Chapter 51 Chapter 50

Robert Langdon stood outside the file room number nine, looking at the labels on the bookshelves. ... ... Copernicus ... ... Newton ... He repeated the names again, feeling suddenly uneasy.Scientists here...but where's Galileo?"I found the subject, but nothing for Galileo," he said to Victoria, who was examining the collection in the adjacent archives. "He's not there." She said, frowning and pointing to the file room next to her. "Here he is. But I wish you had brought your magnifying glass. The whole file room is his." Langdon ran over to see that Victoria was right. Every sign in No. 10 archive room had the same keyword written on it.

The Galileo Proceedings Langdon let out a low whistle, and now he realized why Galileo had a dedicated archive. "The Galileo incident," he stared at the dark bookshelf through the glass wall in astonishment, "the longest and most expensive legal case in the history of the Holy See, which lasted fourteen years and cost 600 million lire , it's all here." "There are some legal documents." "I guess there were not many lawyers in those hundreds of years." "There are not many people who know how to do it." Langdon walked over to a large yellow button on the side of the archive room. He pressed the button, and a series of overhead lights in the archive room "buzzed" on.The lights were deep crimson, turning the Archives into a glowing red room... a maze of tall bookshelves.

"My God," said Victoria, startled, "are we sunbathing or working?" "The parchment is easy to fade, so the archives are all lit with dim lighting." "You'll go crazy in there." or worse.Langdon pondered, and walked towards the only entrance to the archives. "Remind you, oxygen is an oxidizing agent, and the oxygen content in the sealed archive room is very low, and it is almost a vacuum inside. You will find it difficult to breathe after entering." "Hey, old cardinals can make it through." That's right, Langdon thought, and good luck to us, too.

There is only one electronic revolving door at the entrance of the archives.Langdon noticed four access buttons, one for each compartment, distributed along the inner shaft of the door.At the push of a button, the motorized door is activated and remains half-rotated until it comes to a slow stop—usually done to keep the air pressure inside constant. "Once I'm inside," Langdon said, "you push the button and follow me in. The humidity inside is only eight percent, so prepare your mouth to feel dry." Langdon stepped into the rotating compartment and pressed a button.The door made a loud "buzzing" sound and began to turn.Langdon stepped inside as the door swung, bracing himself against the dizziness of the first few seconds of entering the chamber.Entering a sealed archive is like rising 20,000 feet from sea level, and it's normal to feel sick and dizzy.Doubled, bent over, he reminded himself of the archivist's spell.Langdon felt his eardrums swell, and only heard a "hissing" airflow, and the door turned and stopped.

Langdon was inside. He realized immediately that the air here was thinner than he had expected.It seems that the Holy See is too serious about their archives.The capillaries in Langdon's lungs dilated. He suppressed the gag response and relaxed his chest. The urgency quickly disappeared. "Dolphin" came on the stage, and he thought to himself, complacently thinking that it would be worthwhile to swim back and forth fifty times a day.His breathing was much more normal now, and he glanced around the file room.Despite the transparency of the outer walls, he felt a familiar anxiety.I'm in a box, he thought, a blood-red box.

The door buzzed open behind him, and Langdon turned to see Victoria entering.Her eyes watered as soon as she came in, and her breathing became labored. "Wait a minute," Langdon said, "bend over if you feel dizzy." "I...felt..." Victoria choked out, "like I...scuba diving...jumped into some other...mixture." Langdon waited for her to adjust, knowing she would be fine.Victoria Wittler was clearly in good shape, not at all like her old school friend Radcliffe, who walked with a trembling old age. Langdon had accompanied the alumnus to the back room of Widener Library, a trip to the library that ended with Langdon giving mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to an elderly woman whose dentures were nearly sucked out. .

"Is it better?" he asked. Victoria nodded. "I was on your hapless shuttle, so I guess I have to thank you." This brought a smile. "well said." Langdon reached into the box by the door and pulled out several white cotton gloves. "So formal?" Victoria asked. "There's acid on your fingers and you can't touch the documents directly. You have to wear a pair, too." Victoria put on gloves. "How much time do we have?" Langdon checked his Mickey Mouse watch. "It's just after seven o'clock." "We're going to find that in an hour."

"Actually," Langdon said, "we don't have that much time." Pointing to an overhead filter, he said, "the curator usually turns on the reoxygenation system when there are people in the archives, but not today. Twenty minutes later, we're both out of breath." Victoria's face turned pale with fright, which was particularly conspicuous under the red light. Langdon smiled, smoothing his glove. "Prove or live. Ms. Wittler. Mickey Mouse is ticking away."

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