CHAPTER 65

Sophie and Teabing sit at gunpoint while Langdon lies stunned on the floor. Their attacker, an albino monk, demands the keystone and says his Teacher is wise. Teabing tries to question him and even offers money, but the monk insists the Grail is priceless and orders Teabing to stand and hand over the cryptex.

Teabing notices that the monk is limping and bleeding from the thigh, then uses his own disability as cover. As Teabing pretends to lose balance while surrendering the keystone, Teabing swings a crutch into the monk’s injured leg. The blow crushes the monk’s cilice into his flesh, forcing him down; the gun fires harmlessly into the floor, and Sophie kicks him under the jaw before he can recover.

At the bottom of the driveway, Collet hears the gunshot and realizes he can no longer justify waiting for Fache or maintaining a stealth approach. Fearing professional ruin if he fails to act after a weapon is discharged inside a private home, Collet orders the gate pulled down so the police can move in.

Langdon gradually regains consciousness on the divan with Sophie tending his head. Teabing’s manservant arrives in confusion, and Teabing orders him not to call the police but to help restrain the attacker. Langdon sees the monk bound and gagged with duct tape, bleeding from the thigh and chin.

Teabing explains that he recognized the monk’s cilice beneath the robe and deliberately struck it. Langdon identifies the practice with Opus Dei, though he reflects that not all members practice corporal mortification. Teabing wonders why Opus Dei would be seeking the Holy Grail. Sophie then shows Langdon the Rose inlay from the box, and Langdon says it covered an engraving that may explain how to open the keystone. Before they can examine it further, police sirens and blue lights surge up the driveway, forcing the group into an urgent decision.