The world’s largest and most technologically advanced museum is also one of the world’s best-kept secrets. it houses more pieces than the hermitage, the vatican museum, and the new york metropolitan. . combined. yet despite its magnificent collection, few members of the public are ever invited inside its heavily guarded walls.

Located at 4210 Silver Hill Road just outside of Washington, D.C., the museum is a massive zigzag-shaped edifice constructed of five interconnected pods — each pod larger than a football field. The building’s bluish metal exterior barely hints at the strangeness within — a six-hundred-thousand-square-foot alien world that contains a «dead zone,» a «wet pod,» and more than twelve miles of storage cabinets.

Tonight, scientist Katherine Solomon was feeling unsettled as she drove her white Volvo up to the building’s main security gate.

The guard smiled. «Not a football fan, Ms. Solomon?» He lowered the volume on the Redskins play-off pregame show.

Katherine forced a tense smile. «It’s Sunday night.»

«Oh, that’s right. Your meeting.»

«Is he here yet?» she asked anxiously.

He glanced down at his paperwork. «I don’t see him on the log.»

«I’m early.» Katherine gave a friendly wave and continued up the winding access road to her usual parking spot at the bottom of the small, two-tiered lot. She began collecting her things and gave herself a quick check in the rearview mirror — more out of force of habit than actual vanity.

Katherine Solomon had been blessed with the resilient Mediterranean skin of her ancestry, and even at fifty years old she had a smooth olive complexion. She used almost no makeup and wore her thick black hair unstyled and down. Like her older brother, Peter, she had gray eyes and a slender, patrician elegance.

You two might as well be twins, people often told them.

Their father had succumbed to cancer when Katherine was only seven, and she had little memory of him. her brother, eight years katherine’s senior and only fifteen when their father died, had begun his journey toward becoming the solomon patriarch much sooner than anyone had ever dreamed. as expected, though, peter had grown into the role with the dignity and strength befitting their family name. to this day, he still watched over katherine as though they were just kids.

Despite her brother’s occasional prodding, and no shortage of suitors, Katherine had never married. Science had become her life partner, and her work had proven more fulfilling and exciting than any man could ever hope to be. Katherine had no regrets.

Her field of choice — Noetic Science — had been virtually unknown when she first heard of it, but in recent years it had started opening new doors of understanding into the power of the human mind.

Our untapped potential is truly shocking.

Katherine’s two books on Noetics had established her as a leader in this obscure field, but her most recent discoveries, when published, promised to make Noetic Science a topic of mainstream conversation around the world.

Tonight, however, science was the last thing on her mind. Earlier in the day, she had received some truly upsetting information relating to her brother. I still can’t believe it’s true. She’d thought of nothing else all afternoon.

A pattering of light rain drummed on her windshield, and Katherine quickly gathered her things to get inside. She was about to step out of her car when her cell phone rang.

She checked the caller ID and inhaled deeply.

Then she tucked her hair behind her ears and settled in to take the call.

Six miles away, Mal’akh was moving through the corridors of the U.S. Capitol Building with a cell phone pressed to his ear. He waited patiently as the line rang.

Finally, a woman’s voice answered. «Yes?»

«We need to meet again,» Mal’akh said.

There was a long pause. «Is everything all right?»

«I have new information,» Mal’akh said.

«Tell me.»

Mal’akh took a deep breath. «That which your brother believes is hidden in D.C. . ?»

«yes?»

«It can be found.»

Katherine Solomon sounded stunned. «You’re telling me — it is real?»

Mal’akh smiled to himself. «Sometimes a legend that endures for centuries. . endures for a reason.»

Is this as close as you can get?» robert langdon felt a sudden wave of anxiety as his driver parked on first street, a good quarter mile from the capitol building.

«Afraid so,» the driver said. «Homeland Security. No vehicles near landmark buildings anymore. I’m sorry, sir.»

Langdon checked his watch, startled to see it was already 6:50. A construction zone around the National Mall had slowed them down, and his lecture was to begin in ten minutes.

«Weather’s turning,» the driver said, hopping out and opening Langdon’s door for him. «You’ll want to hurry.» Langdon reached for his wallet to tip the driver, but the man waved him off. «Your host already added a very generous tip to the charge.»

Typical Peter, Langdon thought, gathering his things. «Okay, thanks for the ride.»

The first few raindrops began to fall as Langdon reached the top of the gracefully arched concourse that descended to the new «underground» visitors’ entrance.

The Capitol Visitor Center had been a costly and controversial project. Described as an underground city to rival parts of Disney World, this subterranean space reportedly provided over a half-million square feet of space for exhibits, restaurants, and meeting halls.

Langdon had been looking forward to seeing it, although he hadn’t anticipated quite this long a walk. The skies were threatening to open at any moment, and he broke into a jog, his loafers offering almost no traction on the wet cement. I dressed for a lecture, not a four-hundred-yard downhill dash through the rain!

When he arrived at the bottom, he was breathless and panting. Langdon pushed through the revolving door, taking a moment in the foyer to catch his breath and brush off the rain. As he did, he raised his eyes to the newly completed space before him.

Okay, I’m impressed.

the capitol visitor center was not at all what he had expected. because the space was underground, langdon had been apprehensive about passing through it. a childhood accident had left him stranded at the bottom of a deep well overnight, and langdon now lived with an almost crippling aversion to enclosed spaces. but this underground space was. . airy somehow. Light. Spacious.

The ceiling was a vast expanse of glass with a series of dramatic light fixtures that threw a muted glow across the pearl-colored interior finishes.

Normally, Langdon would have taken a full hour in here to admire the architecture, but with five minutes until showtime, he put his head down and dashed through the main hall toward the security checkpoint and escalators. Relax, he told himself. Peter knows you’re on your way. The event won’t start without you.

At the security point, a young Hispanic guard chatted with him while Langdon emptied his pockets and removed his vintage watch.

«Mickey Mouse?» the guard said, sounding mildly amused.

Langdon nodded, accustomed to the comments. The collector’s edition Mickey Mouse watch had been a gift from his parents on his ninth birthday. «I wear it to remind me to slow down and take life less seriously.»

«I don’t think it’s working,» the guard said with a smile. «You look like you’re in a serious hurry.»

Langdon smiled and put his daybag through the X-ray machine. «Which way to the Statuary Hall?»

The guard motioned toward the escalators. «You’ll see the signs.»

«Thanks.» Langdon grabbed his bag off the conveyor and hurried on.