27

As the Haz-Mat elevator rises, Vittoria rejects Kohler’s attempts to stop her from contacting outside help. Kohler argues that exposing the stolen antimatter as CERN’s creation could ruin the institution, destroy scientific progress, and damage Leonardo Vetra’s reputation. Vittoria counters that CERN cannot evade responsibility for the lives endangered by the antimatter.

Kohler presses harder, blaming Vittoria and her father for creating the specimen and warning that scandal could destroy the work of thousands of scientists. His appeal to Leonardo’s legacy wounds Vittoria because she privately blames herself for convincing her father to make the antimatter in the first place.

When the elevator opens, Vittoria again tries her phone but still gets no dial tone. As she moves to leave, Kohler admits he has not been fully honest and says he was trying to protect her. Vittoria stops and states her goals plainly: she wants to find the antimatter and learn who killed her father.

Kohler reveals that CERN has a strong idea of the killer’s identity because the murderer left a calling card. Vittoria assumes Robert Langdon must be connected to U.S. Intelligence, but Kohler corrects her: Langdon is a Harvard art history professor and specialist in cult symbology.

Kohler then explains that the group claiming responsibility is the Illuminati, which he describes as a satanic cult. Vittoria recognizes the name only through popular computer games and is shaken by the absurdity of relying on an art professor to find a supposedly mythical brotherhood while an antimatter bomb is missing. Kohler finally hands Vittoria a fax showing that Leonardo’s chest was branded, confirming the killer’s symbolic claim.