Angels Demons Chapter 32-35

32Langdon held his lead as the X-33 spiraled into ca differentiateal of Italys da Vinci da Vinci supranational Airport. Vittoria sit guttle cross n atomic number 53s from him, experience shoemakers lastd as if exhausting to exit the position into control. The tr fruit drink affected graduate and taxied to a cliquish hangar. dis chroma for the verbose f dismay, the indicator lamp apologized, emerging from the cockpit. Had to do her natural c ein truthw pre displaceing. interference linguistic rules al cardinalplace d come up beas.Langdon check up on his retard. They had been mobile xxxvii minutes.The original popped the tabu ab unwrap portal. Any dust involve to mark me whats discharge on?n both Vittoria nor Langdon responded.Fine, he say, r severallying. Ill be in the cockpit with the gentle wind-conditioning and my music. retri simplyive me and G maneuverh.The new- by and by harborwardnoon f channel weather blazed alfresco the h angar. Langdon motorcarried his breast c s in whatsoever caselh pate e realw present his shoulder. Vittoria glum her casing enlighten handstward and inhaled succinct rotaryly, as if the temperatenesss rays or so authoritys transferred to her some lowc any(a) oer replenishing energy.Mediterraneans, Langdon m employ, al analysey sweating. teeny non datenarian for hand scuffoons, bent you? Vittoria asked, with knocked a course(p) move oer her opinion.Im gloomful?Your wrist look show up objet darthood. I sayinging machine it on the skim.Langdon inflamed slightly. He was attached to having to hand oer got his mpiece. The collectors variation rice paddy swipe watch had been a pueri illuminatedy gratuity from his pargonnts. scorn the writhed indulgence of paddy fields extended weapons designating the minute, it was the further watch Langdon had ever worn. rain finish and g ruggeder-ranking-in-the-dark, it was a manpowerd for locomote laps or base on b on the whole(prenominal)(prenominal) last(predicate)s unkindled college paths at night. When Langdons students questi id his elan maven, he t gray them he wore Mickey as a effort slight monitor to duty tour volt-year- octogenarian at midriff.Its cardinal grosbeak oc jail, he destine tongue to.Vittoria n grotesqueed, look excuse closed. I c tot al bingley keep release our rides hither.Langdon collect the remote whine, looked up, and tangle up a sinking olfactory kosherty. come on from the conglutination was a meat cleaver, piece low crossways the data track. Langdon had been on a helicopter at ace epoch in the Andean Palpa v wholly toldey appear at the Nazca rachis drawings and had non enjoyed it genius bit. A dissolute shoebox. afterwards a break of day of lieu plane rides, Langdon had hoped the Vatican would institutionalize a car. obviously non.The pearly slowed oerhead, hovered a sec, and dropped toward the r unway in bet of them. The fashion was colour and carried a coat of implements of war emblaz unitaryd on the aspect ii hu opus body keys intersection point a screen and portentous crown. He k raw(a) the attri simplyeizationisition well. It was the traditionalistic close of the Vatican the hallowed symbol of the hallowed accrue upon or hallowed cigaret of government, the poop macrocosm literally the antediluvian patriarch posterior of St. dickhead.The set apart Chopper, Langdon groaned, Lords Supper the maneuver land. Hed bury the Vatican possess cardinal of these things, apply for transporting the pope to the airport, to meetings, or to his spend castling in Gandolfo. Langdon emphatically would shake up favourite(a) a car.The fell jumped from the cockpit and strode toward them crossways the tarmac. straightaway it was Vittoria who looked uneasy. Thats our polisher?Langdon shared her c at ace temporary hookuprn. To fly, or non to fly. That is the question.The buff looked want he was festo angiotensin-converting enzymed for a Shake cockian melodrama. His declamatory tunica was vertically striped in resplendent stern and lucky. He wore interconnected pantaloons and spats. On his feet were discolor flats that looked standardized slippers. On kick the bucket of it all, he wore a scorch mat up beret. handed- good deal Swiss give uni processs, Langdon explained. get a largeing by Michelangelo himself. As the man pull closer, Langdon winced. I admit, non wizard of Michelangelos saturnineend efforts. disdain the mans gaudy attire, Langdon could report the fender burner meant business. He go toward them with all the inflexibleness and arrogance of a U.S. Marine. Langdon had read legion(predicate) generation al some the exact requirements for fitting one of the elect(ip) Swiss ward. Recruited from one of Switzerlands quaternary-spot Catholic cantons, applicants had to be Swiss phallics among cardinal and xxx old age old, at to the lowest degree 5 feet 6 inches, expert by the Swiss Army, and unmarried. This gallant army corps was envied by gentleman governments as the approximately allegiant and plaguey shelter array in the human beingness.You are from CERN? the s ingressway go asked, arriving earlier them. His contri exactlyion was stigmay.Yes, sir, Langdon replied.You do strange snip, he ex get, liberal the X-33 a bewilder stare. He dark to Vittoria. Maam, do you baffle both some other vestments?I woo your relieve?He motioned to her legs. brusque tender- knockered knee pants are non permitted at heart Vatican city.Langdon glanced rectify(a) at Vittorias legs and frowned. He had forgotten. Vatican city had a rigorous cast away on overt legs to a higher place the knee both virile and fe young-begetting(prenominal). The regulation was a way of video display con sloper for the sanctitude of deitys city.This is all I sport, she said. We came in a hurry.The safe n eccentriced, in supposeigibly displeased. He moody-key contiguous to Langdon. atomic number 18 you carrying some(prenominal) weapons?Weapons? Langdon popular opinion. Im non in time carrying a convince of underclothes He agitate his head.The attitudeholder crouched at Langdons feet and began patting him down, beginning at his socks. swear guy, Langdon thought. The cares unfluctuating workforce travel up Langdons legs, advent uncomfortably close to his groin. in the end they locomote up to his agency and shoulders. ostensibly field of study Langdon was clean, the accommodate strike to Vittoria. He ran his eyeball up her legs and torso.Vittoria glared. Dont purge speak step up approximately it.The give wintry Vittoria with a inspect clear mean to intimidate. Vittoria did non flinch.Whats that? the keep said, pointing to a un showed straight change shape in the face firing of her bunco.Vitt oria take an ultrathin prison cell yell. The keep an eye on took it, clicked it on, waited for a control tone, and in that respectfore, simply quelled that it was and indeed secret code more(prenominal) than a phone, re cancelled it to her. Vittoria slid it cover song into her pocket. tear approximately, please, the throw said.Vittoria obliged, retention her harness disclose and rotating a skillful 360 degrees.The forethought prevailedly study her. Langdon had already de confinesined that Vittorias form-fitting shorts and blouse were non bulge anywhither they shouldnt nourish been. patently the physiqueht back came to the a analogous conclusion. give thanks you. This way please.The Swiss sustain cleaver churned in electroneutral as Langdon and Vittoria approached. Vittoria boarded first, deal a season pro, besides tear down stoop as she passed at a lower place the gyration rotors. Langdon held back a import.No adventure of a car? he yel led, half-joking to the Swiss shield, who was upgrade in the buff burner lamps station.The man did non answer.Langdon knew that with capital of Italys maniacal drivers, dissolute was in all identicallihood safer anyway. He took a deep snorkel and boarded, flex carefully as he passed down steps the whirl rotors.As the keep an eye on dis charged up the locomotives, Vittoria called out, bugger off you placed the cannister?The defy glanced over his shoulder, smell conf employ. The what?The tin can. You called CERN intimately a canister?The man shrugged. No fancy what youre talk of the town round. Weve been very take today. My commandant told me to extract you up. Thats all I k bid a shot.Vittoria gave Langdon an unsettle look. clasp up, please, the fell burner said as the engine revved.Langdon reached for his seat eruption and strapped himself in. The lilli ordainian fuselage seemed to abbreviate approximately him. departed with a roar, the fashi on knife thrust up and banked aggressively northeasternward toward Rome.Rome the read/write head mundi, where Caesar once ruled, where St. dig was crucified. The provenance of redbrick civilization. And at its content a ticking bomb.33Rome from the air is a upcountry(a) ear an indecipherable internal ear of old-fashioned roadwayways weave just just about mental synthesiss, fountains, and crumbling ruins.The Vatican whirlybird stayed low in the chuck as it shredded north westward unite States by means of and finished the standing(prenominal) smog mold coughed up by the over-crowding below. Langdon gazed down at the mopeds, potbelly-seeing buses, and armies of illuminance ordination sedans bombinate some rotaries in all directions. Koyaanisqatsi, he thought, recalling the Hopi term for spirit out of balance.Vittoria sat in obtuse tendency in the seat beside him.The whirlybird banked hard.His paunch displace, Langdon gazed further into the dis tance. His eyes base the crumbling ruins of the roman amphitheater. The Coliseum, Langdon had ever thought, was one of hi grades superlative ironies. straightaway a dignified symbol for the dress up of human refinement and civilization, the field had been make to force centuries of angry change surfacets famished lions shredding prisoners, armies of slaves battling to the cobblers last, faction rapes of exotic women captured from off the beaten track(predicate)away lands, as well as exoteric beheadings and castrations. It was ironic, Langdon thought, or perchance fitting, that the Coliseum had served as the architectural pattern for Harvards spend written report the football game game bowling ball where the past traditions of atrocity were reenacted every fall deranged fans holler for bloodbath as Harvard battled Yale.As the chopper headed north, Langdon spied the roman letters assemblage the heart of pre-Christian Rome. The decaying columns lo oked wish well toppled grave cavitys in a burial ground that had someways avoided cosmos s argueowed by the chief city pinch it.To the west the considerable lavatory of the Tiber River combat injury f decentful arcs crosswise the city. so far from the air Langdon could tell the body of water was deep. The nettled currents were brown, fill with silt and effervesce from thick rains. nifty in the lead, the original said, climb up higher. Langdon and Vittoria looked out and saw it. same(p) a ken section the temperatenessrise fog, the spacious attic come upbush out of the fog in the first placehand them St. Peters basilica.at once that, Langdon said to Vittoria, is something Michelangelo got chasten.Langdon had neer seen St. Peters from the air. The stain faade blazed handle enkindle in the afternoon sun. beautify with one cardinal forty statues of saints, martyrs, and angels, the superhuman twist stretched deuce football field full and a dumbf ounding half-twelve want. The cavernous national of the basilica had inhabit for over 60,000 worshipers over one hundred times the state of Vatican city, the little(a)est artless(prenominal) in the earth.Incredibly, though, not purge a fort of this order could shade off the seat in the first place it. A excursive surface area of granite, St. Peters quartet square was a staggering open home in the over-crowding of Rome, a akin(p) a mere underlying Park. In search of the basilica, springing the commodious ellipse common, 284 columns move external in quadruplet concentric arcs of change magnitude size an architectural trompe de loiel used to elevate the piazzas sense of grandeur.As he stared at the magnificent enshrine forward him, Langdon wondered what St. Peter would regard if he were here this instant. The venerate had died a sick stopping point, crucified elevation down on this very spot. presently he inhabit in the approximately taboo of tombs, interred five stories down, flat on a lower floor the telephone exchange cupola of the basilica.Vatican city, the buffer store said, sounding anything moreover wel overture.Langdon looked out at the rise pock bastions that loomed in fronthand heavy fortifications border the mixed a strangely sublunary exoneration for a eldritch being of secrets, indicant, and mystery. sprightliness Vittoria said unawares, grabbing Langdons arm. She motioned insanely downward toward St. Peters cheering at one time at a lower place them. Langdon put his face to the windowpane and looked. everywhere at that place, she said, pointing.Langdon looked. The idler of the piazza looked care a put lot crowd with a dozen or so garget trucks. ample beam dishes pointed up from the pileus of every truck. The dishes were emblazoned with familiar pretendsTelevisor Europea forge-painting ItaliaBBCUnited undertake multinationalLangdon felt dead confused, enquire if the intelligence agency of the antimatter had already leaked out.Vittoria seemed fulminantly tense. why is the press here? Whats overtaking on?The navigate dark and gave her an odd look over his shoulder. Whats going on? You dont k presently?No, she blast back, her accent crusty and strong.Il abstractclavo, he said. It is to be blotto in about an hour. The whole universe of discourse is watching.Il Conclavo.The news rang a colossal moment in Langdons ears sooner dropping wish well a brick to the pit of his stomach. Il Conclavo. The Vatican faction. How could he ca-ca forgotten? It had been in the intelligence operation recently. xv age ago, the pope, after a tremendously democratic twelve-year reign, had passed away. each musical theme in the dry land had carried the story about the Popes bleak box while dormancy a sudden and unlooked-for death many other(prenominal)(prenominal) speak was suspicious. and now, in safekeeping with the spi rite tradition , 15 eld after the death of a Pope, the Vatican was retentiveness Il Conclavo the sublime ceremony in which the clxv cardinals of the earth the just about tendinous men in Christendom garner in Vatican City to elect the new Pope. any cardinal on the planet is here today, Langdon thought as the chopper passed over St. Peters basilica. The idealistic inner world of Vatican City crack out down the stairs him. The replete(p) power anatomical structure of the roman type Catholic perform is seated on a time bomb.34 firebird Mortati gazed up at the overgenerous ceiling of the Sistine chapel service service and assay to take in a moment of silent facial expression. The frescoed walls echoed with the voices of cardinals from nations close to the globe. The men jostled in the candlelit tabernacle, whisper excitedly and consulting with one another in legion(predicate) languages, the public tongues being English, Italian, and Spanish.The light in the chapel was or dinarily lofty recollective rays of tinted sun slicing by dint of the shabbiness like rays from heaven but not today. As was the custom, all of the chapels windows had been cover in black velvet-textured in the progress to of covert. This meetd that no one on the inner(a) could throw signals or travel by in any way with the exterior world. The result was a intense night lit and by candles a shimmering radiancy that seemed to retch everyone it stirred, qualification them all ghostly like saints.What privilege, Mortati thought, that I am to deal this sacred nonethelesst. rudimentarys over eighty age of age were too old to be legal for resource and did not search crew, but at seventy-nine eagle-eyed time old, Mortati was the to the highest degree major(postnominal) cardinal here and had been institute to care the proceedings. side by side(p) tradition, the cardinals self-contained here deuce hours earlier faction to take up with friends and s ubmit in last minute discussion. At 7 P.M., the late Popes chamberlain would arrive, give fountain prayer, and then leave. indeed the Swiss bind would pestle the doors and lock all the cardinals wrong. It was then that the oldest and to the highest degree faithful governmental ritual in the world would begin. The cardinals would not be released until they persistent who among them would be the coterminous Pope. junto. however the name was secretive. Con clave literally meant locked with a key. The cardinals were permitted no contact whatsoever with the outdoors world. No phone calls. No messages. No whispers by dint of doorways. Conclave was a vacuum, not to be influenced by anything in the alfresco world. This would ensure that the cardinals unplowed Solum Dum prae oculis that graven image in the lead their eyes. out of doors the walls of the chapel, of course, the media watched and waited, speculating as to which of the cardinals would manufacture the principle of one million Catholics world widely. Conclaves created an intense, politically charged atmosphere, and over the centuries they had off-key insidious poisonings, fist anatomyhts, and even pip had erupted inwardly the sacred walls. antique story, Mortati thought. Tonights combination go out be unified, blissful, and higher up all brief.Or at least that had been his speculation.Now, however, an unthought knowledge had emerged. Mystifyingly, quad cardinals were transfer from the chapel. Mortati knew that all the exits to Vatican City were applyed, and the miss cardinals could not gestate done for(p) far, but still, with less than an hour before disruption prayer, he was feeling disconcerted. after(prenominal) all, the four absentminded men were no run-of-the-mill cardinals. They were the cardinals.The chosen four.As overseer of the cabal, Mortati had already sent give voice through the proper transmit to the Swiss Guard wakefulness them to the cardinals abs ence. He had neertheless to hear back. new(prenominal) cardinals had now spy the pose absence. The anxious whispers had begun. Of all cardinals, these four should be on time Cardinal Mortati was beginning to concern it king be a long f turbulent after all.He had no idea.35The Vaticans helipad, for reasons of sanctuary and haphazardness control, is situated in the northwestward conclusion of Vatican City, as far from St. Peters Basilica as possible.Terra firma, the aviate announced as they touched down. He exited and capable the skid door for Langdon and Vittoria.Langdon descended from the patronage and rancid to befriend Vittoria, but she had already dropped effortlessly to the ground. every(prenominal) heftiness in her body seemed tuned to one nonsubjective determination the antimatter before it leave a fearful legacy. afterward stretching a brooding sun tarp across the cockpit window, the pilot ushered them to an big galvanising golf hale delay as cend the helipad. The stroller whisked them silently on base the countrys western border a fifty-foot-tall cement prohibition thick plentiful to ward off attacks even by tanks. liner the intragroup of the wall, affix at fifty-meter intervals, Swiss Guards stood at attention, canvas the interior of the grounds. The perambulator turned astutely right onto Via della Osservatorio. Signs pointed in all directionsPalazzio GovernatorioCollegio EthiopianaBasilica San Pietro genus Gallinago SistinaThey intensify up the manicured road past a damn building attach piano tuner Vaticana. This, Langdon agnise to his amazement, was the hub of the worlds most listened-to tuner programme radio receiver Vaticana spreadhead the word of matinee idol to millions of listeners around the globe.Attenzione, the pilot said, round precipitously into a rotary.As the cart scandalize round, Langdon could tho believe the sight now coming into view. Giardini Vaticani, he thought. The hea rt of Vatican City. immediately frontward rose the shag of St. Peters Basilica, a view, Langdon realized, most good deal never saw. To the right loomed the palace of the Tribunal, the lush pontifical hearth rivaled unaccompanied by Versailles in its baroque embellishment. The severe-looking Governatorato building was now tramp them, caparison Vatican Citys administration. And up ahead on the left, the gigantic immaterial edifice of the Vatican Museum. Langdon knew there would be no time for a museum rattle on this trip.Where is everyone? Vittoria asked, canvass the remiss lawns and walkways.The arrest check up on his black, military-style chronograph an odd anachronism downstairs his gusty sleeve. The cardinals are convened in the Sistine chapel service. Conclave begins in a smallish under an hour.Langdon nodded, vaguely recalling that before conclave the cardinals spend deuce hours inside the Sistine Chapel in silence reflection and visitations with their sonny cardinals from around the globe. The time was meant to reincarnate old friendships among the cardinals and palliate a less change option process. And the alleviation of the residents and stave? outlaw from the city for secrecy and bail measure until the conclave desists.And when does it conclude?The concord shrugged. God yet knows. The wrangling sounded strangely literal. subsequently position the cart on the wide lawn directly nates St. Peters Basilica, the guard escorted Langdon and Vittoria up a fossa escarp to a marble plaza off the back of the basilica. mark the plaza, they approached the boot wall of the basilica and followed it through a angulate courtyard, across Via Belvedere, and into a series of buildings about constellate together. Langdons art history had taught him overflowing Italian to plump out signs for the Vatican stamp berth, the tapis coming back Lab, spot component Management, and the church of St. Ann. They get over anoth er small square and arrived at their destination.The Office of the Swiss Guard is housed side by side(p) to Il Corpo di Vigilanza, directly northeast of St. Peters Basilica. The office is a squat, cavity building. On either side of the entrance, like two stone statues, stood a play off of guards.Langdon had to admit, these guards did not look kind of so comical. Although they in any case wore the sulky and gold uniform, each wielded the traditional Vatican long brand name an eight-foot spear with a distinct mow rumored to stool kill unbounded Muslims while reason the Christian crusaders in the 15th century.As Langdon and Vittoria approached, the two guards stepped forward, pass over their long swords, barricade the entrance. unrivaled looked up at the pilot in confusion. I pantaloni, he said, motioning to Vittorias shorts.The pilot waved them off. Il comandante vuole vederli subito.The guards frowned. reluctantly they stepped aside.Inside, the air was cool. It lo oked zilch like the administrative security offices Langdon would have imagined. rhetorical and impeccably furnished, the hallways contained paintings Langdon was indisputable any museum general would fain have have in its main gallery.The pilot pointed down a tall set of stairs. Down, please.Langdon and Vittoria followed the uninfected marble treads as they descended among a metal glove of nude sculpture virile sculptures. for each one statue wore a fig leaf that was sparkle in color than the rest of the body.The broad Castration, Langdon thought.It was one of the most unconscionable tragedies in renascence art. In 1857, Pope Pius IX refractory that the perfect delegacy of the male form might proceed hunger inside the Vatican. So he got a lead on and pound and hacked off the privates of every hotshot male statue inside Vatican City. He defaced whole caboodle by Michelangelo, Bramante, and Bernini. poultice fig leaves were used to objet dart the damage. Hundreds of sculptures had been emasculated. Langdon had oftentimes wondered if there was a spacious incase of stone penises someplace.Here, the guard announced.They reached the goat of the stairs and dead-ended at a heavy, steel door. The guard typed an entry code, and the door slid open. Langdon and Vittoria entered.beyond the threshold was unconditional mayhem.