Angels and Demons Page #2

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Why me?

Your expertise. Your erudition.

Your recent involvement with certain Church,

shall we say...

Mysteries.

I wasn't under the impression

that episode had endeared me to the Vatican.

Oh, it didn't.

But it did make you... What's the word?

Forma... Formida...

Formidable.

A Vatican jet is standing by

20 minutes from here.

Will you come with me?

Professor Langdon, you've spent your life

searching for symbols like the one

you now hold in your hand.

How much longer are we going to pretend

you have not already decided to come?

If the Illuminati have returned

and are in Rome,

we will hunt them down and kill them.

The Illuminati did not become violent

until the 17th century.

Their name means "the enlightened ones."

They were physicists

and mathematicians, astronomers.

They were concerned with

the Church's inaccurate teaching

and they were dedicated to scientific truth.

But the Vatican didn't like that.

So the Church began to...

How did you say it?

Oh, "Hunt them down and kill them."

Drove them underground.

Into a secret society.

- Professor Langdon.

- Yes.

Welcome to Vatican City.

Ernesto Olivetti, inspector general

of the Vatican police force.

- My pleasure.

- This way, please.

We'll meet in the headquarters

of the Swiss Guard.

I thought you were Swiss Guard.

No, la Gendarmeria.

We are responsible for everything

inside the Vatican walls

with the exception

of the security of His Holiness...

- Yeah.

- And the Apostolic Palace.

That is Swiss Guard.

The Roman Carabinieri are here

as well in an advisory capacity.

- So jurisdictionally, this is...

- A goddamn nightmare.

Oh, yes,

Pope Pius IX's great castration.

I beg your pardon?

1857, Pope Pius IX

felt the male form would inspire lust.

So he took a hammer and chisel

and unmanned hundreds of these statues.

The plaster fig leaves were added later.

Are you anti-Catholic, Professor Langdon?

No. I'm anti-vandalism.

I urge you to guard your tone here.

The Swiss Guard is a calling,

not a profession,

and it encourages a certain zealotry.

Commander Richter, the head of the Guard

is a deeply spiritual man,

and he was close to the late pope.

Understood?

Look, I don't study symbols

because I consider them unimportant.

Ceremony, traditions,

it's how we mark our lives.

I just hope I can help.

So do l.

You were my idea.

Wait here. Please.

Commander?

Commander Richter?

Professor Langdon is here.

Well,

we have bigger problems than that now.

Dr. Vetra?

I'm Commander Richter,

comandante principale of the Swiss Guard.

Thank you for coming.

Hello.

Ah...

- Professor Langdon.

- Yes.

What a relief, the symbologist is here.

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