The thoughts of last years thrilling events seemed like a dream. He still had to make sure that he was not sleeping and everything that had happened was actually a reality.
He might have thought he actually had dreamt the entire event, if it has not been for the beautiful woman that lay in bed, only feet away in the room next door…Sophie Neveu.
He could still remember it like it was yesterday, the whole exuberance and excitement of solving one of man's greatest mysteries, almost getting himself killed and thrown in prison… But he could not tell anyone this. Which this maybe, was what pained him the most.
He tossed between his bed sheets. He has been having troubled sleep for many weeks now…Ever since he had knelt in front of the coffin of Mary Magdalene, he had been experiencing strange feelings day and night. He could neither explain what these feelings were, or explain why he was having them. All he could muster to understand, was that it was not the most enjoyable experience of his life.
He decided to try to take his mind off it. He fumbled about on the bedside cabinet for his reading glasses. He pulled them onto his wearisome drawn face. Grasping at the ruffled newspaper that lay crumpled on his book littered floor, he switched on the bedside lamp and began to read.
He opened the newspaper to a random section. Something caught his eye in the very corner of the page.
In small scrawled blue handwriting; as if hastily rushed, was what appeared to be a rather random string of words.
Gabled Nor Torn
Adore Nude Eye Tyre Lung
Auto Bi Cues
Are You Bad Witch Gene
Preheat Soil
That ones Pairs Daytime Mile
Bane Meet The Cedar Home Trip
Motor Row Dim Thing
B.F
The bizarre arrangement of words lay before him. He could only come to one conclusion. Someone was trying to communicate with him, and not get caught. But get caught by what?
He sat fully upright in his bed. He needed to know what this message meant. It was assuredly an anagram. This brought him back the fond memories of old Jacques Sauniere. How in his last living minutes, had tried to keep the secret of the Priory of Sion alive. By of course…using anagrams. But this was impossibly Jacques. Because, of course...He was dead. So who…Had tried to reach him by this method? (But also; admittedly, lacked style in their choice of words…They were obviously new to this.)
"B.F" He muttered aloud. Who could that be? Presumably the initials of whoever wrote the message. But for now, it was more important to figure out what the message actually meant.
"Gabled Nor Torn." He pulled open the drawer of his bedside cabinet, reached in and pulled out a pen and a notebook. "Able…no…"He wrote down each possibility. "Longer….Garbled….Badger…Enrol…Barter…ROBERT!. Robert Langdon!" Feeling moronic that it took him so long to discover his own name…he thought, "Ah, so I take it that this message is definitely intended for me then." He looked to the next line. He ran through the same procedure with every line of the message until he found himself with an unscrambled and slightly worrying paragraph.
Robert Langdon
You are needed urgently
Be cautious
You are being watched
Alert Sophie
Hasten to Paris immediately
Meet beneath the Arc De Triomphe
Tomorrow, Midnight
B.F
Being watched? Needed? Having to go to Paris? It just didn't make sense! It hadn't been this way, for 3 years. Why now? And what for? If he were to be able to meet at the Arc De Triomphe, he would have to leave for Paris now. But he couldn't. He had one of the most important lectures of his life to give tomorrow. Then again…the "B.F" person sounded desperate. So maybe alerting Sophie wouldn't be such a bad idea.
He rapped his knuckles gently on the wall three times. He waited. He received three sharp taps from the wall. She was awake. He tapped seven times. She knocked back once. This was a warning, that he would be going into her room momentarily. And just to make sure, that she was decent.
He rushed around his hotel room in a blur of confused chaos. "Utter madness." He thought. "Surely whatever it is can't be that bad." He pulled on a long pair or checkered socks and rammed all of his belongings into a small black suitcase. Finally, everything was packed.
He pulled his suitcase to the next room. He tapped quietly, but urgently upon the door. He hadn't turned on the lights in the corridor, in a hope to not provoke any awareness from anyone that may possibly; as the warning suggested, be watching him. Sophie opened the door.
"What is it?" She had barely finished he sentence before he had pushed her back into the room. She noticed the look of confusion and slight panic stretched across Robert's worn face. She had not seen him this way. Not since three years ago.
"Robert? Robert? What is it? What is the matter?" She tried to reach out to him. But he shook her off. Pacing around the room like wild animal in an enclosure.
"It just doesn't add up…" He sat down on the bed heavily. Obviously deep in thought. Sophie didn't know whether to disturb him or what. She needn't have, Because suddenly he announced: "Sophie, we need to go to Paris…now!" That was the last thing she had expected him to say.
"Paris? Now? But Robert, it is the middle of the night, You have your lecture tomorrow morning. Can this not wait?" But even before she had said it, she knew what his answer was going to be.
"No. It cant. If it wasn't urgent. I wouldn't be asking you to go. We need to get down to the airport as soon as we can. This is serious Sophie. Pack your things. We're going to have to leave the hotel undercover I think. I'll call a taxi, but not from here, its not safe. We'll have to get one from a phone booth. I'll explain everything to you when we're somewhere safe."
Sophie knew better than to question Robert's judgement. She quickly scrambled around the room, shoving everything she could find into her small holdall. She needed to change her clothing.
"Robert can you turn around for a moment?" He did as he was told. Sophie was changing behind him into something more comfortable. Little did she know, that Robert; if he had chosen to, knew that if he looked slightly to the left, he could see everything he wanted in the mirror. But it wasn't his style. He wasn't one to do that kind of thing.
"Ok. I'd ready. Let's go." She flicked the light switch and closed the door as silently as she possibly could. Then…she followed Robert down the long dark hallway.