The Da Vinci Code

The key to getting Leigh back alive.
The key to finding the Holy Grail.
The key to learning who is behind this.
Unfortunately, their only chance to recover the keystone seemed to be here and now... at the tomb 
of Isaac Newton. Whoever held the cryptex would have to pay a visit to the tomb to decipher the 
final clue, and if they had not already come and gone, Sophie and Langdon intended to intercept 
them.
Striding toward the left wall to get out of the open, they moved into an obscure side aisle behind a 
row of pilasters. Langdon couldn't shake the image of Leigh Teabing being held captive, probably 
tied up in the back of his own limousine. Whoever had ordered the top Priory members killed 
would not hesitate to eliminate others who stood in the way. It seemed a cruel irony that 
Teabing—a modern British knight—was a hostage in the search for his own countryman, Sir Isaac 
Newton.
"Which way is it?" Sophie asked, looking around.
The tomb. Langdon had no idea. "We should find a docent and ask."
Langdon knew better than to wander aimlessly in here. Westminster Abbey was a tangled warren 
of mausoleums, perimeter chambers, and walk-in burial niches. Like the Louvre's Grand Gallery, it 
had a lone point of entry—the door through which they had just passed—easy to find your way in, 

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but impossible to find your way out. A literal tourist trap, one of Langdon's befuddled colleagues 
had called it. Keeping architectural tradition, the abbey was laid out in the shape of a giant crucifix. 
Unlike most churches, however, it had its entrance on the side, rather than the standard rear of the 
church via the narthex at the bottom of the nave. Moreover, the abbey had a series of sprawling 
cloisters attached. One false step through the wrong archway, and a visitor was lost in a labyrinth 
of outdoor passageways surrounded by high walls.
"Docents wear crimson robes," Langdon said, approaching the center of the church. Peering 
obliquely across the towering gilded altar to the far end of the south transept, Langdon saw several 
people crawling on their hands and knees. This prostrate pilgrimage was a common occurrence in 
Poets' Corner, although it was far less holy than it appeared. Tourists doing grave rubbings.
"I don't see any docents," Sophie said. "Maybe we can find the tomb on our own?"
Without a word, Langdon led her another few steps to the center of the abbey and pointed to the 
right.
Sophie drew a startled breath as she looked down the length of the abbey's nave, the full magnitude 
of the building now visible. "Aah," she said. "Let's find a docent."
At that moment, a hundred yards down the nave, out of sight behind the choir screen, the stately 
tomb of Sir Isaac Newton had a lone visitor. The Teacher had been scrutinizing the monument for 
ten minutes now.
Newton's tomb consisted of a massive black-marble sarcophagus on which reclined the sculpted 
form of Sir Isaac Newton, wearing classical costume, and leaning proudly against a stack of his 
own books—Divinity, Chronology, Opticks, and Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica. 
At Newton's feet stood two winged boys holding a scroll. Behind Newton's recumbent body rose 
an austere pyramid. Although the pyramid itself seemed an oddity, it was the giant shape mounted 
halfway up the pyramid that most intrigued the Teacher.
An orb.
The Teacher pondered Saunière's beguiling riddle. You seek the orb that ought be on his tomb. The 
massive orb protruding from the face of the pyramid was carved in basso-relievo and depicted all 
kinds of heavenly bodies—constellations, signs of the zodiac, comets, stars, and planets. Above it, 
the image of the Goddess of Astronomy beneath a field of stars.
Countless orbs.
The Teacher had been convinced that once he found the tomb, discerning the missing orb would be 

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easy. Now he was not so sure. He was gazing at a complicated map of the heavens. Was there a 
missing planet? Had some astronomical orb been omitted from a constellation? He had no idea. 
Even so, the Teacher could not help but suspect that the solution would be ingeniously clean and 
simple—"a knight a pope interred." What orb am I looking for? Certainly, an advanced knowledge 
of astrophysics was not a prerequisite for finding the Holy Grail, was it?
It speaks of Rosy flesh and seeded womb.
The Teacher's concentration was broken by several approaching tourists. He slipped the cryptex 
back in his pocket and watched warily as the visitors went to a nearby table, left a donation in the 
cup, and restocked on the complimentary grave-rubbing supplies set out by the abbey. Armed with 
fresh charcoal pencils and large sheets of heavy paper, they headed off toward the front of the 
abbey, probably to the popular Poets' Corner to pay their respects to Chaucer, Tennyson, and 
Dickens by rubbing furiously on their graves.
Alone again, he stepped closer to the tomb, scanning it from bottom to top. He began with the 
clawed feet beneath the sarcophagus, moved upward past Newton, past his books on science, past 
the two boys with their mathematical scroll, up the face of the pyramid to the giant orb with its 
constellations, and finally up to the niche's star-filled canopy.
What orb ought to be here... and yet is missing? He touched the cryptex in his pocket as if he could 
somehow divine the answer from Saunière's crafted marble. Only five letters separate me from the 
Grail.
Pacing now near the corner of the choir screen, he took a deep breath and glanced up the long nave 
toward the main altar in the distance. His gaze dropped from the gilded altar down to the bright 
crimson robe of an abbey docent who was being waved over by two very familiar individuals.
Langdon and Neveu.
Calmly, the Teacher moved two steps back behind the choir screen. That was fast. He had 
anticipated Langdon and Sophie would eventually decipher the poem's meaning and come to 
Newton's tomb, but this was sooner than he had imagined. Taking a deep breath, the Teacher 
considered his options. He had grown accustomed to dealing with surprises.
I am holding the cryptex.
Reaching down to his pocket, he touched the second object that gave him his confidence: the 
Medusa revolver. As expected, the abbey's metal detectors had blared as the Teacher passed 
through with the concealed gun. Also as expected, the guards had backed off at once when the 
Teacher glared indignantly and flashed his identification card. Official rank always commanded the 
proper respect.

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Although initially the Teacher had hoped to solve the cryptex alone and avoid any further 
complications, he now sensed that the arrival of Langdon and Neveu was actually a welcome 
development. Considering the lack of success he was having with the "orb" reference, he might be 
able to use their expertise. After all, if Langdon had deciphered the poem to find the tomb, there 
was a reasonable chance he also knew something about the orb. And if Langdon knew the 
password, then it was just a matter of applying the right pressure.
Not here, of course.
Somewhere private.
The Teacher recalled a small announcement sign he had seen on his way into the abbey. 
Immediately he knew the perfect place to lure them.
The only question now... what to use as bait.