Sophie had no intention of leaving empty-handed. “Tell them we came and went already. If they want to search the bank, demand a search warrant. That will take them time.”
“Listen,” Vernet said, “Jacques was a friend, and my bank does not need this kind of press, so for those two reasons, I have no intention of allowing this arrest to be made on my premises. Give me a minute and I will see what I can do to help you leave the bank undetected. Beyond that, I cannot get involved.” He stood up and hurried for the door. “Stay here. I'll make arrangements and be right back.”
“But the safe-deposit box,” Sophie declared. “We can't just leave.”
“There's nothing I can do,” Vernet said, hurrying out the door. “I'm sorry.”
Sophie stared after him a moment, wondering if maybe the account number was buried in one of the countless letters and packages her grandfather had sent her over the years and which she had left unopened.
Langdon stood suddenly, and Sophie sensed an unexpected glimmer of contentment in his eyes.
“Robert? You're smiling.”
“Your grandfather was a genius.”
“I'm sorry?”
“Ten digits?”
Sophie had no idea what he was talking about.
“The account number,” he said, a familiar lopsided grin now craning his face. “I'm pretty sure he left it for us after all.”
“Where?”
Langdon produced the printout of the crime scene photo and spread it out on the coffee table. Sophie needed only to read the first line to know Langdon was correct.
13-3-2-21-1-1-8-5
O, Draconian devil!
Oh, lame saint!
P.S. Find Robert Langdon
Chapter 44
“Ten digits,” Sophie said, her cryptologic senses tingling as she studied the printout.
When Sophie had first seen the scrambled Fibonacci sequence on the parquet, she had assumed its sole purpose was to encourage DCPJ to call in their cryptographers and get Sophie
“He was the master of double-entendres,” Sophie said, turning to Langdon. “He loved anything with multiple layers of meaning. Codes within codes.”
Langdon was already moving toward the electronic podium near the conveyor belt. Sophie grabbed the computer printout and followed.
The podium had a keypad similar to that of a bank ATM terminal. The screen displayed the bank's cruciform logo. Beside the keypad was a triangular hole. Sophie wasted no time inserting the shaft of her key into the hole.
The screen refreshed instantly.
The cursor blinked. Waiting.
When he had typed the last digit, the screen refreshed again. A message in several languages appeared. English was on top.
“The number looks right,” Langdon confirmed, carefully checking what they had typed and comparing it to the printout. He motioned to the ENTER key. “Fire away.”
Sophie extended her index finger toward the keypad, but hesitated, an odd thought now hitting her.
“Go ahead,” Langdon urged. “Vernet will be back soon.”
“No.” She pulled her hand away. “This isn't the right account number.”
“Of course it is! Ten digits. What else would it be?”
“It's too random.”
Sophie deleted everything she had just typed in and looked up at Langdon, her gaze self-assured. “It's far too coincidental that this supposedly
Langdon realized she had a point. Earlier, Sophie had rearranged this account number into the Fibonacci sequence. What were the odds of being able to do that?
