Summary: Chapter 89

Fache is in Teabing’s plane with the box, which he found in the safe. He sees that the cryptex is empty. He takes a call from Vernet, who is desperate to get the box back and save his bank’s reputation.

Summary: Chapter 90

At the chateau, Collet discovers that the computer in the barn was conducting surveillance on five separate people, including Jacques Saunière. The other four people are important figures, including the head of French Intelligence. The agents on the scene also find blueprints that show that the bug was hidden in the replica of a knight on Saunière’s desk.

Summary: Chapter 91

Silas and Rémy have put Teabing in the back of the limo. The Teacher calls Silas and says that Rémy will bring him the keystone so he can be “dealt with.” The Teacher tells Rémy where to drop Silas and where to meet the Teacher. Rémy thinks Silas will be gotten rid of. He laughs to himself at the way the Teacher has used the Bishop and Silas as pawns.

Summary: Chapter 92

At Kings College, where the religious research database is housed, Sophie and Langdon speak with Pamela Gettum, who agrees to help them use the database. They show her only the first two lines of the poem and ask her to search for a knight who was buried by a pope in London. The search turns up too much data, and they have to show her the second two lines of the poem. She realizes that their search is related to the Grail and laughs at the number of Grail hunters who have come into her library. She starts a new search and tells them it will take fifteen minutes.

Summary: Chapter 93

Silas goes to the Opus Dei house in London, where he is welcomed by the numerary at the door and given a room. The numerary gets a call from the London police, who ask if an albino monk has been let into the house. When the numerary says yes, the police tell him not to alert the monk. They say they will be over immediately.

Summary: Chapter 94

Rémy meets the Teacher in St. James Park and accepts some cognac from his flask. The drink contains peanut dust, which Rémy is allergic to. Rémy slowly dies. The Teacher reflects on how unfair it was that knew immediately which tomb Saunière meant, since he had been bugging Saunière’s office and knew of his respect for this particular knight. Meanwhile, Bishop Aringarosa leaves the airport and is met by a British police deputy, who says that Fache told him to take Aringarosa to Scotland Yard. In the car, Aringarosa hears Opus Dei’s address being broadcast over the scanner. He demands that the officer take him there instead.

Summary: Chapter 95

At King’s College, Sophie and Langdon look at several results for their latest search before hitting on a book about Sir Isaac Newton. Langdon realizes that Newton is probably the knight they’re looking for. He was buried in London, was a knight, and was buried by Alexander Pope, the writer.

Analysis: Chapters 89–95

At this point, it isn’t clear how much Fache understands or knows about the mythology behind the treasure hunt that the three are now engaged in. He may or may not understand the meaning of the password (Sofia) on the first cryptex.

The Teacher’s phone calls to Rémy and Silas are confusing. It’s impossible to know whether Rémy or Silas is correct about the Teacher’s true intentions. The tension surrounding the identity of the Teacher is reaching the breaking point. Whoever he is, the Teacher is clearly a man capable of understanding his minions’ deeper motivations—for Silas, faith and for Rémy, money—and manipulating them.

Pamela Gettum’s reference to the many people who come into her library looking for the Grail is a reminder that the secrets of the Grail are open secrets—secrets many people know but few are willing to acknowledge openly. In the case of the Grail, the problem is that many people suspect the substance of the secret but haven’t been able to act upon their suspicions because they do not have proof.

Silas states a desire to purge the sins of the last twenty-four hours in his cell. His desire sounds almost ridiculous because he has committed so many sins, murder being the most serious. But within the spiritual calculus that Silas has learned, any act can be excused if it is meant to lead to a desirable end, and any act can be purged from one’s spiritual record with appropriate prayer and punishment. Silas’s beliefs suggest the kind of religious justification for violence that characterizes fundamentalist and terrorist movements.

In the process of finding information about Sir Isaac Newton, Langdon delivers a short lecture on tarot cards and their function as storytellers about the Magdalene legend. Langdon’s lectures, which concern information, not judgment, seem to have no place in a world divided into those who have faith in the current Church and those who have faith in a different order. Langdon does not seem to realize that he can’t avoid taking sides on this issue.

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