Teabing sat on the divan, cradling the wooden box on his lap and admiring the lid's
intricate inlaid Rose. Tonight has become the strangest and most magical night of my life.
“Lift the lid,” Sophie whispered, standing over him, beside Langdon.
Teabing smiled. Do not rush me. Having spent over a decade searching for this
keystone, he wanted to savor every millisecond of this moment. He ran a palm across the
wooden lid, feeling the texture of the inlaid flower.
“The Rose,” he whispered. The Rose is Magdalene is the Holy Grail. The Rose is the
compass that guides the way. Teabing felt foolish. For years he had traveled to cathedrals
and churches all over France, paying for special access, examining hundreds of archways
beneath rose windows, searching for an encrypted keystone. La clef de voûte—a stone
key beneath the sign of the Rose.
Teabing slowly unlatched the lid and raised it.
As his eyes finally gazed upon the contents, he knew in an instant it could only be the
keystone. He was staring at a stone cylinder, crafted of interconnecting lettered dials. The
device seemed surprisingly familiar to him.
“Designed from Da Vinci's diaries,” Sophie said. “My grandfather made them as a
hobby.”
Of course, Teabing realized. He had seen the sketches and blueprints. The key to
finding the Holy Grail lies inside this stone. Teabing lifted the heavy cryptex from the
box, holding it gently. Although he had no idea how to open the cylinder, he sensed his
own destiny lay inside. In moments of failure, Teabing had questioned whether his life's
quest would ever be rewarded. Now those doubts were gone forever. He could hear the
ancient words . . . the foundation of the Grail legend:
Vous ne trouvez pas le Saint-Graal, c'est le Saint-Graal qui vous trouve.
You do not find the Grail, the Grail finds you.
And tonight, incredibly, the key to finding the Holy Grail had walked right through his
front door.
While Sophie and Teabing sat with the cryptex and talked about the vinegar, the dials,
and what the password might be, Langdon carried the rosewood box across the room to a
well-lit table to get a better look at it. Something Teabing had just said was now running
through Langdon's mind.
The key to the Grail is hidden beneath the sign of the Rose.
Langdon held the wooden box up to the light and examined the inlaid symbol of the
Rose. Although his familiarity with art did not include woodworking or inlaid furniture,
he had just recalled the famous tiled ceiling of the Spanish monastery outside of Madrid,
where, three centuries after its construction, the ceiling tiles began to fall out, revealing
sacred texts scrawled by monks on the plaster beneath.
Langdon looked again at the Rose.
Beneath the Rose.
Sub Rosa.
Secret.
A bump in the hallway behind him made Langdon turn. He saw nothing but shadows.
Teabing's manservant most likely had passed through. Langdon turned back to the box.
He ran his finger over the smooth edge of the inlay, wondering if he could pry the Rose
out, but the craftsmanship was perfect. He doubted even a razor blade could fit in
between the inlaid Rose and the carefully carved depression into which it was seated.
Opening the box, he examined the inside of the lid. It was smooth. As he shifted its
position, though, the light caught what appeared to be a small hole on the underside of
the lid, positioned in the exact center. Langdon closed the lid and examined the inlaid
symbol from the top. No hole.
It doesn't pass through.
Setting the box on the table, he looked around the room and spied a stack of papers
with a paper clip on it. Borrowing the clip, he returned to the box, opened it, and studied
the hole again. Carefully, he unbent the paper clip and inserted one end into the hole. He
gave a gentle push. It took almost no effort. He heard something clatter quietly onto the
table. Langdon closed the lid to look. It was a small piece of wood, like a puzzle piece.
The wooden Rose had popped out of the lid and fallen onto the desk.
Speechless, Langdon stared at the bare spot on the lid where the Rose had been. There,
engraved in the wood, written in an immaculate hand, were four lines of text in a
language he had never seen.
The characters look vaguely Semitic, Langdon thought to himself, and yet I don't
recognize the language!
A sudden movement behind him caught his attention. Out of nowhere, a crushing
blow to the head knocked Langdon to his knees.
As he fell, he thought for a moment he saw a pale ghost hovering over him, clutching
a gun. Then everything went black.
