"Brown, Dan - Angels and Demons" - читать интересную книгу автора (Brown Dan)

Wearily, he returned his empty mug to the kitchen and walked slowly to his oak-paneled study. The
incoming fax lay in the tray. Sighing, he scooped up the paper and looked at it.
Instantly, a wave of nausea hit him.
The image on the page was that of a human corpse. The body had been stripped naked, and its head had
been twisted, facing completely backward. On the victim's chest was a terrible burn. The man had been
branded . . . imprinted with a single word. It was a word Langdon knew well. Very well. He stared at the
ornate lettering in disbelief.



"Illuminati," he stammered, his heart pounding. It can't be . . .
In slow motion, afraid of what he was about to witness, Langdon rotated the fax 180 degrees. He looked at
the word upside down.
Instantly, the breath went out of him. It was like he had been hit by a truck. Barely able to believe his eyes,
he rotated the fax again, reading the brand right-side up and then upside down.
"Illuminati," he whispered.
Stunned, Langdon collapsed in a chair. He sat a moment in utter bewilderment. Gradually, his eyes were
drawn to the blinking red light on his fax machine. Whoever had sent this fax was still on the line . . .
waiting to talk. Langdon gazed at the blinking light a long time.
Then, trembling, he picked up the receiver.
2
Do I have your attention now?" the man's voice said when Langdon finally answered the line.
"Yes, sir, you damn well do. You want to explain yourself?"
"I tried to tell you before." The voice was rigid, mechanical. "I'm a physicist. I run a research facility.
We've had a murder. You saw the body."
"How did you find me?" Langdon could barely focus. His mind was racing from the image on the fax.
"I already told you. The Worldwide Web. The site for your book, The Art of the Illuminati."
Langdon tried to gather his thoughts. His book was virtually unknown in mainstream literary circles, but it
had developed quite a following on-line. Nonetheless, the caller's claim still made no sense. "That page has
no contact information," Langdon challenged. "I'm certain of it."
"I have people here at the lab very adept at extracting user information from the Web."
Langdon was skeptical. "Sounds like your lab knows a lot about the Web."
"We should," the man fired back. "We invented it."
Something in the man's voice told Langdon he was not joking.
"I must see you," the caller insisted. "This is not a matter we can discuss on the phone. My lab is only an
hour's flight from Boston."
Langdon stood in the dim light of his study and analyzed the fax in his hand. The image was overpowering,
possibly representing the epigraphical find of the century, a decade of his research confirmed in a single
symbol.
"It's urgent," the voice pressured.
Langdon's eyes were locked on the brand. Illuminati, he read over and over. His work had always been
based on the symbolic equivalent of fossils-ancient documents and historical hearsay-but this image before
him was today. Present tense. He felt like a paleontologist coming face to face with a living dinosaur.
"I've taken the liberty of sending a plane for you," the voice said. "It will be in Boston in twenty minutes."
Langdon felt his mouth go dry. An hour's flight . . .
"Please forgive my presumption," the voice said. "I need you here."
Langdon looked again at the fax-an ancient myth confirmed in black and white. The implications were
frightening. He gazed absently through the bay window. The first hint of dawn was sifting through the
birch trees in his backyard, but the view looked somehow different this morning. As an odd combination of
fear and exhilaration settled over him, Langdon knew he had no choice.