Page 129 of The Secret of Secrets

“And vice versa,” Langdon said. “You protect their secrets in return for immunity.”

“Mutually assured destruction,” Nagel said. “It’s a proven model. If it didn’t work, the world’s superpowers would have launched nuclear weapons at each other in the 1960s. Instead, self-preservation creates a standoff; we simply agree to disagree.”

Katherine still looked wary.

“Having leverage would instantly deescalate this crisis,” Nagel said. “The agency would have to back off, regroup, give everyone a chance to take a breath and negotiate; maybe they even tell you what they don’t like about your book, and you offer to remove it. This path at least gives you options.” Nagel caught Katherine’s eye and held it. “And I hope you know I’m taking an enormous personal risk here helping you, Ms. Solomon, which makes me a powerful ally for you.”

“Thank you,” Katherine said, sounding increasingly convinced.

Langdon liked the concept in principle, but execution was another matter. “Not to rain on the parade here,” he said, “but what happens if Mr. Finch demands to see the signed NDAs before we talk to him?”

“He probably will,” the ambassador replied. “I’ll simply tell him I knew the documents were crucial to his plan, so I had a Marine escort transport them under diplomatic seal to the embassy and lock them in my personal safe. He’ll have to trust me…or move this meeting to the embassy, which he definitely will not want to do.”

Langdon weighed the plan, still feeling wary. It was a stretch to assume that he and Katherine could learn enough in this conversation with Finch to have any leverage at all. We’ll be talking to a trained CIA veteran. And even if this man believed Langdon and Katherine had signed the restrictive NDAs, would he really reveal data that would compromise the agency or a top secret project?

“You look uncertain,” Katherine said.

He glanced up at her, still thinking. “Sorry, I don’t think it will work.”

“Those are the only three options,” Nagel said.

“Actually, there’s a fourth option,” Langdon declared, having made an unexpected connection. “It’s dangerous…but I believe it may be our best play.”

Chapter 82

On final descent into Václav Havel Airport, Mr. Finch’s Citation Latitude streaked toward the mountain of Bílá Hora. The jet’s interactive map noted that the hilltop was the battlefield on which the Catholics had quelled the 1620 Bohemian uprising.

Fitting, Mr. Finch thought, having just quelled his own little uprising with Ambassador Nagel. For obvious reasons, the ambassador had always despised Finch, but that was of no concern to him. She’s a smart woman…smart enough to know her place in this operation.

As the plane descended, Finch buckled his seat belt, feeling far more relaxed on approach than he had on departure. Only an hour earlier, this entire operation had been in chaos. Now, almost miraculously, all the disarray seemed to have vanished. A notorious book-pirating ring was shouldering the blame for the hack at PRH; Robert Langdon and Katherine Solomon had been located and secured in Prague; NDAs had been signed; all copies of the manuscript were now contained; and the two operatives in New York had received the order to pull out and maintain radio silence with no further contact.

Mission complete, he thought, staring out the private jet’s oval window. As he looked at the peaceful Czech landscape, Finch reminded himself that this entire complicated operation boiled down to one simple fact that had myriad ramifications and justified his actions.

The human mind is the world’s next battlefield.

The wars of tomorrow would be fought differently, and Finch had been tapped to lead the charge. The nerve center of that directive was Threshold…and Finch’s superiors had empowered him to do anything necessary to protect the technology being developed there.

Threshold would always be at risk. But one of its first true threats had materialized from an unlikely source, even before the facility was fully operational.

Katherine Solomon.

For years, the talented noetic scientist had been on the CIA’s watch list. Among other things, the nature of her work overlapped with projects being explored by the agency. Several years earlier, the team surveilling her had flagged a transcript of a podcast in which she was asked how she felt about noeticists who left academia to work with the U.S. military on brain-related research. Her reply had been unequivocable. “Working with the military is anathema to everything I believe. Under no circumstances would I consider it. Noetic research is for everyone…It should never be weaponized.”

A shame, Finch recalled thinking. DARPA could have used her on the N3 or subnets projects. With a single quote, Katherine Solomon had marked herself as someone the CIA could never approach, even discreetly, without risking blowback.

When the agency learned that Solomon was writing a book on human consciousness and had landed a major publishing deal, Finch directed his team to monitor the project closely and secure a draft of her unpublished manuscript as a precautionary measure.

Surprisingly, Finch’s operatives reported that Solomon’s manuscript was being composed in an unconventional way—entirely on the publisher’s private server, protected by a high level of security. This fact, combined with other concerning elements in Solomon’s past, raised alarm bells for Finch, and he devised a plan B.

He instructed Brigita Gessner to coax the noeticist to Prague with a prestigious lecture invitation. Gessner was to assess the lecture, then sit down face-to-face over a few drinks and see what she could get Solomon to divulge about her manuscript. She would also make a rare offer to the first-time author—a “celebrity blurb” for which she would need an advance reading copy of Solomon’s book. And finally, Gessner would offer Solomon a lab tour that required signing a short NDA…with a few discreet lines that would allow Finch to take full control of the situation if necessary.

Unfortunately…plan B exploded in my face.

After drinks at the Four Seasons, Gessner had sent a decidedly alarming message to Finch:

Solomon refused offer. No advance copy. Also refused NDA. Bigger problem—she lied to me. Will call in 30 minutes.

Solomon lied? Gessner’s text implied Solomon was considerably savvier than Finch had believed and might well be hiding something monumental about her manuscript.