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.
