Chapter 32 Chapter Thirty

Security guard Claude Gruard stood in front of the "Mona Lisa", looking at the subdued captive with great anger.The bastard killed Jacques Saunière.Saunière was like a loving father to Gruard and the entire security team. Gruard wanted to pull the trigger immediately, to shoot Robert Langdon in the back.Gruard was one of the few senior security guards who was actually armed.But he reminded himself that it would have been easier for him to kill Langdon instead of subjecting him to Bezu Fache's interrogation and jail time. Gruard pulled out the walkie-talkie on his waist and shouted for help.But there's just loud static on the intercom.The added security in this showroom always interferes with the communications of the security guards.I must go to the door.Gruard stepped back toward the door, pointing the gun at Langdon.Just a few steps back, he noticed something and stopped.

what is that? A strange apparition appeared in the middle of the exhibition hall.a figure.Is there anyone else?A woman walks briskly through the darkness toward the far left wall.She was shaking the purple light back and forth in front of her, as if she was looking for something sensitive. "Who?" Gruard yelled, getting extremely nervous again.For a moment, he didn't know who to point the gun at, and he didn't know where to move. "PTS." The woman replied calmly, still shaking the purple light, scanning the ground. Science and Technology Police (PoliceTechnique et Scientifique).Gruard broke out in a cold sweat.I thought all the cops were gone!Only then did he remember that the purple light was an ultraviolet light, and the science and technology police always carried that guy, but he still didn't understand why the police station was looking for evidence here.

"What's your name?" Intuition told Gruard that this matter was strange. "Say it!" "My name is Sophie Neveu," the man replied calmly in French. The name stuck a little in the back of Gruard's memory.Sophie Neveu?Isn't that the name of Saunière's granddaughter?She used to come here when she was very young, but that was a long time ago.It can't be her!Even if she were Sophie Neveu, she could not be trusted, because Gruard had already heard that Saunière and his granddaughter had broken up. "You know who I am," the woman said aloud, "Robert is not a murderer. Please believe me." Claude Gruard had no intention of taking her words seriously.I need support!He listened to the intercom again, but there was still static.He was still a good twenty yards from the exit, still pointing the gun at Langdon, who was sprawled on the ground, and backed away.As he backed away, he paid attention to Sophie, who was holding up the ultraviolet light and looking carefully at the large oil painting hanging opposite the "Mona Lisa".

Gruard gasped when he realized what painting it was. God, what the hell is she trying to do? Sophie stood at the other end of the exhibition hall, with cold sweat on her forehead.Langdon was still sprawled on the ground—like an eagle with outspread wings.Hang in there, Robert.Knowing that Gruard wasn't going to shoot them, Sophie turned her attention back to the problem at hand.She purposely scans another da Vinci painting with an ultraviolet light.She scanned the floor in front of the painting, the surrounding walls, and the painting itself, but found nothing. There must be something here!

Sophie was convinced she could correctly understand her grandfather's intentions. What else might he tell me? The five-foot-tall canvas she was examining showed the Virgin Mary seated holding the baby Jesus, John the Baptist and the angel Uriel standing on a cliff.When I was a child, every time I saw the "Mona Lisa", my grandfather would pull Sophie to this end of the exhibition hall to have a look at the painting as well. Grandpa, here I come!But I didn't see anything! Sophie heard Gruard calling for backup on the walkie-talkie again. Think quickly! The scrawled writing on the protective glass of the Mona Lisa came back to her mind.How dark is the deception of men.The painting in front of her didn't have a protective glass for writing messages, and Sophie knew that her grandfather would never write directly on the painting and damage the artwork.She froze for a moment.At least not on the front.She looked up at the wire rope hanging from the roof to hang the paintings.

Could it be behind the painting?She grabbed the wooden frame of the oil painting and pulled the painting towards her.The painting was large, and the canvas bowed forward as Sophie lifted it off the wall.Sophie stuck her head and shoulders behind the canvas and held up the UV lamp to examine the back of the painting. Soon, Sophie realized that she was wrong.The back of the oil painting is blank, there is no purple photosensitive text, only dots of brown stains on the old canvas—— wait a minute. Sophie suddenly saw a metallic object shining brightly on the wooden frame near the bottom of the painting.That thing is small, embedded in the gap between the wooden frame and the canvas, and dragging a shining gold chain.

To Sophie's astonishment, it was the chain that hung on the golden key.The handle of the key is cross-shaped, and the front is also engraved with the pattern of French lilies and the initials PS. This is the first time Sophie has seen it since she was nine years old.At that moment, Sophie seemed to hear the ghost of her grandfather whispering in her ear: One day, I will give it to you.Sophie's throat seemed to be choked with something, and her grandfather was dead, keeping his promise.She heard her grandfather say that it was used to open a box in which many of my secrets were hidden.

Only then did Sophie realize that the word games tonight were all for this key.When my grandfather was killed, he still had that key with him.He didn't want the key to fall into the hands of the police, so he hid it here, and carefully designed the "treasure hunt" code to ensure that Sophie - and only Sophie - could find it. "Backup!" Gruard yelled. Sophie took the key from the back of the painting and put it, along with the UV light, deep in her pocket.She glanced back to see that Gruard was still desperately trying to get help over the walkie-talkie.He turned his back to the exit, still pointing the gun at Langdon.

"Backup!" Gruard yelled again. Only the noise of static. He couldn't get in touch with anyone, Sophie was sure of it, because she knew tourists who tried to show their families on their cellphones that they had seen the Mona Lisa here often couldn't do so.The special monitoring lines on the wall make the mobile communication equipment unable to work normally. If you want to make a call, you have to go out of the exhibition hall and stand in the corridor.As Gruard hurried out of the showroom doors, Sophie realized she should act now. Looking up at the large oil painting that partially covered her body, Sophie thought to herself: Looks like da Vinci is going to help us a second time tonight.

After walking a few meters, Gruard secretly told himself to keep his gun steady. "Don't move! Otherwise, I'll destroy it!" The woman's voice echoed in the exhibition hall. Gruard followed the prestige and stopped. "My God, no!" Through the misty red light, he saw that the woman had taken the large oil painting off the rope and put it in front of her.The five-foot-high painting nearly blocked her.Gruard was surprised at first—why wasn't the wire on the sling connected to the alarm?Then he remembered that the alarm system in the art gallery hadn't been restarted tonight.What is she doing!

Gruard looked at everything in front of him, so surprised that his blood was about to freeze. The center of the canvas began to bulge, and the delicate lines that outlined the Virgin Mary, the infant Jesus, and John the Baptist began to distort. "No!" exclaimed Gruard in horror, watching Leonardo da Vinci's priceless painting being tossed like this, with the woman kneeling on the canvas from the back! "No!" Gruard turned quickly and pointed the gun at Sophie, but he knew immediately that it was futile.Although the canvas is made of fibers, it's actually unbreakable -- it's covered in a $6 million protective layer.I can't take a shot at da Vinci's work! "Put down your guns and walkie-talkies," Sophie said quietly in French, "or I'll smash this painting on my knees. You must know how it feels if your grandfather is alive." Gruard was at a loss. "Please... no. That's Madonna of the Rocks!" He dropped the gun and walkie-talkie on the ground and raised his hands above his head. "Thank you," said Sophie. "Now do as I say, and everything will be fine." A few minutes later, Langdon's heart was still beating wildly when Langdon and Sophie fled into the emergency stairwell. They left the trembling security guards and escaped from the national exhibition hall without saying a word. .Langdon was still clutching the security guard's pistol, though he couldn't wait to throw it away because it felt weird because it was heavy and dangerous. As Langdon ran away, he wondered if Sophie knew the value of the painting she had nearly destroyed.The painting she had chosen had something to do with tonight's adventure.The painting she held, like the Mona Lisa, has drawn much negative criticism from historians for hiding too many pagan symbolism. "Your chosen 'hostage' is priceless," Langdon said as he ran. "Madonna of the Rocks," replied Sophie, "I didn't choose it, it was my grandfather. He left me a little thing behind that painting." Langdon gave her a surprised look. "What? How did you know it was that painting? Why Madonna of the Rocks?" "How dark a man's deceit is," Sophie smiled smugly. "Robert, I missed the first two crosswords, but I won't miss the third."