"Ci siamo quasi. Abbiamo appena attraversato il confine in Italia." [We are almost there. We have just crossed the border to Italy.] Sara informed Ernesto on the phone. They had been in the air for a few hours now and were just crossing the border to Italy. She had tried to get some rest but it was pointless. Her body would just not allow her to relax. "If the Illuminati have returned and are in Rome, we will hunt them down and kill them," she then said.
"The Illuminati did not become violent until the 17th century. Their name means the enlightened ones. They were physicists and mathematicians, astronomers. They were concerned with the Church's inaccurate teaching and were dedicated to scientific truth. But the Vatican didn't like that. So the Church began to, how did you say it? Oh, hunt them down and kill them. Drove them underground. Into a secret society."
Sara nodded slightly, turning her attention on the city below them again. The sun rose behind the Colosseum, as the helicopter made its way towards Vatican City. The heliport and the car were the only options one had to leave Vatican City. There was no airport, just a train station, but that was used only for goods and not passenger transportation. Ernesto had sent a car to pick them up from the heliport and as her tired limbs hit the comfortable leather seats of the black Lancia Delta, she finally felt herself relax a bit. It took them another five minutes to arrive at the St. Damaso Courtyard, where Ernesto was already waiting for them. "Professor Langdon. Welcome to Vatican City," he said and briefly shook hands with the American. "Ernesto Olivetti. Inspector general of the Vatican police force."
"My pleasure," Robert greeted. Ernesto gave Sara a warm smile, which she happily returned, before they started to head inside. "This way please," Ernesto took Langdon by the arm and gestured down a narrow passageway. "We'll meet in the headquarters of the Swiss Guard."
"I thought you were Swiss Guard…?"
Ernesto shot him a surprised look and Sara had to supress a laugh. "No. La Gendarmeria. We are responsible for everything inside the Vatican walls with the exception of the security of His Holiness and the Apostolic Palace. That is Swiss Guard. The Roman carabinieri are here as well in an advisory capacity."
"So jurisdictionally this is…"
"A goddamn nightmare," Ernesto responded.
They turned a corner and approached a squat stone building labelled Offizia della Guarda Suiza. Two Swiss guardsmen were standing outside the entrance to the building. They were somewhat comically dressed in puffy tunics vertically striped in brilliant blue and gold, with matching pantaloons and spats, topped by a black beret. Langdon couldn't completely hide a smile, Ernesto noticed. The guards raised their eight-foot swords, allowing the three of them to enter the building. As they made their way through the corridor, Sara's heels made those clacking sounds on the cobbles and in that very moment she wished she had worn flats. The interior of the Swiss Guard offices was ornated and filled with artwork, like every other Vatican building. As they walked, Langdon studied the row of statues of male nudes that lines both sides of the hallway, all wearing fig leaves. "Oh yes, Pope Pius IX's great castration," Robert said as they passed a few statues. "I beg your pardon?" Ernesto interposed.
"1856, Pope Pius IX left the male from would inspire lust. So he took a hammer and chisel and unmanned hundreds of these statues," Robert explained. "The plaster fig leaves were added later," Sara added, more to herself than anything, but both men looked at her in surprise. Sara shrugged.
"Are you anti-Catholic, Professor Langdon?" Ernesto then wanted to know.
"No. I'm anti-vandalism," Robert explained as the inspector general nodded.
"I urge you to guard your tone here. The Swiss Guard is a calling, not a profession and it encourages a certain zealotry. Commander Richter, the head of the Guard is a deeply spiritual man and he was close to the late pope. Understood?"
"Look, I don't study symbols because I consider them unimportant. Ceremony, traditions, it's how we mark our lives. I just… hope I can help."
"So do I. You were my idea," Ernesto smiled slightly and then ushered them inside. The headquarters of the Swiss Guard was in a lushly adorned Renaissance library crammed with sophisticated communications and surveillance equipment. It's crowded, Swiss Guard in suits and ties, uniformed Carbinieri, and Vatican police crammed around different stations, some working together, others arguing, mostly in Italian. "Wait here please," Ernesto indicated the professor to sit down on one of the chairs, before he and Sara cross the room to a tall, fair-haired man around sixty. He didn't look pleased at all. Not even as they informed them that Langdon was here. Richter wasn't convinced that the professor would be able to help them in the matter, plus he didn't approve of the man's recent involvements with the church. "What a relief, the symbologist is here," he greeted the man after he had shaken hands with Vittoria Vetra, a physicist at CERN. "This way please Miss Vetra," without another look at Robert, Richter made his way into his office, followed by Vetra, Sara, Ernesto, and Robert.
"The canister was stolen from our lab around noon yesterday. The intruder killed my research partner, Silvano Bentivolgio and mutilated him in order to bypass security. We use retinal scanners. They cut out his eye," Vetra explained as they came to a halt in front of a surveillance screen.
"Is that your stolen canister, Miss Vetra?" Richter asked.
"Where is that camera number 86?"
"It's wireless. It too was stolen. It could be anywhere inside the Vatican," Ernesto explained.
"That canister contains an extremely combustible substance. Called antimatter. We need to locate it immediately or evacuate Vatican City."
"I'm quite familiar with incendiaries, Miss Vetra. I've never heard of antimatter being used as such…" Richter stated.
"Well, it's never been generated in significant quantities before. It's a way of studying the origin of the universe to try to isolate what some people call the God particle. But there are implications for energy research…"
Richter raised his eyebrows, not quite believing what he heard. "The God particle?"
"What we call it isn't important," Vittoria sighed. "It's what gives all matter mass. The thing without which we could not exist."
"You're talking about the moment of creation," Robert interposed and she nodded. "Yes. In a way I am. The antimatter is suspended there, in an airtight nanocomposite shell electromagnets in each end but if it were to fall out of suspension and come in contact with matter say, the bottom of the canister, the two opposing forces would annihilate one another violently."
"And what might cause it to fall out of suspension?"
"The battery going dead. Which it will, just before midnight."
"What kind of annihilation?" Sara wanted to know. "How violent?"
"A cataclysmic event. A blinding explosion equivalent to about five kilotons," Vittoria urged in such a voice that it sent chills down Sara's spine. "Vatican City will be consumed by light," Robert suddenly spoke up behind her. "Those are the exact words the kidnapper used," Richter stated.
A few moments later, they're crowded around the communications console at Richter's desk, where a dimly-lit video recording is playing back on a computer screen. The images on the recording are of four older men, some in their sixties, the other in their seventies, filmed in dim light behind bars in a dank, dungeon-like space. A lightly accented voice speaks from behind the camera. The dark voice sent chills down the ginger woman's spine. Even though the preferiti clung to their cross necklaces, their fear and distress was still clearly visible in their eyes. Behind her, Ernesto's hand found its way – unnoticed by the others – onto her lower back and she felt herself relax a little bit.
We will destroy your four pillas. We will brand your preferiti and sacrifice them on the alters of science, then bring your church down upon you. Vatican City will be consumed by light. A shining star at the end of the Path of Illumination.
"It's the ancient Illuminati threat," Robert explained. "Destruction of Vatican City through light. Four pillars, there's your kidnapped cardinals. You didn't tell me they were the preferiti, the favourites to be named the next pope," he said, shooting Sara a look. She sighed and rubbed her eyes, too tired for an argument. "Play it again," Robert added before she could say anything.
We will destroy your four pillars. We will brand your preferiti…
"Wait, stop it. Stop it… Brand them. That's another Illuminati legend. This one says that there is a set of five brands… each one an ambigram. The first four are the fundamental elements of science: Earth, air, fire, and water. The fifth, it's a mystery… Maybe it's this," Robert suggested and handed Sara the piece of paper, on which the ambigram was printed on. "He said they'd be killed publicly," Richter interposed. "Yes. Revenge for la purga…"
Richter shot him a confused look. "La purga?"
"Oh jeez. You guys don't even read your own history, do you? 1688, the Church kidnapped four Illuminati scientists and branded each one of them on the chest with the symbol of the cross to purge them of their sins, and they executed them. Threw their bodies into the street as a warning to others to stop questioning Church rulings on scientific matters. They radicalized them. The purge created a darker, more violent Illuminati one bent on retribution. Look how they intended to finally get it: using antimatter, technology, to destroy the Church. Science obliterates religion. Is there any more?"
… and sacrifice them on the altars of science, then bring your church down upon you. Vatican City will be consumed by light.
While listening this time, Langdon notices a darkened video monitor, inlaid at an angle on Richter's desk. It faces away from the outer office, and instead of an on/off switch, there is an oddly shaped keyhole.
A shining star at the end of the Path of Illumination.
Robert looks up sharply. "Path of Illumination… I need access to the Vatican archives."
Richter shakes his head at his suggestion and looks at Olivetti harshly. "Professor, I don't think this is the appropriate moment…," Ernesto suggested.
"Your petition has been denied seven times," Richter reminded.
"No, no. This has nothing to do with my work. The Path of Illumination is a hidden trail that leads to the Church of the Illumination the place where the Illuminati would meet in secret. If I can find the segno, the sign that marks the beginning of that path, the four churches along it may be where he intends to murder your cardinals. One every hour at 8, 9, 10, and 11. Then the device explodes at midnight. If we can figure out the first church and get there before he does, maybe we can stop it. But I can't find the start of the path until I get into the archives."
"Even if I wanted to help you, access to the archives is only by written decree by the curator and the Board of Vatican Librarians," Richter explained.
"Or… by papal mandate."
"Yes, but as you no doubt have heard, the Holy Father is dead."
"What about il camerlengo?"
"The camerlengo is just a priest here, the former pope's chamberlain."
"Doesn't the power of the Holy Seat rest in him during tempe sede vancante?"
Richter was taken aback for a second and shot him an askant look. Sara had to supress a laugh. Never had she seen the head of the Swiss Guard rendered speechless before and it was a sight she rather enjoyed. This guy is good. "Fellas…" Robert interposed. "You called me."
Richter nodded slightly and looked a bit crestfallen.
