Angels & Demons - Hassaan Bin Khalil

19
Vetra’s lab was wildly futuristic.
Stark white and bounded on all sides by computers and specialized electronic equipment, it looked
like some sort of operating room. Langdon wondered what secrets this place could possibly hold to
justify cutting out someone’s eye to gain entrance.
Kohler looked uneasy as they entered, his eyes seeming to dart about for signs of an intruder. But the
lab was deserted. Vittoria moved slowly too… as if the lab felt unknown without her father there.
Langdon’s gaze landed immediately in the center of the room, where a series of short pillars rose
from the floor. Like a miniature Stonehenge, a dozen or so columns of polished steel stood in a circle in
the middle of the room. The pillars were about three feet tall, reminding Langdon of museum displays
for valuable gems. These pillars, however, were clearly not for precious stones. Each supported a thick,
transparent canister about the size of a tennis ball can. They appeared empty.
Kohler eyed the canisters, looking puzzled. He apparently decided to ignore them for the time being.
He turned to Vittoria. “Has anything been stolen?”
“Stolen? How?” she argued. “The retina scan only allows entry to us.”
“Just look around.”
Vittoria sighed and surveyed the room for a few moments. She shrugged. “Everything looks as my
father always leaves it. Ordered chaos.”
Langdon sensed Kohler weighing his options, as if wondering how far to push Vittoria… how much
to tell her. Apparently he decided to leave it for the moment. Moving his wheelchair toward the center
of the room, he surveyed the mysterious cluster of seemingly empty canisters.
“Secrets,” Kohler finally said, “are a luxury we can no longer afford.”
Vittoria nodded in acquiescence, looking suddenly emotional, as if being here brought with it a
torrent of memories.
Give her a minute, Langdon thought.
As though preparing for what she was about to reveal, Vittoria closed her eyes and breathed. Then
she breathed again. And again. And again…
Langdon watched her, suddenly concerned. Is she okay? He glanced at Kohler, who appeared
unfazed, apparently having seen this ritual before. Ten seconds passed before Vittoria opened her eyes.
Langdon could not believe the metamorphosis. Vittoria Vetra had been transformed. Her full lips
were lax, her shoulders down, and her eyes soft and assenting. It was as though she had realigned every
muscle in her body to accept the situation. The resentful fire and personal anguish had been quelled
somehow beneath a deeper, watery cool.
“Where to begin…” she said, her accent unruffled.
“At the beginning,” Kohler said. “Tell us about your father’s experiment.”
“Rectifying science with religion has been my father’s life dream,” Vittoria said. “He hoped to prove
that science and religion are two totally compatible fields—two different approaches to finding the
same truth.” She paused as if unable to believe what she was about to say. “And recently… he
conceived of a way to do that.”
Kohler said nothing.
“He devised an experiment, one he hoped would settle one of the most bitter conflicts in the history
of science and religion.”
Langdon wondered which conflict she could mean. There were so many.
“Creationism,” Vittoria declared. “The battle over how the universe came to be.”
Oh, Langdon thought. The debate.
“The Bible, of course, states that God created the universe,” she explained. “God said, ‘Let there be
light,’ and everything we see appeared out of a vast emptiness. Unfortunately, one of the fundamental