The Da Vinci Code

Langdon and Sophie enter the Salle des Etats, Sophie sweeping the floor with a black light pen, searching for any additional clues left by her grandfather. Langdon tingles with excitement at his proximity to one of the world’s finest works of art, a painting Da Vinci regarded as his finest. However, his regard may have had more to do with the secrets buried under the paint than with its artistic merit. One such secret refers to the Egyptian god and goddess of fertility: Amon and Isis (once known as L’Isa), an anagram for Mona Lisa.

As Langdon and Sophie search the gallery, Langdon notices something caught in the glimmer of the black light: six words written across the plexiglass protecting the Mona Lisa.

Fache calls Collet. He informs him that Sophie has alerted Langdon to the tracking device and that she and Langdon are likely still inside the building. Fache sends one contingent of officers to guard the museum perimeter and another to watch for Langdon at the US Embassy.

“SO DARK THE CON OF MAN” reads the message on the plexiglass, a confirmation that Sauniére was indeed a member of the Priory. The secret brotherhood, Langdon explains, believed that early Christian leaders—Constantine, specifically—demonized paganism and goddess worship to prioritize a patriarchal belief system. What followed was three centuries of persecution, torture, and murder of “freethinking women.” Sexual union, once considered essential for spiritual wholeness, was now deemed sinful. The Priory considers this imbalance between male and female energy to be the cause of many of the world’s problems—war, misogyny, disrespect of nature. Suddenly, they hear approaching footsteps. Sophie ducks behind a viewing bench, but Langdon is not quick enough. A security guard spots him and orders him to lie down on the floor, a gun pressed to his back.

Using an iron candle holder, Silas smashes through the floor tile covering the hidden compartment below. Reaching inside, he extracts a stone tablet with a Bible verse inscribed on it: Job 38:11. Silas carries the tablet to a Bible resting on the altar. Turning to the Book of Job, he reads the passage: “HITHERTO SHALT THOU COME, BUT NO FURTHER” (138). Something has gone wrong.

Meanwhile, Sister Sandrine, having witnessed the scene, flees to her room, takes out an envelope bearing secret instructions, and dials the numbers listed.

While the security guard holds Langdon at gunpoint and tries to call for backup, Sophie appears, identifying herself as “PTS,” a member of the forensics team. She tells the guard that Langdon is innocent. Knowing that the guard must wait for backup, Sophie continues to scan the room. Looking behind another Da Vinci, she finds Sauniére’s key wedged between the canvas and frame. The key, she realizes, is the goal, the prize Sauniére intended for his granddaughter to find but wanted hidden from the police.

When Sophie realizes the guard cannot use his walkie-talkie inside the electronically fortified gallery, she threatens to deface Da Vinci’s Madonna of the Rocks unless he drops his gun. He complies. She and Langdon confiscate his gun and run for the exit. As they flee, Langdon wonders how Sophie knew to check behind that particular painting. SO DARK THE CON OF MAN, she reveals, is another anagram: Madonna of the Rocks.

Sister Sandrine attempts to call the numbers on her list—the four brethren of the Priory—only to find they are all dead. She knows that because the floor panel in the church was broken, the upper echelons of the Priory have been discovered and are in danger. Sandrine had been instructed to warn any members of the brethren still living of the threat. Silas discovers Sandrine, who demands the location of the keystone. When she claims ignorance, he kills her.

Langdon and Sophie escape the museum and flee in Sophie’s car. Once safely ensconced in traffic on the Champs-Elysées, Sophie heads toward the US Embassy. Langdon ponders the fitting irony of Madonna of the Rocks as a final clue: a painting commissioned by the Church but filled with subtly subversive elements. Sophie’s thoughts drift to the key—a sophisticated “laser-tooled varying matrix—" and then to her grandfather (150). She recalls visiting him on break from college, driving to his château in the country, and finding several cars parked in the driveway but the château doors locked. She let herself in with a spare key and saw an empty house; then she heard voices chanting below her. She discovered a moveable wall panel leading to an underground chamber in which roughly thirty masked men and women stood in a circle. Within the circle, she saw something that shocked her so badly, she fled the house, leaving a note for her grandfather: “I WAS THERE. DON’T TRY TO FIND ME” (153).

As Langdon and Sophie approach the embassy, they see the entrance blocked by police. Sophie drives away, but the police pursue.

As Sophie speeds away from the embassy trying to elude the police, she hands Langdon the key left by her grandfather. Under close scrutiny, Langdon confirms the markings as the “official device” of the Priory of Sion, although neither he nor Sophie knows what the key opens. The square cross at the end of the key is not a traditional Christian cross but predates Christianity by 1500 years; it symbolizes male/female harmony, a foundational concept to the Priory.

Langdon and Sophie consider their options. Sophie’s contacts are no good because Fache will anticipate them; the embassy is useless unless they are on its premises. Sophie drives to a train depot in an industrial neighborhood, pays a taxi driver who speeds off without them, and then she and Langdon head inside to buy two tickets out of the city. Langdon feels more and more like a fugitive.

Aringarosa lands in Rome and takes a Vatican transport to Castel Gandolfo, the summer residence of the Pope. His last trip to the famed retreat was five months earlier. He recalls feeling wary over the new liberal Pope whose policies, Aringarosa feared, were eroding the foundation of the Church. At this earlier meeting, Aringarosa received news that he feared would have devastating results. Now, on his second trip to Castel Gandolfo, Aringarosa is uneasy—he’s had no word from the Teacher about Silas’s mission.

At the Paris train station, Langdon buys two tickets to Lille and uses his credit card to divert the police). He and Sophie exit the station, get in a taxi, and head out of town, destination unknown. As Langdon examines the key more closely, he smells alcohol residue, the smell of Sauniére’s invisible marker. The black light reveals a hastily scrawled message: “24 RUE HAXO” (167). As the taxi speeds toward the address on the outskirts of Paris, Langdon fills Sophie in on the history of the Priory.

Back at the Louvre, Fache strategizes. He assumes the Lille train tickets are a false lead but orders the train stopped and searched anyway. Question the taxi dispatcher, he tells Collet, and keep watch on Sophie’s car. Finally, he contacts Interpol, the intricate network of law enforcement which makes it virtually impossible to leave town without detection.