Page 174 of The Secret of Secrets

“There!” Katherine whispered, pointing to the far end of the hall.

What lay ahead did indeed offer a ray of hope, but Langdon now heard the unmistakable sound of footsteps echoing behind them again.

We’ll never make it in time.

In the distance, the hallway terminated at a metal door, above which a message was emblazoned in the most efficient and universal language on earth—a symbol whose entire meaning was instantaneously conveyed.

The symbol of the ascending staircase was a welcome sight, and Langdon felt confident that if they could climb back to the upper floor, they could find their way to the bastion exit the way they had come.

But we can’t reach the stairs unseen, he thought, hearing the footsteps getting closer.

The hallway ahead offered two other doorways, both on the right. Regrettably, Langdon could already see that neither would be of any help.

The first door, just ahead, was marked Supply Room. If it was anything like the medical supply room upstairs, the space was a long warren of shelving with automatic lights and no exit. A death trap.

The second doorway, just beyond it, was much larger and set back several feet in a recessed alcove. Whatever lay beyond the door was apparently important, because Langdon could see from here that it was equipped with a familiar security device—a circular pad of black glass.

An RFID scanner…for which we no longer have authorization.

The footsteps behind them were getting loud.

As they approached the supply room door, Langdon slowed to a stop as a thought materialized. One of the great mysteries of consciousness was where ideas came from. Katherine claimed the mind was a receiver that tuned into a greater field of consciousness. Gessner claimed the brain was a computer whose trillions of neural switches simply solved the problem.

At the moment, Langdon didn’t care who was right. The source of his idea was irrelevant. All that mattered was that he suddenly knew exactly what to do.

Why did he stop?!

Katherine turned back to Langdon, who was opening the supply room door. It was obvious they could not reach the stairway at the end of the hall without being seen, but hiding in the supply room seemed like suicide.

She hurried back to stop him, but Langdon had already stepped inside. The fluorescent lights directly above flickered on to illuminate the entrance to the narrow warren of shelves that extended away from them into darkness. Without hesitation, Langdon grabbed a bottle of liquid cleaner off the shelf and, like a bowler, slung the bottle down the aisle between the shelves. It skittered along the floor and slid all the way to the end without touching either side, triggering a series of motion lights into the deepest recesses of the supply room. Even before the bottle had hit the far wall, Langdon stepped back into the hall. He closed the door but left it open a crack, allowing a sliver of fluorescent light to spill into the dimly lit corridor. Then he grabbed Katherine’s hand and pulled her as quickly as possible in the direction they had been going, toward the stairwell door that was still at least forty yards away.

As they ran, she felt buoyed by a sudden optimism, having just realized Langdon’s clever thinking. We don’t need to reach the end of the hall yet…

As she anticipated, when they neared the recessed alcove with the RFID scanner, Langdon cut hard right, pulling Katherine with him into the alcove. The recess was shallow—less than three feet deep—and they spun around and stood with their backs against the cold metal of the heavy door, making themselves as tall and slender as possible, hoping the alcove was deep enough to conceal them from view.

A moment later, the sound of footsteps entered the hall and stopped.

There was a long silence.

Then Katherine heard the unmistakable sound of a gun being cocked.

Jonas Faukman’s eyes opened abruptly, and he realized he had drifted off at his desk. He was uncertain why he had awoken so suddenly—perhaps the sound of rain that was now pelting his window—but as he stood to stretch, he was surprised to feel the cool creep of returning dread.

Everything is fine, he assured himself. RL&KSRGUD.

Chapter 109

Langdon and Katherine stood rigid, side by side and barely breathing. Their backs were quite literally against the wall, or more accurately, against an exceptionally wide steel door. Even though they had slipped into this recess undetected, their arrival had been accompanied by the unwelcome sound of a gun being cocked.

Langdon remained still, hoping the fluorescent lights blazing in the supply room would be suspicious enough to warrant a search.

We just need a minute’s distraction.

If not…they were trapped.

The footsteps slowly began again, moving closer. After several tense seconds, Langdon saw a welcome sight—a faint splash of fluorescent light on the far wall. Whoever is there opened the supply room door!

Suddenly, the fluorescent lights disappeared, and Langdon heard the supply room door click shut. Did he go inside?! Langdon strained to hear footsteps, but there was only silence. Katherine shifted beside him, and he felt her hand trying to find his at his side. For a moment, he thought she was looking for emotional support, but then he felt her press a small object into his palm. He glanced down and saw a compact mirror, which she had just pulled from her bag.