Columbia University–Trinity Gate – 12:03 p.m.
The black iron gate stood quiet, its historic frame casting twisted shadows on the sidewalk. Langdon had passed beneath it dozens of times during lectures and symbology conferences—but never like this.
Now he was chasing a ghost.
Lenka paused beside the stone pillar. "This entrance was rebuilt after the 1930s.
Why would the clue lead here?" Langdon knelt by the left column, running his fingers across the cold masonry.
"Because the new gate was placed directly over the entrance to the old Trinitatis Chapel. They sealed the catacombs after a fire." He pressed on a discoloured brick. A soft mechanical click answered.
The column shifted—an almost imperceptible sound. Beneath the shrubbery to the left, a rusted steel trapdoor was exposed.
"Someone's been here recently," Lenka said, brushing away fresh footprints.
They descended a narrow stairwell into darkness. Dust choked the air. Langdon switched on a flashlight, illuminating faded frescoes—Hermes, Prometheus, and Sophia, the personification of wisdom.
Then they saw it.
A chamber, circular, lined with old books and chalk diagrams. A cube sat at its centre, identical to Katherine's lost prototype.
It was humming.
Lenka stepped forward. "There's someone here." A figure sat slumped against the wall. Gray hair. Blood-stained jacket.
Langdon froze. "Lucius…" The man was barely alive. His eyes fluttered open.
"She… hid it from them," he rasped. "The real Corpus Mentis. Not this prototype." "Where?" Langdon asked, kneeling beside him.
Lucius gripped Langdon's wrist. "She left it... in the library... beneath the statue of Truth." And then his body went still.
Lenka cursed under her breath. "Statue of Truth?" Langdon stood, heart racing. "The sculpture Katherine used to cite in her lectures.
Veritas, holding the mirror and the torch. It's in the Butler Library." They turned to go—just as a voice echoed from behind the stone columns.
"You're too late." Langdon turned.
The man in the porcelain spiral-mask emerged from the shadows, blade in hand.