Stepping from the shadows, Rémy marched into the circular chamber and aimed the gun
directly at Teabing's head. "Old man, I've been waiting a long time to do this."
Sir Leigh Teabing's heart practically stalled to see Rémy aiming a gun at him. What is he doing!
Teabing recognized the tiny Medusa revolver as his own, the one he kept locked in the limousine
glove box for safety.
"Rémy?" Teabing sputtered in shock. "What is going on?"
Langdon and Sophie looked equally dumbstruck.
Rémy circled behind Teabing and rammed the pistol barrel into his back, high and on the
left, directly behind his heart.
Teabing felt his muscles seize with terror. "Rémy, I don't— "
"I'll make it simple," Rémy snapped, eyeing Langdon over Teabing's shoulder. "Set down
the keystone, or I pull the trigger."
Langdon seemed momentarily paralyzed. "The keystone is worthless to you," he
stammered. "You cannot possibly open it."
"Arrogant fools," Rémy sneered. "Have you not noticed that I have been listening tonight as
you discussed these poems? Everything I heard, I have shared with others. Others who know
more than you. You are not even looking in the right place. The tomb you seek is in another
location entirely!"
Teabing felt panicked. What is he saying!
"Why do you want the Grail?" Langdon demanded. "To destroy it? Before the End of
Days?"
Rémy called to the monk. "Silas, take the keystone from Mr. Langdon."
As the monk advanced, Langdon stepped back, raising the keystone high, looking fully
prepared to hurl it at the floor.
"I would rather break it," Langdon said, "than see it in the wrong hands."
Teabing now felt a wave of horror. He could see his life's work evaporating before his eyes.
All his dreams about to be shattered.
"Robert, no!" Teabing exclaimed. "Don't! That's the Grail you're holding! Rémy would
never shoot me. We've known each other for ten— "
Rémy aimed at the ceiling and fired the Medusa. The blast was enormous for such a small
weapon, the gunshot echoing like thunder inside the stone chamber.
Everyone froze.
"I am not playing games," Rémy said. "The next one is in his back. Hand the keystone to
Silas."
Langdon reluctantly held out the cryptex. Silas stepped forward and took it, his red eyes
gleaming with the self-satisfaction of vengeance. Slipping the keystone in the pocket of his robe,
Silas backed off, still holding Langdon and Sophie at gunpoint.
Teabing felt Rémy's arm clamp hard around his neck as the servant began backing out of
the building, dragging Teabing with him, the gun still pressed in his back.
"Let him go," Langdon demanded.
"We're taking Mr. Teabing for a drive," Rémy said, still backing up. "If you call the police,
he will die. If you do anything to interfere, he will die. Is that clear?"
"Take me," Langdon demanded, his voice cracking with emotion. "Let Leigh go."
Rémy laughed. "I don't think so. He and I have such a nice history. Besides, he still might
prove useful."
Silas was backing up now, keeping Langdon and Sophie at gunpoint as Rémy pulled Leigh
toward the exit, his crutches dragging behind him.
Sophie's voice was unwavering. "Who are you working for?"
The question brought a smirk to the departing Rémy's face. "You would be surprised,
Mademoiselle Neveu."
CHAPTER 87
The fireplace in Chateau Villette's drawing room was cold, but Collet paced before it nonetheless
as he read the faxes from Interpol.
Not at all what he expected.
AndréVernet, according to official records, was a model citizen. No police record— not
even a parking ticket. Educated at prep school and the Sorbonne, he had a cum laude degree in
international finance. Interpol said Vernet's name appeared in the newspapers from time to time,
but always in a positive light. Apparently the man had helped design the security parameters that
kept the Depository Bank of Zurich a leader in the ultramodern world of electronic security.
Vernet's credit card records showed a penchant for art books, expensive wine, and classical
CD's— mostly Brahms— which he apparently enjoyed on an exceptionally high-end stereo
system he had purchased several years ago.
Zero, Collet sighed.
The only red flag tonight from Interpol had been a set of fingerprints that apparently
belonged to Teabing's servant. The chief PTS examiner was reading the report in a comfortable
chair across the room.
Collet looked over. "Anything?"
The examiner shrugged. "Prints belong to Rémy Legaludec. Wanted for petty crime.
Nothing serious. Looks like he got kicked out of university for rewiring phone jacks to get free
service... later did some petty theft. Breaking and entering. Skipped out on a hospital bill once
for an emergency tracheotomy." He glanced up, chuckling. "Peanut allergy."
Collet nodded, recalling a police investigation into a restaurant that had failed to notate on
its menu that the chili recipe contained peanut oil. An unsuspecting patron had died of
anaphylactic shock at the table after a single bite.
"Legaludec is probably a live-in here to avoid getting picked up." The examiner looked
amused. "His lucky night."
Collet sighed. "All right, you better forward this info to Captain Fache."
The examiner headed off just as another PTS agent burst into the living room. "Lieutenant!
We found something in the barn."
From the anxious look on the agent's face, Collet could only guess. "A body."
"No, sir. Something more..." He hesitated. "Unexpected."
Rubbing his eyes, Collet followed the agent out to the barn. As they entered the musty,
cavernous space, the agent motioned toward the center of the room, where a wooden ladder now
ascended high into the rafters, propped against the ledge of a hayloft suspended high above
them.
"That ladder wasn't there earlier," Collet said.
"No, sir. I set that up. We were dusting for prints near the Rolls when I saw the ladder lying
on the floor. I wouldn't have given it a second thought except the rungs were worn and muddy.
This ladder gets regular use. The height of the hayloft matched the ladder, so I raised it and
climbed up to have a look."
Collet's eyes climbed the ladder's steep incline to the soaring hayloft. Someone goes up
there regularly? From down here, the loft appeared to be a deserted platform, and yet admittedly
most of it was invisible from this line of sight.
A senior PTS agent appeared at the top of the ladder, looking down. "You'll definitely want
to see this, Lieutenant," he said, waving Collet up with a latex -gloved hand.
Nodding tiredly, Collet walked over to the base of the old ladder and grasped the bottom
rungs. The ladder was an antique tapered design and narrowed as Collet ascended. As he neared
the top, Collet almost lost his footing on a thin rung. The barn below him spun. Alert now, he
moved on, finally reaching the top. The agent above him reached out, offering his wrist. Collet
grabbed it and made the awkward transition onto the platform.
"It's over there," the PTS agent said, pointing deep into the immaculately clean loft. "Only
one set of prints up here. We'll have an ID shortly."
Collet squinted through the dim light toward the far wall. What the hell? Nestled against the
far wall sat an elaborate computer workstation— two tower CPUs, a flat-screen video monitor
with speakers, an array of hard drives, and a multichannel audio console that appeared to have its
own filtered power supply.
Why in the world would anyone work all the way up here? Collet moved toward the gear.
"Have you examined the system?"
"It's a listening post."
Collet spun. "Surveillance?"
The agent nodded. "Very advanced surveillance." He motioned to a long project table
strewn with electronic parts, manuals, tools, wires, soldering irons, and other electronic
components. "Someone clearly knows what he's doing. A lot of this gear is as sophisticated as
our own equipment. Miniature microphones, photoelectric recharging cells, high-capacity RAM
chips. He's even got some of those new nano drives."
Collet was impressed.
"Here's a complete system," the agent said, handing Collet an assembly not much larger
than a pocket calculator. Dangling off the contraption was a foot-long wire with a stamp-sized
piece of wafer-thin foil stuck on the end. "The base is a high-capacity hard disk audio recording
system with rechargeable battery. That strip of foil at the end of the wire is a combination
microphone and photoelectric recharging cell."
Collet knew them well. These foil-like, photocell microphones had been an enormous
breakthrough a few years back. Now, a hard disk recorder could be affixed behind a lamp, for
example, with its foil microphone molded into the contour of the base and dyed to match. As
long as the microphone was positioned such that it received a few hours of sunlight per day, the
photo cells would keep recharging the system. Bugs like this one could listen indefinitely.
"Reception method?" Collet asked.
The agent signaled to an insulated wire that ran out of the back of the computer, up the
wall, through a hole in the barn roof. "Simple radio wave. Small antenna on the roof."
Collet knew these recording systems were generally placed in offices, were voice-activated
to save hard disk space, and recorded snippets of conversation during the day, transmitting
compressed audio files at night to avoid detection. After transmitting, the hard drive erased itself
and prepared to do it all over again the next day.
Collet's gaze moved now to a shelf on which were stacked several hundred audio cassettes,
all labeled with dates and numbers. Someone has been very busy. He turned back to the agent.
"Do you have any idea what target is being bugged?"
"Well, Lieutenant," the agent said, walking to the computer and launching a piece of
software. "It's the strangest thing...."
CHAPTER 88
Langdon felt utterly spent as he and Sophie hurdled a turnstile at the Temple tube station and
dashed deep into the grimy labyrinth of tunnels and platforms. The guilt ripped through him.
I involved Leigh, and now he's in enormous danger.
Rémy's involvement had been a shock, and yet it made sense. Whoever was pursuing the
Grail had recruited someone on the inside. They went to Teabing's for the same reason I did.
Throughout history, those who held knowledge of the Grail had always been magnets for thieves
and scholars alike. The fact that Teabing had been a target all along should have made Langdon
feel less guilty about involving him. It did not. We need to find Leigh and help him. Immediately.
Langdon followed Sophie to the westbound District and Circle Line platform, where she
hurried to a pay phone to call the police, despite Rémy's warning to the contrary. Langdon sat on
a grungy bench nearby, feeling remorseful.
"The best way to help Leigh," Sophie reiterated as she dialed, "is to involve the London
authorities immediately. Trust me."
Langdon had not initially agreed with this idea, but as they had hatched their plan, Sophie's
logic began to make sense. Teabing was safe at the moment. Even if Rémy and the others knew
where the knight's tomb was located, they still might need Teabing's help deciphering the orb
reference. What worried Langdon was what would happen after the Grail map had been found.
Leigh will become a huge liability.
If Langdon were to have any chance of helping Leigh, or of ever seeing the keystone again,
it was essential that he find the tomb first. Unfortunately, Rémy has a big head start.
Slowing Rémy down had become Sophie's task.
Finding the right tomb had become Langdon's.
Sophie would make Rémy and Silas fugitives of the London police, forcing them into
hiding or, better yet, catching them. Langdon's plan was less certain— to take the tube to nearby
King's College, which was renowned for its electronic theological database. The ultimate
research tool, Langdon had heard. Instant answers to any religious historical question. He
wondered what the database would have to say about "a knight a Pope interred."
He stood up and paced, wishing the train would hurry.
At the pay phone, Sophie's call finally connected to the London police.
"Snow Hill Division," the dispatcher said. "How may I direct your call?"
"I'm reporting a kidnapping." Sophie knew to be concise.
"Name please?"
Sophie paused. "Agent Sophie Neveu with the French Judicial Police."
The title had the desired effect. "Right away, ma'am. Let me get a detective on the line for
you."
As the call went through, Sophie began wondering if the police would even believe her
description of Teabing's captors. A man in a tuxedo. How much easier to identify could a suspect
be? Even if Rémy changed clothes, he was partnered with an albino monk. Impossible to miss.
Moreover, they had a hostage and could not take public transportation. She wondered how
many Jaguar stretch limos there could be in London.
