CHAPTER 31

In her residence at Saint-Sulpice, Sister Sandrine urgently calls the secret emergency numbers hidden beneath her bed. The first three calls confirm disaster: one reaches a hysterical widow, another a detective at a murder scene, and another a priest consoling a bereaved family. Each result tells Sandrine that three of the protected men are dead.

Sandrine calls the fourth and final number, which she was instructed to use only if the first three contacts could not be reached. She gets an anonymous answering machine and leaves a terrified warning that the floor panel has been broken and the other three are dead.

The broken floor panel confirms the secret alarm system she had been told about by a faceless messenger. If one member of the upper echelon were compromised, that person could tell a false location that would trigger the alarm and warn the others. Sandrine now realizes the breach is worse than the system anticipated.

Silas appears in the doorway and orders Sandrine to hang up. Holding a heavy iron candle stand, Silas tells Sandrine that all four men are dead and that they deceived Silas. Silas demands the location of the keystone, but Sandrine truthfully insists she does not know it because that secret is guarded by others.

When Silas challenges Sandrine for serving the hidden group rather than the Church, Sandrine defies Silas by saying she cannot see Jesus’s true message in Opus Dei. Enraged, Silas attacks Sandrine with the candle stand. As Sandrine dies, Sandrine’s final thought is that all four are dead and the precious truth may be lost forever.