Sara stood immediately as Robert and Vittoria came rushing back. She couldn't quite interpret the look on Roberts face but figured that they had found what they were looking for. They quickly got into a black Lancia Delta and as soon as the doors closed, the tires squealed as Olivetti hit the gas. "Twenty minutes till eight. Where are we headed?" The Italian wanted to know.
"Hold on, hold on. I'll tell you in a minute," Robert answered and turned around to Vittoria, who sat in the back seat accompanied by Sara. "Let me see that page again."
Vittoria carefully handed him a small paper and Sara instantly felt alarmed. "Where did you get that paper?" she wanted to know.
"We borrowed it," Vittoria flatly stated.
"From Santi's earthly tomb with demon's hole…" Robert mused.
"Are you insane?" Ernesto said enraged, his attention on Robert and the street at the same time. The professor – however – ignored him and read on. "Cross Rome the mystic elements unfold."
Just as Ernesto wanted to add something, a voice sounded from the radio. "Mi ascolto," [I'm listening] he answered and listened what the person on the other line had to say.
"The path of light is laid, the sacred test. Let angels guide thee on thy lofty quest."
"You removed a document from the Vatican Archives?!" Ernesto said in disbelieve after he had finished the conversation on the radio. "She did," Robert stated matter-of-factly. Vittoria only sighed as all eyes turned on her. "From Santi's earthly tomb. The first maker is at Santi's tomb," she said taking the conversation back to the matter at hand. "But who's Santi?"
"Raphael," Sara stated before Robert could and shot her quite an impressed look. "Yes."
"Ill Rafaello, the sculptor?" Vittoria wanted to know.
"Yeah, Santi was his last name."
"So the path starts at Raphael's tomb", Vittoria mused.
"Raphael's buried at the Pantheon," Ernesto interposed.
"Isn't the Pantheon the church?"
"Oldest Catholic church in Rome." Just as Sara had finished the sentence, the car fishtailed into a 180, and they took off in the opposite direction, headed for the Pantheon. The police car pulled to a stop a few minutes later. Richter and his team were already waiting. "I just pulled a dozen of our best men for this," he said as they joined him. "You better be right."
"This is one of the busiest spots. He'd never get away with it," Chartrand interposed.
"The poem implies…" Robert tried to explain but Richter cut him off mid-sentence. "The poem? Unbelievable. I'm basing this operation on an American's interpretation of a 400-year-old-poem?"
Sara stepped up beside Robert and tried hard to hold back the urge to hit Richter square across the face. He – of all people – should be happy for any help they could get in finding the preferiti. "The information we have clearly refers to Raphael's tomb," she said and shot Richter a glare. "And Raphael's tomb is inside that building."
"Because the Vatican destroyed all of the pagan statues in the 1800s, if this is the marker, whatever clues were here to lead us are gone now. The path is dead. So this is it, your only chance," Robert added. Richter looked at him for a long moment, before he turns abruptly to a uniformed officer. "Separate approaches. No closer than two blocks and no uniform. Three minutes. And I need a set of eyes inside."
"Excuse me? Two weightlifters in matching black suits and earpieces? They're hardly disguised," Vittoria interposed as she saw two men walk towards the little group. "Well, it's what I have."
"Fine. I'll go in."
Richter turned. "I'm not sending a wom…" He stopped mid-sentence as he noticed her arched eyebrow. "… a civilian into this situation. You have no communication. You can't carry a walkie-talkie. It's too conspicuous."
"Tourists have cell phones don't they?"
Robert stepped up to Vittoria and Richter. "No, no, you can't send her in there alone," he said.
Richter seemed to think about it for a second as Robert glanced at Vittoria, his protective instincts aroused. "All right, I won't."
After Vittoria and Robert were instructed by Richter, they headed for the Pantheon – hand in hand. Sara, Ernesto, and the others stayed behind. The young woman didn't really feel all too great about this and started to play with her hands, something she always did when she was nervous. "Andrà tutto bene," [It's going to be ok.} Ernesto whispered in hopes to calm her. "Spero tu abbia ragione." [I hope you are right.]
It felt like an eternity before Robert and Vittoria returned but what they then had to say did not exactly send a wave of relief through the group. "Wrong? What do you mean wrong?" Richter repeated.
"It's the Chigi Chapel in the church of the Santa Maria del Popolo. It was once called the Capela della Terra, the chapel of the earth. Earth, the first element. That's it," Robert explained.
"You were certain about the Pantheon."
"We have four minutes!"
Richter – however – turned to his men. "Wir sind am falschen Platz! Zruck in den Vatikan!" [We are at the wrong place. Back to the Vatican.] Richter ordered in German and Chartrand immediately sprang into action. "Back to the Vatican? You can't!" Vittoria said frustrated at the man's stubbornness.
"Commandante, if you care at all about your church, you'll listen," Robert tried.
"My church? My church comforts the sick and dying. My church feeds the hungry. What does your church do, Mr. Langdon?" Robert paused, thinking carefully of an answer. "That's right, you don't have one." Richter then turned and walked away, glaring at Olivetti. "Take him if you want. I'm done with him." The young woman couldn't quite believe what was happening. She had never really taken a liking to the commander of the Swiss Guard but this was harsh even for his standards. "Well, let's go then," she said clapping her hands. In no way would she give up that easily. The Swiss Guard was responsible for the security of the Conclave to which the kidnapped cardinals belonged as well, why Richter suddenly decided to ignore that was inexplicable.
Two minutes later, Olivetti's car screeched to a halt in the Piazza del Popolo at sunset. Langdon, Vittoria, Ernesto, and Sara climbed out and started to scan the square. "All right, this makes sense. Right in front of the church. An obelisk, a lofty pyramid. Egyptian symbol adopted by the Illuminati. If he's going to kill him, he'll do it here."
Suddenly the clock struck. "Eight o'clock", Ernesto announced. "Di qua!" [This way.] Langdon took off running towards the 11th century church at the southwest corner of the plaza, covered in scaffolding. He hopped over the sawhorse blocking the entrance and tried the door. Locked. Ernesto and Sara raced alongside the church. They reached a door with a large, heavy ring, and Ernesto pulled it toward him but the door wouldn't budge. He pushed and threw his shoulder into it. Locked. They just wanted to run further as Vittoria and Robert joined up. "No, no, it's an annulus!" Robert said and gave the large ring an almighty twist and the heavy door clunk open. The interior of the church was an obstacle course of torn-up flooring, brick pallets, and mounds of dirt. Silt drifted in the dying sunlight that shone through the broken windows and walls. Nothing moved. Dead silence. The four of them walk slowly to the middle of the floor, at one end of the chapel. There were eight recesses, four on either side of a central aisle, all covered with large sheets of plastic, to protect them during construction. "The chapel is in one of those apses," Robert whispered.
The plastic rustled ominously. Anything could be behind any one of them. Ernesto and Sara pulled their guns from their waistbands and held them in front of them, which made Robert uncomfortable. They moved forward. A few heartbeats later, they found the right chapel. "Pyramids in a Catholic church. This is it. This is the Chigi Chapel," Robert announced slightly relieved.
"Non mi piace questo posto…" [I don't like this place.] Sara uttered to herself.
Robert let his gaze wander through the room before they halted on the floor. "The demon's hole. But it's askew," he then said and Ernesto came to his aid. Together they lifted the cover to reveal a ladder leading to a crypt underneath the chapel. "Hand me your flashlight," Robert said to Sara and she gave it to him. They noticed a shape, around thirty feet down and hard to make out. "Can you tell what it is?" Ernesto wanted to know.
"Not from up here…"
"State qui," [You stay here.] Ernesto instructed, as the men made their way down. As they reached the bottom something crunched under their feet. They were standing on a pile of human skulls.
"You okay?" Sara asked from upstairs.
"More or less," Robert answered and they take more steps closer to the figure. Vittoria gasped as the flashlight revealed a body down in the crypt. It was the first preferiti. He had been buried in the earthen floor of the crypt up to his waist his jaw broken, his mouth crammed full of dirt. But that wasn't the worst of it. A blackened word, branded into the red flesh of the Cardinal's chest – an ambigram saying earth. You see many things when you work for the police force but this this was beyond anything Sara had ever imagined. Back upstairs, Ernesto informed Richter and the Swiss Guard was at the crime scene in less than ten minutes. "Get the body out of there and search the rest of the building," Richter instructed. "Chartrand!"
The young guard came running immediately. "Sir?"
"Outside a perimeter. Secure but invisible. No lights, no guns, nobody knows. Understand?"
"Yes sir!" Chartrand nodded and sprang into action. Sara watched as Robert gestured with his hands, clearly explaining something to Vittoria before he took off outside. Everyone else followed. "Southwest," Robert said as they joined. "It was pointing southwest."
Sara guessed that he meant the angels Vittoria and him were standing in front of before. "Earth, air, fire, water… We're looking for a Bernini sculpture having something to do with air. The second church is somewhere southwest of here."
"You're sure this time?" Richter asked mockingly but Robert chose to ignore him. "I need a map showing all the churches of Rome," he assigned before he climbed up a construction site to have a better look around. Sara took this moment to turn to Richter. "What the heck is your problem?"
Ernesto's hand instantly found its way onto her shoulder. "Sara."
"No," she said as she brushed him off. "If you're only half as clever as you claim to be, by all means go and show us the next marker. If not, just be quiet. He is doing everything he can to help an organisation that means everything to millions of people and he does so because he wants to. He's helping your church and if it means as much to you as you claim then do something!"
Richter flashed an enraged look at her. "Are you done?"
Sara inhaled sharply and straightened herself. "Yes."
"Good because apparently there are more important things at hand," he stated and made his way back to the car. Sara rolled her eyes. "Bastardo," she muttered under her breath.
"Era davvero necessario?" [Was that really necessary?] Ernesto asked.
"Eh dai. Sai che doveva essere detto." [Oh c'mon. You know it had to be said.]
Two minutes before 9 p.m. they arrived at St. Peter's Square. "Check the crowd. It's almost 9. He's gotta be here already," Robert ordered and while Richter, Ernesto and Sara searched through the crowd for a possible assassin, Robert and Vittoria kept watch for a statue about air. Sharpshooters scurried among the statuary, setting themselves up. The square was full of people and it was hard to push through the crowd. Every person could be the suspect. How were they supposed to find the right person in the right time? Sara had lost sight of Richter and Ernesto as she pushed further into the crowd. Suddenly she crushed into someone. "Mi scusi!" she exclaimed in shock as she locked eyes with a middle-aged man. There was something in his gaze that sent shivers down her spine, but before she could dwell on, a piercing scream sounded through the square. Shouts for help followed and before she knew it, the man she bumped into was gone and she made her way to the source of the scream. Robert and Vittoria were the first ones to reach the injured priest. "He's still alive," Vittoria said as she knelt beside him and started with the mouth-to-mouth respiration. As she did so, blood splashed all over the place, part of it onto Robert. "His chest. They punctured his lungs."
As the ambulance finally arrived, it was already too late. Another preferiti dead. For what? To prove a point? Robert pulled a shocked Vittoria to the side as she clung to him for support.