Chapters 62–67
Summary: Chapter 62
Teabing is about to throw Sophie and Langdon out, but
when Sophie mentions that they have found the keystone, he lets
them stay. Outside, Silas hears the word keystone and
prepares to enter. He plans to make them reveal the keystone's location.
Langdon tells Teabing that all of the members of the Priory
are dead. They guess that the Church itself figured out who the
brothers were and killed them. They also surmise that the Church
struck because it thought the Priory was planning to release the
documents. Teabing says the Church may have thought the Priory would time
the release of the documents to coincide with the end of the age of
Pisces and the beginning of the age of Aquarius, when man will think
for himself. Langdon tells Teabing where the keystone is. Silas enters
the house with his gun drawn.
Summary: Chapter 63
Collet is outside the chateau. Fache tells him not to
arrest the suspect without his presence. Collet thinks Fache is
having doubts about Langdon's guilt, or that he wants to take credit
for the arrest himself. Collet and his policemen find the armored
truck in front of the house and Silas's rented Audi parked nearby.
Summary: Chapter 64
Teabing, Langdon, and Sophie look at the cryptex. Langdon
tries to determine whether part of the box might contain a clue
about the password. He finds a small hole in the interior. When
he pushes the end of a paper clip through it, the rose falls out
of the wood. Behind the rose there are some lines of text. As he
is looking at the text, Silas hits him on the head.
Summary: Chapter 65
Silas has Teabing and Sophie at gunpoint. He orders Teabing
to hand him the cryptex. Teabing agrees and then slashes Silas with one
of his crutches, right on the punishment belt strapped around Silas's
thigh. Silas goes down, and they bind and gag him.
Summary: Chapter 66
Langdon, Teabing, and Sophie fool Collet and the police
into going upstairs. Collet goes down to the barn and finds that
most of the sports cars are there, with the exception of one.
Summary: Chapter 67
In a Range Rover driven by Rémy, the group drives across
the fields and through the forest behind the chateau. Teabing has
Silas at gunpoint in the back seat. Teabing makes a call and orders
his plane prepared. He plans to take them to England, away from
the French authorities. Silas refuses to give the group information
about why Opus Dei wants to see the keystone. Langdon has an idea
and asks to use Sophie's phone.
Analysis
Brown hints that Collet, the good-hearted police inspector,
may yet have a key role to play in the story. Collet has a good
feeling about Sophie and Langdon, and believes that Sophie would
not be involved with Langdon if he were guilty. In some ways, Collet
is the classic bumbling police inspector, but he also turns out
to be a stand-in for the reader. He recognizes, as the reader does,
the fundamental goodness of Sophie and Langdon.
Ironically, Silas is brought down by the punishment belt,
the very object he thinks makes him more righteous and worthy than
Sophie, Langdon, Teabing, and anybody else who is not in Opus Dei.
But the pain that was supposed to elevate him has instead caused
him to lose control of the cryptex.
This part of the novel is like the calm in the eye of
the storm. Both Sophie and Langdon think relief is in sight. They
believe they might be able to get out of France with the cryptex
and figure out how to find the Grail without being pursued. They
even permit themselves a moment of tenderness toward each other.
Despite the possibility of escape, a sense of foreboding persists.
Silas prays for a miracle to help him evade his captors, and the
narrator says a miracle is indeed coming.
