far?"
"A mile maybe. We've got time."
"The poem said Santi's earthly tomb. Does that mean anything to you?"
Langdon hastened diagonally across the Courtyard of the Sentinel. "Earthly? Actually, there's probably no more earthly place in Rome than the Pantheon. It got its name from the original religion practiced there - Pantheism - the worship of all gods, specifically the pagan gods of Mother Earth."
As a student of architecture, Langdon had been amazed to learn that the dimensions of the Pantheon's main chamber were a tribute to Gaea - the goddess of the Earth. The proportions were so exact that a giant spherical globe could fit perfectly inside the building with less than a millimeter to spare.
"Okay," Vittoria said, sounding more convinced. "And demon's hole? From Santi's earthly tomb with demon's hole?"
Langdon was not quite as sure about this. "Demon's hole must mean the oculus," he said, making a logical guess. "The famous circular opening in the Pantheon's roof."
"But it's a church," Vittoria said, moving effortlessly beside him. "Why would they call the opening a demon's hole?"
Langdon had actually been wondering that himself. He had never heard the term "demon's hole," but he did recall a famous sixth-century critique of the Pantheon whose words seemed oddly appropriate now. The Venerable Bede had once written that the hole in the Pantheon's roof had been bored by demons trying to escape the building when it was consecrated by Boniface IV.
"And why," Vittoria added as they entered a smaller courtyard, "why would the Illuminati use the name Santi if he was really known as Raphael?"
"You ask a lot of questions."
"My dad used to say that."
"Two possible reasons. One, the word Raphael has too many syllables. It would have destroyed the poem's iambic pentameter."
"Sounds like a stretch."
Langdon agreed. "Okay, then maybe using 'Santi' was to make the clue more obscure, so only very enlightened men would recognize the reference to Raphael."
Vittoria didn't appear to buy this either. "I'm sure Raphael's last name was very well known when he was alive."
"Surprisingly not. Single name recognition was a status symbol. Raphael shunned his last name much like pop stars do today. Take Madonna, for example. She never uses her surname, Ciccone."
Vittoria looked amused. "You know Madonna's last name?"
Langdon regretted the example. It was amazing the kind of garbage a mind picked up living with 10,000 adolescents.
As he and Vittoria passed the final gate toward the Office of the Swiss Guard, their progress was halted without warning.
"Para!" a voice bellowed behind them.
Langdon and Vittoria wheeled to find themselves looking into the barrel of a rifle.
"Attento!" Vittoria exclaimed, jumping back. "Watch it with - "
"Non sportarti!" the guard snapped, cocking the weapon.
"Soldato!" a voice commanded from across the courtyard. Olivetti was emerging from the security center. "Let them go!"
The guard looked bewildered. "Ma, signore, e una donna - "
"Inside!" he yelled at the guard.
"Signore, non posso - "
"Now! You have new orders. Captain Rocher will be briefing the corps in two minutes. We will be organizing a search."
Looking bewildered, the guard hurried into the security center. Olivetti marched toward Langdon, rigid and steaming. "Our most secret archives? I'll want an explanation."
"We have good news," Langdon said.
Olivetti's eyes narrowed. "It better be damn good."
56
The four unmarked Alpha Romeo 155 T-Sparks roared down Via dei Coronari like fighter jets off a runway. The vehicles carried twelve plainclothed Swiss Guards armed with Cherchi-Pardini semiautomatics, local-radius nerve gas canisters, and long-range stun guns. The three sharpshooters carried laser-sighted rifles.
Sitting in the passenger seat of the lead car, Olivetti turned backward toward Langdon and Vittoria. His eyes were filled with rage. "You assured me a sound explanation, and this is what I get?"
Langdon felt cramped in the small car. "I understand your - "
"No, you don't understand!" Olivetti never raised his voice, but his intensity tripled. "I have just removed a dozen of my best men from Vatican City on the eve of conclave. And I have done this to stake out the Pantheon based on the testimony of some American I have never met who has just interpreted a four-hundred-year-old poem. I have also just left the search for this antimatter weapon in the hands of secondary officers."
Langdon resisted the urge to pull Folio 5 from his pocket and wave it in Olivetti's face. "All I know is that the information we found refers to Raphael's tomb, and Raphael's tomb is inside the Pantheon."
The officer behind the wheel nodded. "He's right, commander. My wife and I - "
"Drive," Olivetti snapped. He turned back to