Chapter 31 Chapter Twenty Nine

In Saint-Sulpice Church, Silas took down the candlestick from the altar and walked back to the obelisk.Candlestick holders are just right for breaking floor tiles.Silas looked at the marble tile with the cavity underneath and realized that it would be impossible to break it without making a sound. Hit the marble with the iron, and it must have reverberated greatly under the vaulted roof. Will the nun hear it?She must be asleep by now.Even so, Silas didn't want to take any chances.He looked around for a piece of cloth to wrap around the head of the iron rod.All he could find was the linen covering over the altar, but that he did not wish to defile.My cloak, he thought.Knowing that no one else was here, Silas took off his cloak.When he took off his cloak, wool fibers stung the fresh wound on his back.

At this time, Silas is naked, wearing only a belt.He wrapped the cloak around the head of the iron rod, then aimed at the center of the floor tile, and smashed the iron rod down.There was a muffled sound.The tiles were not broken.He smashed it again.This muffled sound was accompanied by the sound of cracking stones.On his third blow, the floor tiles finally shattered, and pieces of rubble fell into the hollow below. A compartment! Silas quickly pushed aside the debris remaining at the entrance of the cave, and looked into the hollow.He knelt there, his blood boiling, and thrust his bare white arms into the hole.

At first, he didn't touch anything.The compartment is empty, save for bare stone.He groped deep again, and under the rose line, he found something!A thick slate.He grasped the edge of the slab and gently lifted it out.Standing up, he examined his discovery carefully. It was a rough-edged slate with inscriptions on it.For a while, he felt like a modern-day Moses. Silas stared at the writing, amazed.He had thought that there would be a map engraved on it, or a series of complicated instructions, or a string of codes, but in fact, the words engraved on the slate could not be simpler. Job38:11

A verse from the Bible?It was so brief, Silas was amazed.The secret place they were after was revealed by a verse from the Bible.The friars of the Priory are desperate to hide the truth! "Job" chapter thirty-eight, verse eleven. Although Silas couldn't recite the content of the eleventh verse, he knew that "The Book of Job" told a story about a believer in God who went through various tests and survived.Fits the situation perfectly, Silas thought, unable to contain his excitement.He looked down at the glittering rose line and couldn't help laughing.On a gleaming bookcase above the altar stood a huge leather-bound Bible.

Sister Sandrine trembled on the choir platform.When the man took off his cloak a few minutes ago, she was trying to escape and go on her mission.She was shocked when she saw his snow-white muscles.His broad, pale back was covered with blood-red welts.Even from a distance, she could tell they were all new injuries. That man was whipped mercilessly! She also saw blood-stained gauze wrapped around his thigh, and the wound under the gauze was still bleeding.What kind of god would want human flesh to be punished like this?Sister Sandrine knew she would never understand Opus Dei religious observance.But that's not what she's thinking about right now.Opus Dei is looking for the keystone.How they knew, Sister Sandrine couldn't think of an answer, and she didn't have time to think about it.The bloody monk put on his cloak again, and walked toward the altar with his booty, toward the Bible.In the dead silence, Sister Sandrine left the choir platform and hurried back to her room.She lay on the ground, took out an envelope from under the wooden bed, and opened the seal.That envelope was hidden there three years ago.

After opening the envelope, she found four telephone numbers within Paris.She started making calls with trembling hands. Downstairs, Silas placed the slate on the altar and eagerly reached for the Bible.Sweat dripped from his long, pale fingers as he turned the pages.He dug out the "Book of Job" from the "Old Testament" and found Chapter 38.As he pointed down with his finger, he guessed the text he would see. That will show us the way! Found the eleventh verse, but there were only seven words in it.He reread it puzzled, feeling that something was wrong.In this section it just says:

You will get here, but go no further. (HITHERTOSHALTT THOUCOME, BUTNOFURTHER.)