The Da Vinci Code

CHAPTER 96
Silas awoke with a start.
He had no idea what had awoken him or how long he had been asleep. Was I dreaming? Sitting up 
now on his straw mat, he listened to the quiet breathing of the Opus Dei residence hall, the stillness 
textured only by the soft murmurs of someone praying aloud in a room below him. These were 

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familiar sounds and should have comforted him.
And yet he felt a sudden and unexpected wariness.
Standing, wearing only his undergarments, Silas walked to the window. Was I followed? The 
courtyard below was deserted, exactly as he had seen it when he entered. He listened. Silence. So 
why am I uneasy? Long ago Silas had learned to trust his intuition. Intuition had kept him alive as a 
child on the streets of Marseilles long before prison... long before he was born again by the hand of 
Bishop Aringarosa. Peering out the window, he now saw the faint outline of a car through the 
hedge. On the car's roof was a police siren. A floorboard creaked in the hallway. A door latch 
moved.
Silas reacted on instinct, surging across the room and sliding to a stop just behind the door as it 
crashed open. The first police officer stormed through, swinging his gun left then right at what 
appeared an empty room. Before he realized where Silas was, Silas had thrown his shoulder into 
the door, crushing a second officer as he came through. As the first officer wheeled to shoot, Silas 
dove for his legs. The gun went off, the bullet sailing above Silas's head, just as he connected with 
the officer's shins, driving his legs out from under him, and sending the man down, his head hitting 
the floor. The second officer staggered to his feet in the doorway, and Silas drove a knee into his 
groin, then went clambering over the writhing body into the hall.
Almost naked, Silas hurled his pale body down the staircase. He knew he had been betrayed, but by 
whom? When he reached the foyer, more officers were surging through the front door. Silas turned 
the other way and dashed deeper into the residence hall. The women's entrance. Every Opus Dei 
building has one. Winding down narrow hallways, Silas snaked through a kitchen, past terrified 
workers, who left to avoid the naked albino as he knocked over bowls and silverware, bursting into 
a dark hallway near the boiler room. He now saw the door he sought, an exit light gleaming at the 
end.
Running full speed through the door out into the rain, Silas leapt off the low landing, not seeing the 
officer coming the other way until it was too late. The two men collided, Silas's broad, naked 
shoulder grinding into the man's sternum with crushing force. He drove the officer backward onto 
the pavement, landing hard on top of him. The officer's gun clattered away. Silas could hear men 
running down the hall shouting. Rolling, he grabbed the loose gun just as the officers emerged. A 
shot rang out on the stairs, and Silas felt a searing pain below his ribs. Filled with rage, he opened 
fire at all three officers, their blood spraying.
A dark shadow loomed behind, coming out of nowhere. The angry hands that grabbed at his bare 
shoulders felt as if they were infused with the power of the devil himself. The man roared in his 
ear. SILAS, NO!
Silas spun and fired. Their eyes met. Silas was already screaming in horror as Bishop Aringarosa 
fell.

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