Federal Hall Vault – 11:14 a.m.
Above them, the tremors had grown louder.
Langdon looked up through the circular shaft. Faint beams of daylight danced like fractured glass, briefly interrupted by the silhouettes of fast-moving figures— armed, deliberate.
"They're here," said the man in the charcoal coat. "The Praevalidi." Katherine spun toward him. "Who are they really?" He answered without turning. "A faction that broke off from Janus's inner circle— those who wanted to weaponize noetic structures for control. Political, financial… even spiritual. They believe consciousness is currency. And they plan to own the bank." Langdon gritted his teeth. "If they get the cube…" "They'll build a god and call it freedom." The vault's walls began to hum again—the cube responding to the rising tension in the chamber. Katherine reached for it, but the man stopped her. "Wait. It's initiating a broadcast." Indeed, the central spire lit up, its metal coils glowing with a soft blue phosphorescence. An invisible wave passed through the chamber, distorting the air. Langdon felt it like a pressure in his chest—subtle, rhythmic, like a pulse.
Katherine's tablet blinked.
"No… this is incredible," she whispered. "The cube's uploading Franklin's archive to every open noetic frequency on Earth. It's self-propagating. It's… alive." Suddenly, a deafening blast shook the vault.
A voice echoed from above. "Step away from the cradle! Now!" Three black-clad commandos rappelled into the chamber, laser sights flaring across the walls.
Langdon raised his hands instinctively, stepping in front of Katherine.
But the man in the coat stepped forward.
"No!" Katherine called. "Don't—" He raised a hand to silence her. "This is what Janus trained me for." He turned to Langdon. "You and she are the message now." He reached down and tapped the cradle twice.
The cube shimmered, vibrated—and disappeared.
Langdon blinked. "Where did it—?" "Encoded into the vault itself," the man said. "Dispersed. It'll take weeks— months—for them to piece it together. But by then…" He looked at Katherine.
"You'll have already seeded the idea. The resonance lives on." One of the Praevalidi shouted, "Drop your weapon!" The man gave Langdon one last look.
"Run." Then, he drew a hidden device from his coat and detonated a flash-pulse.
A blinding explosion of light filled the chamber.
Langdon grabbed Katherine and pulled her through the haze, stumbling toward the auxiliary shaft he'd noticed earlier—part of Franklin's original ventilation design.
They crawled through the narrow tunnel, coughing from the smoke, Katherine gripping his arm, guiding him by the flicker of her tablet.
Behind them, gunfire erupted.
The vault was collapsing.
But ahead—a faint shaft of light.
Langdon pushed open the final grate and tumbled into daylight, crashing onto the stone steps behind Trinity Church.
They had made it out.
But the cube was gone.