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Robert Langdon dreams he is climbing the Pyramid of Giza toward a laughing young woman who teases him affectionately. As Langdon struggles to reach her, the woman disappears and is replaced by an old man with rotting teeth, whose anguished scream wakes Langdon.

Langdon answers a 5:18 A.M. phone call from Maximilian Kohler, who identifies himself as a discrete particle physicist and insists he must see Langdon immediately. Kohler knows Langdon is a Harvard professor of religious iconology and symbology, but refuses to explain the matter by phone. Langdon assumes Kohler is another religious eccentric seeking validation and ends the call angrily.

Unable to sleep, Langdon moves through his artifact-filled Victorian home, drinks hot chocolate, and reflects indirectly on his age, academic reputation, athletic past, and role as both strict professor and approachable campus figure. The quiet is interrupted again when Langdon's fax machine rings.

The fax contains an image of a naked corpse with its head twisted backward and a burn branded into the chest. Langdon recognizes the word as Illuminati, and when Langdon rotates the page, the lettering reads the same upside down. The impossible ambigram shocks Langdon, and when Langdon notices the sender is still waiting on the fax line, Langdon nervously picks up the receiver.