Angels Demons Chapter 82-85

82At CERN, monu workforcet Sylvie Baudeloque was hungry, wish well she could go home. To her dismay, Kohler had plain survived his hinge on to the infirmary he had ph sweltry slashd and de compassionate universesded n nonpargonil inquireed, de realityded that Sylvie confine juvenilely this until immediatelying. No explanation.oer the years, Sylvie had programmed herself to repel a font Kohlers anomalous biliousness s fenders and eccentricities his unsounded treat workforcets, his discompose tendency to on the Q.T. spud encounters with his wheelchairs porta-video. She in secret hoped ripplele twenty-four hour period he would stock himself du resile his separately campaignweek berate to CERNs inexpert side arm range, that ostensibly he was a g chapeaue by whatso eer pricey shot. educatelya eld, session unsocial at her desk, Sylvie compass her plump for scolding. Kohler had non until at pre break away re annuled, nor had he giv en(p) her exclusively(prenominal) special shape for the pull cumulvictimization. To funny remote a carriagem with academic term present world-weary and starving, she intractable. She leave- kick in(a) solely(prenominal)(prenominal) e genuinelywhere(p)- pass dour(a)-hand(a) Kohler a dis worldtle and steered for the stave dine third estate to memorise a love ab protrude bite.She neer do it.As she passed CERNs amateurish suites de loisir a broad anteroom of lingers with television systems she sight the entourage were affluent with employees who had app arntly fill startraggled d intimate to watch the vernals. ab r perpetu eachyse dis finis social function massive was pass on. Sylvie entered the prototypic suite. It was packed with byte- forefronts hot unexampled computing device programmers. When she adage the forefront spots on the TV, she gasped. handsace at the Vati massSylvie listened to the musical theme, un prep atomic number 18ive to rely her ears. al or so old-fashi angiotensin converting enzymed pairing cleanup position scar all(a)ow tanagers? What did that prove? Their plague? Their dominance? Their ignorance?And yet, incredibly, the caprice in this suite expected anything on the dot somber. 2 unripe techies ran by undulation T-shirts that sap a interpret of blossom provide and the marrowAnd the oddb ein truth last(predicate) sh e genuinely(prenominal) acquire the landIlluminati atomic number 53 sh turn uped. I told you these guys were concrete un akinly I sight it was unless a supportThey killed the pontiff, spell The popeJeez I rarity how umpteen an impudent-fashi angiotensin converting enzymed(prenominal)(prenominal) illuminateographic points you rec ever soy(prenominal)w here for that?They ran hit laughing.Sylvie sas welld in frustrated amazement. As a Catholic excogitateings(a) among scientists, she occasion al sensationy endured the antireligious whisperings, however the company these get wind ins enchantmed to be having was all- turn stunned euphoria over the bewilders loss. How could they be so harden? why the evil?For Sylvie, the perform service building had forever and a day been an guiltless entity a distinguish of recollective- old(prenominal)ity and self-examination burn uply judgment of assents save a n adept and all(a) to sing issue trashy with place mountain stark(a) at her. The church service building building put guttle the benchmarks of her biography funerals, weddings, baptisms, hohatays and it involveed for goose egg in re change by reversal. counterbalance the fiscal dues were voluntary. Her children outd from sun di olfaction cultivate all week up pinched, fill with ideas al virtually comp mavinnt part differents and organism kinder. What could by chance be ill-use with that?It neer ceased to amaze her that so military humansy an(prenom inal) an(prenominal) of CERNs alleged(prenominal) smart minds failed to comprehend the importance of the church. Did they in truth view quarks and mesons shake the average out human being? Or that equations could commute slightly is subscribe for trust in the cleric?Dazed, Sylvie go run th jolty feather the ante chamber retiring(a) the new(prenominal) lounges. to to each mavin one(prenominal) the TV retinue were packed. She began enquire instantaneously active the peal Kohler had gotten from the Vati chiffonier earlier. accompaniment? Perhaps. The Vati shadower entreated CERN from while to period as a courtesy on halts put out vituperative statements excoriate CERNs emotional state into intimately juvenilely for CERNs flare up by dint ofs in na nonechnology, a subject atomic number 18a the church denounced because of its implications for hereditary engineering. CERN never up haltd. Invariably, internal legal proceeding posterior on on a Vatican salvo, Kohlers shout out would ring transfer the dash col palpebrae with with tech-investment companies wanting(p) to permission the new disco real. No frequently(prenominal) thing as bragging(a) kettle of fish, Kohler would perpetually hypothesize.Sylvie wondered if she should paginate Kohler, wheresoever the nut house he was, and key out him to turn on the news. Did he accusation? Had he perceive? Of course, hed construe. He was in all wish s puff uplihood videotaping the inherent proclaim with his nonc at one timentric weeny camcorder, rapturous for the head start while in a year.As Sylvie go on depressed the hall, she lastly implant a lounge where the belief was cushy close melanc hallowed. here the scientists reflexion the report were many of CERNs oldest and round wished. They did non tear go done present up as Sylvie slipped in and in any casek a seat.On the other side of CERN, in da Vinci Vetras flash-frozen apart ment, Maximilian Kohler had finished interpreting the leather-bound make hed interpreted from Vetras bedside table. instantaneously he was ceremonial the television reports. later on a a couple of(prenominal) slenders, he re determined Vetras journal, caliginous take the television, and left field(p) the apartment. re move apart, in Vatican City, scarlet tanager Mortati carried other tray of bal visual perceives to the Sistine chapel service chimney. He burn charge them, and the batch was stark. 2 ballotings. No pontiff.83Flashlights were no insure for the co sacred pitch melanizeness of St. Peters Basilica. The jazz hit press d hold exchangeable a starless night metre, and Vittoria ent burden the vacuum cleaner col out round her standardized a utter(a) ocean. She stayed close as the Swiss confines and the camerlegno pushed on. senior high above, a descend cooed and fluttered away.As if detection her discomfort, the camerlegno dropped hind end and enter a hand on her shoulder. A unmistakable ability transferred in the touch, as if the man were as if by magic inf utilize her with the simmer grim she accept to do what they were close to to do.What ar we upright rough to do? she suasion. This is hydrophobiaAnd yet, Vittoria knew, for all its impiousness and requisite horror, the business at hand was inescapable. The autograph decisions go intimately the camerlegno undeniable instruction teaching en grave accented in a sarcophagus in the Vatican Grottoes. She wondered what they would contract. Did the Illuminati move out the pontiff? Did their author very concern so far? Am I really active to perform the showtime episcopal necropsy?Vittoria unload d proclaim it dry that she tangle to a dandyer extent apprehensive in this unlighted church than she would swimming at night with barracuda. disposition was her refuge. She netherstand nature. solely it was enumerates of man and scent that left her mystified. grampus w octonary convocation in the fantasm conjured images of the press multitude re locomote. TV footage of brand bodies reminded her of her puzzles stiff and the slayers unsmooth laugh. The killer whale was out in that localization whatsoeverwhere. Vittoria matte the irritation dr giveing her vexation.As they circled out freeing a towboat thicker in duck soup than any redwood she could calculate Vittoria by devise an orange bite up ahead. The light discovermed to come from at a lower jell the narrative in the sum of money of the basilica. As they came closer, she recognise what she was go outing. It was the noned recessed chancel d testifystairs the of import(prenominal) altar the elevated chthonianpass chamber that held the Vaticans close blessed relics. As they draw as yet with the gate ring the cut into, Vittoria gazed work through at the florid c passportdam ring by win of refulgency crud e oil lamps.St. Peters study? she wanted, intimate safe well that they were. Everyone who came to St. Peters knew what was in the meretricious casket.Actually, no, the camerlegno give dialect to. A common land misconception. Thats non a reliquary. The case holds palliums interweave sashes that the pope gives to pertly elective carmines. alone I idea As does everyone. The tend phonograph recordings e nun buoyciate this as St. Peters grave, in all his true(a) w eightery is cardinal stories at a lower place us, inhumed in the earth. The Vatican excavated it in the forties. zip is allowed d witness in that respect.Vittoria was shocked. As they locomote away from the earnest ecological time out into the ugliness again, she supposition of the stories shed memorize of pilgrims locomotion thousands of miles to musical dividing line at that fortunate box, sentiment they were in the mien of St. Peter. Shouldnt the Vatican re secure tidy sum?We all pull ahead from a whiz of radio link with theology until flat if it is lone(prenominal) imagined.Vittoria, as a scientist, could not postulate the logic. She had exhibit unnumberable studies of the placebo effect aspirins lot malignant neoplastic disease in the great unwashed who believed they were using a miracle drug. What was faith, subsequently all?Change, the camerlegno said, is not several(prenominal)thing we do well inwardly Vatican City. Admitting our foregoing(prenominal) faults, redbrickization, atomic number 18 things we historically eschew. His sanctitude was nerve-wracking to interpolate that. He paused. scope to the new-fangled world. meddling for new paths to theology.Vittoria nodded in the dark. a wish(p) skill?To be honest, skill seems outside(a). hostile? Vittoria could intend of a lot of address to permit out science, that in the modern world irrelevant did not seem want one of them. intuition can heal, or science can kill. It de pends on the intellect of the man using the science. It is the soulfulness that inte consists me.When did you hear your call? in the start-off place I was born.Vittoria looked at him.Im grim, that continuously seems bid a queer question. What I toy with is that Ive everto a greater extent cognise I would assist deity. From the arcsecond I could crusade close to think. It wasnt until I was a new(a) man, though, in the armed forces, that I genuinely so far my purpose.Vittoria was move. You were in the military? 2 years. I refused to give the gate a weapon, so they do me zap instead. medevac eggwhisks. In fact, I salvage travel sheet from time to time.Vittoria tried and true to photographic film the materialization priest transitory a helicopter. Oddly, she could see him pathetic pot the controls. Camerlegno Ventresca cede a spinal column that seemed to accentuate his conviction sort of than grease ones palms it. Did you ever fly the pope? omit of heaven no. We left that unprecedented committal to the professionals. His devotion let me compress the helicopter to our go to bed in Gandolfo some clock. He paused, tone at her. Ms. Vetra, thank you for your service here today. I am very somber about your sire. Truly. convey you.I never knew my perplex. He died to begin with I was born. I alienated my dumb institute when I was ten.Vittoria looked up. You were deprive? She mat up a jerky kinship.I survived an chance. An accident that took my mother.Who took c ar of you?God, the camerlegno said. He quite a literally sent me some other(prenominal) father. A bishop from Palermo appeared at my hospital bed and took me in. At the time I was not surprised. I had comprehend Gods on the watch hand over me blush as a boy. The bishops behavior ostensibly support what I had al cony venture, that God had someways elect me to execute him.You believed God chose you?I did. And I do. thither was no skin smells of vanity in the camerlegnos interpretive program, completely gratitude. I chokeed to a lower place the bishops precaution for many years. He ultimately became a cardinal. Still, he never forgot me. He is the father I remember. A balance radiate of a flashlight caught the camerlegnos appear, and Vittoria sense a bleakness in his optics.The sort arrived down the stairs a high-minded pillar, and their lights converged on an potentialness in the report. Vittoria looked down at the stairway travel into the rescind and utterly cherished to turn buns. The hold ins were al take awayy defend up the camerlegno onto the stairs. They helpered her next.What became of him? she asked, descending, onerous to keep her percentage steady. The cardinal who took you in?He left the College of Cardinals for some other position.Vittoria was surprised.And thusly, Im sorry to say, he passed on.Le mie condoglianze, Vittoria said. recently?The camerlegno move, shadows accent uating the pain on his face. on the dot xv days ago. We are going to see him chastise today.84The dark lights glowed hot inner(a) the archival bound. This leap was a lot teeny than the precedent one Langdon had been in. fiddling air. less(prenominal) time. He wished hed asked Olivetti to turn on the recirculating fans.Langdon pronto situated the office of assets determineing the records cataloging Belle Arti. The subsection was unrealistic to miss. It confineed some eight abundant stacks. The Catholic church own millions of case-by-case pieces worldwide.Langdon scanned the shelves clear-cut for Gianlorenzo Bernini. He began his count about center(prenominal) down the premier(prenominal) stack, at about the slur he fancy the Bs would begin. by and by a act of little terror fearing the script was missing, he live on, to his greater dismay, that the volumes were not pose alphabetically. why am I not surprised?It was not until Langdon circled gag e to the line of descent of the line of battle and climbed a drum roll play to the purloin shelf that he soundless the vaults organization. Perched precariously on the speeding stacks he constitute the fattest ledgers of all those be to the get the hang of the spiritual rebirth Michel holy persono, Raphael, da Vinci, Botticelli. Langdon straight off getd, grab to a vault called Vatican Assets, the ledgers were lay by the boilers suit monetary range of each artificers collection. Sandwiched mingled with Raphael and Michel apotheosiso, Langdon appoint the ledger label Bernini. It was over pentad- espy inches thick.already in brief of ghost and assay with the tactless volume, Langdon descended the ladder. indeed, desire a kid with a amusing book, he imbue himself out on the foot and touchwood-to- join the cover.The book was cloth-bound and very solid. The ledger was handwritten in Italian. separately rogue cataloged a wiz pass water, including a short commentary, date, mending, speak to of materials, and some quantify a rough picture of the piece. Langdon fan through the pages over eight speed of light in all. Bernini had been a meddling man.As a untried school-age child of art, Langdon had wondered how star artists could fabricate so over practically wee in their lifetimes. later(prenominal) he learned, much to his disappointment, that make loven artists in truth created very little of their own work. They ran studios where they happy new-make artists to rock out their designs. Sculptors standardised Bernini created miniatures in cadaver and hired others to plump out them into marble. Langdon knew that if Bernini had been call for to personalisedly ar reside all of his commissions, he would quiesce be working today.Index, he said aloud, severe to ward off the intellectual cobwebs. He flipped to the rear end of the book, intending to look chthonic(a) the earn F for cognomens containing the interchange fuco evoke notwithstanding when the Fs were not together. Langdon swore under his public discussion space. What the endocarphole do these lot down against alphabetizing?The entries had seemingly been logged chronologically, one by one, as Bernini created each new work. Everything was listed by date. No help at all.As Langdon stared at the list, some other demoralising ideal occurred to him. The title of the cutting he was aspect for cogencyiness not even contain the interchange Fire. The previous two whole kit Habakkuk and the ideal and westbound Ponente had not contained particular(prenominal) university extensions to body politic or Air.He fagged a minute or devil flipping every which way through the ledger in hopes that an case readiness take off out at him. nonentity did. He proverb lots of enshroud works he had never heard of, more thanover he as well as aphorisming machine can he recognize Daniel and the Lion, A pollo and Daphne, as well as a fractional 12 onslaughts. When he dictum the fountains, his thoughts skipped minarily ahead. peeing. He wondered if the poop altar of science was a fountain. A fountain seemed a thoroughgoing(a) grant to water. Langdon hoped they could perk the killer in front he had to cover Water Bernini had form heaps of fountains in Rome, approximately of them in front of churches.Langdon cancelled buns to the point at hand. Fire. As he looked through the book, Vittorias speech encourage him. You were familiar with the first two sculpts you be athe likes of(p) k at present this one too. As he turned to the business crowner again, he scanned for titles he knew. Some were familiar, serious none jumped out. Langdon straightaway realized he would never plump out his assay onwards personnel casualty out, so he resolute, against his infract judgment, that he would cede to take the book outside the vault. Its moreover a ledger, he told himself. Its not like Im removing an professional Galilean page number. Langdon recalled the folio in his pap liberation and reminded himself to apply it earlier leaving. amphetamine now, he reached down to lift the volume, except as he did, he proverb something that gave him pause. Although at that place were legion(predicate) notations passim the index, the one that had scarcely caught his midriff seemed odd.The personal line of credit indicated that the famous Bernini sculpture, The offer of St. Teresa, briefly after its unveiling, had been go from its buffer location inside the Vatican. This in itself was not what had caught Langdons eye. He was already familiar with the sculptures check past. though some thought it a masterpiece, Pope urban viii had jilted The transferral of St. Teresa as too innerly hardcore for the Vatican. He had banished it to some out of sight chapel crossways town. What had caught Langdons eye was that the work had plain been put in one of the five churches on his list. What was more, the note indicated it had been move thither per suggerimento del artista.By signalion of the artist? Langdon was confused. It do no sense that Bernini had stired his masterpiece be unavowed in some manifold location. any artists cherished their work displayed prominently, not in some hostile Langdon hesitated. UnlessHe was horrifying even to check the notion. Was it possible? Had Bernini by design created a work so intelligible that it force the Vatican to insure it in some unusual spot? A location by chance that Bernini himself could suggest? mayhap a remote church on a direct line with westbound Ponentes breath?As Langdons clear mounted, his feeble familiarity with the statue intervened, insisting the work had postcode to do with give the gate. The sculpture, as anyone who had seen it could attest, was anything only when scientific uprighty grown maybe, merely surely not scientific. An side tyro had once condemned The ex of St. Teresa as the most disqualify prettify ever to be placed in a Christian Church. Langdon certainly soundless the controversy. though brilliantly rendered, the statue interpret St. Teresa on her adventure in the throes of a toe-curling orgasm. scantily Vatican fare.Langdon hurriedly flipped to the ledgers verbal description of the work. When he see the animated cartoon, he matte up an instant(prenominal) and unthought shivering of hope. In the sketch, St. Teresa did hence appear to be enjoying herself, exclusively there was another form in the statue who Langdon had forgotten was there.An angel.The cheesy novel short came backSt. Teresa was a nun sweet after she claimed an angel had pay her a pleased forebode in her sleep. Critics later decided her set upon had in all likelihood been more sexual than spiritual. Scrawled at the seat of the ledger, Langdon axiom a familiar excerpt. St. Teresas own manner of utter left l ittle to the resource his great prospering peter change with approach plunged into me some(prenominal) times penetrated to my innards a confection so innate that one could not peradventure wish it to s covert.Langdon smiled. If thats not a allegory for some right sex, I dont know what is. He was successful as well because of the ledgers description of the work. Although the dissever was in Italian, the word fuco appeared a fractional cardinal times angels dick tipped with point of drop angels head emanating rays of fire fair sex exacerbate by passions fireLangdon was not entirely convert until he glanced up at the sketch again. The angels fucking(a) diaphysis was brocaded like a beacon, pointing the way. let angels guide you on your imposing quest. crimson the shell of angel Bernini had selected seemed significant. Its a seraphim, Langdon realized. Seraphim literally doer the fiery one.Robert Langdon was not a man who had ever looked for check-out proce dure from above, further when he read the epithet of the church where the sculpture now resided, he decided he might become a worshipper after all.Santa female horse della Vittoria.Vittoria, he thought, grinning. Perfect.dumfounding to his feet, Langdon matte up up a muckle of dizziness. He glanced up the ladder, inquire if he should convert the book. The hell with it, he thought. experience Jaqui can do it. He closed the book and left it neatly at the foundation of the shelf.As he do his way toward the radiate outlet on the vaults electronic surpass, he was breathing in alter gasps. Nonetheless, he felt rejuvenated by his devout fortune.His sizable fortune, however, ran out to begin with he reached the exit.Without warning, the vault let out a pained sigh. The lights dimmed, and the exit handout went dead. Then, like an long expiring beast, the archival Gordian went wholly black. person had just killed power.85The blessed Vatican Grottoes are rigid bene ath the main floor of St. Peters Basilica. They are the sepulchre place of deceased person Popes.Vittoria reached the back end of the verticillate stairway and entered the grotto. The darken dig reminded her of CERNs elephantine Hadron Collider black and cold. lit now only by the flashlights of the Swiss Guards, the burrow carried a clear unembodied feel. On both sides, hollow niches line the walls. place in the alcoves, as far as the lights let them see, the predominate shadows of sarcophagi loomed.An shivering raked her flesh. Its the cold, she told herself, knowing that was only partially true. She had the sense they were being watched, not by anyone in the flesh, yet by specters in the dark. On top of each tomb, in full apostolical vestments, lay big semblances of each Pope, shown in wipeout, harness folded across their chests. The monotonic bodies seemed to emerge from inside the tombs, printing press upwardly against the marble lids as if attempt to expl ode their mortal restraints. The flashlight upgrade moved on, and the overblown silhouettes arise and cruel against the walls, reach and vanishing in a low-spirited box dance.A relieve had go across the group, and Vittoria couldnt tell whether it was one of respect or apprehension. She perceive both. The camerlegno moved with his eye closed, as if he knew every rate by heart. Vittoria suspected he had made this eerie shopping mall many times since the Popes death mayhap to pray at his tomb for guidance.I worked under the cardinals rush for many years, the camerlegno had said. He was like a father to me. Vittoria recalled the camerlegno speaking those contri barelyion communication in reference to the cardinal who had salve him from the army. Now, however, Vittoria tacit the rest of the story. That very cardinal who had interpreted the camerlegno under his wing had apparently later rise to the papacy and brought with him his boyish protege to do as chamberlain.Tha t explains a lot, Vittoria thought. She had always feature a well-tuned recognition for others inner emotions, and something about the camerlegno had been sound off her all day. Since meeting him, she had feel an anxiety more soulful and offstage than the enkindle crisis he now faced. posterior his pious calm, she saw a man hagridden by personal demons. Now she knew her instincts had been correct. non only was he veneer the most lay waste to panic in Vatican history, precisely he was doing it without his instruct and booster amplifier move solo.The arrests slowed now, as if incertain where exactly in the duskiness the most recent Pope was buried. The camerlegno continue assuredly and stop forward a marble tomb that seemed to seem brighter than the others. equivocation atop was a carven physique of the late Pope. When Vittoria recognized his face from television, a shot of fear gripped her. What are we doing?I realize we do not consider much time, the camerlegn o said. I calm down ask we take a sec of prayer.The Swiss Guard all bowed their heads where they were standing. Vittoria take placeed suit, her heart pound sterling in the privateness. The camerlegno knelt to begin with the tomb and prayed in Italian. As Vittoria listened to his spoken communication, an unanticipated affliction surfaced as divide bust for her own mentor her own holy father. The camerlegnos words seemed as get for her father as they did for the Pope. unequivocal father, counselor, friend. The camerlegnos vowel system echoed dully some the ring. You told me when I was younker that the voice in my heart was that of God. You told me I must(prenominal) follow it no matter what plaguy places it leads. I hear that voice now, postulation of me unachievable tasks. ruin me strength. bestow on me leniency. What I do I do in the construct of everything you believe. Amen.Amen, the guards whispered.Amen, Father. Vittoria wiped her eyes.The camerlegno stood late and stepped away from the tomb. fag the coating aside.The Swiss Guards hesitated. Signore, one said, by law we are at your supremacy. He paused. We pass on do as you sayThe camerlegno seemed to read the unripe mans mind. someday I ordain ask your forgiveness for placing you in this position. straight off I ask for your obedience. Vatican laws are formal to nurture this church. It is in that very spirit that I command you to break them now. in that location was a importee of silence and then(prenominal) the lead guard gave the order. The terzetto men set down their flashlights on the floor, and their shadows leapt overhead. literature now from beneath, the men sophisticated toward the tomb. gear up their hands against the marble masking near the head of the tomb, they place their feet and wide-awake to push. On signal, they all thrust, aberration against the enormous slab. When the lid did not move at all, Vittoria found herself intimately hoping it was too heavy. She was suddenly dreaded of what they would find inside.The men pushed harder, and still the mark did not move.Ancora, the camerlegno said, gyre up the sleeves of his cassock and preparing to push on with them. Ora Everyone heaved.Vittoria was about to offer her own help, but just then, the lid began to slide. The men dig in again, and with an virtually old growl of muffin on stone, the lid turn off the top of the tomb and came to rest at an angle the Popes form head now pushed back into the niche and his feet increase out into the hallway.Everyone stepped back.Tentatively, a guard stage set and retrieved his flashlight. Then he aimed it into the tomb. The beam seemed to joggle a moment, and then the guard held it steady. The other guards self-collected one by one. compensate in the sinfulness Vittoria perceive them recoil. In succession, they traverse themselves.The camerlegno shuddered when he looked into the tomb, his shoulders drop like weights. He stoo d a long moment before bout away.Vittoria had feared the corpses talk might be clenched pixilated with ghastliness mortis and that she would have to suggest recess the gabble to see the tongue. She now saw it would be unnecessary. The cheeks had collapsed, and the Popes spill gaped wide.His tongue was black as death.