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Chapter 62
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Just for two weeks Chapter 63
"Une plaisanterie numérique?" Andrie Romano was livid, glaring at Sophie McEwan in disbelief. A numeric joke? "Your professional assessment of Esquibel's code is that it is some kind of mathematical joke?"Romano was in utter incomprehension of this woman's gall. Not only had she just barged in on Romano without permission, but she was now trying to convince him that Esquibel, in his final moments of life, had been a clown. "This code," Sophie explained in rapid French, "is simplistic to the point of absurdity. Marquis Esquibel must have known we would see through it immediately." She pulled a scrap of paper from her sweater pocket and handed it to Romano. "Here is my decryption." Romano looked at the card."This is it?" He snapped. "All you did was put the numbers in increasing order!"Sophie actually had the nerve to give a satisfied smile. "Exactly."Romano's tone lowered to a guttural rumble. "Agent McEwan, I have no idea where the hell you're going with this, but I suggest you
Just for two weeks Chapter 64
For several seconds, Jim stared in wonder at the photograph of Esquibel's PostScript. P.S. Find Jim Davis. He felt as if the floor were titling beneath his feet. In his wildest dreams, Jim could not figure out why. "Now do you understand," Sophie said, her eyes urgent, "why Romano ordered you here tonight, and why you are his primary suspect?"The only thing Jim understood at the moment was why Romano had looked so smug when Jim suggested Esquibel would have accused his killer by name. "Why would Esquibel write this?" Jim demanded, his confusion now giving way to anger."Why would I want to kill Marquis Esquibel?" "Romano has yet to uncover a motive, but he has been recording his entire conversation with you tonight in hopes you might reveal one." Jim opened his mouth, but still no words came."He's fitted with a miniature microphone," Sophie explained. "It's connected to a transmitter in his pocket that radios the signal back to the command post." "This is im
Just for two weeks Chapter 65
Amorth felt strong as he stepped from the black BMW, the nighttime breeze rustling his loose-fitting robe. He knew the task before him would require more finesse than force, so he left his handgun in the car which the Teacher provided to him. The plaza before Saint-Sulpice was deserted at this hour, the only visible souls on the far side of Place Saint-Sulpice a couple of teenage hookers showing their wares to late night tourists traffic. Their nubile bodies sent a familiar longing to Amorth's loins. He knew he had sacrificed much to follow Copus peccate, but he had received more in return. A vow of celibacy and the relinquishment of all personal assets hardly seemed a sacrifice. Considering the poverty from which he had come and the sexual horrors he had endured in prison, celibacy was a welcoming change. Moving toward the church entrance. He paused in the shadow of the massive doorway, he took a deep breath. It was not until this instant that he truly realized what he was about to
Just for two weeks Chapter 66
"What do you mean she's not answering?" Romano looked incredulous. "You're calling her cell phone, right? I know she's carrying it." Suslowicz had been trying to reach agent McEwan for several minutes. "Maybe her batteries are dead. Or her ringer is off."Romano had looked distressed ever since talking to the director of Cryptology on the phone. After hanging up, he had marched over to Suslowicz and demanded he get Agent McEwan on the line. Now Suslowicz had failed, and Romano was pacing like a caged lion."Why did Crypto call?" Suslowicz now ventured.Romano turned. "To tell me they found no reference to Draconian devil and lame saints.""That's all?""No, also to tell us that they had just identified the numerics as Fibonacci numbers, but they suspected the series was meaningless."Suslowicz was confused. "But they already sent agent McEwan to tell us that."Romano shook his head. "They didn't send McEwan.""What?""According to the director, at my orders he played his entire team
Just for two weeks Chapter 67
Romano sprinted down the Grand Gallery as Suslowicz's radio blared over the distant sound of the alarm. "He jumped!" Suslowicz was yelling. "I'm showing the signal out on the Place du Carrousel! Outside the bathroom window! And it's not moving at all! Jesus, I think Jim has just committed suicide!"Romano heard the words, but they made no sense. He kept running. The hallway seemed never-ending. As he sprinted past Esquibel's body, he set his sight on the partitions at the far end of the Denon Wing. The alarm was getting louder now."Wait!" Suslowicz's voice blared again over the radio. "He's moving! My God, he's alive. Jim's moving.Romano kept running, cursing the length of the hallway with every step."Jim's moving fast!" Suslowicz was still yelling on the road. "He's running down the Carrousel. Wait… he's picking up speed. He's moving too fast!"Arriving at the partitions, Roman snaked his way through them, saw the restroom door, and ran for it. The walkie-talkie was barely audible
Just for two weeks Chapter 68
Emerging from the shadows, Jim and Sophie moved stealthily up the deserted Grand Gallery corridor toward the emergency exit stairwell. As he moved, Jim felt like he was trying to assemble a jigsaw puzzle in the dark. The newest aspect of this mystery was a deeply troubling one: The Captain of the judicial Police is trying to frame me for murder"Do you think," he whispered, "that maybe Fache wrote that message on the floor?"Sophie didn't even turn. "Impossible."Jim wasn't so sure. "He seems pretty intent on making me look guilty. Maybe he thought writing my name on the floor would help his case?""The Fibonacci sequence? The P.S.? All the Da Vinci and goddess symbolism? That had to be my grandfather."Jim knew she was right. The symbolism of the clues meshed too perfectly - the pentacle, The Vitruvian Man, Da Vinci, the goddess, and even the Fibonacci sequence. A coherent symbolic set, as iconographers would call it. All inextricably tied."And his phone call to me this afternoon,"
Just for two weeks Chapter 69
Kneeling in the first pew, Amorth pretended to pray as he scanned the layout of the sanctuary. Saint-Sulpice, like most churches, had been built in the shape of a giant Roman cross. Its long central section - the nave - led directly to the main altar, where it was transversely intersected by a shorter section, known as the transept. The intersection of nave and transept occurred directly beneath the main cupola and was considered the heart of the church… her most sacred and mystical point. Turning his head to the right, he gazed into the south transept, toward the open area of floor beyond the end of the pews, to the object his victims had described. There it is. Embedded in the gray granite floor, a thin polished strip of brass glistened in the stone… a golden line slanting across the church's floor. The line bore graduated markings, like a ruler. It was a gnomon, Amorth had been told, a pagan astronomical device like a sundial. Tourists, scientists, historians, and pagan from around
Just for two weeks Chapter 70
Sophie arrived breathless outside the large wooden doors of the Salle des Etats - the room that housed the Mona Lisa. Before entering, she gazed reluctantly farther down the hall, twenty yards or so, to the spot where her grandfather's body Still lay under the spotlight.The remorse that gripped her was powerful and sudden, a deep sadness laced with guilt. The man had reached out to her so many times over the past ten years, and yet Sophie had remained immovable - leaving his letters packages unopened in a bottom drawer and denying his efforts to see her. He lied to me! Kept appalling secrets! What was I supposed to do? And so she had blocked him out. Completely.Now her grandfather was dead, and he was talking to her from the grave.The Mona Lisa.She reached for huge wooden doors, and pushed. The entryway yawned open. Sophie stood on the threshold a moment, scanning the large rectangular chamber beyond. It too was bathed in a soft red light. The Salle des Etats was one of the museum
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