Summary: Silas holds Sophie and Teabing at gunpoint, demanding the keystone. Sophie briefly wonders why Rémy is not intervening. Teabing tries to reason with Silas—offering money, pointing out the monk’s injuries (from his cilice)—but the monk will not be deterred. Teabing acts as thoughe is about to drop the heavy keystone; when Silas moves to catches it, Teabing trips the monk with a crutch, sending him crashing to the floor. Silas shoots his gun, but the bullet lodges in the floorboard. Rémy enters; Teabing orders his manservant not to call the police, but to get something with which to restrain Silas. Returning to consciousness, Langdon sees Silas’ cilice and realizes that the albino is a numerary member of Opus Dei.
Meanwhile, hearing the gunshot, Collet decides he will not wait for Fache to arrive, as ordered. He calls for his men to tear down the estate’s iron gate. Inside the house, Teabing, Langdon and Sophie hear the police making their move.
Analysis: Teabing and Silas emerge almost as mirrors of each other in this chapter: when Teabing points out that Silas is limping, Silas points out that Teabing, too, is crippled. Both men also have very clear ideas about who is “worthy” to open the keystone and find the Grail: Teabing states, “Only the worthy can unlock this stone,” while Silas thinks, “God alone judges the worthy” (p. 300)—yet neither man questions the assumption that some are worthy while others are not. This pairing of wounded seekers of the Grail who harbor personal judgments about worth and unworthy may be a further stage in preparing readers for the eventual revelation of Teabing as an antagonist. We do, after all, see his capacity for deceit in this chapter; he feints the dropping of the keystone that leads to his being able to knock Silas down with his crutch. About that action, Teabing comments, “…I’ve just demonstrated for [Sophie] the unfortunate benefit of my condition. It seems everyone underestimates you” (p. 302)—including at this point, perhaps, the novel’s readers!
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