As the Hawker leveled off, with its nose aimed for England, Langdon carefully lifted the rosewoodbox from his lap, where he had been protecting it during takeoff. Now, as he set the box on thetable, he could sense Sophie and Teabing leaning forward with anticipation1.
Unlatching the lid and opening the box, Langdon turned his attention not to the lettered dials of thecryptex, but rather to the tiny hole on the underside of the box lid. Using the tip of a pen, hecarefully removed the inlaid Rose on top and revealed the text beneath it. Sub Rosa, he mused,hoping a fresh look at the text would bring clarity. Focusing all his energies, Langdon studied thestrange text.
strange textAfter several seconds, he began to feel the initial frustration2 resurfacing. "Leigh, I just can't seem toplace it."From where Sophie was seated across the table, she could not yet see the text, but Langdon'sinability to immediately identify the language surprised her. My grandfather spoke3 a language soobscure that even a symbologist can't identify it? She quickly realized she should not find thissurprising. This would not be the first secret Jacques Saunière had kept from his granddaughter.
Opposite Sophie, Leigh Teabing felt ready to burst. Eager for his chance to see the text, hequivered with excitement, leaning in, trying to see around Langdon, who was still hunched4 over thebox.
"I don't know," Langdon whispered intently. "My first guess is a Semitic, but now I'm not so sure.
Most primary Semitics include nekkudot. This has none.""Probably ancient," Teabing offered.
"Nekkudot?" Sophie inquired.
Teabing never took his eyes from the box. "Most modern Semitic alphabets have no vowels5 anduse nekkudot—tiny dots and dashes written either below or within the consonants—to indicatewhat vowel6 sound accompanies them. Historically speaking, nekkudot are a relatively7 modernaddition to language."Langdon was still hovering8 over the script. "A Sephardic transliteration, perhaps...?"Teabing could bear it no longer. "Perhaps if I just..." Reaching over, he edged the box away fromLangdon and pulled it toward himself. No doubt Langdon had a solid familiarity with the standardancients—Greek, Latin, the Romances—but from the fleeting9 glance Teabing had of this language,he thought it looked more specialized10, possibly a Rashi script or a STA'M with crowns.
Taking a deep breath, Teabing feasted his eyes upon the engraving11. He said nothing for a very longtime. With each passing second, Teabing felt his confidence deflating. "I'm astonished," he said.
"This language looks like nothing I've ever seen!"Langdon slumped12.
"Might I see it?" Sophie asked.
Teabing pretended not to hear her. "Robert, you said earlier that you thought you'd seen somethinglike this before?"Langdon looked vexed13. "I thought so. I'm not sure. The script looks familiar somehow.""Leigh?" Sophie repeated, clearly not appreciating being left out of the discussion. "Might I have alook at the box my grandfather made?""Of course, dear," Teabing said, pushing it over to her. He hadn't meant to sound belittling14, and yetSophie Neveu was light-years out of her league. If a British Royal Historian and a Harvardsymbologist could not even identify the language—"Aah," Sophie said, seconds after examining the box. "I should have guessed."Teabing and Langdon turned in unison15, staring at her.
"Guessed what?" Teabing demanded.
Sophie shrugged16. "Guessed that this would be the language my grandfather would have used.""You're saying you can read this text?" Teabing exclaimed.
"Quite easily," Sophie chimed, obviously enjoying herself now. "My grandfather taught me thislanguage when I was only six years old. I'm fluent." She leaned across the table and fixed17 Teabingwith an admonishing18 glare. "And frankly19, sir, considering your allegiance to the Crown, I'm a littlesurprised you didn't recognize it."In a flash, Langdon knew.
No wonder the script looks so damned familiar!
Several years ago, Langdon had attended an event at Harvard's Fogg Museum. Harvard dropoutBill Gates had returned to his alma mater to lend to the museum one of his pricelessacquisitions—eighteen sheets of paper he had recently purchased at auction20 from the ArmandHammar Estate.
His winning bid—a cool $30.8 million.
The author of the pages—Leonardo da Vinci.
The eighteen folios—now known as Leonardo's Codex Leicester after their famous owner, the Earlof Leicester—were all that remained of one of Leonardo's most fascinating notebooks: essays anddrawings outlining Da Vinci's progressive theories on astronomy, geology, archaeology21, andhydrology.
Langdon would never forget his reaction after waiting in line and finally viewing the pricelessparchment. Utter letdown. The pages were unintelligible22. Despite being beautifully preserved andwritten in an impeccably neat penmanship—crimson ink on cream paper—the codex looked likegibberish. At first Langdon thought he could not read them because Da Vinci wrote his notebooksin an archaic23 Italian. But after studying them more closely, he realized he could not identify asingle Italian word, or even one letter.
"Try this, sir," whispered the female docent at the display case. She motioned to a hand mirroraffixed to the display on a chain. Langdon picked it up and examined the text in the mirror'ssurface.
Instantly it was clear.
Langdon had been so eager to peruse24 some of the great thinker's ideas that he had forgotten one ofthe man's numerous artistic25 talents was an ability to write in a mirrored script that was virtuallyillegible to anyone other than himself. Historians still debated whether Da Vinci wrote this waysimply to amuse himself or to keep people from peering over his shoulder and stealing his ideas,but the point was moot26. Da Vinci did as he pleased.
Sophie smiled inwardly to see that Robert understood her meaning. "I can read the first fewwords," she said. "It's English."Teabing was still sputtering27. "What's going on?""Reverse text," Langdon said. "We need a mirror.""No we don't," Sophie said. "I bet this veneer28 is thin enough." She lifted the rosewood box up to acanister light on the wall and began examining the underside of the lid. Her grandfather couldn'tactually write in reverse, so he always cheated by writing normally and then flipping29 the paper overand tracing the reversed impression. Sophie's guess was that he had wood-burned normal text intoa block of wood and then run the back of the block through a sander until the wood was paper thinand the wood-burning could be seen through the wood. Then he'd simply flipped30 the piece over,and laid it in.
As Sophie moved the lid closer to the light, she saw she was right. The bright beam sifted31 throughthe thin layer of wood, and the script appeared in reverse on the underside of the lid.
Instantly legible.
"English," Teabing croaked32, hanging his head in shame. "My native tongue."At the rear of the plane, Rémy Legaludec strained to hear beyond the rumbling33 engines, but theconversation up front was inaudible. Rémy did not like the way the night was progressing. Not atall. He looked down at the bound monk34 at his feet. The man lay perfectly35 still now, as if in a tranceof acceptance, or perhaps, in silent prayer for deliverance.
“猎鹰者”号腾空而起，向英格兰方向飞去。兰登小心翼翼地将紫檀木盒子从膝盖上举起来。刚才飞机起飞时，他就一直把它放在膝盖上，保护着它。他把盒子放到桌上，他才察觉到索菲与提彬都满怀期待地俯过身来。
兰登揭开盖子，把盒子打开，他没把注意力放到密码盒的标有字母的刻度盘上，而是集中到盒盖下侧的小洞上。他用钢笔尖非常谨慎地移开顶部的玫瑰镶嵌物，露出了下面的文字。这可是秘密啊，他沉吟道。他希望如果再把这段文字看上一眼，就能使他豁然开朗。兰登几乎费了九牛二虎之力研究这段怪异的文字。
过了好几秒钟，兰登觉得原先的困扰又重新浮上了水面。“雷爵士，我怎么连一个字也不认识啊。”
索菲坐在桌子对面，她坐着的地方是看不到那段文字的，但是兰登不能马上把那段文字辨认出来，这还是令她大为惊讶。我祖父使用的语言就这么难懂？连符号学专家也不能辨认出来？不过，她很快就意识到根本不应该对此大惊小怪。雅克·索尼埃向他的孙女隐瞒秘密，又不是一两次了。
雷·提彬坐在索菲的对面，感到人都快爆炸了。他急于想看看那段文字，由于激动，他全身颤抖起来。他俯过身，努力想看看兰登旁边都有些什么东西，但后者仍然猫着腰趴在盒子上。
“我搞不懂。”兰登目光专注地嘀咕着：“一开始我还以为是闪族语，但现在我不太肯定了，因为大多数早期闪族语都有聂库多字符，但这个没有。”
“可能是很古老的吧。”提彬在一边提醒他。
“聂库多字符？”索菲问道。
提彬的眼睛一刻也没有离开那个盒子。
“大多数现代闪族语字母中没有元音，而用聂库多字符——在辅音字母下面或者中间画上一些很小的圆点和短线条——来标明与它们相对应的元音符号。站在历史的角度上看，聂库多字符是一种对语言的相对先进的补充。”
兰登的身子还俯在那手迹上。“莫非是西班牙系犹太人直译过来的文字——？”
提彬再也受不了了，他大声叫嚷起来：“或许如果是我……”他伸出手来，一把将盒子从兰登身边挪开，往自己身边拉了过去。诚然，兰登对那些正儿八经的历史陈迹——比如古希腊语、拉丁语还有罗曼史（即传奇文学）什么的——颇有研究，然而提彬只消飞快的看上一眼，便对这种文字有所了解。他觉得这些文字看起来更特别，也许是拉希手迹，或者是顶部带花冠的花蕊。
提彬深吸了一口气，他贪婪的注视着雕刻在盒子上的刻图。很长时间一句话也没有说。随着时光的流逝，提彬觉得信心逐渐消失了。“太让我吃惊了，这种文字我竟然似乎从没有看过。”
兰登颓然地倒了下去。
“我可以看看吗？”索菲问道。
提彬假装没有听见。“罗伯特，刚才你不是说你以前好像在哪里见过类似的东西吗？”
兰登颇为为难。“我以为是这样的，可我不敢肯定，不过我总觉得这手稿很眼熟的。”
“雷爵士，我可以看看我祖父的盒子吗？”索菲又问了一遍，似乎对将她冷落在一边而感到很不高兴。
“亲爱的，当然可以。”提彬说着，便把盒子推给了她。他的语气里并没有轻慢的意思，然而索菲·奈芙已经多年没有重操旧业了。如果连英国皇家历史学家以及哈佛大学毕业的符号学家都不能识别这种文字，那么——
“啊，”索菲打量了盒子一会，叫道：“我本来应该猜到的。”
提彬与兰登齐刷刷的转过身来，直盯着她。
“快说，你猜到啥？”提彬开口问道。
索菲耸了耸肩，说：“我还以为是我祖父原本应该采用的文字呢。”
“你是说你能看懂？”提彬喊了起来。
“这很容易。”索菲欢快的叫着，很明显她正沾沾自喜。“我六岁时祖父就教我这种文字了，我熟练的很呢。”她从桌子对面趴下身来，以一种警告的眼神定定的注视着提彬：“阁下，坦率地说，亏你对女王陛下还这么忠诚，你竟然没把它认出来，我真感到惊奇。”
兰登像闪电一样很快地明白过来。
他妈的怪不得字迹看起来这么熟悉。
几年前，兰登参加了在哈佛大学的霍格博物馆举行的一次活动。比尔·盖茨，一位中途从哈佛大学辍学的学生，回到他的母校，将他购得的极其昂贵的宝贝——最近他从阿曼德·哈默艺术博物馆举行的拍卖会上竞拍得到的18幅画稿——借给该博物馆。
他竞拍到的价格高的惊人——达30,800,800美元。
而这些画稿的作者，就是列昂纳多·达·芬奇。
这18由列昂纳多创作的、以它们的主人莱斯特伯爵命名的、如今被世人称做莱斯特抄本的画稿，是至今尚存的列昂纳多最具魅力的笔记的一部分：他的随笔和绘画勾勒出了他在天文学、地质学、考古学以及水文学方面的进步理论的大致轮廓。
兰登不会忘记他在排队后终于见到那堪称稀世珍品的羊皮纸画稿时所作出的反应。他心里别提有多失望。这些画稿实在令人难以理解。尽管它们保存完好，并以特别清秀的书法写就——是以粉红色的墨水在米色布纸上画成的——该抄本看起来仍然像是胡言乱语。最初兰登还以为他看不懂达·芬奇的笔记是因为他使用的是已经过时的意大利语。但经过进一步的仔细研究，他意识到他不但连一个意大利语单词都不认识，甚至连一个字母都不认识。
“先生，你先试试这个。”展览台前的女讲解员低声说道。她朝一面附在被链子套住的展览物上的镜子做了个手势。兰登将镜子捡了起来，用它来研究那些难懂的文字。
很快他便弄清楚了。
兰登一直特别渴望能够拜读一些伟大思想家的思想，这种愿望是如此的强烈，以致他竟然忘记，一个人的艺术天分竟然能让它用只有借助镜子才能阅读的字迹书写，事实上，这种字迹就是连他自己也难以辨识。达·芬奇以这样奇特的方式书写是不是为了自得其乐，还是怕别人从背后偷看，从而剽窃他的思想，历史学家们至今对此仍在争论不休，然而这样的争论是没有多少意义的。达·芬奇只是在做他高兴做的事情罢了。
索菲看到罗伯特·兰登明白她的意思，不禁偷偷地笑了：“我看得懂前面的几个词语，是用英语写的。”
提彬还在唠唠叨叨：“是怎么一回事呀？”
“是一段按字母反方向书写的文字，去拿面镜子来。”兰登说。
“不用了，我敢打赌这纸够薄的了。”索菲说着，把紫檀木盒子举起，就着墙上的灯光，查看盒盖的底部。事实上，她祖父不会颠倒顺序写，所以他总是玩一些骗人的把戏。他先按正常的方式书写，然后再把纸翻过来，就使人误以为他在倒着写了。索菲猜他是将用炭笔按正常顺序写就的文字印在一块木头上，然后用磨床将它背面削薄，直到它变得像纸一样薄，并能从木头的后面看到那些炭笔字。随后，他只要将它反转过来，再印上去就行了。
索菲将盖子凑到离灯光更近的地方，很快，她便明白自己的猜测是对的。明亮的灯光从薄薄的一层木板底下透过来，于是字迹就已完全相反的方向出现在盖子的下方。于是立刻一目了然。
“是英语，”提彬哑着嗓子，羞愧地低下了头：“还是我的母语呢。”
在飞机的后面，雷米·莱格鲁德伸长着脖子，想听听除了轰鸣的引擎声之外，还有什么声音，然而前面那些人的交谈，一点也听不清。雷米讨厌以这种方式消磨这个晚上，他一点也不喜欢。他低头看着脚边被缚的修道士。这家伙此刻正十分安静的躺着，他似乎已经听从了命运的安排，要么也有可能是在心里默默祈祷能够死里逃生。
收听单词发音 |
1
anticipation
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| n.预期，预料，期望 | |
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frustration
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| n.挫折，失败，失效，落空 | |
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spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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hunched
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| （常指因寒冷、生病或愁苦）耸肩弓身的，伏首前倾的 | |
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vowels
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| n.元音，元音字母( vowel的名词复数 ) | |
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vowel
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| n.元音；元音字母 | |
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relatively
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| adv.比较...地，相对地 | |
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hovering
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| 鸟( hover的现在分词 )； 靠近（某事物）； （人）徘徊； 犹豫 | |
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fleeting
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| adj.短暂的，飞逝的 | |
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specialized
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| adj.专门的，专业化的 | |
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engraving
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| n.版画；雕刻（作品）；雕刻艺术；镌版术v.在（硬物）上雕刻（字，画等）( engrave的现在分词 )；将某事物深深印在（记忆或头脑中） | |
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slumped
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| 大幅度下降，暴跌( slump的过去式和过去分词 )； 沉重或突然地落下[倒下] | |
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vexed
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| adj.争论不休的；（指问题等）棘手的；争论不休的问题；烦恼的v.使烦恼( vex的过去式和过去分词 )；使苦恼；使生气；详细讨论 | |
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belittling
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| 使显得微小，轻视，贬低( belittle的现在分词 ) | |
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unison
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| n.步调一致，行动一致 | |
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shrugged
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| vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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admonishing
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| v.劝告( admonish的现在分词 )；训诫；（温和地）责备；轻责 | |
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frankly
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| adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说 | |
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auction
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| n.拍卖；拍卖会；vt.拍卖 | |
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archaeology
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| n.考古学 | |
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unintelligible
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| adj.无法了解的，难解的，莫明其妙的 | |
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archaic
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| adj.(语言、词汇等)古代的，已不通用的 | |
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peruse
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| v.细读，精读 | |
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artistic
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| adj.艺术(家)的，美术(家)的；善于艺术创作的 | |
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moot
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| v.提出；adj.未决议的；n.大会；辩论会 | |
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sputtering
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| n.反应溅射法；飞溅；阴极真空喷镀；喷射v.唾沫飞溅( sputter的现在分词 )；发劈啪声；喷出；飞溅出 | |
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veneer
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| n.(墙上的)饰面，虚饰 | |
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flipping
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| 讨厌之极的 | |
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flipped
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| 轻弹( flip的过去式和过去分词 )； 按（开关）； 快速翻转； 急挥 | |
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sifted
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| v.筛( sift的过去式和过去分词 )；筛滤；细查；详审 | |
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croaked
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| v.呱呱地叫( croak的过去式和过去分词 )；用粗的声音说 | |
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rumbling
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| n. 隆隆声, 辘辘声 adj. 隆隆响的 动词rumble的现在分词 | |
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monk
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| n.和尚，僧侣，修道士 | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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