Robert Langdon, #2
The Da Vinci Code
by Dan Brown
Contents
CHAPTER 2
Overview
Silas reports to the mysterious Teacher that he has killed four members of a secret brotherhood, including its Grand Master, and extracted the same crucial secret from each of them. The victims confirmed that a legendary keystone exists and is hidden in Saint-Sulpice in Paris, prompting the Teacher to send Silas to recover it at once. The chapter shifts the story from Saunière's strange death to a wider conspiracy involving religious fanaticism, secret knowledge, and a powerful hidden object.
Summary
One mile from the Ritz, Silas, an albino man wearing a painful spiked cilice around his thigh, returns to a luxurious residence on Rue La Bruyère. He moves quietly through the empty lobby and upstairs to his sparse unlocked room, satisfied that his suffering and his recent actions have served God.
Silas retrieves a hidden cell phone and calls a man he calls the Teacher. Silas reports that all four targets are dead: the three sénéchaux and the Grand Master. Before dying, all four gave the same information, which convinces Silas that their confession was not a lie or coincidence.
Silas tells the Teacher that the brotherhood's legendary keystone, a stone map said to reveal the resting place of the brotherhood's greatest secret, truly exists. More importantly, Silas says the keystone is in Paris, hidden inside the ancient church of Saint-Sulpice. The Teacher is thrilled and orders Silas to retrieve it immediately that night.
Silas worries that Saint-Sulpice will be difficult to enter after dark, but the Teacher gives him instructions with the confidence of someone who can arrange access. After the call, Silas prepares for the mission by deciding he must first perform penance for the killings, even though he believes they were holy acts against God's enemies.
Silas strips, kneels, tightens the cilice deeper into his flesh, and repeats the belief that pain purifies him. He then takes up a blood-caked knotted rope called the Discipline and lashes his back again and again until he bleeds, seeking absolution before entering the church.
Who Appears
- SilasAlbino religious zealot who killed four brotherhood leaders and prepares to retrieve the keystone.
- The TeacherMysterious superior directing Silas and seeking the brotherhood's legendary keystone.
- Father Josemaría EscriváReligious figure whose teachings Silas invokes during corporal mortification.
- Jacques SaunièreDead Grand Master whose secret confession helps point Silas toward Saint-Sulpice.