Inferno

On the C-130, the provost reveals to Langdon that he was not shot but rather drugged with benzodiazepines that erased his short-term memory. Everything from the hospital to Sienna’s apartment had been staged after the provost and Sienna decided to work together to bring Langdon aboard.

Their plan had gone awry once Langdon decided to use Sienna’s laptop to access his Harvard account, as it allowed Sinskey and Brüder to track him. This forced the provost to disavow Vayentha, inadvertently setting her loose as she attempted to reacquire Langdon without permission. She hadn’t intended to kill Langdon in the attic of the Palazzo but rather shoot her blank-loaded pistol at him so he would believe her. Instead, Sienna pushed her to her death, thus going against the provost and the Consortium altogether. They all now believe Sienna intends to find where Zobrist hid Inferno and unleash it onto the world herself.

After Langdon retreats to take stock of what has happened, the provost admits to himself that the Consortium is unlikely to survive the crisis.

Langdon is reunited with Dr. Ferris, who explains that he was “Dr. Marconi,” on the plane. His “death” was achieved using a disguise, blank rounds, and squibs. His later health condition stemmed from an allergy to the latex disguise and a misfired squib that bruised his chest. Ferris had tried to bring Sienna and Langdon back into the fold after the disaster at the Palazzo but had been too weakened by his ordeal and was bested by Sienna.

Sinskey tells Langdon that she has called ahead to Istanbul and discussed Dandolo’s tomb with a local historian, who explained to her that the tomb’s lower levels have been flooded by rising groundwater in recent years, thus explaining the underground cavern in Zobrist’s video.

At a smaller airfield nearby, Sienna boards Giorgio Venci’s private plane.

Langdon and the others arrive in their newly confirmed destination: Istanbul, the fallen Byzantine Empire’s capital formerly known as Constantinople. Langdon explains they must go to the Hagia Sophia (literally “holy wisdom”), which contains Dandolo’s tomb and has begun flooding in recent decades.

Sinskey explains that they will be acting covertly. Her contacts at the Swiss embassy having arranged for Langdon to be given a VIP tour of the Hagia Sophia after closing, giving him and the others exclusive access to search the massive complex.

Langdon, Sinskey, Brüder, and a few of the soldiers race through the streets of Istanbul as Langdon reflects on why Zobrist chose the city as his ground zero: It was (and continues to remain) an historic intersection of the Eastern and Western worlds and served as a major transport hub for the Black Death, thus serving both Zobrist’s symbolic and epidemiological needs.

The team at last comes within sight of the Hagia Sophia, and Brüder despairs at the magnitude of the holy place.

The provost and Dr. Ferris remain on the plane as the others head into Istanbul, and the former reflects on his long career and the circumstances of its imminent collapse. He recalls hiring Sienna, then a medical student, 12 years prior, and benefitting greatly from her superb analytical, linguistic, and acting skills for two years, which resulted in his trusting her without question when she referred Zobrist to the Consortium as a client.

As he waits on the plane, the provost overhears the pilot receiving a call that Sienna was able to leave Italy on a private jet. The provost demands that the pilot call European Air Transport Command and have her plane intercepted, but the pilot explains that it already landed in Istanbul 15 minutes ago, and Sienna is long gone.

Langdon, Sinskey, and Brüder are met at the Hagia Sophia by a man named Mirsat, who welcomes them warmly and showers praise on Langdon. As he begins a detailed guided tour of the cathedral, Langdon asks to be shown to Dandolo’s tomb.

Mirsat is ponderous, claiming that Dandolo’s tomb is quite plain and devoid of any significant symbolism, but conspiratorially assumes Langdon’s intentions and happily leads them upstairs to the confusion of Langdon and the others, who expected to be taken underground.

As the group moves deeper inside, Langdon marvels at the blend of Christian and Islamic imagery present in the cathedral, reflecting on its history first as a basilica, then as a mosque following the Ottoman conquest. The Christian artistry is focused on subjective representations of Christ’s image, while the Islamic emphasizes text and geometry, and Langdon is awed by how well the two complement each other.

Mirsat, leading them upstairs, assumes that Langdon does not actually wish to see Dandolo’s tomb but rather a different piece nearby. He is puzzled when the trio are disappointed by the tomb’s placement, and he grows suspicious.

Langdon leaps over the stanchion at Dandolo’s tomb to listen at the floor—as instructed by the riddle—much to Mirsat’s horror. Langdon confirms that he hears running water, but Mirsat claims this is normal throughout the Hagia Sophia, as its massive roof’s intricate gutter system is often flowing with running water.

After they explain the riddle poem to Mirsat, he confirms it is likely a reference to the city’s ancient cistern, to which all the Hagia Sophia’s rainwater flows. The cistern is a block away and is called Yerebatan Sarayi, “the sunken palace,” as in Zobrist’s poem.

Mirsat accompanies the group to Yerebatan Sarayi, explaining that the cistern has not been used as a source of drinking water for decades but is now a stagnant pool and famed tourist attraction. Sinskey and Brüder realize that Zobrist most likely created a bioaerosol, or airborne virus, which would incubate in the water before being released in the air to be breathed in by tourists from all over the world.

They arrive to find the cistern indeed full of people, who are there to see a concert performing The Dante Symphony by Liszt, which is playing for a week and underwritten by an anonymous donor who could only be Zobrist. As they descend into the cistern, Langdon hears the classical choir chanting the famed line from Inferno: “Abandon all hope, ye who enter here!” (405).