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Olivetti leads four unmarked Alpha Romeo cars through Rome toward the Pantheon with twelve plainclothed Swiss Guards, sharpshooters, and nonlethal weapons. In the lead car, Olivetti angrily challenges Langdon and Vittoria because Langdon’s interpretation of an old poem has pulled elite guards away from Vatican City and the antimatter search on the eve of conclave.

Langdon insists that Folio 5 points to Raphael’s tomb in the Pantheon, making it the first predicted kill site. Olivetti questions how an assassin could murder a cardinal in such a public, guarded place and escape, but Langdon argues that the Illuminati have already penetrated CERN and the Vatican, so the Pantheon may be their only chance to catch the killer.

Olivetti notes that if the Pantheon is part of a path, they should have several chances to follow later markers. Langdon explains that the hope is gone: the Vatican removed and destroyed the Pantheon’s pagan statues in the late nineteenth century, so the first marker has vanished and the Path of Illumination cannot be followed beyond this location.

Alarmed by the uncertainty, Olivetti orders the convoy to pull over and announces that he is recalling the mission. He argues that the Pantheon is a single, heavily guarded chamber with one narrow entrance, making Langdon’s theory seem operationally impossible.

Vittoria counters Olivetti by inventing plausible assassination scenarios, including dropping a victim through the roof opening or smuggling a drugged cardinal inside in a wheelchair. Her calm improvisation forces Olivetti to reconsider, and when a guard reminds him it is 7:40 and time is short, Olivetti orders the teams to approach and stage from separate nearby locations.

Olivetti reluctantly resumes the operation but warns Langdon that the gamble had better not fail. Langdon and Vittoria share a brief moment of mutual respect after Vittoria’s intervention, while the mission continues under intense doubt and pressure.