Reading - The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown, p. 106-154

In chapter 21, Sophie remembers that her grandfather liked to create anagrams of famous paintings. When she was young, he took her to visit the Mona Lisa when the museum was closed. She realizes that the Mona Lisa would be a good place for him to leave her a message, and that he would have been able to visit the painting before he died. Sophie decides to go back up the stairwell to find the painting. She tells Langdon to go to the embassy without her and gives him the keys to her car. As he walks away, Langdon wonders why Saunière told Sophie to find him. Sophie could easily have figured out the puzzle in the message without him. While thinking about the letters “P.S.” in the code, Langdon has a sudden realization. He starts running back to Sophie. 

In chapter 22, at the Church of Saint-Suplice, Silas looks around the sanctuary and finds the Rose Line, a strip of brass on the north-south axis that is on the floor of the church. This line, a pagan sundial, was the zero longitude of the world before Greenwich, England, took that title. Silas has been told that the Priory keystone lies beneath the obelisk at the northern terminus of the line. He walks toward the obelisk. Meanwhile, Aringarosa arrives in Rome.

In chapter 23, Sophie tries to see whether her grandfather left her any messages in invisible ink by the Mona Lisa. Langdon reappears, out of breath. He asks Sophie if the initials P.S. mean anything to her aside from Princesse Sophie. She says that once, when she was younger, she saw a strange key in her grandfather’s closet decorated with the initials P.S. and—as Langdon has already guessed—a fleur-de-lis. Saunière never explained what the key was for, but he said if she kept the secret, the key would one day be hers.
Langdon says that Saunière was a member of the Priory of Sion, an exclusive secret society involved in pagan goddess worship. The Priory has had many prominent members, among them Leonardo Da Vinci. It is known as the protector of a huge secret. Sophie thinks that this might explain the unthinkable scene she witnessed her grandfather taking part in. Meanwhile, Fache and his partners apprehend the truck and discover the bar of soap with the GPS tracker in it.

In chapter 24, Silas kneels at the base of the obelisk. Each of his victims told him that the keystone was hidden there. He knocks on the tiled floor and discovers that there is a hollow opening under the ground. He prepares to break the floor tile. Sister Sandrine, spying on him from the balcony, prepares to do her duty as a sentry for the Brothers of Sion. She thinks the stranger standing at the base of the obelisk is a message from the dead Brothers telling her that something is wrong.

In chapter 25, Fache calls the American Embassy and discovers that there was no message for Langdon. He backtracks through numbers on his cell phone and finds the number that Langdon called. When he realizes that it was Sophie Neveu’s number, he becomes angry. He punches in the access code.

In chapter 26, back in the museum, Sophie and Langdon find blood on the floor and a message composed of six words scrawled on the protective glass over Mona Lisa’s face.

In chapter 27, Fache tells Collet that Sophie helped Langdon escape from their grasp. Fache realizes that Sophie and Langdon must still be inside the Louvre and sends half of his men there. The other half he sends to “the only location in Paris where Robert Langdon could find safe harbor”—presumably the American Embassy.

In chapter 28, the message on the Mona Lisa is revealed: “SO DARK THE CON OF MAN.” Langdon tells Sophie that the message refers to the Catholic Church’s campaign to rid the world of female-worshipping religions and the Priory of Sion’s opposition to this campaign. A police officer appears in the gallery and takes Langdon into his custody. Sophie hides behind the viewing bench.

In chapter 29, Silas takes his cloak off and wraps it around the pole he is using to smash the tile in the Church of Saint-Suplice. He works quietly because he thinks Sister Sandrine is asleep, but she is watching him from the balcony. Under the tile, Silas finds a stone tablet with the reference number of a Bible verse from the book of Job. Excited, he looks through the Bible, but he finds that something is wrong. The verse reads: “HITHERTO SHALT THOU COME, BUT NO FURTHER.” Sister Sandrine runs back to her room, where she retrieves four telephone numbers given to her for emergency situations.

In chapter 30, Claude Grouard is holding Langdon captive. Sophie comes out of the shadows and walks to Madonna of the Rocks, a painting on the other side of the chamber. She examines it with the UV light, but she sees nothing. Her grandfather often showed her this painting, so she is convinced there must be something in it. Moreover, the words he wrote on the Mona Lisa—“SO DARK THE CON OF MAN”—are an anagram for Madonna of the Rocks. When Sophie looks behind the painting, she finds the key decorated with the fleur-de-lis and the initials P.S. wedged into the frame. Thinking quickly, Sophie removes the painting from the wall and holds it hostage, forcing Grouard to put down his gun and release her and Langdon.

In chapter 31, Sister Sandrine calls the emergency phone numbers. The first three people she tries to get in touch with have just died. She is in the process of leaving a message on the fourth number’s answering machine when Silas bursts into her chamber. He demands that she tell him where the keystone is. She does not know. Enraged, Silas clubs her to death with the candle stand.

In chapter 32, Sophie and Langdon run from the museum and get into Sophie’s tiny car. They head for the embassy. Sophie wonders what the key opens. She thinks about the terrible thing she saw her grandfather doing. Ten years ago, she went to his chateau in Normandy and saw a large group of men and women in a secret room. A ceremony was going on and they were observing something (the reader is not told what). As she is remembering the bizarre and traumatic experience, Sophie stops paying attention the road. She hears sirens and sees that the police have blocked off the street leading to the embassy. When Sophie turns the car around, the police notice and follow her.

I feel like this section of the novel is mainly building suspense and it gives us a clue now and then.  I really want to know what happened at the ceremony that Sophie saw, but it specifically leaves that information out.  I like how Sophie and Langdon are the protagonists of this novel and that the church and the police are against them.  I think its interesting to see the church and police in a negative light.  I can't wait to find out what happens next.