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Langdon climbs higher on the scaffolding to gain a clearer view across Rome. From the upper tier, the sunset reveals the city’s rooftops and ancient shape, but Langdon’s goal remains practical: he needs to find the next church on the Illuminati path, southwest of the Chigi Chapel.

Langdon searches for a steeple, bell tower, or church landmark in the direction indicated by Bernini’s angel. Modern buildings, towers, and the altered skyline obstruct the logic of the seventeenth-century trail, and Langdon sees no obvious church. St. Peter’s Basilica appears on the horizon, prompting Langdon to worry about the Vatican, the conclave, and the still-missing antimatter.

As Langdon reconsiders the poem line by line, he confirms the structure of the path: Santi’s tomb led to the first altar, the mystic elements are Earth, Air, Fire, and Water, and Bernini’s sculptures form the Path of Illumination. The angel’s southwest gesture remains the only clue toward the next altar, but the next destination is still unresolved.

Meanwhile, Glick and Chinita Macri observe activity at the church entrance from the BBC van. A military-looking man positions a car, checks for witnesses, and calls in soldiers, who form a wall while carrying a heavy object down the stairs. Macri keeps filming and captures a brief opening when the object is lifted into the trunk, revealing that the soldiers are moving a dead body.

Far away at CERN, Maximilian Kohler searches Leonardo Vetra’s study and bedroom with deliberate urgency. After failing to find what he wants among Vetra’s files, Kohler breaks open a locked bedside drawer and finds exactly the item he has been seeking.