The Da Vinci Code

Robert Langdon, Harvard professor of religious symbology, is awoken in his Paris hotel room at 12:32am. A visitor at the front desk—“an important man” insists on seeing him (8). Too tired to see anyone, Langdon tells the concierge to take the man’s information. Reluctantly famous for his books and lectures (as well as an unnamed scandal involving the Vatican), Langdon keeps an exhausting schedule. The concierge calls again to inform Langdon that the “important man” is on his way up to his room.

The man is Jérôme Collet, a lieutenant with Centrale Police Judiciaire, the French equivalent of the FBI. He shows Langdon a picture of Sauniére’s body, arrayed in a strange position, an image which reminds Langdon of a similar incident at the Vatican a year prior.

The albino, Silas, enters a Paris brownstone, a sanctuary for him and his “fellow numeraries.” In his room, he calls his “Master” to confirm the deaths of the sénéchaux, members of the secret society, the Priory of Sion. He reports that all four confessed the same information before their deaths, the existence of “the legendary keystone” (13), a stone tablet revealing the location of their most closely guarded secret: “information so powerful that its protection was the reason for the brotherhood’s very existence” (13). The keystone, Silas tells him, is located within a Parisian church—the Eglise de Saint-Sulpice. The Master orders Silas to retrieve the keystone that very night, giving him instructions on how to penetrate the heavy security. Eager to purify his soul after his killing spree, Silas endures “corporal mortification,” a ritual of self-flagellation.

As Collet drives Langdon to the Louvre, the Harvard professor tries to make sense of the disturbing image of Sauniére. They had been scheduled to meet earlier that evening, but the curator never showed up. Collet leaves Langdon at the front entrance to meet his captain, Bezu Fache, and departs on other business. Shortly, Fache appears, greeting Langdon with a cryptic reception: “‘Mr. Langdon,’ Fache’s ebony eyes locked on his. ‘What you see in the photo is only the beginning of what Sauniére did’” (21).

Fache leads Langdon into the subterranean chambers of the Louvre, questioning him about his meeting with Sauniére. Langdon has no information, only that Sauniére wanted to discuss something with him. Langdon mentions that he is drafting a book about “the iconography of goddess worship” (25), a subject on which Sauniére was an expert.

Fache and Langdon take an elevator to the upper floors, which triggers Langdon’s claustrophobia. They emerge into a darkened corridor illuminated by an eerie red light, a measure used by museums to mitigate light damage to the paintings. Fache and Langdon finally arrive at la Grande Galerie, the scene of Sauniére’s murder. The security gate is raised two feet above the floor, and the two men slither underneath to the gallery beyond.

The National Headquarters of Opus Dei—a secretive, religious sect which advocates a return to traditional, conservative Catholicism—is located in New York, a sprawling structure housing living quarters, dining rooms, and several chapels. Men and women have separate entrances. Bishop Manuel Aringarosa, president-general of Opus Dei, leaves his private penthouse suite and boards a plane bound for Rome, confident that his long-awaited plans will come to fruition. Aringarosa defends the integrity of Opus Dei against a skeptical media who focus on a few extreme practices gone awry. While in flight, Aringarosa receives a phone call from the “Master,” informing him of the location of the keystone. Meanwhile, Silas dons his hooded robe and ventures out to acquire the keystone.

Langdon stands at the entrance to the Grand Gallery. He notices a Caravaggio painting lying on the floor, the painting Sauniére pulled off the wall to activate the security alarm. At the end of the gallery, they come upon Sauniére’s body, lying naked on the floor, arms and legs extended like Da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man, a pentacle drawn on his torso in his own blood. The pentacle, Langdon explains, is a pagan symbol for the “divine feminine,” a symbol now associated with Satanism due to both popular culture and a “smear campaign” waged by the Catholic Church to demonize pagan worship. Fache notes a fluorescent marker clutched in Sauniére’s hand. He turns on a black light and reveals the curator’s final words scrawled on the parquet floor. Meanwhile, back in Sauniére’s office, Lieutenant Collet monitors the conversation between Langdon and Fache.