Inferno Page #2

What are you doing with it?

I have no idea.

It's a high-end unit.

Government issue.

It's got thumbprint recognition:

Security in case it's lost or stolen.

Tubes like this can only be opened

by a specified individual.

Well, it sure as hell isn't me.

- Then why do you have it?

- I don't know.

I'm getting the number

for the consulate.

No, please. Wait.

I have waited. This isn't right.

Why do you have it?

Where did you get it?

There is a simple way to find out

if this thing belongs to me.

Either my thumb will open it,

or it won't.

Open it? Are you insane?

If it's a viral agent,

will it be released if I open it?

No.

No, there'd be an inner sleeve.

Maybe even two.

Before I put myself in anyone's hands,

I wanna know what this thing is...

...and what I'm involved with.

That makes sense, doesn't it?

Yes.

So we agree...

...we're opening it.

Well, that explains it. It is mine.

This is a cylinder seal...

...made of ivory.

No.

It's bone.

Human.

Three-headed, man-eating Satan.

A common image from the Middle Ages.

Associated with the Black Plague.

The three gnashing mouths

are symbolic...

...of how effectively the plague

ate through the population.

Yet you can't remember

the word for coffee.

Explains my visions. Sort of.

- You hear that?

- Mm.

This could be a Faraday pointer.

So why this? Huh?

It's Botticelli.

It's his Map of Hell.

He painted it as an illustration

of Dante's Inferno.

I studied Dante when I was younger.

Probably in kindergarten.

I was a bit obsessed.

Dante defined

our modern conception of hell.

Our vision of it hasn't changed

since he defined it 700 years ago.

Botticelli drew it

but Dante created hell as we know it.

This is what I have been seeing.

Torment.

Sinners.

Branded with letters.

Liars covered with rashes.

Soothsayers with their heads

ripped backwards.

- Serpents.

- The punishment for thievery.

Suffer, sinners. Pay for your sins.

So you have no idea why you have this.

I think maybe

we call the consulate now.

Right.

Professor Langdon?

Hello, yes.

Speaking.

Thank heavens you're alive.

We've been looking for you.

You have?

Are you still in possession?

Mr. Langdon, do you have the tube?

Mes.

- Where are you located?

Professor, we can't help you

if we can't find you.

That's the consulate.

Now, how did they know?

Because they know.

What do we do?

Tell them you're over there.

- Hello?

- Professor, we were cut off.

Yes, sorry.

Where are you located?

I am at a hotel.

Pensione La Fiorentina.

Stay in your room.

We're sending someone now.

Well, I'll wait here. Room 39.

Okay.

We wait and see who they send.

Langdon accessed

his e-mail account...

...from an unmasked IP address

here in Florence.

- When?

- Seven minutes ago.

Via Dolorosa, number 12.

Apartment 3C.

Via Dolorosa. How long?

Twelve minutes.

Go! I want that pointer back!

And I want Langdon.

Whatever it takes.

Let's get him. Go, go, go. Now!

Look at this. This is odd.

This area here.

This is Dante's eighth level of hell.

It's called the Malebolge.

It means evil ditches.

There's 10 of them.

This letter here...

...is not in the original painting.

It's been added.

Here's another one.

- Where?

- An "E."

On seducers whipped by demons.

Here's a "C" on the cheek of a...

A grafter. A con man

trapped in a river of boiling tar.

- "V." "R."

- Ah. There.

- "T."

- There. "A."

What is that? I think that's text.

Is that in English?

"The truth...

...can be glimpsed only...

...through the eyes of...

...death.

Zobrist."

"Bertrand Zobrist...

...American billionaire."

That must be nice.

"Bioengineer

notorious for radical views."

Here he is.

It took the Earth's population

100,000 years to reach a billion people.

And then just a hundred more

to reach two billion.

And only 50 years to double again...

...to four billion people in 1970.

We're nearly at eight billion now.

Bartlett gives the example of a beaker.

With a single bacterium in it, one

that divides and doubles every minute.

If you place the first bacterium into

the beaker at 11:00...

...and it's completely full by 12...

...at what time is the beaker

still only half full?

11:
59.

That's what time it is for us.

In 40 years, 32 billion people...

...will fight to survive.

They'll fail.

We're a minute to midnight.

Every single global ill

that plagues the Earth...

...can be traced back

to human overpopulation.

But serious birth control measures,

they don't stand a chance.

"Outrageous! Violation of my rights!"

"invasion of my privacy!"

"Don't tell me what to do!"

And still, we keep attacking

our own environment.

There have been five

major extinctions...

...in the Earth's history...

...and unless we take bold,

immediate action...

...the sixth extinction...

...will be our own.

We're a minute to midnight.

Looks like he's got a lot of followers.

Yeah, from all over the world.

He is compelling.

"A two-year disappearance during which

some authorities feared Zobrist...

...may have designed

an opportunistic viral pathogen."

He created a plague.

But why Dante?

Why this map of hell? Is this supposed

to be a puzzle or a challenge?

Or a suicide note.

He killed himself three days ago.

The levels.

The levels are out of order.

That's what's been bothering me.

The circles of hell

have been rearranged.

It's the same woman from the hospital.

We can't stay here. And we certainly

can't trust the consulate.

Flatterers adrift in excrement.

That's not right.

If a plague exists, do you know

how many governments would want it?

Clerical profiteers. Not there.

- And what they'd do to get it?

- Sowers of discord there? No.

A biological weapon?

The letters.

He has assigned a letter to each sin

and then changed their order.

He's made an anagram.

Yes! Anagram!

Let's go.

- I know another way out.

- E, C, R.

If you have a phone,

best leave it here.

They might track it.

Phone? I'm not even

wearing my own clothes.

Good. Let's go.

Robert Langdon.

World Health Organization.

V, R, O...

Gotta rearrange these letters.

Over, code, covered, cat. Gah.

I used to be good at this. Unh...

Cerca trova.

It's Italian.

It means "seek and find."

"Cerca trova"? Yes!

I know why I am in Florence.

The World Health

Organization has landed. Stand by.

Be advised:
Agent Bouchard

from the Paris office is already here.

- W.H.O. Bring me up to speed.

- Bouchard is up there now.

Where are we going?

The Palazzo Vecchio.

Near the Boboli Gardens.

There's no sign of them. Bouchard says

Langdon is gone and so is the pointer.

Well, I need better.

I need better from you, from you,

from all of us.

Better!

Work faster. Work smarter.

Don't trust anyone!

Let's do that.

- Yes, ma'am. Let's travel.

- Yes.

We may be compromised.

Tell her people nothing. Understood?

Identification?

Vayentha.

Go ahead.

I need to speak to the provost.

Hold on.

...transfer of 400,000

to Zurich account number 0883011.

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