Chapter Eight
When they persecute you in this city, flee to another.
Matt 10:23
Sennett could see Langdon had a gun and she gasped.
"Get in the car, Sennett," Silas commanded harshly, his eyes turned to ice once again.
Silas turned and as he did, his hood fell back, exposing his white head. Langdon and Silas locked eyes for a split second before Silas turned again and got into the car.
Langdon hesitated for a reason that he could never explain to himself later. That second was the crucial moment where he could have stopped them by shooting and wounding Silas or blowing out one of their car tyres.
Even if he had run to his own car, he could have tailed them and run them to ground but something held him back.
When he tried to explain it to Vittoria later, he struggled for words.
"It was like the fire had gone out of me all of a sudden," he said with confusion, "I couldn't remember why it was so important anymore. It didn't seem worth fighting for – certainly not worth killing for. Suddenly, it just didn't seem to matter."
Vittoria stared at him incredulously, like he was suddenly a stranger.
That night, Sennett would dream of a silver skinned demon bound tightly to a chair with a gag over its mouth struggling fruitlessly to get free, enraged at its bonds. Sennett knew it belonged to Langdon.
Once again, Silas drove like a maniac to get away from Roslin, convinced that Langdon would follow them. Sennett kept glancing at him out of the corner of her eye. She didn't recognise this Silas. He was cold and hard as steel, his movements precise and robotic. The fanatical gleam she remembered from the very early days after he had been shot lit up his colourless eyes strangely. Frankly, he was frightening. The vulnerability and humility that had so attracted Sennett to him was submerged in this new person she had never really seen before. She didn't like it.
He carried tension in very line of his slender frame and it poured out of him, filling the space around him.
"He's not following us," Silas said finally in his deep voice, almost to himself, "I don't understand why. I was sure he would."
"Perhaps he's lost interest," Sennett said calmly.
Silas stared at her as though she had said something preposterous.
"He kidnapped you and was threatening your life! I overhead him saying that he hadn't decided what to do with you. Do you know what that means? It means he was thinking about killing you!" Silas said harshly.
"Yes, but I think he changed his mind," Sennett said mildly.
Silas kept glancing at her out of incredulous pale eyes, looking half mad himself.
"I'm not taking you back to Berne. We have to hide out somewhere else for awhile," he finally muttered.
"Let's go to my flat in London. Langdon doesn't have my address there, so we'll be safe for a day or so while we make other arrangements," Sennett suggested.
Silas thought that was the first sensible thing she'd said.
They drove in silence for awhile.
"Where is your ring?" Silas suddenly said, his voice so urgent that it made Sennett jump.
"Oh, it's here," she said and fished it out of her trouser pocket and put it on, "I took it off in Langdon's car when it was still dark before he saw it. I didn't want him to know I was married. If he wanted to kill me, he might make investigations about my husband and I thought it might lead him one day back to you."
Silas was silent. Had Sennett really been worrying about his life at a time like that? She should have been worrying only about her own life. No-one had ever worried about his life before now. Not only was she the first person in his life to truly care what happened to him but she cared at a time when she was in true mortal danger. Her first thoughts were for his safety, not her own. His throat felt very tight, all of a sudden and his eyes burned.
"He saw me. Langdon recognised me," Silas said after a long pause in a low voice.
Sennett gasped.
"I suppose that was going to unavoidable seeing as he caught us escaping," Sennett said, "Damn it!" she added angrily.
Silas glanced at her incredulously again. He'd rarely, if ever, seen Sennett angry. It made him feel shocked and a bit off balance.
"We'll have to go back to Switzerland. It's the only really safe place for you. You must be in a place with no extradition," Sennett said urgently.
"We can't go back to the farm now. Langdon knows where to find you there," Silas argued, his voice rough with worry.
"We'll go to my flat today and I'll see if I can borrow Diggory's computer for a few hours to make some other arrangements for when we get back into Switzerland," Sennett said, thinking out loud and biting her lip.
* * *
Silas drove insanely the entire way to London, except when the traffic slowed him down. They parked the Land Rover in public parking and went straight to Sennett's flat on the same street. Silas let them in with the full set of keys he had brought with them.
Sennett looked around the flat. It looked the same, except that the personal items had gone. The books and pictures and everything else that gave a home character was gone. Just the bare furniture remained. Still, it contained so many memories of herself and Silas when they first met that it made Sennett smile just to think of it.
"Do you remember the first time you tried to watch TV?" Sennett asked suddenly and laughed, "I'll never forget coming home from work and seeing the look on your face. You literally could not believe your eyes."
"I still don't like it," Silas muttered, hanging his white head and staring at the floor, his eyes burning with remembered horror.
Suddenly, the cold-eyed robot in the car was gone and her Silas was standing before her again.
Sennett walked over to him and put her hands on either side of his pale face.
"Thank you for coming and rescuing me from Langdon," she said, suddenly serious, "I have no idea how you knew where I was or how you got there so fast but I was so glad to see you," she added, her dark eyes suddenly swimming in tears.
Silas opened his mouth to say something in reply but nothing came out. He couldn't remember if he'd ever seen Sennett cry. He just stared at her, feeling shocked. He wanted to tell her not to cry but he couldn't get the words out. Her tears agitated him. He felt like he was falling into the darkness of her eyes.
He was saved the trouble when Sennett put her arms around his neck and lifted her face to his for his kiss. It a split second, all the anxiety he had felt for the past 24 hours came rushing back with the force of a speeding train and took the form of a sudden, blistering passion. He held her so tightly that Sennett was afraid she had been rescued from Langdon only to be crushed to death by her own husband. It reminded her of Silas' first attempts at hugs which had been bone-crushing experiences. She would have told Silas not to hold her so tightly, if he had stopped kissing her for half a second.
But she hadn't been married to him for a few months not to have learned a few tricks. He had sensitive spots. Gently she curled her fingers along the nape of his neck, caressing the moonlight pale, fine hair. He lifted his mouth from hers just long enough to gasp slightly and she said,
"I need to breathe, Silas!"
Immediately he let go of her, his face flushing red with shame.
"I didn't say stop, just let me breathe," Sennett said with a laugh, pressing her form against him and placing a kiss in another sensitive spot, the hollow between his throat and his jaw.
Silas simply scooped her up in his arms and carried her through to her old bedroom.
* * *
[Sunday afternoon]
Sophie Neveu answered the door at her grandmother's home expecting to see Langdon there. She hadn't seen him for a few days which was strange. He had also been evasive when she'd rung him. She had put it down to him being absorbed in his research but something about his sudden elusiveness niggled at the back of her mind.
She was surprised therefore, to see Jean and Louise Lambert standing on the doorstep. She invited them in, curious as to why the Priory members had visited. She usually only saw them at meetings at Rosslyn Chapel.
She ushered them through to the kitchen and put on the kettle to make tea.
"How can I help you?" Sophie asked, her large brown eyes resting on their suddenly nervous faces with a kind expression.
"We wanted to show you this," Jean said abruptly and thrust a copy of the DNA results across the table.
