CHAPTER 85

Inside Temple Church, Sophie studies the poem’s line about seeking “the orb that ought be on his tomb” and is unsettled by memories of the Hieros Gamos ritual she once witnessed. Trying to focus, Sophie moves ahead of Langdon and Teabing, examining the carved knights for signs of a missing orb.

Sophie notices variations among the effigies—crossed or straight legs, different clothing, different hand positions—but nothing suggests an absent orb. In the second group of knights, Sophie finds one major anomaly: the tenth monument is not an exposed knight at all but a sealed stone casket with no visible figure.

Langdon and Teabing join Sophie, and Teabing admits the casket is a longstanding mystery he had forgotten. Their search is interrupted by the altar boy, who grows suspicious because the group claimed to be there to scatter ashes but is plainly investigating the monuments. Sophie and Langdon continue the deception as the “Wren” family, and Sophie produces the wrapped cryptex as if it were ashes.

The altar boy undermines the group’s assumption by explaining that the monuments are not tombs but effigies, with no bodies beneath them, a fact supposedly revealed during a 1950 renovation. This revelation throws Teabing into confusion, while Langdon reasons that Saunière, as Grand Master of the Priory, would not have mistaken effigies for actual tombs if the clue truly referred to Temple Church.

After a door slams in the annex, the altar boy goes to investigate. He finds a thin man in a tuxedo near the entrance, then is seized from behind by a pale, alcohol-smelling attacker. The tuxedoed man threatens the boy with a revolver and orders him to run from the church without contacting the police.