Page 167 of The Secret of Secrets

Clutching the SIG Sauer pistol he had taken from Field Officer Housemore, Finch leaped off the Threshold transport and hurried across the familiar platform and through the unmanned security center. After finding his officer’s corpse in the lobby, he’d rushed down to Gessner’s workroom, where, with brutal clarity, his worst fears had been confirmed.

Brigita was murdered.

Finch had immediately called for agency backup, but with his local field officer now dead, he knew the arrival of on-site support was going to take time. This situation was becoming increasingly alarming, and delicate, and prudence dictated he handle the crisis without delay. Finch was an expert marksman and was eminently capable of neutralizing anyone he might encounter.

As he entered the OPS hallway, he was relieved to see all the lights in this section were off. Then again, he had been instrumental in designing this subterranean structure, and he knew the lights timed out every ten minutes; technically, the darkness was no guarantee that he was alone down here.

Finch still could not fathom that Housemore and Gessner had been murdered. Even more disturbing was the unlikely identity of their killer. While pulling Housemore from behind the couch, Finch had been startled to find a metal epilepsy rod on the carpet. Someone had clearly dropped it, and there were only two epilepsy patients who had ever entered Crucifix Bastion—Sasha Vesna and Dmitri Sysevich—both taken from the same institution.

And Dmitri, I have been assured, is no longer with us.

The notion that Sasha had killed anyone seemed almost unthinkable. Gessner had always described her as timid and kind. Then again, Sasha had reportedly attacked an ÚZSI officer today, which implied something was terribly off-balance with the woman. Her brain had been under a great deal of pressure, and it was not out of the question that she’d suffered some kind of mental breakdown.

Sasha murdered Gessner? It seemed unthinkable…and yet, if Sasha discovered what Gessner had done to her, that would be strong motivation. Even so, Finch doubted Sasha was capable of all this…at least, not alone.

He took a hard right into BIO, relieved to find the surgical area dark. When the lights came on, everything appeared to be in order. Finch eyed the robotic surgeon hanging from the ceiling. So far, Gessner had used this technology to perform only two human surgeries—one successful, one catastrophic.

Finch was in no mood for surprises and intended to search the facility completely, starting with a systematic sweep of the medical section to confirm that nobody had slid under a bed or into a closet, hiding long enough for the motion lights to time out.

If someone had penetrated Threshold, Finch would not let them slip past him.

Anyone who had seen this place…would not be permitted to exit alive.

Deep in the SMES vault, The Golěm gazed up into the open ventilation shaft. High above him, he could barely make out the dappled daylight that filtered down through the perforations in the R2-D2 statue’s domed head several stories above in Folimanka Park.

For obvious reasons, quench vents like these were left open at all times to allow for emergency ventilation. They were sealed only to pressure-test the vault for leaks, and only under very specific conditions…specifically, the total absence of liquid helium.

Today, there will be a slight change in protocol.

Mustering his strength, The Golěm climbed up on top of the humming ring of metal. The top was rounded and perilous, but his boots had good traction. He could feel the faint vibration of the machine as he reached for the ceiling and steadied himself by grabbing a crank handle protruding from the ceiling. This handle worked a series of pullies that moved a thick plate of metal affixed to the ceiling.

The test cover.

A square panel of steel was supported in a track whose rails ran on either side of the vent’s opening. This panel, like a giant manhole cover, could be cranked into place and tightened with butterfly screws, sealing the opening and rendering the room airtight.

Not surprisingly, the steel covering was emblazoned with bright red stenciled letters.

Nebezpečí! Nezavírat!

Danger! Do Not Close!

Ignoring the posted warning, The Golěm began turning the handle.

Within a minute, this vault would be airtight.

Chapter 106

An even bigger reason? Langdon could not imagine what additional motivation the CIA could have to destroy Katherine’s manuscript. Her book reveals a new top secret CIA technology. Game, set, match…

Katherine had stopped short and turned to him, her face a mask of concern in the harsh halogen lights. “I think Professor Cosgrove must have known something was wrong,” she said. “After his argument with the Stanford guy, he gave me a final assignment before I left neuroscience for noetics. It was an unusual request.”

“What did he want you to do?”

“He insisted that part of the education of any future scientist was to undergo the process of applying for a patent. He said he loved my creative approach to the artificial neurons, and even though the patent would never be granted, the process of applying would—”

“Wait…” Langdon said. “You’re saying you filed a patent for these artificial neurons?”

“It was an academic exercise,” she said, nodding. “Cosgrove warned me that my application would be denied for ‘lack of utility’ because it was not buildable. Nonetheless, he urged me to think it through, get as technical as I could, imagine tools, technologies, and materials that did not yet exist, and to go through the process of filing the application. And so I did! I filled out a fourteen-page application as best I could and mailed it in. My patent was denied, as expected, and I never gave it another thought…”