Page 38 of The Secret of Secrets

Gessner looked skeptical. “Well then, perhaps you could get one for me. If I like it, I’d consider offering you a celebrity endorsement, which could be quite helpful for your credibility with this first book.”

“That’s very kind of you,” Katherine replied, exhibiting saintly patience. “I’ll ask my editor about that.”

Gessner looked annoyed at being rebuffed. “As you wish, but at least let me invite you to my private lab tomorrow to show you some of my work. I think you’ll find it eye-opening. I’d love the chance to enlighten you.”

Langdon shifted restlessly, but Katherine took his hand under the table and squeezed it with surprising strength, holding him at bay as she accepted Gessner’s invitation.

After twenty minutes, Gessner was still talking…about what, Langdon had lost track. After half of his vile maple-and-bacon cocktail, his mouth tasted like breakfast. If Gessner’s monologue went much longer, he was definitely going to need another round.

Perhaps a fried-egg martini?

Katherine had only partially finished her absinthe but was already starting to show the effects, slurring her words slightly and struggling to keep her eyes open.

“Considering the innovative nature of my research,” Gessner said offhandedly, “you’ll obviously need to sign a nondisclosure before you come to the lab tomorrow.”

To Langdon, this seemed an obscenely self-important requirement among colleagues.

“In fact, I have one with me now,” Gessner said, pulling out a small leather briefcase and starting to unlock it. “We can get it out of the way before tomorrow’s—”

“Actually,” Langdon interrupted, “I wonder if Katherine’s in any state to read a legal document. Perhaps tomorrow when she arrives at your lab?”

Clearly displeased, Gessner stared at him over her briefcase, as if weighing Langdon’s resolve. Finally, she said, “Okay, that works too.”

As Gessner fell back into conversation with Katherine, Langdon found himself wondering why a neuroscientist who thought so little of Katherine’s work would be so eager to show off her private lab. Whatever Gessner’s motives might have been, tomorrow morning Langdon planned to suggest that Katherine gracefully opt out of the tour.

“It’s nothing personal, Katherine!” Gessner exclaimed loudly, breaking Langdon’s train of thought. “You know I’ve never been shy about my distaste for the paranormal and PSI science. Remember my Scientific American cover?”

“I do,” Katherine said, smiling. “Dr. Brigita Gessner, don’t call her a neuro-PSI-entist.”

“Yes,” she said, laughing too loudly again. “Everyone got in on that joke. A fan sent me a mouse pad with my quote: ‘There’s no PSI in science.’ And a colleague even joked that I should change all my passwords to P-S-I because it was the last thing anyone would ever guess I would choose!”

“That is funny,” Katherine said, sipping her absinthe.

“What was even funnier was that years later, when I had to choose a security password for my new lab, I remembered his advice…and I chose PSI as my passcode!”

Langdon raised an eyebrow, questioning which was less probable—that Gessner had used a three-letter passcode to protect her lab or that she would tell them what it was.

“Not literally P-S-I, of course,” she added, laughing. “I encrypted it. Quite cleverly, if I do say so myself.”

Which you just did.

“Professor,” she said, glancing over. “I believe you’re a puzzle buff, no? You’d be impressed with my encryption.”

“No doubt,” he managed, barely listening.

Gessner preened. “I describe my ingenious little code as ‘an Arabic tribute to an ancient Greek with a little Latin twist.’ ” She plucked the lemon rind from the rim of her glass and let it fall dramatically into her drink. Mic drop.

Langdon had no idea what she was talking about. “Sounds very clever.”

“Robert could decipher it,” Katherine blurted, the absinthe’s effects on full display now. “He’s an expert with codes.”

“I’ll take that bet,” Gessner said with a smirk. “I calculate the professor’s chances of guessing are just under one in three and a half trillion.”

Langdon didn’t miss a beat. “Sounds like a seven-character alphanumeric.”

Gessner recoiled, wide-eyed, startled to have been so quickly outflanked.

Katherine let out a liquor-laced laugh. “I told you, he’s very good at codes!”