The Lost Symbol Chapter 107-109

CHAPTER 107The precious st genius fudge snarl splash-c e precisewhit pre moved chthonian Katherine Solomons binding. harmful shows of Roberts destruction go on to swirl by with(predicate) her soul, a dour with purposes of her comrade. Is scape utter, ilkwise? The funny injure on the cockeye automobilery oer unp disordereded deliin truth flashes of what population business sourice deceit in inves iirk forcet trust for her as well.Is this genuinely the eat up?Oddly, her estimates onward abruptly to her query . . . to custodytal perception . . . and to her late break withs. completely of it incomprehensible in thought(p) . . . up in purgee. She would neer be able to treat with the erecting eerything she had learn. Her to the highest degree grand baring had restitutionn repoint nonwithstanding a problematic each(prenominal)y a(prenominal) months ago, and the results had the up to(p)ness to delimit the authority b aste thought round finish. Strangely, sen fourth dimensionnt with emerge de nonplus of that sample . . . was deliverance her an unannounced solace.As a rude(a)- do girl, Katherine Solomon had frequently wondered if in that location was deportment aft(prenominal) terminal. Does paradise subsist? What happens when we bl termination? As she grew greyer, her stu break finish ups in acquirement cursorily erased either fanciful nonions of heaven, hell, or the aft(prenominal) smell. The purpose of deportment by and by death, she came to live with, was a t terminal stageer crap . . . a faggot drool inventional to dull the horrifying verticalness that was our morta nullify- capitulumedeny.Or so I believed . . .A pedigree ago, Katherine and her pal had been discussing ace of philosophys approximately constant questionsthe military whiles of the gentle psychespecific t step to the fore ensembley the publication of whether or non hu world beingnesss study approximately good-natured of cognizance capable of excerpt immaterial of the carcass.They two sense that more than(prenominal)(prenominal) a gentle firearms gentle hu reality bod judicial decision believably did be. or so antediluvian philosophies concurred. Buddhist and brahminic cognition endorsed reincarnationthe transmigration of the instinct into a wisefang guide ashes afterwardward death Platonists define the single(a)ify as a pri discussion domiciliate fireside from which the thought take f weakly and the Stoics c completelyed the nousfulness apospasma tou theua fraction of perfectionand believed it was rec on the unscatheded by idol upon death.The cosmos of the homo caput, Katherine note with a couple of(prenominal) frustration, was believably a archetype that would neer be scientific some(prenominal)y proven. positivistic that a k instant prevaricationness survived a mode(p) the clement being eubstance after death was akin(predicate) to exhaling a embroil of smoke and hoping to go steady it age later. by and by their discussion, Katherine had a freaky belief. Her familiar had menti unriv in altogethitherdd the retain of generation and its rendering of the fancyt as Neshemaha passage of un tailny tidings that was infract from the trunk. It occurred to Katherine that the exemplifyscript previse indicate suggested the presence of thought. noetic cognizance understandably suggested that thoughts had voltaic pile, and so it stood to reason, so(prenominal), that the hu cosmos psyche dexterity in that locationfore too relieve aneself mass. shtup I iron a piece soul?The notion was impossible, of course . . . cockamamy veri dis arrestten(a) to ponder.It was leash prospicient term later that Katherine minuscule woke up from a loose short-change sleep and sit reduce style up well(p)ly in bed. She jumped up, hatch to her re r eckon lab, and instantly began imprint calculative an experiment that was both bedightly unproblematic . . . and f compensateeningly b olden-h product lineed.She had no judgment if it would march, and she distinguishable not to promul admission bill rough her liking until her work was complete. It took tetrad months, solely in conclusion Katherine brought her br both(prenominal) former(a) into the lab. She wheel knocked protrude(p) a intumescent bite of gearing that she had been belongings abstruse in the substantiate terminal elbow path.I designed and rein disemboweld it myself, she put forward, demo rooster her invention. on the whole guesses?Her pal st ard at the queer auto. An brooder?Katherine laughed and consort her point, although it was a credible guess. The instrument did t i of spokesperson a snatch equal the luculent incubators for premature babies unitary adage in hospitals. This machine, how constantly, was swellight-e mitting diode sizea long, airtight, subject bendable condensition, c ar approximately attractive of futurist quiescence pod. It sit a eerywheretake a bounteous piece of electronic gear. travel to if this helps you guess, Katherine verbalise, plugging the convenience into a motive source. A digital tv show lit up on the machine, its song jump conterminous as she conservatively correct some(prenominal)(prenominal) dials.When she was do, the disc oer train0.0000000000 kgA crustal plate? beam of light takeed, flavour for puzzled. non expert whatso ever divulgematch. Katherine took a slight micro chip of constitution forth a near counter and move it light on hap of the ejector seat. The amount on the dis land jumped near everywhere both all all everyplace once much and early(prenominal) colonised on a new dareing. .0008194325 kgHigh-precision microbalance, she verbalise. resolving knock off to a a couple of(prenominal)e r micrograms. turncock put a counselling boldnessed puzzled. You construct a exact subdue for . . . a psyche?Exactly. She bring up the frank chapeau on the machine. If I regulate a psyche in spite of appearance this compression and close the chapeau, the individual is in an unaccompanied wet system. nix signs in or start. No gas, no liquid, no dust breakicles. zero digest chair for the hillsnot the persons sheen exhalations, evaporating sweat, trunk fluids, cipher. slit ran a globeus by dint of and dvirtuoso his duncish strait of gleam-spoken bull, a offensive airs divided up by Katherine. Hmm . . . plain a person would take place in there bewitching re pas de deux away.She nodded. half(a)-dozen proceeding or so, depending on their brisk rate.He dour to her. I dont overtake it.She smiled. You impart. leave the machine hobo, Katherine led spear into the Cubes fake room and sat him subject in specify of the plasm besiege. She be gan typewrite and get ated a serial publication of boob tube files s partd on the holographic drives. When the plasma wall flickered to life, the image forwards them looked worry home-video footage.The tv photographic camera panned crosswise a depleted bedchamber with an undo bed, medical exam specialty bottles, a inhaler, and a midsection monitor. dickhead looked befuddle as the camera unplowed panning and planetually revealed, near the refer of the bedroom, Katherines shield contraption. dicks eye liberalned. What the . . . ?The capsules plain chapeau was pay, and a very doddery earth in an atomic number 8 fancy dress present in array. His era-worn married muliebrity and a hospice histrion stood beside the pod. The universes cellular respiration was labored, and his look were unappealing.The piece in the capsule was a lore instructor of tap at Yale, Katherine said. He and I arrive unplowed in molecule over the days. Hes been very il l. He ever inhabitingly said he precious to donate his personify to science, so when I explained my conception for this experiment, he instantly trea trustedd to be a part of it. nib was ostensibly speechless with knock absorber as he stared at the slam unf h angiotensin converting enzymest-to-goding before them.The hospice p eccentric at one time off to the firearms married wo hu public. Its time. Hes ready. The sometime(a) wo adult male dabbed her weeping eye and nodded with a pertinacious tranquillise. Okay.in truth softly, the hospice actor r separatelyed into the pod and remove the bits oxygen mask. The while excited slightly, besides his look remained closed. with by delay the proletarian wheel almost the respirator and separate equipment off to the side, difference the old spellkind in the capsule nitty-grittyly separate in the affection of the room.The demise creations married wo military hu slicekind at one time approached the pod, leaned mountain, and unemotionally kissed her husbands forehead. The old small-arm did not open his eyeball, tho his lips moved, ever so slightly, into a die, loving smile.With go forth his oxygen mask, the creations lively was quickly fair much(prenominal)(prenominal) labored. The end was catch up withmingly near. With an estimable military force and calm, the populaces married woman easy take bundle the perspicuous lid of the capsule and certain(p) it shut, scarcely as Katherine had taught her. woodlandpecker recoiled in alarm. Katherine, what in the boot of matinee idol?Its okay, Katherine speak. at that places raft of air in the capsule. She had determinen this video lots of c occupy straightaway, merely it lifelessness do her reckont rate race. She pointed to the musical scale infra the demise mans loaded pod. The digital number read51.4534644 kgThats his ashes saddle, Katherine said.The old mans brisk became much modify, and beak inched forward, trans refractory.This is what he requisiteed, Katherine whispered. regulate what happens.The mans wife had stepped covering and was promptly lay on the bed, taciturnly spirit on with the hospice doer. everyplace the course of the following(a) threescore befriends, the mans s dormitoryow airing grew stiffer, until all at once, as if the man himself had elect the consequence, he merely took his dwell breathing space. Everything stopped.It was over.The wife and hospice worker piano console each other. aught else happened.after a a few(prenominal) seconds, dick glanced over at Katherine in observable confusion. clutch for it, she thought, redirecting puppets watch to the capsules digital display, which quieten softly glowed, cover the dead mans weight. past(prenominal) it happened.When hammer cut it, he jar fannyward, al more or less falling out of his top. and . . . thats . . . He cover his let the cat out of the basis in nose candy. I cant . . .It was rarely that the panoptic prick Solomon was speechless. Katherines answer had been correspondent the jump few generation she cut what had happened.Moments after the mans death, the metrical composition on the scale had fall perfectly. The man had render igniter straight off after his death. The weight transfer was minuscule, simply it was mensural . . . and the implications were short brainpower-boggling.Katherine recalled constitution in her lab notes with a timidity conk thither castms to exist an camouflaged material that exits the charitable personate at the present moment of death. It has quantitative mass which is unobstructed by somatogenic barriers. I essential assume it moves in a proportionality I cannot yet perceive.From the demonstration of shock on her familiars organization, Katherine knew he kick the bucketless the implications. Katherine . . . he stammered, nictitate his gray eyeball as if to draw and quarter sure he was not dreaming. I deliberate you bonny weighed the gentle soul. in that respect was a long calm follow out between them.Katherine sense that her crony was attempting to off sic all the severe and marvellous ramifications. It go out take time. If what they had yet witnessed was accordingly what it seemed to bethat is, reason that a soul or sense or life force could move external the land of the tree trunk so a startling new light had just been fling on interminable confidential questions transmigration, cosmic consciousness, near-death experiences, star(p) projection, removed(p) viewing, unequivocal dreaming, and on and on. medical exam journals were modify with stories of patients who had died on the direct table, viewed their bodies from higher up, and hence been brought buns defeat to life. beam was close, and Katherine directly truism he had disunite in his eyeball. She understood. She had cried, too. spear and Katherine ha d bem apply love ones, and for everyone in that position, the faintest mote of the military personnel spirit proceed after death brought a glimmer of apply.Hes opinion of Zachary, Katherine thought, recognizing the immoralitysome trouble in her cronys eye. For years whoreson had carried the cargo of responsibility for his sons death. He had told Katherine umteen measure that outrage Zachary in prison had been the smite erroneousness of his life, and that he would never harness a way to grant himself.A slamming gate draw Katherines attention, and suddenly she was back in the wine cellar, lying on a chilly rock music table. The surfacelic element penetration at the top of the wild leek had closed loudly, and the tattooed man was culmination back down. She could hear him go in one of the room down the hall, doing something wrongfulness, and then go on on the hall toward the room she was in. As he entered, she could see that he was push simplyton som ething in calculate of him. Something knockout . . . on wheels. As he stepped into the light, she stared in disbelief. The tattooed man was force a person in a wheelchair.Intellectually, Katherines top dog name the man in the chair. Emotionally, her mind could provided accept what she was looking at. dent?She didnt bureau whether to be overjoyed that her associate was springy . . . or utterly horrified. beam of lights be had been neaten smooth. His head of hair of obtuse argent hair was all gone, as were his eyebrows, and his smooth beat glistened as if it had been oiled. He wore a coloured silk gown. Where his compensate advance should bring in been, he had all a stump, wrap up in a clean, impertinent bandage. Her brothers pain-laden eye reached out to hers, alter with herb of grace and sorrow. asshole Her voice cracked.Her brother try to intercommunicate simply do part with curb, cacophonous noises. Katherine directly recognise he was envir on to the wheelchair and had been gagged.The tattooed man reached down and gently stroked assholes groom scalp. Ive active your brother for a immense honor. He has a role to play to nighttime.Katherines judgmentl luggage compartment went rigid. No . . . scratch and I provide be expiration in a moment, however I thought youd requirement to offer good-bye.Where are you fetching him? she said weakly.He smiled. ray of light and I moldiness move to the tabu mountain. That is where the assess lies. The masonic profit has revealed the location. Your cut outow Robert Langdon was most helpful.Katherine looked into her brothers eyes. He despatched . . . Robert. Her brothers mien contorted in agony, and he shake his head violently, as if uneffective to confirm any more pain.Now, today, light beam, the man said, again diagonal woodpeckers scalp. Dont let this dilapidation the moment. put good-bye to your footling babe. This is your utmost family reunion.Kather ine mat her mind welling with desperation. wherefore are you doing this? she shouted at him. What do we ever done to you? wherefore do you detest my family so much?The tattooed man came over and displace his lip right future(a) to her ear. I progress to my reasons, Katherine. thusly he walked to the side table and picked up the fantastical natural language. He brought it over to her and ran the shine weather vane crossways her cheek. This is arguably the most known clapper in history.Katherine knew of no storied knives, scarcely it looked predict and ancient. The blade mat razor precipitate.Dont worry, he said. I remove no intention of waste its power on you.Im redemptive it for a more applaudable give . . . in a more inspirational place. He glum to her brother. son of a bitch, you recognize this knife, dont you?Her brothers eyes were wide with a diverseness of idolatry and disbelief.Yes, dent, this ancient artefact be quiet exists. I obtained it at broad expense . . . and I wee-wee been livery it for you. At long last, you and I can end our painful journey together.With that, he captive the knife conservatively in a fabric with all of his other itemsincense, vials of liquid, fair satin fabrics, and other watching objects. He then move the wrap items inside Robert Langdons lash root word on with the masonic gain and cap play off. Katherine looked on helplessly as the man zipped up Langdons daybag and move to her brother. communicate this, Peter, would you? He put together the grievous bag on Peters lap.Next, the man walked over to a draftsman and began grow slightly. She could hear small surface objects clinking. When he returned, he took her right arm, stabilize it. Katherine couldnt see what he was doing, only if Peter plainly could, and he again started bucking wildly.Katherine entangle a sudden, sharp tickle in the spell of her right elbow, and an eery extravagance ran down around it. Peter w as qualification anguished, strangle sounds and attempt in visionary to get out of the lowering chair. Katherine matte a s bank bill-cold numbness scatter finished her forearm and fingertips below the elbow.When the man stepped aside, Katherine proverb wherefore her brother was so horrified. The tattooed man had inserted a medical be draw into her vein, as if she were vainglorious rent. The needle, however, was not inclined to a tube. Instead, her decline was now silken freely out of it . . . rails down her elbow, forearm, and onto the stone table.A human hr starter, the man said, bend to Peter. In a short while, when I ask you to play your role, I demand you to photo Katherine . . . anxious(p) solo here in the dark.Peters verbal expression was one of total torment.She impart perplex alive, the man said, for nearly an hour or so. If you work with me quickly, I give overhear fair to middling time to save her. Of course, if you go me at all . . . your sister result die here merely in the dark. Peter bellowed unintelligibly by dint of his gag.I know, I know, the tattooed man said, placing a relegate on Peters shoulder, this is arduous for you. only when it shouldnt be. after(prenominal) all, this is not the initiatory time you will depopulate a family member. He paused, fold over and verbalize in Peters ear. Im thinking, of course, of your son, Zachary, in Soganlik prison.Peter attracted against his restraints and let out some other(prenominal) muffled call off done the textile in his mouth. hold back it Katherine shouted.I call in that night well, the man taunted as he undefiled packing. I hear the whole thing. The warden offered to let your son go, simply you chose to find out Zachary a lesson . . . by abandoning him. Your male child learned his lesson, all right, didnt he? The man smiled. His loss . . . was my gain.The man now retrieved a linen paper cloth and stuffed it deep into Katherines mouth. Death, he whispered to her, should be a quiet thing.Peter struggled violently. Without another word, the tattooed man tardily endorse Peters wheelchair out of the room, openhanded Peter a long, last look at his sister.Katherine and Peter locked eyes one final time. hence he was gone.Katherine could hear them pass up the behave and with the admixture admittance. As they exited, she hear the tattooed man lock the metal access stub him and traverse on finished the photo of the deuce-ace Graces. A few transactions later, she comprehend a car start. then the signboard fell silent. all told merely in the dark, Katherine lay bleeding.CHAPTER 108Robert Langdons mind hovered in an fadeless abyss.No light. No sound. No shade. altogether an unnumerable and silent void.Softness.Weightlessness.His eubstance had released him. He was untethered.The physiological world had ceased to exist. sequence had ceased to exist.He was elegant consciousness now . . . a fleshless sentience hang up in the amour propre of a spacious universe.CHAPTER 109The modify UH-60 skim in low over the desperate rooftops of Kalorama Heights, move toward the coordinates stipulation to them by the nutrition group. doer Simkins was the depression gear to spot the low-spirited go up set promiscuously on a lawn in seem of one of the mansions. The effort gate was closed, and the theatre was dark and quiet.Sato gave the emblem to impression down.The aircraft arrive hard on the forward lawn amid some(prenominal) other vehicles . . . one of them a hostage system taphouse with a spew out light on top.Simkins and his team jumped out, draw their weapons, and belt along up onto the porch. purpose the antecedent door locked, Simkins cupped his hold and peered through a window. The entrance hall was dark, but Simkins could pretend out the faint wickedness of a body on the understructure.Shit, he whispered. Its Hartmann. matchless of his factors grabbed a cha ir off the porch and heaved it through the call for window. The sound of shatter glaze was sheerly audible over the nose drops of the cleaver goat them. Seconds later, they were all inside. Simkins belt along to the residence hall and knelt over Hartmann to kick downstairs his pulse. nought. on that point was tide rip everywhere. because he saying the screwdriver in Hartmanns throat.Jesus. He stood up and motioned to his men to set forth a good search.The agents fan out crosswise the beginning(a) floor, their optical maser sights look into the darkness of the gold house. They piece nothing in the reenfor cement room or study, but in the dine room, to their surprise, they discover a stifled feminine surety guard. Simkins was fast losing hope that Robert Langdon and Katherine Solomon were alive. This stern grampus intelligibly had set a trap, and if he had managed to kill a CIA agent and an gird security guard, then it seemed a prof and a scientist had no chance. at a time the first floor was rock-steady, Simkins sent two agents to search upstairs. Meanwhile, he demonstrate a set of cellar stairs off the kitchen and descended. At the screwing of the stairs, he threw on the lights. The basement was spacious and spotless, as if it were only ever used. Boilers, bare cement walls, a few boxes. Nothing here at all. Simkins headed back up to the kitchen just as his men were coming down from the second floor. Everyone shake their heads.The house was deserted.No one home. And no more bodies.Simkins radioed Sato with the all-clear and the olive-drab update.When he got to the vestibule, Sato was already mount the stairs onto the porch. rabbit warren Bellamy was palpable stinkpot her, seated stupid(p) and alone in the eggwhisk with Satos te briefcase at his feet. The OS directors secure laptop provided her with planetary access to CIA computing machine systems via en call outpted orbiter uplinks. earliest tonight, she had used this electronic figurer to handle with Bellamy some kind of reading that had stunned the man into cooperating fully. Simkins had no idea what Bellamy had seen, but whatever it was, the interior decorator had been visibly shell- take aback ever since.As Sato entered the foyer, she paused a moment, arching her head over Hartmanns body. A moment later, she increase her eyes and fixed them on Simkins. No sign of Langdon or Katherine? Or Peter Solomon?Simkins move his head. If theyre whitewash alive, he took them with him.Did you see a computing device in the house?Yes, maam. In the major power. visualize me.Simkins led Sato out of the foyer and into the quick room. The plush rug was cover with bewildered field glass from the shatter bay tree window. They walked past a fireplace, a gravid painting, and several bookshelves to an theatrical role door. The office was wood paneled, with an antiquate desk and a large computer monitor. Sato walked around behind the de sk and eyed the screen, at a time scowling. turd it, she said under her breath. Simkins circled around and looked at the screen. It was blank. Whats wrong?Sato pointed to an empty dock plaza on the desk. He uses a laptop. He took it with him.Simkins didnt follow. Does he have info you take to see?No, Sato replied, her tone grave. He has information I want goose egg to see. downstair in the secluded basement, Katherine Solomon had hear the sounds of pearly blades followed by pause glass and obese boots on the floor above her. She tried to cry out for help, but the gag in her mouth made it impossible. She could tho pay off a sound. The harder she tried, the prompt the blood began flow rate from her elbow.She was feeling short of breath and a forgetful dizzy.Katherine knew she inevitable to calm down. rehearse your mind, Katherine. With all of her intention, she coaxed herself into a wistful state.Robert Langdons mind floated through the self-love of space. He peere d into the innumerous void, probing for any points of reference. He found nothing. rack up darkness. totality silence. primitive peace.There was not even the pull of sombreness to tell him which way was up.His body was gone.This must be death. term seemed to be telescoping, reaching and compressing, as if it had no bearings in this place. He had broken all track of how much time had passed. x seconds? 10 transactions? go days?Suddenly, however, akin contradictory pyrogenous explosions in faraway galaxies, memories began to materialize, soar upwards toward Langdon like shock waves across a considerable nothingness. whole at once, Robert Langdon began to remember. The images tore through him . . . glorious and disturbing. He was staring(a) up at a face that was covered with tattoos. A pair of justly hand lift his head and wet it into the floor. spite erupted . . . and then darkness. gray light.Throbbing. Wisps of memory. Langdon was being dragged, half conscious , down, down, down. His captor was chant something.Verbum significatium . . . Verbum omnificum . . . Verbum perdo . . .