"I'm sorry, everyone. I didn't expect the police to come so quickly. The bank's security system automatically alerted us when you came in. Your arrest warrant is stored in the system, and we can't remove it. Please come with me. You have the oldest account in our bank, and one of the clauses guarantees that customers can leave the bank safely."
The night manager pushed open a door and led William and the other two to an escort vehicle. Langdon looked at the vehicle hesitantly. He didn't want to get in, and finally got in under William's urging.
The escort vehicle was stopped by the police as soon as it left the bank. Fortunately, the night manager was smart enough to deal with the police's questioning. He drove William and the others out of Paris.
In the car, William looked at the wooden box in his hand. "The Holy Grail, the magical cup, the source of the God of Light's power in the human world."
"That's nonsense," Sophie laughed when she heard William's teasing.
Langdon looked at William and Sophie as they teased the God of Light. "Don't you believe in the God of Light?"
Sophie smiled and shook her head. "I don't believe in divine power that came from the sky. I only believe in people. Sometimes people can be very kind."
William nodded. "I believe that there are more good people than bad, but I also believe that only when you're strong can you protect the things and people you want to protect."
William opened the wooden box. Inside was a cryptex. It was very similar to the cryptex that Henry had left him, but this one was much smaller.
Sophie took the cryptex from William's hand. "Oh my god, this is a cryptex. Da Vinci invented it." Sophie took a closer look at the cryptex.
Sophie looked at the cryptex in her hand carefully and said, "This is used to protect secrets. There's a glass bottle filled with vinegar, and a piece of paper is wrapped around the bottle. If it's opened by force, the vinegar bottle will break, and the vinegar will corrode the words, and the words on it will disappear. There are five sets of 26 English letters, and there's a total of 12 million possibilities. No one will know the secret inside if they don't know the secret."
Just then, the van began to slow down. The door opened, and the night manager pointed a P226 at them and said, "After 20 years of guarding, I didn't expect to see three murderers. Hand it over."
"Take what?" William asked.
Bang! The manager didn't waste any time and directly fired a shot at the van. The stray bullet almost hit him. With the gun pointed at him, William had no choice but to slowly walk over and pass the secret cylinder to him with his left hand. His right hand was behind his back. He planned to use his right hand to secretly take out a Glock 17 from the storage space and kill the manager when the manager received the secret cylinder.
"Wait, show me the ring on your finger." The manager suddenly became excited.
William turned his left hand over. Seeing the ring on William's hand, the manager became excited, "What's your name? Why is this ring on your hand?"
"William Devonshire"
"England's Devonshire, what's your grandfather's name?"
William hesitated for a moment. Seeing that the manager was no longer pointing the P226 at him, he said, "Henry Winst Devonshire"
The manager immediately became excited, "God, so you didn't kill Saunier?"
William, Langdon and Sophie looked at the manager in surprise. The three of them then realized that the manager was also a member of the Priory of Sion. Otherwise, he wouldn't have lowered his gun when he saw William's irises.
The manager lowered his gun and said to the three of them, "Get out first."
After the three of them got out of the van, the manager said, "My name is Andre Vernet. I'm the guardian of this cryptex. I've been guarding it for 20 years. I didn't expect Grand Elder Saunier to be dead. So he was killed by the Church of Light."
Langdon hurriedly asked, "Church of Light? Wasn't that organization banned?"
Andre replied, "No. In fact, they were only banned by the Church of Light on the surface. But like us, they went into hiding in the Church of Light in the end.
They secretly set up a committee to search for the Holy Grail and our Priory of Sion. Over the years, many of our members have been assassinated by the Church of Light. Including Grand Elder Saunier, we now have three Elders and one Grand Elder dead. The Priory of Sion has reached its most dangerous moment. "
After saying that, Andre pulled William to the side and whispered, "William, the secret of the Holy Grail must not be revealed to the Church of Light. You are now the only Elder of the Priory of Sion. Find the Holy Grail and protect it."
"But Saunier was killed before he could tell me about the Holy Grail. I don't know how to find it now. Andre, do you know anything about it?" William asked.
"I'm sorry, William. I'm only a guardian. My job is to protect this cryptex. I don't know much about other things," Andre said apologetically.
"I know someone who has done a lot of research on the Holy Grail. His name is Teabing. He's an Englishman living in France. He might be able to help," Langdon said.
William didn't have any good ideas. He knew very little about Europe's history. If he could find an expert to ask, he might be able to get some information.
William said, "Okay, we'll go find him. Andre, what about you?"
"Don't worry. After I send you to Teabing, I'll drive straight to Zurich. They won't be able to find anything on me," Andre said.
After everyone got into the car, William and Andre sat in the cargo van while Langdon and Sophie drove. The two didn't know what William and Andre were talking about in the cargo van. William got out of the van with a serious face.
Andre told William that the Hermit Order only existed in name now. The four elders were all dead. The ordinary members were so scared by the people of the Dark Secret Society that they hid their identities. After the four elders died, most of the members lost contact.
The members of the Hermit Order were artists, scholars, professors, and so on. The organization was too scattered, so it was easy to be defeated one by one.
Especially in the ten years after Henry's death, the Dark Secret Society became more and more despicable. They even resorted to assassination. Andre reminded William to be careful. The fact that he was the last elder of the Hermit Order must not be spread. Otherwise, the people of the Dark Secret Society would definitely come looking for him.
These people were not looking for the Holy Grail as they said they wanted to destroy it. Instead, they wanted to extort the Holy Church like the Knights Templar did 1,000 years ago. These fringe members of the Holy Church were fighting for power.
In Paris, Fache received a report from one of his men. The Swiss bank called the police and said that one of their escort vans in Paris was driven out of the bank without notice. The bank staff at the Swiss bank headquarters suspected that the vehicle was stolen.
The police officers didn't notice at first, but when they saw Fache's team searching the nearby streets, they immediately realized that something was wrong. They requested the GPS location from the Swiss bank.
The GPS location showed that the escort vans stopped at Chateau Villette for ten minutes and then went on the highway to Switzerland. The police officers immediately suspected that Langdon was looking for the owner of Chateau Villette, Leigh Teabing.
Fache was overjoyed when he heard the news. He quickly ordered his men to drive more than ten cars to Chateau Villette.
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