Page 177 of The Secret of Secrets

Katherine felt dizzy as it began to dawn on her precisely what this room was designed to do. Incredibly, she and Robert had been discussing the topic all afternoon…altered states of consciousness, out-of-body experiences, psychedelic drug trips, epileptic postictal bliss. A collage of concepts now flooded her mind: brain filters, universal connection, humankind’s untapped ability to glimpse a vastly wider spectrum of reality.

These gleaming sarcophagi, she now realized, were the final piece of a research project that, less than an hour ago, she would have declared utterly impossible.

Is this really happening?

Beside her, Langdon raised his eyes from the pod and gazed out over the entire dome. “But I don’t understand…what happens in this room?”

The answer to his question, Katherine knew, was as simple as it was mind-bending. This place was engineered to unveil life’s most enigmatic secret…the mind’s ultimate altered state…the single most elusive of human experiences.

As the weight of the moment settled over her, Katherine reached out and quietly took his hand.

“Robert,” she whispered. “They’ve built a death lab.”

Chapter 111

A death lab.

As Langdon began to grasp the implications of Katherine’s startling revelation, he felt a rush of new questions. Why would the CIA be studying death? What are they hoping to find?

As intellectually exciting as Langdon found the prospect of understanding death, he feared this room served a far darker purpose than simply studying human consciousness or death. The horror of subjecting someone to the “death state” for any reason other than life support seemed unconscionable. Even if the patient is drugged or cannot recall the experience…

“I need to know everything about this research,” Katherine said, moving deeper into the array of pods.

“We need to keep moving,” Langdon urged, firing a nervous glance back toward the entryway.

He quickly joined her and motioned to the far side of the dome, where a sign read Systems / Utilities. He doubted a utilities room would have an exit, but at least it might offer somewhere better to hide, and Langdon saw no better option. No way out.

They hurried through the maze of pods, and halfway across the dome, Langdon could see that the utility area was accessed not through a door…but rather through a large rectangular opening in the floor.

Farther underground?

Whether the opening had stairs, a ladder, or some kind of lift, the idea of descending any deeper into the earth was one Langdon did not relish.

As it turned out, descending was not an option anyway.

An ear-piercing gunshot rang out behind them. The roar of the weapon reverberated in the dome overhead. Langdon and Katherine both wheeled around, frozen in their tracks, as the silver-haired man in the dark suit approached with his weapon leveled at them both.

“Dr. Solomon and Professor Langdon, I presume?” he said calmly. His voice was familiar—the same Southern drawl Langdon had heard on the speakerphone with the ambassador.

Finch.

“You’re playing a dangerous game,” he said, approaching. “And I’m afraid it’s not going to end well for you.”

Finch knew there was nothing as arresting as the sound of gunfire in an enclosed space. In movies, it made people flee, but in real life it had a paralyzing effect. He took pleasure seeing Langdon and Solomon rooted in place, arms raised, showing their palms—the universal sign of surrender. His targets were now in reaction mode, and Finch held all the cards.

“Set down your bag, Dr. Solomon,” he commanded in case she had a weapon in it.

Solomon obeyed, laying her shoulder bag on the floor. As she did, Finch saw the bag contained a thick black binder…no doubt one of the classified documents they’d collected along the way.

You’re making this easy for me.

By all accounts, these two intruders had just broken into a secret government project and stolen top secret material. If Finch shot them dead, there would be no investigation, especially since they had made it this far into the restricted facility. Ironically, death was precisely what this room was designed for.

Nonetheless, Finch would need to interrogate them first…and find out who else was involved in this, and how. Ambassador Nagel was clearly guilty, having not only crossed Finch but also threatened the agency. Extremely bad idea. Director Judd had no doubt detained the ambassador by now and would deal with her appropriately.

The wild card is Sasha Vesna, he thought, remembering the epilepsy wand he had found upstairs. He was still struggling to accept that Sasha had murdered two people. Questions for later, he told himself. Right now, manage the issue at hand…my two captives.

Strategically, it made no sense for Finch to march Langdon and Solomon out of the building at gunpoint. Despite being an extremely fit seventy, Finch’s diminutive stature would prove no match for the six-foot Langdon should anything go wrong, and the trek back to the bastion offered far too many chances for a surprise attack. Threshold’s secondary access point was closer, but it was currently being used for construction, and it was manned by U.S. soldiers. Finch exiting with two Americans at gunpoint would raise too many questions.