INT SWISS GUARD OFFICES - CORRIDOR DAY

The interior of the Swiss Guard offices is ornate and filled with

artwork, like every other Vatican building. As they walk,

Langdon studies the row of statues of male nudes that lines both

sides of the hallway, all wearing fig leaves.

LANGDON

The Great Castration.

OLIVETTI

I beg your pardon?

LANGDON

1857. Pius IX felt the male form might

inspire lust, so he got a hammer and

chisel and unmanned two hundred

statues. These plaster fig leaves

were added later.

Olivetti stops abruptly, outside a heavy steel door with a

security keyguard beside it.

OLIVETTI

Are you anti-Catholic, Professor

Langdon?

LANGDON

Me? No, I'm anti-vandalism.

OLIVETTI

I urge you to guard your tone in there.

The Swiss Guard is a calling, not a

profession, and it encourages a certain

-- zealotry. Commander Rocher, the

head of the Guard, is a deeply

spiritual man, and he was close to the

late Pope. Understood?

LANGDON

(SINCERE)

I just hope I can help.

15.

OLIVETTI

So do I. You were my idea.

He enters a five-digit number on the keypad and the steel doors

slide open.

INT SWISS GUARD HEADQUARTERS DAY

The headquarters of the Swiss Guard is in a lushly adorned

Renaissance library crammed with sophisticated communications and

surveillance equipment. It's crowded, Swiss Guard (in suits and

ties, the pantaloons are more for show), uniformed Carbinieri, and

Vatican Police crammed around different stations, some working

together, others arguing, mostly in Italian.

OLIVETTI

Wait here.

He crosses the room to a tall, fair-haired man around sixty,

weathered like steel -- maybe "tempered" is the better word.

While they confer, Langdon notices a woman to his left. We

recognize Vittoria Vetra, the physicist we saw at CERN.

She catches Langdon's eye, forces a grim smile, recognizes they're

both strangers here. Olivetti comes back with COMMANDER ROCHER,

the tall man, very much in charge. He speaks with a French/Swiss

ACCENT·

ROCHER

(to Vittoria)

Ms. Vetra? I'm Commander Rocher,

Commandante Principale of the Swiss

Guard. Thank you for coming. And

Professor Langdon?

LANGDON

That's right. Rocher looks him up and

down, so, you're Langdon.

ROCHER

Thank God, the symbologist is here.

Ms. Vetra, this way, please.

He leads Vittoria across the room, to a surveillance monitor.

Langdon, puzzled by the cold shoulder, looks at Olivetti, who

leans in.

OLIVETTI

There's been a development. We

received another threat from the

kidnapper.

16.

Across the room, they hear Vittoria GASP. Olivetti goes to join

them, nodding to Langdon to follow.

AT THE MONITOR,

Langdon and Olivetti join Rocher and Vittoria and stare at the

image on a video monitor -- it's a familiar-looking canister, in

which a metallic drop of liquid shimmers in the middle, suspended.

The acronym CERN is stenciled up its side. On its base is an

LED display, counting down from about six hours.

At the top of the monitor flashes superimposed text -- LIVE FEED,

CAMERA #86.

VITTORIA

(CONTINUING)

-- canister was stolen from our lab

around midnight last night. The

intruder killed my research partner,

Leonardo Bentivoglio, and mutilated

him in order to bypass security.

They look at her, don't quite see the connection.

VITTORIA (cont'd)

We use retinal scanners.

(they still don't get it)

They cut out his eyes.

They cringe.

VITTORIA (cont'd)

That canister contains an extremely

combustible substance called

antimatter. We need to locate it

immediately or evacuate Vatican City.

ROCHER

I'm quite familiar with incendiaries,

Ms. Vetra. I haven't heard of

antimatter.

VITTORIA

It's new, energy research technology.

It uses a reverse polarity vacuum to

filter out anti-matter positrons

generated in particle accelerations in

the Large Hadron Collider at CERN.

They look at her blankly. She points at the screen,

17.

VITTORIA (cont'd)

The anti-matter is suspended, there,

in an airtight nanocomposite shell

with electromagnets at each end. But

if it were to fall out of suspension

and come into contact with matter --

say, the bottom of the canister -- the

two opposing forces will annihilate

one another. Violently.

ROCHER

And what might cause it to fall out of

suspension?

VITTORIA

The battery going dead. Which it

will.

(looks at the screen)

In six hours and eleven minutes.

Silence for a moment.

VITTORIA (cont'd)

Where is that camera? Number eighty-

six?

OLIVETTI

It's wireless. It too was stolen.

That could be anywhere inside the

Vatican walls.

VITTORIA

You've got to find it.

ROCHER

We're a bit preoccupied with four

missing cardinals at the moment.

VITTORIA

You don't understand. An

annihilation is a cataclysmic event.

It would be a blinding explosion,

equivalent to about five megatons.

The blast radius alone would be --

Softly, Langdon speaks up from behind her.

LANGDON

"Vatican City will be consumed by

light."

A few voices fall still. They turn and look at him.

18.

ROCHER

Those are the exact words the

kidnapper used.

INT ROCHER'S OFFICE DAY

A few moments later, they're crowded around the communications

console at Rocher's desk, where a dimly-lit video recording is

playing back on a computer screen. (The office is behind a

glass wall to one side of the headquarters.)

The images on the recording are of FOUR OLDER MEN, some in their

sixties, the others in their seventies, filmed in dim light behind

bars in a dank, dungeon-like space.

A lightly accented VOICE speaks from behind the camera.

VOICE (O.S.)

We will destroy your four pillars...

brand your preferiti and sacrifice

them on the altars of science... and

then bring your church down upon you.

Vatican City will be consumed by

light.

LANGDON

It's an ancient llluminati threat.

(Rocher pauses the recording)

The destruction of Vatican City

through light. The four pillars --

he probably means the kidnapped

cardinals. You didn't mention they

were the preferiti.

(to Vittoria)

The favorites to be chosen as the new

Pope. Play it again.

VOICE (O.S.)

We will destroy your four pillars...

brand your preferiti and sacrifice

them on the altars of science...

LANGDON

Stop it there.

Rocher does

LANGDON (cont'd)

"Brand" them, another llluminati

legend, this one says there are a set

of five brands, each one an ambigram.

(MORE)

19.

LANGDON (cont'd)

The first four are the fundamental

elements of science -- earth, air,

fire, water. The fifth -- is a

mystery. Maybe it's this.

He pulls the "llluminati" ambigram from his pocket.

ROCHER

He said they'd be killed publicly. In

churches.

LANGDON

(nods, not surprised)

Revenge for La Purga.

ROCHER

La Purga?

LANGDON

Don't you guys read your own history?

1668. The church kidnapped four

llluminati scientists and branded

their chests with the symbol of the

cross. To "purge their sins."

Murdered them and left their bodies in

the street as a warning to others to

stop questioning church rulings on

scientific matters. It was after La

Purga that a darker, more violent

llluminati emerged. This sounds

like retribution.

(to Rocher)

Is there any more?

Rocher hits play again.

VOICE (O.S.)

.... and then bring your church down

upon you. Vatican City will be

consumed by light...

While listening this time, Langdon notices a darkened video

monitor, inlaid at an angle on Rocher's desk. It faces away

from the outer office, and instead of an on/off switch, there is

an oddly-shaped keyhole.

VOICE (O.S.) (cont'd)

A shining star at the end of the Path

of Illumination.

Langdon looks up sharply.

20.

LANGDON

The Path of Illumination?

Rocher stops the video.

LANGDON (cont'd)

I need to get into the Vatican

Archives.

Rocher shakes his head, looks at Olivetti harshly, is embarrassed.

OLIVETTI

Professor, this is not the appropriate

moment to-

ROCHER

Your petition has been denied seven

times, Mr. Langdon.

LANGDON

This has nothing to do with that,

(FAST)

The Path of Illumination is an ancient

trail through Rome that leads to the

Church of the Illumination, a secret

place where llluminati members could

meet in safety. If I can find the

Segno, the sign that marks the start

of the Path, I'm willing to bet the

four churches along it are where he

intends to murder your cardinals. If

we can get to one of them before he

does, we can stop it. But to find

the start of the path, I need to get

into the Archives.

ROCHER

Even if I wanted to help you, access

is only by written decree of the

curator and the Board of Vatican

Librarians.

LANGDON

Or by papal mandate.

ROCHER

Yes. But as you've no doubt heard,

the Holy Father is-

LANGDON

What about Il Camerlengo? Let me

talk to him.

21.

ROCHER

The Camerlengo? He's just a priest

here, the former Pope's Chamberlain.

LANGDON

Doesn't the power of the Holy See rest

with him during tempe sede vacante?

They just stare at him. Shit, this guy's good. Langdon checks his

watch, getting irritated.

LANGDON (cont'd)

Hey, fellas --- you called me.

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Date: 2015-12-18; view: 664