Chapter 87 Chapter 86

There is no light.It was silent. It was dark in the Secret Archives. Fear, Langdon realized now, really was a powerful motivator.Panting heavily, he groped towards the revolving door in the dark.He touched the button on the wall, raised his hand and slapped it desperately, but nothing happened.He tapped again, and the door locked. He just felt dizzy and couldn't see anything. He yelled loudly, but he couldn't breathe. He realized that he was in danger.Due to the lack of oxygen, his nervous heart beat faster.He felt like someone had punched him hard in the stomach. He slammed against the door with all his strength, and for a moment he thought it was starting to spin again.He pushed it again, feeling stares in his eyes all of a sudden, and then he realized that it was the whole room that was rotating, not the door.He staggered as he walked, tripped over a rolling ladder within a few steps, and fell hard.His knee was scratched by the edge of the bookshelf, and he cursed as he got up to reach for the ladder.

He found the ladder.He thought it was some sort of heavy mahogany ladder or a steel ladder or something, but it was just an aluminum ladder.He grabbed the ladder and lifted it up like a siege club. In the dark he ran and smashed at the glass wall.This distance is closer than he expected.The ladder hit the glass all at once and bounced back.Langdon heard the faint crash and knew he needed something to shatter the glass, but it wasn't an aluminum ladder. He suddenly remembered the semi-automatic pistol, and a glimmer of hope came to him, but it was gone. The weapon was gone.In the Pope's office, Olivetti withdrew the pistol on the grounds that it was inappropriate to wear a weapon when the Pope's servants were around.It made sense at the time.

Langdon yelled again, weaker than before. Then he thought of the walkie-talkie the guard had left on the table outside the filing room.Why don't I bring it in!He began to feel dizzy.Bite the bullet and think of a way.You've been grouped before, he told himself, and you've survived worse.You figured it out when you were so young.The darkness came surging like a tide.Think about it!Langdon lowered himself to the ground, then turned to lie on his back with his hands at his sides.The first step is to adjust the body first. Relax.Conserve your energy. With the relief of the heart's blood supply, Langdon's heart was not beating as hard.This is a common trick used by swimmers to oxygenate the blood during intense competition.

There's plenty of air here, he told himself.Enough is enough, now figure it out.He waited, hoping when the lights would come on again.The lights did not come on again.Lying there, he felt that his breathing was much easier, and suddenly, for no apparent reason, he wanted to give up.He felt very peaceful.He tried to dispel that thought. You gotta act, hell!but which way... Mickey Mouse gleamed cheerfully on Langdon's wrist, as if in the dark: 9:33 p.m.There is still half an hour before the "fire".He felt that time was running out.He didn't think of a way to escape, but suddenly he was looking for the reason.Who cut the power?Is Rocher expanding the search?Didn't Olivetti tell him I was here beforehand!Langdon knew at this moment that whatever the cause, the result would be the same.

Langdon opened his mouth, tilted his head back, and took a deep breath with all his might.It seemed as if the air was thinner with each breath.His head cleared.He straightened out his thoughts and forced himself into a state. Glass walls, he said to himself, thick damn glass. He wondered if every book here was stored in thick, fire-resistant steel filing cabinets.It was something Langdon had often seen in other archives, but he didn't see it here.It was a waste of time trying to find a sharp weapon in the dark, no matter what he couldn't move it, let alone in the current state. What about the test score?Langdon knew that this archive room, like the others, should have a testing table in the middle of the bookshelves.So what?He couldn't move it at all.Needless to say, even if it can be moved, it cannot be moved far.The bookshelves are so densely packed that the aisle between them is too narrow.

The aisle is too narrow... Suddenly, he understood. Langdon suddenly gained confidence and jumped to his feet.He was dizzy for a while, his body shook, and he stretched out his hand in the darkness to find a support point.His hand found a bookshelf.He paused, allowing himself to gather some strength.It may take all of his strength to do so. He leaned against the bookshelf the way a football player leans on a practice skateboard, planted his feet, and pushed up.If only I could knock this bookshelf over.But the bookshelf didn't move at all.He readjusted and pushed again, his foot scraping back across the floor.The bookshelf creaked, but remained unmoved.

He needs some strength. Finding the glass wall again, he walked quickly to the other end of the archives with one hand on the wall.Suddenly he hit the wall and knocked his shoulder.Langdon cursed angrily, walked around the bookshelf, and grabbed it at eye level.With one foot on the glass wall and the other on a lower shelf, he began to climb.Books fell from his side one after another, and landed in the dark filing room with a clatter.But he didn't care, the instinct to survive had already made him ignore the rules and regulations of the archives.He felt that the darkness affected his sense of balance, so he simply closed his eyes and ignored everything in front of him.Now he moved faster.The higher he climbed, the thinner the air felt.He climbed to the top of the bookshelf, trying to step on the books, find a firm foothold, and then stand up again. Like a rock climber conquering a broken wall, Langdon finally grasped the top of the bookshelf.He stretched out his legs to push the glass upwards, and his body was almost parallel to the ground at this time.

Don't miss this opportunity, Robert, a voice urged, like doing leg presses in a Harvard gym. He was dizzy for a while, gathered enough strength, put his feet against the wall behind him, supported his body with his hands, pressed his chest against the bookshelf, and then pushed up, but it was of no avail. He took a breath, straightened his legs and tried again, and the bookshelf shook, albeit only slightly.He pushed again, and the bookshelf rocked back and forth an inch or so.Taking advantage of this gap, he took a deep breath, but it seemed that there was no oxygen in the air, so he gasped again.The bookshelf swayed even more.

Like a swing, he said to himself, keep the rhythm, a little more. Langdon rocked the bookshelf, stretching his legs with each push.His muscles ached and he fought back the pain.The bookshelf was swinging back and forth like a pendulum.He encouraged himself, just push it three more times. He only pushed twice. Unexpectedly, he seemed to lose weight suddenly.Then, with a clatter, the book slid off the shelf, and he fell forward with the shelf. Nearly collapsing to the floor, the bookshelf collided with another.Langdon clung to the bookshelf and fell forward, pushing hard on the bookshelf to knock down the second one.The bookshelf didn't move, and he panicked, and then a second bookcase creaked under the weight and collapsed.Langdon fell again.

Like a giant set of dominoes, the bookshelves fell one by one.Metal on metal, books scattered everywhere.Langdon clung to the bookshelf so firmly that the sloping shelf he was holding onto twitched like a ratchet on a crane.He wondered how many bookshelves there were in total and how much did they weigh?The glass wall at the far end is so thick... The first bookshelf is now completely down on the floor.At this time, he heard the sound he had been expecting for a long time-a sound different from the collision just now, the sharp and harsh sound of metal hitting the glass came from the other end of the archive room far away.The whole room shook, and Langdon figured that the other bookshelves must have been crushed on top of the last one, banging hard against the glass.What followed was the shrillest sound Langdon had ever heard.

Then there was silence. There was no sound of glass shattering, just the boom of glass walls as they were struck by bookshelves. He leaned against the bookshelf, his eyes wide open.There was a creaking sound in the distance. Langdon should really hold his breath and listen, but he was out of breath, one second, two seconds... Just when Langdon was about to lose consciousness, he vaguely heard a sound coming from afar... A crack stretched across the glass.Suddenly, the glass shattered like a bombardment, and the bookshelf under Langdon collapsed to the ground. Like rain falling on the desert, countless shards of glass crashed into the darkness.The wind howled and the air rushed in. Thirty seconds later, in the Vatican catacombs, Victoria was still standing in front of the corpse, when the intercom rang loudly, breaking the silence.A harsh and hurried voice came from inside: "This is Robert Langdon! Did you hear me?" Victoria looked up.Robert!She couldn't believe how much she suddenly wished he was here. The guards looked at each other.One of the guards removed the walkie-talkie from his belt. "Is that you, Mr. Langdon? You dialed number three. The commander is waiting for your message on line one." "I know he's on line one, damn it! I don't want to talk to him. I'm going to the Pope's chamberlain. Quick! Call him for me." In the shadowy corner of the Secret Archives, Langdon stood among the shattered glass, trying to catch his breath and take a break.Suddenly he felt warm liquid on his left hand, and knew that his hand was bleeding.The pope's servant's voice suddenly came from the phone, which startled him. "I'm the chamberlain of Pope Ventersk. What's going on?" Langdon pressed the button, his heart still beating fast. "I think someone is going to kill me!" No one responded. Langdon did his best to calm down. "I also know where the next murder is going to happen." It was not the Pope's chamberlain who answered him.It was Commander Olivetti's voice: "Mr. Langdon, stop talking."