Inferno

After they each change into fresh clothes, Sienna tests Langdon’s eidetic memory and confirms that, while the amnesia persists, there has been no permanent brain damage. Langdon shares his most recent vision with her, and they each conclude that the beaked mask is that of a plague doctor and is a common image from the time of the Black Death in Europe.

Sienna then shows Langdon a secret compartment she found in his Harris Tweed jacket, which Langdon does not remember being there. She pulls a metal object from the compartment, which she believes is the reason Langdon is being hunted.

Back aboard The Mendacium, Laurence Knowlton contemplates preemptively sharing the video with the provost, even though doing so goes against The Consortium’s strict protocols on compartmentalization. More of the video is described: The Shade invokes the Black Death and notes the suffering it wrought necessarily preceded the more prosperous Renaissance, stating bluntly that “Culling is God’s Natural Order” (48). He then states that the world of the present day reflects that of Europe immediately prior to the onset of the Black Death, and he intends to force humanity to traverse “Inferno” so it can attain “Paradise” (48). He then refers to the liquid trapped in the submerged balloon as Inferno and ominously declares that it will soon be unleashed into the world.