The Da Vinci Code PROLOGUE

Louvre Museum, genus Paris 1046 P. M.Renowned curator Jacques Sauniere staggered through the vaulted archway of the museums Grand G entirelyery. He lunged for the nearest painting he could see, a Caravaggio. Grabbing the princely frame, the seventy-six-year-old man heaved the masterpiece toward himself until it tore from the wall and Sauniere collapsed backward in a heap beneath the canvas.As he had anticipated, a thundering press gate reprehensible nearby, barricading the entrance to the suite. The parquet floor shook. Far off, an alarm clock began to ring.The curator lay a moment, gasping for breath, taking stock. I am cool it alive.He crawled out from under the canvas and scanned the cavernous space for virtuallyplace to hide.A voice spoke, chillingly close. Do not move.On his give and knees, the curator froze, play his head slowly.Only fifteen feet away, outside the sealed gate, the mountainous project of his assaulter stared through the iron proscribe. He was broad a nd tall, with ghost-pale skin and turn white hair. His irises were pink with dark red pupils. The albino drew a handgun from his coat and aimed the barrel through the bars, directly at the curator. You should not retain run. His accent was not easy to place. Now tell me where it is.I told you already, the curator stammered, kneeling defenseless on the floor of the gallery. I keep back no idea what you are talking aboutYou are lying. The man stared at him, perfectly immobile except for the glint in his ghostly eyes. You and your brethren bear something that is not yours.The curator matte up a surge of adrenaline. How could he perchance know this?Tonight the rightful guardians will be restored. Tell me where it is hidden, and you will live. The man leveled his gun at the curators head. Is it a secret you will divulge for?Sauniere could not breathe.The man tilted his head, peering down the barrel of his gun.Sauniere held up his hands in defense. Wait, he said slowly. I will tel l you what you demand to know. The curator spoke his next words carefully. The lie he told was unmatched he had rehearsed many times each time praying he would neer have to use it.When the curator had finished speaking, his assailant grind smugly. Yes. This is exactly what the others told me.Sauniere recoiled. The others?I found them, too, the huge man taunted. All three of them. They confirmed what you have just said.It cannot be The curators true identity, along with the identities of his three senechaux, was nigh as sacred as the ancient secret they protected. Sauniere now realized his senechaux, following(a) strict procedure, had told the same lie beforehand their own deaths. It was part of the protocol.The attacker aimed his gun again. When you are g matchless, I will be the except one who knows the truth.The truth.In an instant, the curator grasped the true horror of the situation. If I die, the truth will be lost forever.Instinctively, he tried to scramble for cover.T he gun roared, and the curator felt a searing heat as the bullet lodged in his stomach. He fell forward struggling against the pain. Slowly, Sauniere rolled over and stared back through the bars at his attacker.The man was now taking dead aim at Saunieres head.Sauniere closed his eyes, his thoughts a swirling tempest of fear and regret. The click of an empty sleeping accommodation echoed through the corridor. The curators eyes flew open.The man glanced down at his weapon, looking al roughly amused. He reached for a second clip, but then seemed to reconsider, smirking calmly at Saunieres gut. My work here is done.The curator looked down and saw the bullet maw in his white linen shirt. It was framed by a low-pitched circle of blood a few inches below his breastbone. My stomach.Almost cruelly, the bullet had miss his heart. As a veteran of la Guerre dAlgerie, the curator had witnessed this horribly lengthened death before. For fifteen minutes, he would survive as his stomach acids se eped into his titty cavity, slowly poisoning him from within.Pain is good, monsieur, the man said. Then he was gone. only now, Jacques Sauniere turned his gaze again to the iron gate. He was trapped, and the doors could not be reopened for at least twenty minutes. By the time anyone got to him, he would be dead. Even so, the fear that now gripped him was a fear far greater than that of his own death.I must pass on the secret.Staggering to his feet, he pictured his three murdered brethren. He thought of the generations who had come before them of the mission with which they had all been entrusted.An unbroken chain of knowledge.Suddenly, now, disdain all the precautions despite all the fail-safes Jacques Sauniere was the only remain link, the sole guardian of one of the most powerful secrets ever kept.Shivering, he pulled himself to his feet.I must find some way .He was trapped inside the Grand Gallery, and there existed only one person on earth to whom he could pass the torch. Sa uniere gazed up at the walls of his opulent prison. A collection of the worlds most famous paintings seemed to smile down on him like old friends.Wincing in pain, he summoned all of his faculties and strength. The desperate task before him, he knew, would require every remaining second of his life.