4

Robert Langdon drives through Boston to Logan Airport after agreeing to answer CERN director Maximilian Kohler’s urgent summons. He arrives at a dark hangar marked with a large number 4, where a friendly, round-faced pilot in a blue flight suit greets him and leads him toward the runway.

Langdon remains tense because the faxed image of Leonardo Vetra’s branded corpse is still in his jacket pocket. The clandestine pickup feels alien to him, though the pilot reassures him about flying. When they round the hangar, Langdon is stunned by the aircraft waiting for him: a massive, windowless, wedge-shaped prototype unlike any conventional plane.

The pilot proudly explains that the craft is a high-speed civil transport powered by slush hydrogen, built with advanced materials, and capable of extraordinary thrust. The implication that Kohler sent such an unusual aircraft underscores the urgency and resources behind the summons, while Langdon’s skepticism grows as he realizes the “lab” must be far more advanced than he imagined.

Inside, Langdon finds the cabin unexpectedly familiar but is unsettled by the total absence of windows. The closed interior triggers his lifelong mild claustrophobia, rooted in a childhood incident, and the chapter briefly reveals how that fear has shaped his preferences for open spaces, including his home and his attraction to museums.

As the aircraft taxis, Langdon speaks to the pilot by phone and asks where they are going. Langdon initially assumes “Geneva” means Geneva, New York, but the pilot clarifies that the destination is Geneva, Switzerland. When Langdon objects that Switzerland cannot be an hour away, the pilot reveals the plane travels at Mach fifteen.