Page 97 of The Secret of Secrets (Robert Langdon #6)

Katherine stood over the EPR pod and stared down at the bloody nub of bone where Brigita’s right thumb had been snipped off just beneath the joint. For a moment, all thoughts of entering Threshold dissolved…overwritten by the horror of the scene before her.

Oh, Brigita…I’m so sorry.

The grisliness of the severed thumb barely registered against the macabre backdrop of the surrounding scene.

Inside the pod, the neuroscientist’s face was contorted in agony, her eyes staring into nothingness, her lips pulled back in a grimace.

Her skin was drained of all color. Gessner’s wrists and ankles were chafed from struggling against the Velcro straps, and both forearms had been penetrated crudely with IV catheters.

One catheter had erupted from the flesh, covering her forearm with congealed blood, which had already turned a dark crimson.

A peripheral IV? Katherine thought. No wonder the IV failed.

Gessner had described this prototype EPR device as a “modified bypass machine,” which she used to swap out supercooled saline for blood in order to slow the dying process. That kind of bypass would require, at the very least, a pair of femoral IVs.

This is definitely not how you connect an ECMO.

Surveying the setup, Katherine concluded that whoever had done this to Brigita either had been wholly incompetent, or, possibly, had known this process would kill her and had opted for a slow application of cold saline to inflict pain.

Katherine shuddered imagining the agony Gessner must have endured if she had not been previously sedated.

Moreover, this machine looked like a crude, jerry-rigged prototype… definitely not ready for human testing.

When Langdon arrived beside her, Katherine was startled to see a smartphone in his hand. “Is that Brigita’s ?” she asked.

He nodded. “It’s still on, but almost dead. Her elevator passcode didn’t unlock it, but…” He crouched down beside the pod, looking grim as he held the phone out over Brigita’s face. “I wonder if facial recognition can distinguish between living and—”

The phone chimed.

Langdon stood up and began swiping through the phone.

“Wait, what are you doing?!” Katherine asked.

“The ambassador needs to know we failed,” he said quietly. “My plan to enter Threshold hinged on that card being—”

“Give the phone to me!” Katherine exclaimed, holding out her hand. “I have an idea…”

Langdon watched as Katherine quickly scrolled through Gessner’s device. What is she looking for?

“Brigita is smart…and efficient,” Katherine muttered to herself, swiping through screens. “It has to be here!”

“ What has to be there?”

“An NFC clone…”

“I don’t know—”

“Near-field communication,” Katherine clarified, still scrolling. “It’s the technology that lets you wave your smartphone or watch at an RFID scanner for touchless interaction—Apple Pay, hotel room doors, airport ticketing.”

Katherine kept swiping. “Most people install clones of their credit cards in their e-wallets now because carrying a phone is so much more convenient than carrying all your cards.”

She had a point, but Langdon strongly doubted she would find what she was looking for. “You don’t really think Brigita loaded a copy of her Threshold card into her phone, do you? I mean…it’s a huge security risk.”

“On the contrary,” Katherine said without glancing up from her search.

“Digital clones are much safer than physical cards because the interaction is encrypted, and the user can program multi factor biometric authentication—facial recognition, fingerprint, retinal scan, whatever you like, along with a passcode. It’s actually far more protection than a biometric card.

And better yet, nobody sees you taking your card in and out of your briefcase every time you reach a doorway. ”

Interesting point.

Katherine’s explanation brought a glimmer of hope, and yet the longer she swiped, the less hopeful she looked.

“I don’t know,” she said, frowning at the screen. “Her e-wallet has a lot of cards, but nothing that looks helpful. I see credit…debit…rewards…ID…garage access…mass transit…health club…insurance…airline loyalty—”

“Health club,” Langdon interrupted.

Katherine glanced up.

“Remember last night?!” he pressed. “When I asked Brigita about the black card with the Vel spear? She said it was her health club. It seemed like a lie…so maybe that’s how she disguises it?”

Katherine returned to the screen and tapped that entry. A moment later, a faint smile appeared on her lips. “This might look familiar,” she said, handing him the phone.

The image of the cloned card was unmistakable.

Langdon felt a rush of excitement that was immediately quashed by the text beneath the card.

Three-Factor Authentication Required

1) Passcode

“The only passcode I know is her elevator code,” he said, “which didn’t work to unlock the phone.”

“But it might work here, ” Katherine urged. “This card provides access to Threshold—just like the elevator did—so it might be logical for her to use the same sequence.”

Gessner is nothing if not efficient, Langdon agreed, carefully typing the code.

314S159

The phone pinged cheerfully and advanced to the next screen.

“Nicely done!” Langdon exclaimed. The second authentication was far simpler.

2) Facial ID

Once again, Langdon held the phone to Brigita’s face, and the device pinged, displaying the final screen.

3) Finger Scan

Langdon glanced down at Brigita’s mangled hand and hesitated. Katherine stepped in, gently taking the phone from him. Seemingly unfazed by touching the body, Katherine manipulated Gessner’s index finger onto the phone.

When the phone pinged for a third and final time, Langdon assumed they could now use the phone to take the elevator to Threshold. Katherine, however, was unsmiling as she studied the screen.

“Bad news,” she groaned. “It’s got another safety feature.” She held up the phone. “Authentication lasts only ten seconds.”

On-screen, Langdon watched a descending countdown clock tick down to zero. The card deactivated and returned to its initial password screen, requiring the entire three-step authorization process all over again.

Damn.

“And her battery is about to die,” Katherine added. “Literally any minute.”

Think, Robert. He had seen no charger in Gessner’s briefcase, and he was now feeling a deepening weight of guilt for having convinced Katherine and the ambassador to risk everything on his plan.

For a moment, Langdon wondered if they could remove Gessner’s IVs, lift her body out of the pod, and somehow transport her to the elevator. There’s no time. Moreover, removing the dead body and further tainting a crime scene would only incriminate them further.

“We’ve got to find a way into Threshold, Robert…We’re so close!”

Katherine’s comment, of course, was figurative…and yet, for some reason, her words registered literally. We’re so close.

How close exactly? he wondered, picturing the long, inlaid hallway outside this room…and the elevator and RFID reader at the far end. Ten seconds close?

Usain Bolt had set a world record by running one hundred meters in 9.58 seconds.

The hallway must be less than half that…forty yards at most.

Katherine returned, shaking her head, and Langdon immediately told her his plan.

“Sprint?” she challenged. “I don’t see—”

“Ten seconds is longer than it seems,” he said.

“I know you run often, Robert, but in loafers on polished wood floors?”

“It’s worth a shot,” Langdon argued. “I think I can make it.”

Katherine checked the phone’s battery, eyes widening. “Then you’d better make it on your first try.”

She immediately began the three-step authorization as Langdon positioned himself beside her, hand extended as if prepared to receive a baton.

When the phone pinged for the third time, Katherine slapped it into his palm, and he instantly took off across the room, clutching the phone tightly.

As he reached the door, he grabbed the frame and slingshotted himself around the corner, launching into a full sprint down the hall, his loafers finding tentative traction on the smooth wood.

Langdon flew past the bathroom, VR lab, imaging lab, and then the offices, now spotting the black circle of the RFID reader on the wall beside the elevator.

Twenty more yards…

Faster!

As he neared the elevator, he held the phone out in front of him…and saw the display counting down.

Three…two…

I’m not going to make it.

Katherine rounded the corner into the hallway just as Langdon crashed at full speed into the elevator door and slammed the phone against the reader. He slumped over, lowering the device, putting his hand on his knees as he caught his breath.

He didn’t reach it in time…

But as she moved toward him, Langdon’s huddled frame suddenly transformed into a silhouette as the elevator doors slid open, and light poured out from the interior.

“You did it!” she called, rushing down the hallway to Langdon, who was holding the elevator door open, still panting.

“Okay, Professor,” she said. “I’m impressed.”

“Glad it worked…A second attempt would have been impossible.”

“Is the phone dead?”

“No… I am.”

She smiled and kissed him on the cheek as they boarded the elevator together. The door slid shut. For a long moment, nothing happened.

And then Katherine felt it…that momentary lightness in her physical body.

They were descending.