Page 188 of The Secret of Secrets

Unsure what they would find on the other side, Langdon went first, lying on his side and shimmying into the gap. Inch by inch, he pulled himself headfirst through the opening. The breach was tighter than imagined, and halfway through he felt another wave of claustrophobia grip him. Desperately, he bucked his body until his hips finally cleared, enabling him to roll onto his hands and knees and scramble out into the open air.

The relief he felt to be free, however, was quickly dampened by the two black-clad soldiers standing over him with assault rifles aimed at his chest.

That went well.

Before Langdon could warn Katherine, she was already slithering through the opening, pulling her slender frame out onto the driveway with much less difficulty. As she looked up, the second soldier shifted his aim to her.

“Identification!” he shouted. “Now!”

Langdon squinted at his surroundings, seeing precisely what he feared—the heavily guarded construction entrance they had seen earlier, enclosed within the triangle of fencing.

“Identification!” the soldier repeated, stepping closer. “I’ll give you precisely—”

“STAND DOWN, SOLDIER!” an authoritative American voice shouted from the top of the driveway. An imposing U.S. Marine in full dress blues came striding down the incline. “THOSE TWO ARE WITH ME!”

The startled guards took a step back from Langdon and Katherine to engage with the Marine, who apparently outranked them. Their conversation was brief, and the two soldiers, clearly displeased at having been overruled, retreated back up the incline.

Langdon appreciated no longer having guns aimed at him, but he now feared he and Katherine might have fallen into an even more serious situation.

Who is this Marine? CIA? One of Finch’s cronies?

As the soldiers departed, the Marine’s stern demeanor softened, his affable expression now out of synch with his rigid attire. “Mr. Langdon…Ms. Solomon,” he said as he helped them to their feet. “I’m Scott Kerble. I work for Ambassador Nagel.”

Langdon hoped he was telling the truth. “We need to see her right away.”

The Marine was about to respond when one of the army guards came back down the incline, took a snapshot of all three of them together, and then marched back up, placing a call as he went.

Kerble cursed under his breath. “I’ve got to get you out of here right away.”

“To the embassy?” Langdon asked.

“We can talk about that in the car,” he said, starting up the incline. “Follow me.”

Talk about it? The comment made Langdon doubly wary. “Actually, before we go anywhere, we’d like to speak to Ambassador Nagel.”

“I agree,” Katherine said. “If we—”

“Both of you, listen,” the Marine snapped, spinning back to them and standing close, his affable demeanor vanishing. “The ambassador has been detained on orders from the CIA director himself. And I’m fairly certain you two are next on his list.”

Chapter 119

Behind the wheel of the embassy sedan, Scott Kerble sped northward along the river, racing back the way he had come. In the opposite direction, a line of rescue vehicles streaked toward Folimanka Park.

Nothing left to save, he thought.

In his backseat, Langdon and Solomon had fallen into a stunned silence after glimpsing the extent of the devastation they had survived. All that was left of the Folimanka bomb shelter was a gaping hollow, several stories deep, filled with a jumble of rocks, earth, shattered concrete, and twisted steel.

Kerble could not imagine what had caused the unusual explosion. As far as he could tell, there had been no fire or heat—only cold. He knew the Soviet-era bomb shelter had been under restoration by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for the past couple of years, and it certainly should not have contained any explosives.

“Where are you taking us?” Langdon asked from the backseat.

Good question, Kerble thought. He hadn’t quite worked out the big picture, but he knew Ambassador Nagel and CIA Director Judd were locked in a power struggle, and it somehow involved Langdon and Solomon.

After the blast, as Kerble hurried down the ridge, he had phoned Nagel to confirm her safety. She had been on a call with the director. When Kerble explained that the tremor was not an earthquake but rather an explosion beneath Folimanka Park, Nagel’s first words, strangely, had been to inquire about Langdon and Solomon’s whereabouts. She ordered Kerble to head to the scene and search for them.

Regardless of what was unfolding between the ambassador and the CIA director, Kerble had already chosen sides an hour ago, with his snap decision to smuggle Nagel’s diplomatic pouch out of the embassy. It was a timely improvisation, as the director had almost immediately ordered a search of the ambassadorial suite along with her closest staff, including Kerble himself.

If I’d kept the pouch…the CIA would have it now.