The Dan Brown Enigma (28 page)

The final leg of his quest was to investigate Brown’s claim that the Masonic ranks are filled with powerful and influential men, and that if it was revealed that they take part in bizarre, secret rituals it would bring down the US government. To get an answer Robinson went to the House of the Temple and asked one of the highest-ranking Masons in the US, Brent Morris, how powerful the Masons really are.

To Robinson’s dismay, Morris said that while they are very proud of the 14 Presidents who have been members, today ‘nearly all the Masons are from the middle class.’ Hundreds of years ago, Morris said, Freemasonry was feared by the church because the Masons promoted the ideas of ‘representative democracy, freedom of speech and universal education. Today we are the epitome of middle class.’ They are not part of a global plot.

So Robinson found that at the end of his quest he was no wiser than when he’d started. ‘I’ve been frustrated at just about every turn,’ he said. ‘So what do I learn from the world’s fastest-selling novel of all time? Well, the monuments and the organisations may be real but as for the rituals and the science, I think he’s taking more than just a little bit of artistic licence there. I cannot find just one hint of ancient knowledge anywhere.’
[293]

So Robinson’s quest to confirm that the claims that Brown makes in his novel are real turned out to be a failure. Was it because Robinson didn’t do the research that Brown did or didn’t talk to the right people? Or is it possible that Brown is playing games with us all? Is he that kind of person?

We know that his education at Phillips Exeter Academy shaped his view of the world. His education has instilled in him a need to succeed, to achieve, to always be curious, which he has bestowed on Langdon. The treasure hunts run by his parents every Christmas influenced him so much that each of his novels contain elements of treasure hunts and chases. There is always a goal that must be achieved. In Langdon’s world, as in Brown’s, there is no room for failure.

Look at his musical career. He put everything he had into his music but at the end of the day it just wasn’t right for the time. Whether it was good or bad isn’t important. It just didn’t catch on – it didn’t have that spark, the X-factor if you will. Lesser men would have crawled away but Brown persevered because his education and upbringing gave him the grounding to always strive for better, to put everything into life, to be as successful as possible, to achieve.

He only left the music scene after a contract for
187 Men to Avoid
had been secured. But he was still teaching and writing at the same time. He could have walked away after publication of
Deception Point
after he saw how bad the sales were for all three of his earlier books. But he didn’t. As he stared at his blank screen realising his fourth novel had to be the breakthrough book – had to be the one that would enable him to write full time and make a living at it – he didn’t pack up and walk away.

Instead, he began to write. Slowly at first, the letters and words coming in dribs and drabs onto the screen as he typed; as he and Blythe scoured the hundreds of research books, documents and files they’d amassed; as he looked at the hundreds of photographs they’d taken on their trips to Paris, London and Edinburgh. And when he’d finished writing, he’d turned out one of the most successful novels of all time.

The question then is: if Dan Brown spends years researching his novels, how can he get the facts so wrong – or is the Fact page at the beginning of
The Da Vinci Code
and
The Lost Symbol
part of his fiction? By now he must know that by putting a Fact page at the beginning of his novels he is inviting people to pick holes in his research and show him up to be mistaken, as Robinson’s quest showed. Only Brown can answer this.

However, if we look at the Fact page in his books as being part of the story, part of the fiction, then perhaps we can see that Brown is playing a little joke on all of us. Whatever the answer, Dan Brown is an industry now. He is bigger than just about any author out there and there are dozens of people writing books and making a living off the novels he’s written.

Maybe part of Brown’s genius – and enigma – is that the Fact page in his books was never meant to be taken literally. Maybe it is all a code or a puzzle that no one has figured out yet. If we look at it from that perspective, then Brown doesn’t need to get his facts right if they are fiction. Because it’s hard to believe that Brown would spend so much time researching each book to get the facts he claims are real so wrong.

Or is it all just smoke and mirrors? ‘If I have a big beef with Dan Brown it is this,’ Tony Robinson said in the conclusion to his quest. ‘He was lazy. Why did he choose the Masons as a basis for a modern conspiracy thriller? Why didn’t he do what novelists are supposed to do, make up a story and then tell it to us instead of pretending it’s all real?’
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Susan Fletcher
: The protagonist, she is the National Security Agency’s Head Cryptographer and is engaged to be married to David Becker. She is slender, tall with dark hair, very intelligent and perceptive. She finds herself at the centre of a conspiracy that threatens to bring down the government.

David Becker
: Engaged to Susan Fletcher, Becker is a linguistic expert and is the youngest professor of languages at the university. In the past he’s worked for the NSA and has been asked to again, unknown to Susan. He is walking into a trap.

Ensei Tankado
: A brilliant former NSA employee who creates the unbreakable code called Digital Fortress. The plot of the novel revolves around his design of the code and the attempts that NSA makes to try to break it. He chose to create the code because of moral and ethical grounds but is killed by the hired assassin to get the code-breaker key.

Commander Trevor Strathmore
: He is the Deputy Director of Operations for the NSA and is the main antagonist. Susan Fletcher sees him as a father figure but he is deeply in love with her and he sends Becker to Spain to get him out of the way, so he can have Susan. He is the most complex character of the novel, because he is doing these evil things yet he believes that he is doing them for the right reasons.

Phil Chartrukian
: A technician who works for Systems Security (Sys-Sec) division of the NSA that monitors the computer systems, he is the first one who realizes that something is wrong, but is killed by Strathmore.

Greg Hale
: Another NSA Cryptographer, he has a shady past but is brilliant at his work. He believes that something is wrong but is also a minor antagonist to Susan.

Leland Fontaine
: As Director of NSA Fontaine is the only person that Strathmore answers to and he is the person who ultimately picks up the pieces.

Hulohot
: This character is an assassin hired by Strathmore to kill Becker in Spain and to retrieve the killcode from Tankado and then from Becker after Tankado’s death.

Midge Milken
: A mature and experienced woman she is Fontaine’s internal security analyst and has a friendly sparring relationship with Fontaine’s personal assistant, Chad Brinkerhoff.

Chad Brinkerhoff
: A young thrusting personal assistant to Fontaine who also has an attraction to Milken. He is reluctant to believe that things are not as they seem but soon gets on the bandwagon when Milken provides him with proof.

Jabba
: The large, rotund man, nicknamed ‘Jabba the Hutt’ because of his resemblance to the fictional character in Star Wars, he is the NSA’s senior Systems Security Officer and Chartrukian’s boss.

Soshi Kuta
: She is Jabba’s assistant.

Robert Langdon
: The main protagonist of the book and a professor of symbology at Harvard University. He is a broad dark-haired man and usually wears chino pants, turtleneck (sweater with a turnover collar) and tweed jacket. His name is Brown’s tribute to ambigram artist John Langdon. He is described as being inquisitive, curious and passionate about puzzles, codes and ancient mysteries to the point of putting himself in danger, but he is overall a sceptic.

Leonardo Vetra
: Vetra is a priest and a scientist working at CERN in Switzerland, researching antimatter. He dreams of merging science and religion together. When he was invited to work at CERN he adopted Vittoria and they moved to Geneva, both becoming physicists. Together they created antimatter which they kept in canisters under tight security that used retina scanners for their identification.

Vittoria Vetra
: In the book, Vittoria is the adopted daughter of Leonardo Vetra and they both work at CERN. Leonardo and Vittoria formed an attachment at the orphanage, with Vetra teaching her while she added warmth and laughter to his life. He adopted her as his daughter and they went to CERN to work. It was her idea to create antimatter. She’s fluent in English, French, Italian and Latin. She is tall, slender, has black hair, large expressive eyes, very athletic with the classic Mediterranean look and in the book is Langdon’s love interest.

She helps him locate the kidnapped cardinals by working out the clues. The Hassassin (see below) kidnaps her and he takes her to his hideout – the Castle Saint’ Angelo. Langdon finds her bound to a divan and gagged with the Hassassin about to rape her. During the struggle between the Hassassin and Langdon Vittoria frees herself and they push the Hassassin over the balcony to his death. At the end of the book it is implied that Langdon and Vittoria form a sexual relationship while in
The Da Vinci Code
we learn they were to meet up every six months, but never do. Her father Leonardo and their relationship together are not in the film. She is not kidnapped in the film nor does she have a romantic relationship with Langdon.

Camerlengo Carlo Ventresca
: Ventresca is the Papal Chamberlain or the Camerlengo during the papal conclave. He is the main antagonist and uses the codename ‘Janus’ to deal with the Hassassin. In the film his name is Patrick McKenna and not Ventresca; this alteration was done to accommodate Scottish actor Ewan McGregor, and the film character McKenna is from Northern Ireland, as opposed to Italy, where the book’s Ventresca is from.

Raised a devout Catholic by his mother, Maria, he never knew his father because his mother always said he had died before Carlo was born. His mother dies too in an attack by Red Brigade terrorist group on a church in Sicily that he and his mother were visiting. In the film version, the attack takes place in Northern Ireland by the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF). Sole survivor of the blast he is taken into a monastery by a Bishop from Palermo where he lived with the monks but when he reached sixteen he was conscripted into the Italian Army. However, he refused to fire a weapon and so they taught him to fly a helicopter and to use a parachute. After the army Carlo entered a seminary but his life changed when the bishop from Palermo was elected Pope and Carlo became his Camerlengo.

Carlo’s motivation for carrying out his evil deeds stem from when the Pope sent him to CERN to investigate Vetra’s claims that he’d made a discovery of deep religious significance. Ethically disturbed by the discovery Carlo reported his findings to the Pope, who saw it as positive. Shocked by this response Carlo thinks he receives a message from God telling him to kill the Pope, which he does.

As Janus, Carlo hires the Hassassin to kill the four Cardinals and steal the antimatter. He dies after he is exposed as Janus and learns the Pope was his father. He is overcome with guilt and burns himself alive on the balcony of St Peter’s Basilica.

Cardinal Saverio Mortati
: The most senior cardinal in the conclave, and the current Dean of the College of Cardinals. He was the Devil’s Advocate for the late pope.

Commander Olivetti
: The commander of the Swiss Guard in Vatican City, he is responsible for protecting the Cardinals during the papal conclave and he discovers that a security camera has gone missing, but when Langdon and Vittoria arrive explaining the real danger, he refuses to believe it. Four cardinals are also missing and the commander is searching for them. Even when The Hassassin contacts them Olivetti has a difficult time trusting Langdon, but he eventually does.

He is killed by the Hassassin helping Langdon find the third cardinal. However, in the film, Olivetti is much more sympathetic to Langdon and Vittoria and believes them straight away. He fights The Hassassin at the scene of the third cardinal’s death and has his throat cut.

Captain Rocher
: The second in command of the Vatican Swiss Guard after Commander Olivetti, in charge of the search for the antimatter canister. Brown describes him as being barrel-chested with ‘putty-like features’ and a little flamboyant due to the red beret he wears with his uniform. Rocher only searches the public access areas because he firmly believes that the Swiss Guard are incorruptible.

When the Swiss Guard break into the Camerlengo’s office after hearing him scream they discover the Camerlengo has been branded with the Illuminati logo. He accuses Rocher of being ‘Illuminatus’ and Lieutenant Chartrand shoots Rocher; in the film, Rocher has been changed to Father Simeon, who is shot after the Camerlengo calls him ‘Illuminatus’ along with Commander Richter.

Hassassin
: A killer of Middle-Eastern origin hired by ‘Janus’ to carry out his plans against the Vatican. Throughout the novel the killer has a sadistic lust for women. He kills Leonardo Vetra to steal the antimatter canister in the underground vault of Vetra’s lab. He cuts out Vetra’s left eye, brands his body with the Illuminati symbol and uses the eye to get past the retina scanners and steal the canister.

The Hassassin contacts Langdon, Vittoria and the Camerlengo in Vatican City, telling them that a cardinal will be killed every four hours and they will be branded Earth, Air, Fire and Water in four churches across Rome. He tells the BBC crew this as well.

After killing the fourth cardinal the Hassassin heads back to his hideout and fights Langdon and Vittoria who together push the Hassassin over the balcony where he falls to his death.