Chương 102: Chapter 102: The Legendary Holy Grail
"Who I am is not important," William stated firmly. "What matters is finding out who killed Saunière and getting rid of that GPS tracker."
William walked over to Sophie and grabbed a bar of soap from the sink, pressing the GPS tracker into the soap. Then, he opened a window and tossed the soap into a passing garbage truck. "Follow me," he said, leading Sophie and Langdon into the women's restroom.
Within minutes, they heard sirens from below, and soon they saw a dozen police cars speeding after the garbage truck.
William smirked at his companions. "Now, what's our next move? Where do we start, Princess Sophie? Professor Langdon?"
Sophie didn't respond immediately. Instead, she led William and Langdon back to Saunière's body, looking down at it sorrowfully. "He looks much older than I remember. We hadn't spoken in so long. He called me several times today, but I didn't answer. He texted me saying he had something life-or-death to tell me. I thought he just wanted to see me, but I never imagined I wouldn't get to see him one last time. I'm sorry, Grandfather."
William listened, internally criticizing Saunière for not trusting him enough to call. It seemed Saunière only left William's name as a means to protect Sophie.
After a moment of silent mourning, Sophie spoke again. "Unable to reach me, Saunière must have turned to you two. Professor Langdon, you're a symbolist expert. William, you're connected to Saunière through the Priory of Sion. There must be something between you and Saunière that he trusted, something that made him seek your help. The situation must have been urgent, and Saunière had no time to explain to any of us."
William thought to himself that it wasn't about time; Saunière simply didn't trust him or Langdon enough.
Just then, Professor Langdon picked up the paper with the sequence of numbers that Fache had discarded. He started writing and sketching in his notebook before finally saying, "The sequence and the message can be rearranged to form new words: Leonardo Da Vinci and Holy."
Langdon and Sophie exchanged glances. "Da Vinci. The Mona Lisa is not far from here. The clue must be there," Sophie concluded.
With their new lead, Sophie quickly led them to the Mona Lisa. Using UV flashlights, they found a line of invisible writing in the bottom right corner of the painting. "Another puzzle," Sophie muttered.
William stared at the phrase, clueless, while Langdon muttered to himself, trying different letter combinations. When he finally said "Madonna," Sophie immediately mentioned that the Madonna painting was in another gallery.
They rushed to the Madonna painting, where they found a key behind the frame, adorned with the fleur-de-lis emblem. Langdon looked at the key, then at William's ring. "This is the same emblem as the one on William's ring. What was Saunière trying to tell us?"
William shrugged, feeling just as puzzled. However, his ears suddenly twitched, and he whispered, "Someone's coming. Stay still; I'll handle it." He moved to the door, hiding behind it.
Seconds later, Sophie and Langdon saw a Louvre security guard rushing in, hand on his gun, shouting, "Hands up! You're under arrest!"
The guard barely made it a few steps into the gallery before William knocked him out and gently laid him on the floor. He motioned for Sophie and Langdon to follow him quickly. They hurried out of the Louvre, getting into Sophie's car just as Fache's team returned.
As they drove away, Sophie examined the key with the fleur-de-lis emblem. "This is Saunière's. I saw it when I was a child. He said he would give it to me when I grew up."
Langdon took the key and asked, "Sophie, have you ever heard of the Priory of Sion?"
"No, today is the first time I'm hearing about it. Does it have anything to do with this? William, shouldn't you explain? Both you and Saunière are members. You must know the most about it."
William, sitting in the back seat, rolled his eyes. "I don't know much. This ring belonged to my grandfather. He gave it to Saunière before he died. I found a message among my grandfather's belongings last night, called Saunière this morning, and he arranged to meet me at the café. He returned the ring to me and said he would take me to England to join the society. That's all I know."
Seeing that William was not forthcoming, Langdon decided to explain. "The Priory of Sion, also known as the Order of Zion, is one of the oldest and most secretive organizations in the world. Its grandmasters included Leonardo Da Vinci and Isaac Newton. Their emblem is the fleur-de-lis. They protect a secret known as 'the dark conspiracy of man.' The Priory of Sion safeguards the source of the Light God's power on Earth."
William, taken aback, asked, "What source? Isn't the Light God's power derived from himself? How are we supposed to find this? This dates back thousands of years. And how do you know all this, Professor?"
Sophie, swerving to avoid a couple of police cars, interjected, "Let's focus on finding a place to hide first. Fache won't stop looking for us."
"Sophie, let's head to a car dealership. Remember, I'm not wanted yet. We can buy a new car," William suggested.
"Right, William isn't wanted," Sophie agreed, quickly steering towards a nearby Renault dealership.
William got out alone and bought a car with his card. He picked up Langdon and Sophie a few blocks away from the dealership and drove off.
As they settled into the new car, Sophie asked William, "William, does the Priory of Sion really exist?"
"I don't know. I only heard about it from Saunière today. Do you want it to exist?" William replied.
Sophie was silent for a moment before saying, "I'm not sure. Since I was a child, Saunière trained me in decoding and puzzles. He always asked me, 'What's the next step, Sophie? What should we do next?'"
Langdon smiled and said, "To find treasure."
"To find Saunière's killer, I hope the Priory exists. It could give us more allies," Sophie said.
"But I hope it doesn't," she added, "because the legend of the Priory is incredibly bloody. Most of its members were massacred. According to legend, over a thousand years ago, a French king conquered Jerusalem during the largest Crusade in history. It was orchestrated by a secret brotherhood, the Priory of Sion, whose army was known as the Knights Templar."
"The Knights Templar claimed to protect the Holy City, but they were actually hiding their true purpose. The legend says the war was a search for an ancient artifact lost since the Light God's time. The Church was desperate to find this artifact."
William, now deeply curious, pulled over to the side of the road and asked, "Did they find it?"
Langdon, puzzled by William's intense interest, didn't respond immediately. William pressed, "Tell me, Langdon."
"Alright. I don't know for sure. What I do know is that the Knights Templar suddenly stopped their search and headed directly to Rome. No one knows if they blackmailed the Church or if the Church bought their silence. The fact is, the Pope issued a bull granting the Templars supreme power. By the 14th century, the Templars had grown too powerful, posing a significant threat to the Church."
"The Church then issued a secret edict, opened simultaneously across Europe, declaring the Templars to be Satan worshippers and ordering their extermination. The plan was so meticulously executed that it was largely successful, except in England. Almost all of the Templars in Europe were wiped out."
"After that, the Pope sent troops to seize the Priory's treasure but found nothing. The surviving Templars disappeared, and the search for the artifact and treasure began."
Sophie asked, "What artifact and treasure? I've never heard Saunière mention them."
Langdon smiled, "You've heard of it, Sophie. Everyone in the Western world has. The artifact is the legendary Holy Grail."
"The Holy Grail."
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