Page 64 of The Secret of Secrets (Robert Langdon #6)
The Klementinum—like so many of the stunning buildings of Europe—was erected to further the glory of the Christian God.
Celebrated for its dedication to the sciences, the Klementinum university eventually included an Astronomical Tower that rose to sixty-eight meters, a scientific library of thousands of books, and an ingenious Meridian Room, which used geometry and sunlight to indicate the precise time of noon every day, at which moment the official timekeeper would fire a cannon to mark midday for everyone in town.
Hurrying up the road toward the museum, Robert Langdon gave no thought to the countless treasures within, instead focused solely on Katherine and the cryptic message that had led him here.
As he passed the eastern gateway of Charles Bridge, Langdon realized he was on the exact same sidewalk he had run only a few hours ago.
I’m going in circles, he thought. Just like Katherine’s goldfish.
It was 9:55 a.m. when Langdon arrived outside the Klementinum’s main entrance and began scanning the area for Katherine. She wasn’t here, but to his surprise, he saw a family entering through the main doors.
The museum is open already?
Feeling a rush of hope that Katherine might be waiting inside, Langdon hurried through the doors into the welcome warmth of the lobby.
He expected to find the museum nearly deserted at this early hour, but instead the lobby was bustling with tourists, many of them sitting atop suitcases while sipping coffee and eating donuts.
The scene looked more like an airport lounge than the anteroom of a sixteenth-century Jesuit monastery.
What in the world?!
A perky museum employee walked over to Langdon with a smile. “Coffee?” She held out a tray of coffee.
Baffled, Langdon gratefully accepted the hot beverage, wrapping his frozen fingers around the warm paper cup. “Thank you, but…what’s happening here?”
The woman nodded toward a banner on the wall.
Klementinum
Now Open at 7 a.m.!
“New marketing initiative,” she said cheerily.
“Most U.S. flights arrive at six a.m., so tourists have hours to kill before they can check in to their hotels. We offer a free airport shuttle, luggage check, coffee and donuts… et voilà !” She motioned to the full lobby.
“Whatever it takes to get you Americans into museums, right?!” She headed off.
The comment would have been more offensive had Langdon not heard that one of Prague’s most popular tourist attractions was now an underground shooting range where Americans could legally fire an exotic array of automatic weapons.
Nonetheless, he now felt a piece of the puzzle slip into place. When Katherine sent her email, the museum was open! In addition, she would have had to walk directly past the entrance on her way to Gessner’s lab. Did she step inside…and attempt to summon me? Codex XL…
Buoyed by the idea that Katherine might still be somewhere in this complex of buildings, Langdon scanned the teeming lobby for her thick dark hair.
He didn’t see her and hurried to the ticket window to purchase a full-access ticket.
The cashier seemed to study him a moment, almost suspiciously, but she issued his badge without question.
Langdon adhered it to his sweater and hurried off through a series of ornate corridors toward his destination.
Special Exhibition
Codex Gigas
(The Devil’s Bible)
When he reached the library’s grand entrance, a docent stopped him. After studying Langdon’s badge, he affixed a red sticker to it.
“You have a one-hour window, sir,” the docent said. “Enjoy.”
Langdon had forgotten that access to the Baroque Library was restricted to hourly increments, meaning if Katherine had sent her email from inside…her allotted time would have long ended by now. Please still be here…somewhere.
Langdon quickly strode through the doorway, into what author Jorge Luis Borges had once called “the most exquisite library in Europe.”
Even in Langdon’s current state of distress, he still found the room utterly transfixing.
It was a long, narrow chamber whose ceiling fresco was a divinely rendered, pale blue expanse of sunlit heaven, complete with cherubim that seemed to hang weightlessly overhead.
The trompe l’oeil gave the impression that sunlight was pouring through the structure itself.
Supporting the fresco, the library’s walls were thirty-foot-high bookshelves, containing more than twenty thousand editions dating back centuries.
The unmistakable scent of vellum drifted down from the library’s oldest editions on the second level—those with the white spines and red markings—accessible only by ascending a secret staircase to the library’s wraparound balcony.
The floor was an inlaid wooden parquet whose intricacy rivaled any Langdon had ever seen, including that of the Grand Gallery in the Louvre.
Langdon stopped several paces into the quiet space, searching the large crowd for any sign of Katherine.
Nothing. He headed farther into the ornate room, moving along its distinct procession of oversized antique globes that stretched down the middle of the floor, all the way to the far end of the hall.
The globes were interspersed with signs bearing a symbol as self-evident as any Langdon could imagine.
Who lights a match in a room full of ancient books?!
As he moved deeper into the library, the main attraction came into full view, surrounded by visitors.
The Devil’s Bible.
The colossal book was housed in a cube-shaped Plexiglas viewing case so large that it looked more like an airport smoking lounge than a protective container.
It was surrounded by a throng of quietly murmuring tourists who were taking photos and admiring the mysterious codex, which lay open to the iconic illumination of a demon in an ermine loincloth.
As Langdon arrived, he barely glanced at the codex, instead scanning the faces in the crowd.
Are you here, Katherine?
Many of the visitors were still bundled up, some blowing in their hands.
The Klementinum kept this library exceptionally cold—most would say uncomfortably so—as Katherine had commented yesterday.
Langdon had explained that curators often cooled their most crowded exhibition halls to keep tourists moving through quickly, providing faster turnover—a crowd-management tactic, he noted, that was later adopted by fast-food restaurants. In and out.
“Katherine?” Langdon called tentatively into the quiet crowd.
Several visitors turned and gave him curious looks. A few of them did double takes, as if they recognized him. Otherwise…no response.
Maybe she’s already come and gone?
He scanned the crowd and then looked up at the deserted upper balcony. “Katherine Solomon?” he called again, louder now.
A docent marched over and hushed Langdon with a finger raised to his lips. This was, after all, a library. Langdon nodded his understanding and quietly continued scanning the ornate room in all directions. After two complete turns, he had seen no sign of Katherine anywhere.
His heart sank as he considered how large the city was and how little direction he had.
If you aren’t here, where are you?
No sirens, Pavel thought as he skidded to a stop outside the Klementinum. His Blue Alert for Langdon had already generated four separate tips.
A tram conductor near National Theater reported Langdon was moving north along the river.
A cabdriver near Virgin Mary Square spotted him entering the Klementinum.
Clever hiding place, Pavel thought, bearing in mind how well the historian probably knew this building complex. It won’t matter. I have eyes everywhere.
Pavel hurried into the museum and showed Langdon’s photo to the woman at the ticket booth, who shared not only that this man had purchased a ticket…but also the exact room in which he was almost certainly now standing.
He’s mine, Pavel thought, discreetly checking that his weapon was loaded and plunging into the museum.
“ Barokní knihovna! ” he shouted to a docent in the main hallway. “The Baroque Library! Where is it?!”