Page 66 of The Secret of Secrets (Robert Langdon #6)

Inside the Baroque Library, Langdon scanned and rescanned the faces of the crowd of visitors, finally accepting that he had arrived here too late.

She’s gone.

Two hours had passed since Katherine sent him the encrypted email telling him to come to this place; even if she had been here earlier, her ticket would have expired, and the docents would have asked her to leave.

As Langdon gazed down at the Codex Gigas, splayed open in its protective glass cube, the illustration of the “Diaper Devil” seemed to be staring back mockingly. Just yesterday, he and Katherine had stood on this very spot, hand in hand, happily discussing the mysteries of this incredible book.

Katherine had been intrigued by the legend of the Devil’s Bible, but it had been the architecture of the lush library itself that most captured her imagination. Spellbound by its beauty, she asked him about the parquet floor, the frescoes, and what she referred to as the “faux balcony.”

“What do you mean by faux ?” Langdon questioned, surprised.

“It’s decorative, right?” She pointed up at the balcony that encircled the entire room. “Look…there’s no way to get to it—no ladders or doors entering from above.”

Langdon had to laugh. Leave it to a scientist to notice the inconsistency. Most tourists who admired the suspended walkway around the room never spotted the obvious riddle: there was no visible means to access it.

“Follow me,” Langdon whispered, nodding discreetly to his right.

He walked her into the corner of the library, and then, double-checking that the rest of the patrons were focused on the Bible, he gently grabbed a section of bookcase and tugged it toward him.

The case hinged silently outward, revealing a dark alcove, in which a spiral staircase ascended to an opening in the balcony floor.

“And of course you knew that,” she said, rolling her eyes.

Langdon’s warm memories of yesterday dissolved as an authoritative voice suddenly broke the silence and began shouting at the library door.

“Dámy a pánové!” a man yelled. “Opus?te vystavu! Po?ární poplach!”

Many of the Czech visitors exchanged startled looks and began moving immediately toward the exit. A smattering of foreign tourists glanced at them and followed.

“Fire emergency!” the same voice shouted. “Go to the exit! Now!”

Fire? Langdon smelled nothing. Really?

He peered toward the crush of tourists now crowding through the library’s lone exit.

Beyond the crowd, in the hallway, a muscular man in a blue úZSI uniform was overseeing the library evacuation…

intently studying each person who exited, even halting one or two to scrutinize their faces more closely.

Langdon recognized him immediately. Lieutenant Pavel.

He had no idea how the man had located him so quickly—or so accurately—but there he was, sorting through the crowd.

It’s a fake emergency, Langdon sensed. So he can trap me.

Considering Pavel had already fired his weapon at Langdon in the Mirror Maze, there was no guarantee he wouldn’t simply shoot him on sight once the last person had exited the library.

Scanning the room for anywhere to hide, Langdon saw only the line of globes and the codex’s transparent display case. Neither offered much help. In desperation, he turned his eyes toward the upper balcony and then down to the hinged bookcase in the corner of the room.

Even if Langdon ascended to the balcony, there was no exit up there.

The bookcase is a dead end. But hiding on the hidden staircase might buy him a few extra minutes.

Museum security would find him eventually, of course, but anything was better than being alone with an unhinged, trigger-happy úZSI officer.

Before Pavel had a chance to see him, Langdon slipped away from the mass of exiting guests and moved back toward the bookcase. When he arrived, he grabbed the door and pulled it toward himself.

The door didn’t budge.

Puzzled, he pulled again.

Have they locked it?

Installing a lock on this bookcase made no sense whatsoever, and besides, the door had been open just yesterday when he and Kath—

An unexpected thought materialized.

Inexplicable…and yet…

Startled by the possibility, Langdon put his mouth close to the partition and whispered, “Katherine?”

Langdon heard a rustling within, as if someone was unlashing whatever was holding the door closed. A moment later, the bookcase swung open.

Langdon found himself staring into the tear-filled eyes of Katherine Solomon.

Without hesitation, he moved into her arms, letting the bookcase swing closed behind them. As they held each other in the darkness of the tiny alcove, Langdon could hear her quietly weeping.

“Thank God,” she managed. “I thought you were dead.”

“I’m right here,” he whispered.