The Secret of Secrets: A Novel
by Dan Brown
Contents
Chapter 116
Overview
Langdon and Katherine race through Threshold’s administrative levels toward daylight, but the bunker door seals shut before they can escape. Below them, Finch realizes the clay-covered attacker has weaponized Threshold’s SMES power system, turning the facility into a bomb with no fail-safes.
The resulting underground pressure blast annihilates the complex and vents through Folimanka Park, which erupts into a crater as a freezing plume bursts skyward. The destruction strands Langdon and Katherine inside as the world above witnesses Threshold’s catastrophic end.
Summary
Langdon and Katherine flee the domed suite, using Finch’s RFID card just before it deactivates. They sprint into a concrete stairwell and climb, driven by the clay-covered attacker’s warning that Threshold is about to explode.
They emerge into an unexpectedly plush “ADMIN” corridor and then a busy cubicle area, where they spot three Threshold employees hurriedly evacuating. Langdon and Katherine follow their direction, hoping the chaos will let them escape with the classified binder Katherine has taken.
They push through an unmanned security checkpoint into an underground parking garage and race toward the arched exit leading up to daylight. Before they can reach it, the bunker portal slides shut, sealing them inside the facility as the alarms continue.
Three stories below, Finch lies strapped inside an EPR pod and realizes the attacker has sabotaged Threshold’s helium and ventilation. Finch understands the SMES (superconducting magnetic energy storage) system is being weaponized; with no espionage fail-safes, the overheating system will destroy the entire complex. Finch accepts he is about to die, recognizing the bitter irony of a “golem” returning to destroy its creator.
The underground blast detonates like a pressure bomb, shredding Finch and ripping through Threshold’s lower levels, obliterating labs and medical spaces as the expanding gas seeks an exit. Outside, Sergeant Scott Kerble feels the shock and watches Folimanka Park bulge upward before a violent white geyser erupts, collapses into a crater, and releases a deathly cold that crystallizes the air into fine snowfall.
Who Appears
- Robert LangdonEscapes the dome with Katherine, follows evacuees, but is trapped when the bunker exit seals.
- Katherine SolomonFlees alongside Langdon carrying a classified binder; spots exiting staff and races for the exit.
- Mr. FinchStrapped in an EPR pod; realizes the SMES has been sabotaged and dies in the ensuing blast.
- The clay-covered attacker ("Golěm")Implied saboteur who weaponizes Threshold’s systems, triggering the facility’s destruction.
- Sergeant Scott KerbleU.S. Marine who witnesses the underground eruption and crater forming in Folimanka Park.
- Threshold employees (one woman, two men)Office staff seen evacuating; inadvertently guide Langdon and Katherine toward the sealed exit.