How It All Goes Down
- The security guard who's captured Langdon, Claude Grouard, wants nothing more than to shoot Langdon himself.
- He'd loved Saunière, and if this guy killed him then he deserves the worst.
- Unfortunately, he needs to radio in that he's captured their suspect, but his radio won't work unless he moves to the doorway (due to interference from all the electronic security measures).
- Then Grouard spots Sophie, scanning the area with her blacklight as if no one else were around.
- She nonchalantly tells him that she's Sophie Neveu, part of the PTS (like a French CSI).
- Grouard recognizes the name of Saunière's granddaughter, and has a hard time believing this could be the same girl.
- Sophie starts inspecting the Da Vinci painting across from the Mona Lisa, Madonna of the Rocks. Her grandfather used to always make her look at it when she visited.
- Seeing nothing on the front, she turns the painting over to search the back, and finds the gold key on a chain that she'd found as a little girl.
- Desperate to stop the guard from reaching the hallway (and being able to radio headquarters), Sophie threatens to destroy the painting by putting her knee through it.
- Grouard instantly obeys her orders. He can't let her destroy a priceless Da Vinci.
- Next thing we know, Langdon and Sophie are running down a stairwell with the guard's gun.
- Langdon wants to tell Sophie how appropriate her choice of hostage was, but she explains that her grandfather had hidden the key behind it.
- She'd known to look there because "so dark the con of man" is an anagram for Madonna of the Rocks.