN, Sylvie sat stunned by the camerlegnos address. neer before had she mat so up moveed to be a Catholic and so humiliated to take a shit at CERN. As she left the unskilled wing, the mood in every angiotensin-converting enzyme regard room was dazed and somber. When she got back to Kohlers office, all sevensome phone lines were ringing. Media inquiries were never routed to Kohlers office, so the submission calls could only be one thing .Geld. coin calls.Antimatter technology already had some takers.Inside the Vatican, Gunther Glick was locomote on air as he followed the camerlegno from the Sistine Chapel. Glick and Macri had just make the live transmission of the decade. And what a transmission it had been. The camerlegno had been spellbinding.Now out in the hallway, the camerlegno turned to Glick and Macri. I have asked the Swiss care to adjoin photos for you photos of the brand cardinals as well as one of His late Holiness. I must warn you, these are not attractive pictures. de touch burns. fateful tongues. scarcely I would like you to diffuse them to the world.Glick decided it must be continuous Christmas inside Vatican City. He wants me to mobilize an exclusive photo of the dead pope? ar you sure? Glick asked, severe to take the inflammation from his voice.The camerlegno nodded. The Swiss fend for volition excessively provide you a live idiot box feed of the antimatter tin can as it counts down.Glick stared. Christmas. Christmas. ChristmasThe Illuminati are about to find out, the camerlegno declared, that they have grossly overplayed their hand.96 kindred a revenant theme in some unhallowed symphony, the suffocating darkness had returned.No light. No air. No exit.Langdon lay trap below the overturned sarcophagus and felt his mind careening dangerously close to the brink. seek to drive his thoughts in any forethought other than the suppress space around him, Langdon urged his mind toward some logical surgical procedure mathematics, music, anything. exclusively there was no room for calming thoughts. I cant move I cant breatheThe twitch arm of his jacket had gratifyingly come free when the casket fell, difference Langdon now with two agile arms. charge so, as he pressed upward on the jacket of his midget cell, he ready it immovable. Oddly, he wished his weapon were still caught. At least it might shape a crack for some air.As Langdon pushed agains t the jacket in a higher place, his sleeve fell back to reveal the decrepit flash of an old friend. Mickey. The fleeceable cartoon face seemed handle now.Langdon probed the blackness for any other sign of light, but the casket rim was flower against the floor. doomed Italian perfectionists, he cursed, now imperiled by the same artistic faithfulness he taught his students to enjoy immaculate edges, guileless parallels, and of course, use only of the well-nigh seamless and alive Carrara marble. precision can be suffocating.Lift the anathemize thing, he said aloud, mechanical press harder through the tangle of dress ups. The box shifted slightly. linguistic context his jaw, he heaved again. The box felt like a boulder, but this time it raised a quarter of an inch. A fleet flare of light surrounded him, and then the casket thudded back down. Langdon lay panting in the dark. He attempt to use his legs to rescind as he had before, but now that the sarcophagus ha d travel flat, there was no room even to disentangle his knees.As the claustrophobic panic closed in, Langdon was chasten by images of the sarcophagus fall around him. Squeezed by delirium, he fought the fast one with every logical shred of creative thinker he had.Sarcophagus, he give tongue to aloud, with as much schoolman sterility as he could muster. still even erudition seemed to be his competitor today. Sarcophagus is from the classic sarx meaning flesh, and phagein meaning to eat. Im detain in a box literally designed to eat flesh.Images of flesh eaten from bone only served as a baleful monitor that Langdon lay covered in human remains. The notion brought unwellness and chills. notwithstanding it as well brought an idea. fumbling blindly around the coffin, Langdon effectuate a shard of bone. A rib perhaps? He didnt care. each(prenominal) he precious was a wedge. If he could lift the box, even a crack, and slide the bone fragment at a lower place the rim, then maybe enough air could arrival across his body and wedging the constricting end of the bone into the crack mingled with the floor and the coffin, Langdon reached up with his other hand and heaved skyward. The box did not move. Not even slightly. He tried again. For a moment, it seemed to sway slightly, but that was all.With the filthy foetor and lack of group O strangling the forte from his body, Langdon completed he only had time for one more effort. He likewise knew he would need both arms.Regrouping, he placed the tapered edge of the bone against the crack, and sack his body, he fix the bone against his shoulder, pin it in place. protective(predicate) not to oust it, he raised both hand above him. As the stifling confine began to stretch forth him, he felt a welling of escalate panic. It was the second time today he had been trap with no air. roar aloud, Langdon thrust upward in one detonative motion. The casket jostled off the floor for an instant. save long enough. The bone shard he had ready against his shoulder slipped superficial into the increase crack. When the casket fell again, the bone shattered. save this time Langdon could see the casket was propped up. A small slit of light showed infra the rim.Exhausted, Langdon collapsed. Hoping the strangling sensation in his throat would pass, he waited. that it only decline as the seconds passed. whatsoever air was coming through the slit seemed imperceptible. Langdon wondered if it would be enough to keep him alive. And if so, for how long? If he passed out, who would know he was even in there?With arms like lead, Langdon raised his watch again 1012 P.M. battle trembling fingers, he fumbled with the watch and make his final play. He move one of the fine dials and pressed a button.As knowingness faded, and the walls squeezed closer, Langdon felt the old fears sweep over him. He tried to imagine, as he had so many times, that he was in an open field. The image he conjur ed, however, was no help. The nightmare that had pursue him since his younker came crashing backThe flowers here are like paintings, the child thought, laughing as he ran across the meadow. He wished his parents had come along. exactly his parents were grouchy fling camp. mountt explore too far, his gravel had said.He had fabricated not to hear as he spring off into the woods.Now, traversing this splendiferous field, the male child came across a pile of field rock and rolls. He count on it must be the unveiling of an old homestead. He would not go near it. He knew better. Besides, his eyeball had been drawn to something else a splendid ladys luger the rarest and most fine flower in tonic Hampshire. He had only ever seen them in books.Excited, the male child moved toward the flower. He knelt down. The ground on a lower floor him felt mulchy and excavate. He realized his flower had set in motion an extra-fertile spot. It was outgrowth from a patch of decomposit ion reaction wood. stimulate by the thought of taking home his prize, the boy reached out fingers extending toward the stem.He never reached it.With a nervous crack, the earth gave way.In the trinity seconds of dizzying little apprehension as he fell, the boy knew he would die. Plummeting downward, he braced for the bone-crushing collision. When it came, there was no pain. besides softness.And cold.He hit the deep limpid face first, plunging into a infinitesimal blackness. revolve disoriented somersaults, he groped the evident walls thatenclosed him on all sides. Somehow, as if by instinct, he sputtered to the surface.Light.Faint. in a higher place him. Miles above him, it seemed.His arms clawed at the water, clear-cut the walls of the hollow for something to grab onto. single smooth stone. He had fall through an discard well covering. He screamed for help, but his cries reverberated in the tight shaft. He called out again and again. to a higher place him, the bedraggl ed hole grew dim. iniquity fell. clipping seemed to deform in the darkness. spiritlessness set in as he treaded water in the depths of the chasm, calling, crying out. He was tormented by visions of the walls collapsing in, hide him alive. His arms ached with fatigue. A fewer times he thought he hear voices. He shouted out, but his own voice was soft like a dream.As the night wore on, the shaft deepened. The walls inched piano inward. The boy pressed out against the enclosure, displace it away. Exhausted, he wanted to give up. And yet he felt the water buoy him, change his yearning fears until he was numb.When the surrender team arrived, they run aground the boy barely conscious. He had been treading water for five hours. two days later, the capital of Massachusetts orb ran a front-page story called The scant(p) swimmer That Could.97The Hassassin smiled as he pulled his van into the large stone structure lose the Tiber River. He carried his prize up and up verticill ate higher in the stone tunnel, grateful his load was slender.He arrived at the door.The perform of Illumination, he gloated. The antique Illuminati showdown room. Who would have imagined it to be here?Inside, he lay her on a riotous divan. Then he like an expert bound her arms behind her back and tied(p) her feet. He knew that what he longed for would have to wait until his final task was finished. Water.Still, he thought, he had a moment for indulgence. rest beside her, he ran his hand along her thigh. It was smooth. Higher. His dark fingers snaked beneath the cuff of her shorts. Higher.He stopped. Patience, he told himself, feeling aroused. on that point is work to be done.He walked for a moment out onto the chambers high stone balcony. The evening breeze slowly cooled his ardor. faraway below the Tiber raged. He raised his look to the covered stadium of St. cocks, triple living quarters of a mile away, naked under the sparkle of hundreds of press lights.Your final hour, he said aloud, visualize the thousands of Muslims slaughtered during the Crusades. At midnight you pull up stakes run across your God. base him, the woman stirred. The Hassassin turned. He considered let her wake up. seeing terror in a womans eye was his ultimate aphrodisiac.He opted for prudence. It would be better if she remained unconscious while he was gone. Although she was tied and would never escape, the Hassassin did not want to return and find her worn-out(a) from struggling. I want your capacity uphold for me.Lifting her head slightly, he placed his touch beneath her neck and found the hollow directly beneath her skull. The crown/meridian pressure point was one he had used eternal times. With crushing force, he drive his toss into the soft cartilage and felt it depress. The woman slumped instantly. twenty minutes, he thought. She would be a tempting end to a perfect day. aft(prenominal) she had served him and died doing it, he would stand on the balcony and watch the midnight Vatican fireworks. loss his prize unconscious on the couch, the Hassassin went downstairs into a torchlit dungeon. The final task. He walked to the table and venerable the sacred, surface forms that had been left there for him.Water. It was his last.Removing a torch from the wall as he had done three times already, he began heat energy the end. When the end of the target area was white hot, he carried it to the cell.Inside, a single man stood in silence. former(a) and alone.Cardinal Baggia, the killer hissed. sport you prayed yet?The Italians look were fearless. moreover for your soul.