Summary: Rémy drives Teabing, Langdon, and Sophie—and Silas, bound in the back seat—away from Teabing’s estate, through the thick, surrounding forest, in a Range Rover. The group drives to Teabing’s private jet; Teabing announces they will fly to England, for he is convinced England is the location of the Grail.
Analysis: Teabing seems positively delighted in this chapter to have been swept up in Langdon and Sophie’s adventure: “I’ve waited my entire life to be involved,” he states (p. 306). “An adventure, Rémy, I say, an adventure!” (p. 310) Teabing’s “infectious enthusiasm” (p. 310) for the chase, however, could cast doubt on some of his actions. When, for example, he persuades Langdon not to examine the keystone box further as they make their escape, does he only do so because the group should “focus on getting away in one piece” (p. 308), or also because he wants to delay the unlocking of any further Grail secrets, perhaps hoping to claim them for himself? Similarly, notice how Teabing plants the suggestion in Langdon’s mind that Silas has “a contact either within the Judicial Police or within the Zurich Depository” (p. 308)—perhaps an honest speculation, but perhaps also a bit of misdirection, deflecting suspicion away from himself as Silas’ contact. Langdon’s relief that he has “landed in such good company” (p. 310) will prove itself a moment of dramatic irony before the novel’s end. (Similarly, the chapter contains a rather forced moment of foreshadowing: Silas, despairing that his captors have the Priory keystone, prays for a miracle, having “no way of knowing that hours from now, he would get one” (p. 312).
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