In chapter 37, Vittoria tries to think of a way to get out of the office. She gets the idea of calling the camerlengo who is in the Pope’s office from Olivetti’s phone on his desk. The guard outside glares at them through the glass window and calls Olivetti on his walkie-talkie.
In chapter 38, the operator of Vatican City gets a call from a zero-line. He thinks that it’s weird that someone on the inside of the Vatican would be calling operator information because the only people inside the Vatican are the cardinals and the Swiss Guard. He answers and it’s a woman who wants to talk to the camerlengo. He tells her that perhaps he should contact the Swiss. She tells him where she is. He then places her on hold and calls Commander Olivetti’s direct line. The line picks up instantly and the woman shouts, “Place the damn call!” Commander Olivetti returns to his office and sees Vittoria standing at his desk talking on his private telephone. He asks her what she is doing and she ignores him. He then rips the receiver from her hand and yells into the phone, “Who the hell is this!” He listens and says, “Yes, camerlengo…Correct, signore…but questions of security demand…of course not…I am holding her here for…certainly, but…Yes, sir. I will bring them up immediately.”
In chapter 39, Langdon and Vittoria are taken to the Office of the Pope. The camerlengo, Carlo Ventresca, is in his late-thirties. Langdon saw in his eyes a profound exhaustion – like a soul who had been through the toughest fifteen days of his life. Langdon gives him the fax of Vetra’s picture and explains that the Illuminati murdered him so they could steal a new technology he was inventing. The camerlengo states that the Illuminati are dead and Langdon says that yesterday he would have agreed with him. Langdon tells him that before today’s chain of events he would have agreed with him, but he now believes the Illuminati have resurfaced to make good on an ancient pact to destroy Vatican City. The camerlengo says that would be impossible. Vittoria shakes her head and says, “I’m afraid we have some more bad news.”
In chapter 40, Langdon and Vittoria tell the camerlengo everything that they know. They argue with Olivetti who still doesn’t believe them. One of the Swiss Guards then calls Olivetti and informs him that they have received a bomb threat and the caller mentioned the substance, antimatter. The guard says that they ran some additional research on his claim and the information on antimatter is really troubling. He says that pound for pound antimatter carries about a hundred times more payload than a nuclear warhead. He also tells Olivetti that they can’t trace the call, but they think he is somewhere in Rome. He says the caller is still on line. The camerlengo tells the guard to patch him through immediately. The phone on Camerlengo Ventresca’s desk begins to ring and he puts him on speaker-phone and asks, “Who in the name of God do you think you are?”
In chapter 41, the voice from the camerlengo’s speaker phone is Middle Eastern, metallic and cold, laced with arrogance. He says he is a messenger of an ancient brotherhood, the Illuminati. He says that the Illuminati have no demands, that the abolition of the Vatican in non-negotiable, that the Illuminati have waited four hundred years for this day, that at midnight their city will be destroyed, and that there is nothing they can do. He also says that four of their most precious assets disappeared this morning. Olivetti realizes what he means. The camerlengo asks what is going on. The caller tells him that four cardinals have disappeared: Cardinal Lamasse from Paris, Cardinal Guidera from Barcelona, Cardinal Ebner from Frankfurt, and Cardinal Baggia from Italy. The camerlengo whispers, “I preferiti.” Langdon understands the look of desperation on the camerlengo’s face. Although technically any cardinal under eighty years old could become Pope, only a very few had the respect necessary to command a two-thirds majority in the balloting procedure. They were known as the preferiti, and they were all gone. The camerlengo asks what he intends to do with those men and the call replies that he is a descendant of the Hassassin. He says that, just like la purge years ago when the church branded four Illuminati scientists with the symbol of the cross and then murdered them, the Illuminati will do the same. The four cardinals will die, one every hour starting at eight, and by midnight the whole world will be enthralled. He also reveals that he is going to kill them in churches. He says that they are "virgin sacrifices, sacrifice vergini nell’ altare di scienza".
Wow. Well, in this section, the novel gets to the main conflict of the story. Although I do think la purge was wrong, revenge is definitely not right. I think this Hassassin is a sick and twisted man, especially since the readers know that he isn’t even part of the Illuminati. He is just their messenger and assassin. I wonder how they are going to be able to save the four cardinals, stop the Hassassin, find the antimatter, and fly back to CERN to charge the antimatter in just four hours. I suppose it is just a typical fast pace Dan Brown novel. Just like the Da Vinci Code, this is all taking place in very little time. I find books like this very exciting and it makes me want to keep reading.
No comments:
Post a Comment