«Robert Langdon?» Director Sato’s harsh voice blared in the tiny speaker, loud enough that Anderson could hear.

«Yes?» Langdon replied.

Anderson stepped closer to hear what Sato was saying.

«This is Director Inoue Sato, Mr. Langdon. I am handling a crisis at the moment, and I believe you have information that can help me.»

Langdon looked hopeful. «Is this about Peter Solomon? Do you know where he is?!»

Peter Solomon? Anderson felt entirely out of the loop.

«Professor,» Sato replied. «I am asking the questions at the moment.»

«Peter Solomon is in very serious trouble,» Langdon exclaimed. «Some madman just — »

«Excuse me,» Sato said, cutting him off.

Anderson cringed. Bad move. Interrupting a top CIA official’s line of questioning was a mistake only a civilian would make. I thought Langdon was supposed to be smart.

«Listen carefully,» Sato said. «As we speak, this nation is facing a crisis. I have been advised that you have information that can help me avert it. Now, I am going to ask you again. What information do you possess?»

Langdon looked lost. «Director, I have no idea what you’re talking about. All I’m concerned with is finding Peter and — »

«No idea?» Sato challenged.

Anderson saw Langdon bristle. The professor now took a more aggressive tone. «No, sir. No damned idea at all.» Anderson winced. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Robert Langdon had just made a very costly mistake in dealing with Director Sato.

Incredibly, Anderson now realized it was too late. To his astonishment, Director Sato had just appeared on the far side of the Rotunda, and was approaching fast behind Langdon. Sato is in the building! Anderson held his breath and braced for impact. Langdon has no idea.

The director’s dark form drew closer, phone held to ear, black eyes locked like two lasers on Langdon’s back.

Langdon clutched the police chief’s phone and felt a rising frustration as the OS director pressed him. «I’m sorry, sir,» Langdon said tersely, «but I can’t read your mind. What do you want from me?»

«What do I want from you?» The OS director’s grating voice crackled through Langdon’s phone, scraping and hollow, like that of a dying man with strep throat.

As the man spoke, Langdon felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned and his eyes were drawn down. . directly into the face of a tiny Japanese woman. She had a fierce expression, a mottled complexion, thinning hair, tobacco-stained teeth, and an unsettling white scar that sliced horizontally across her neck. The woman’s gnarled hand held a cell phone to her ear, and when her lips moved, Langdon heard the familiar raspy voice through his cell phone.

«What do I want from you, Professor?» She calmly closed her phone and glared at him. «For starters, you can stop calling me ‘sir.’ »

Langdon stared, mortified. «Ma’am, I. . apologize. Our connection was poor and — »

«Our connection was fine, Professor,» she said. «And I have an extremely low tolerance for bullshit.»

Director Inoue Sato was a fearsome specimen — a bristly tempest of a woman who stood a mere four feet ten inches. she was bone thin, with jagged features and a dermatological condition known as vitiligo, which gave her complexion the mottled look of coarse granite blotched with lichen. her rumpled blue pantsuit hung on her emaciated frame like a loose sack, the open-necked blouse doing nothing to hide the scar across her neck. it had been noted by her coworkers that sato’s only acquiescence to physical vanity appeared to be that of plucking her substantial mustache.

For over a decade, Inoue Sato had overseen the CIA’s Office of Security. She possessed an off-the-chart IQ and chillingly accurate instincts, a combination which girded her with a self-confidence that made her terrifying to anyone who could not perform the impossible. Not even a terminal diagnosis of aggressive throat cancer had knocked her from her perch. The battle had cost her one month of work, half her voice box, and a third of her body weight, but she returned to the office as if nothing had happened. Inoue Sato appeared to be indestructible.

Robert Langdon suspected he was probably not the first to mistake Sato for a man on the phone, but the director was still glaring at him with simmering black eyes.

«Again, my apologies, ma’am,» Langdon said. «I’m still trying to get my bearings here — the person who claims to have Peter Solomon tricked me into coming to D.C. this evening.» He pulled the fax from his jacket. «This is what he sent me earlier. I wrote down the tail number of the plane he sent, so maybe if you call the FAA and track the — »

Sato’s tiny hand shot out and snatched the sheet of paper. She stuck it in her pocket without even opening it. «Professor, I am running this investigation, and until you start telling me what I want to know, I suggest you not speak unless spoken to.»

Sato now spun to the police chief.

«Chief Anderson,» she said, stepping entirely too close and staring up at him through tiny black eyes, «would you care to tell me what the hell is going on here? the guard at the east gate told me you found a human hand on the floor. is that true?»

Anderson stepped to the side and revealed the object in the center of the floor. «Yes, ma’am, only a few minutes ago.»

She glanced at the hand as if it were nothing more than a misplaced piece of clothing. «And yet you didn’t mention it to me when I called?»

«I. . I thought you knew.»

«Do not lie to me.»

Anderson wilted under her gaze, but his voice remained confident. «Ma’am, this situation is under control.»

«I really doubt that,» Sato said, with equal confidence.

«A forensics team is on the way. Whoever did this may have left fingerprints.»

Sato looked skeptical. «I think someone clever enough to walk through your security checkpoint with a human hand is probably clever enough not to leave fingerprints.»

«That may be true, but I have a responsibility to investigate.»

«Actually, I am relieving you of your responsibility as of this moment. I’m taking over.»

Anderson stiffened. «This is not exactly OS domain, is it?»

«Absolutely. This is an issue of national security.»

Peter’s hand? Langdon wondered, watching their exchange in a daze. National security? Langdon was sensing that his own urgent goal of finding Peter was not Sato’s. The OS director seemed to be on another page entirely.

Anderson looked puzzled as well. «National security? With all due respect, ma’am — »

«The last I checked,» she interrupted, «I outrank you. I suggest you do exactly as I say, and that you do it without question.»

Anderson nodded and swallowed hard. «But shouldn’t we at least print the fingers to confirm the hand belongs to Peter Solomon?»

«I’ll confirm it,» Langdon said, feeling a sickening certainty. «I recognize his ring. . and his hand.» He paused. «The tattoos are new, though. Someone did that to him recently.»

«I’m sorry?» Sato looked unnerved for the first time since arriving. «The hand is tattooed?»

Langdon nodded. «The thumb has a crown. And the index finger a star.»

Sato pulled out a pair of glasses and walked toward the hand, circling like a shark.

«also,» langdon said, «although you can’t see the other three fingers, i’m certain they will have tattoos on the fingertips as well.»

Sato looked intrigued by the comment and motioned to Anderson. «Chief, can you look at the other fingertips for us, please?»

Anderson crouched down beside the hand, being careful not to touch it. He put his cheek near the floor and looked up under the clenched fingertips. «He’s right, ma’am. All of the fingertips have tattoos, although I can’t quite see what the other — »