Robert Langdon, #2
The Da Vinci Code
by Dan Brown
Contents
CHAPTER 44
Overview
Sophie correctly interprets Saunière’s scrambled Louvre numbers as a disguised Fibonacci account number, allowing her and Langdon to access the mysterious bank deposit. The retrieval produces a rosewood box marked with a Priory symbol of the Holy Grail, raising the possibility that they have found something of immense religious significance.
That expectation is immediately complicated when the box makes a liquid sound and reveals an object that is clearly not the Cup of Christ, shifting the mystery from recovery to interpretation.
Summary
Sophie studies the ten digits from Saunière’s Louvre message and realizes the scrambled Fibonacci sequence was not only a way to summon her but also likely the account number for the bank box. At the electronic podium, Sophie inserts the Priory key, and Langdon types the digits as written: 1332211185.
Before pressing enter, Sophie stops. Because Saunière loved layered meanings, Sophie decides the scrambled number is too coincidentally rearrangeable into the Fibonacci sequence to be the true account number. Sophie deletes the entry and replaces it with 1123581321, the Fibonacci sequence compressed into ten digits.
When Sophie presses enter, the bank system accepts the code. Deep below, an automated claw locates the proper crate in the vault and sends it upward on a conveyor. Sophie and Langdon wait anxiously as the large black plastic crate arrives in the room.
Inside the industrial crate, Sophie and Langdon find only a small, heavy rosewood box with ornate hinges and an inlaid five-petal rose. Langdon recognizes the rose as a Priory symbol for the Holy Grail, and both Sophie and Langdon briefly wonder whether the box could contain the Cup of Christ.
As Sophie moves the box, it makes a gurgling sound, revealing that liquid is inside. Sophie opens it, and Langdon immediately sees that the object within is unlike anything he has seen and is definitely not the Cup of Christ.
Who Appears
- Sophie NeveuCryptologist who recognizes the true Fibonacci account number and opens her grandfather’s deposit.
- Robert LangdonHelps Sophie access the account and identifies the five-petal rose as a Priory Grail symbol.
- Jacques SaunièreDeceased grandfather whose layered numerical clue leads Sophie and Langdon to the hidden box.