Mania and the Code WHEEEEEE!!!

[kippurbird]

Da Vinci Code Manic style. I'm hoping to finish the book by the fifteenth. Cause that's when it's due back at the library and I don't really feel like checking it out again. Though I suppose I could renew it.

We are back with Bobo and Teabag's estate. To be more precise in Teabag's barn loft. There we learn that they have an eavesdropping system and that whoever is there has been collecting information for over a year now. There are five people on the list that are bugged.

Colbert Sostaque - Chairman of the Conseil Constitutionnel
Jean Chaffee - Curator, Musee du Jeu de Paume
Edouard Desrochers - Senior archivist, Mittarrand Library
Jacques Sauniere - Curator, Musee du Louvre
Michel Brenton - Head of DAS (French Intelligence)

The agent finds that number four is of obvious concern. However I would think that the fact that someone was spying on the head of the DAS which is part of French Intelligence would be of more concern, especially since he's dead now. I mean Michel is a bit more important than some curator of a museum. Also number one, Colbert is the head of the thingy that makes sure that the constitution is up held. Very important that. Plus there's no indication in the list who is more important that the others. Again, I would think that Colbert and Michel are more important that Jacques, especially since they were all killed on the same night. But that's just me, but why should logic get in the way of the All Consuming Story?!

Apparently they -Teabag or Remy - bugged Jacques office in the Louvre. The question I have, is what is the likelihood that he would be discussing secret Priory secrets in his office at work? But then again, if they hadn't then Bobo wouldn't realize that his entire conversation at the Louvre had been recorded, but I'm not sure what the importance of that is. Oh, wait never mind. That's how the Teacher knew how to tell Silas to go after Langdon and Sophie. What I want to know is how did they get into Jacques' office to bug it.

Back to Silas. He's waiting for Remy to finish tying up Teabag with some rope that happened to be in the trunk of the car. No. Really. "His hands felt damp on the keystone as he waited for Remy to finish tying and gagging Teabing in back with the rope they had found in the trunk." There are no words to describe my hatred of that sentence. So, SOMEHOW they were lucky enough to have rope in the trunk of a Jaguar limousine. Yes. Perfectly plausible. After all, why you never know when you might need to tie some random person up. Yup. Perfectly logical.

*shoots Brown*

And Remy and Silas drive off. And then the Teacher calls. He's happy to hear that Silas is still alive. Yay. And then the Teacher says that he wants Silas to come to him. Strangely, my mind turned that sentence (the one I just wrote) as dirty. Obviously, I need a sex life. But actually he wants Remy to bring it to him. Silas is sad. =( But it turns out the Teacher wants Remy to deliver the keystone so that he may be Dealt With. Silas is not happy about this, because he feels that Remy did what he had to do. Actually, this is one point where I actually feel connected to Silas. He really doesn't want to hurt Remy because he doesn't think the man did anything wrong and was just trying to do the job the Teacher set out for him to do and now he's going to get punished for it.

The Teacher then talks to Remy and tells him to drop Silas off at the Opus Dei Hostel and go somewhere else where they can talk.

Meanwhile, Langdon and Sophie go to the library to get help with some information on finding the knight's tomb. To be specific they go to King's College (which we are told had been established by King George IV in 1829). They want to use the Databases there because the King's College Research Institute in Systematic Theology scanned in a lot of documents dealing with the Vatican and religion and all sorts of fun stuff like that. They do a search. I feel like I'm wondering why the didn't use Google. She says it'll take about fifteen minutes to do the complete search. When they give the Librarian the full limerick, she sees "Rosy Flesh and Seeded Womb" And automatically thinks about the Holy Grail. If every one knows about this, then why is it such a big deal if it comes out? She says it'll take about fifteen minutes to do the complete search.

I'm just saying.

I also think Google would have been faster. But that's just me.

So, while they wait, they have tea.

Meanwhile, Silas gets dropped off at the Opus Dei place, prays in his underwear and has some tea and bread before going to sleep. Awwww... And then the guy answering the phones gets a call from the cops saying they're after Silas and keep him where he is. They're sending cops over as they speak.

And then we go back to Remy. I'm beginning to feel like Brown suffers from ADHD because he can't stay with any one character more than a few pages, unless he's pontificating on something. Actually, we go to the Teacher. Who thinks about pelicans. I dunno why, except it gives Brown another reason to stick in random information about how the original ones were a gift to Charles II from the Russian ambassador. Do you care? No? Neither do I. Remy pulls up to the Teacher who is handed the keystone. The teacher asks about the gun and if it was wiped down and replaced in the glove box. Which it was.

They then have a drink of Cognac. \~/ which tastes salty. Somehow... the cognac, which the Teacher had been drinking from previously... has become poisoned. I'm not really sure how that one works. And... Brown doesn't explain it.

As the Teacher approached the front passenger door of the parked limousine, Remy leaned across and opened the door. The teacher paused outside, taking a pull from the flask of cognac he was carrying. Then, dabbing at his mouth, he slid in besides Remy and closed the door.

...

"Excellent." The Teacher took another drink of cognac and handed the flask to Remy. "Let's toast our success. The end is near."

Remy accepted the bottle gratefully. The cognac tasted salty, but Remy didn't care. He and the Teacher were truly partners now.

... The swelling in Remy's throat came on like an earthquake, and he lurched against the steering column, grabbing his throat and tasting vomit in his narrowing trachea. He let out a muted croak of a scream, not even loud enough to be heard outside the car. The saltiness of the cognac now registered.

I'm being murdered!

And then the teacher gets in the car and drives off. We never learn how the Teacher accomplishes this. He doesn't even think about it. Instead he's worried about dealing with Langdon and Sophie.

And then we flash over to Cell Phone Bishop who gets in a police car. He hears on the police chatter the address of the Opus Dei centre and demands to be taken there are once! *GASP!*

I think I'm gonna stop now, before it gets too long to read and ruins the friends lists.

Comments

[smurasaki.livejournal.com]

I'm beginning to think the publishing industry desperately needs you as an editor. Honestly, how _does_ some of this crap get past their editors. Magically poisoned Cognac? What'd he use? Iocane Powder? (which he'd previously built up a tolerance for)

[kippurbird.livejournal.com]

I certainly think so too! But I'm biased. XD

[guardians-song.livejournal.com]

It's poisoned by peanuts. The Teacher isn't allergic. Remy is.

I'm beginning to feel like Brown suffers from ADHD because he can't stay with any one character more than a few pages, unless he's pontificating on something.
...You're insulting people with ADHD. :P Really, I fulfill an uncanny number of the conditions, and I have an attention span longer than Dan Brown's. I remember thinking during Digital Fortress "WHO THE HELL CARES ABOUT DAVID?! I want to hear about SUSAN! And STRATHMORE! And GREG HALE! Who cares about the idiot linguist tennis player?! I want to hear about the (supposedly) smart people! I want suspense, not motorcycle chases!" :P

Strangely, my mind turned that sentence (the one I just wrote) as dirty. Obviously, I need a sex life.
XD Don't worry, I was in my poetry class, and one of the lines in this 16th century religious poem was "And eat my meat", and my mind automatically went to... well... "meat". And then, it turned out that, yes, there WERE innuendoes in the poem, and meat was slang for sex back then, so... XD

Heh. Thank you for dissecting this... and since Teabag is the Teacher, it makes sense that he provided the ropes to tie himself up with... sort of. :\ Why nobody is suspicious about this, however...

[berseker.livejournal.com]

Oh, come on. Did you really want to read about Susan? After a few pages of infodump on that blasted computer of hers I coudn´t stand it anymore.

(the peanuts thing would actually be a good idea. Of ourse, the phrase "I´m being murdered" will have to go, because it´s way too stupid, but still. It would be a clever way to kill someone)

[kippurbird.livejournal.com]

Who actually thinks, "I'm being murdered" anyway? I mean really. "I'm dying!" perhaps, but not "I'm being murdered!"

[kippurbird.livejournal.com]

It's poisoned by peanuts. The Teacher isn't allergic. Remy is.

See, this should have been mentioned! At least somehow. In the parts directly proceeding the death. This isn't a murder mystery. We don't need to figure out how he died or wonder, because we don't care about him. Of course, we don't care about anyone else either... but that's besides the point.

[smurasaki.livejournal.com]

That's one of the problems with the book - it dumps so much information, some relevant, some not, on the reader that things get lost. ... And wouldn't peanuts alter the taste of the Cognac more? You'd also think that someone that alergic to peanuts would be more cautious about drinking from something someone else had just been drinking from. I mean, he could have just innocently had a Snickers bar, after all. *brain hurts now*

[kippurbird.livejournal.com]

That's one of the problems with the book - it dumps so much information, some relevant, some not, on the reader that things get lost

Once someone mentioned the peanut allergy I remember the book mentioning it. But yes.

[alexseanchai]

...either my brain is working even more poorly than I thought or there's a name on that list that I haven't seen before. I don't recall there being more than four people bugged.

[kippurbird.livejournal.com]

I copied out the names straight from the book. So, I dunno.

[reverie-shadow.livejournal.com]

"His hands felt damp on the keystone as he waited for Remy to finish tying and gagging Teabing in back with the rope they had found in the trunk."

Sure! I keep some spare rope underneath the passenger seat of my Taurus at all times, just in case if I ever decide to kidnap somebody and stuff them in my trunk! Doesn't everyone? Er, I mean...oops.

As for the whole poison thing...I guess you could assume that maybe the Teacher pretended to take a drink the cognac by closing his lips, but that's just the thing--we shouldn't be left to assume things in a story. If Brown doesn't bring this up somewhere down the line, since this part was done from the perspective of a character that is being murdered, not the murderer, then I'm just going to negate this theory altogether and chalk it up for Brown simply being an idiot.

Now, I don't know about you, but I don't mind long posts. I like long posts. I like posts that are, you know, seven, eight, nine, a thousand pages long. But when it reaches a certain point--and nine hundred pages is about it for me--I really start thinking that a post is getting too long, it's getting too big, it's, uh, it gets unwieldy or the words are too small to easily read and you know what? This is total bullshit. But hey, I don't mind longer posts so you get what I mean.

[kippurbird.livejournal.com]

As for the whole poison thing...I guess you could assume that maybe the Teacher pretended to take a drink the cognac by closing his lips, but that's just the thing--we shouldn't be left to assume things in a story. If Brown doesn't bring this up somewhere down the line, since this part was done from the perspective of a character that is being murdered, not the murderer, then I'm just going to negate this theory altogether and chalk it up for Brown simply being an idiot.

You could, but it says he took a long pull, so, obviously he didn't.

Now, I don't know about you, but I don't mind long posts. I like long posts. I like posts that are, you know, seven, eight, nine, a thousand pages long. But when it reaches a certain point--and nine hundred pages is about it for me--I really start thinking that a post is getting too long, it's getting too big, it's, uh, it gets unwieldy or the words are too small to easily read and you know what? This is total bullshit. But hey, I don't mind longer posts so you get what I mean.

*sniggers*

[karma-kalisutah.livejournal.com]

"His hands felt damp on the keystone as he waited for Remy to finish tying and gagging Teabing in back with the rope they had found in the trunk."

Why does this line sound dirty to me? Could it be because of Silas's established interest in BDSM?