Katherine finds Brigita Gessner dead in the EPR pod, horrified by the severed right thumb and the crude, painful-looking setup of IV catheters that appears dangerously incompetent or intentionally torturous. She concludes the device is a jerry-rigged prototype unfit for human use.

Langdon retrieves Brigita’s smartphone and unlocks it using facial recognition, intending to report their failure to Ambassador Heide Nagel. Katherine stops him, searching the phone for a way to enter Threshold without the missing physical RFID card.

Katherine explains that an NFC (near-field communication) clone could replace the physical access card, protected by stronger authentication. After checking the phone’s e-wallet, Langdon remembers Brigita’s suspicious “health club” card; Katherine opens it and finds a cloned Threshold card.

The clone requires three-factor authentication: a passcode, facial ID, and fingerprint scan. The elevator passcode (314S159) works for the card, Brigita’s face authorizes the second step, and Katherine uses Brigita’s index finger for the final scan.

They discover a critical constraint: the authorization lasts only ten seconds, and the phone battery is near death. Langdon realizes the elevator is close enough to reach at a sprint, takes the phone as soon as authentication completes, and runs down the polished hallway toward the RFID reader.

Langdon collides with the elevator doors and slaps the phone to the reader just in time; the elevator opens. Katherine joins him, kisses his cheek, and they ride the elevator downward, finally descending toward Threshold.