Lieutenant Pavel storms through the Baroque Library, furious over the murder of his captain and uncle. Convinced Langdon is hiding on the upper level, Pavel draws his weapon and shouts demands for Langdon to reveal himself, scanning the balcony for movement.

Pavel finds a concealed staircase entrance hidden in a bookcase, but the door is locked from inside. He yanks the handle until it breaks off, then fires a shot through the bookcase; the bullet strikes metal beyond it, confirming the staircase area but not hitting anyone. Remembering his captain’s maxim that patience is a weapon, Pavel stops shooting and pivots to a slower plan.

In the dark stair alcove, Katherine and Langdon cower on the spiral staircase landing after hearing the bullet hit the metal steps beneath them. Langdon worries Pavel may be acting under orders to destroy Katherine’s manuscript—and kill them—yet they have no phones and cannot call for help without alerting Pavel. Langdon tells Katherine to stay still while he climbs upward to scout for an exit.

Langdon quietly opens the trapdoor onto the balcony and finds no windows or escape routes. Looking down, he sees Pavel at the far end of the room, not studying the Devil’s Bible but straining to push its massive Plexiglas display case across the floor while the antique ladder lies nearby. Langdon realizes Pavel is using the heavy case as a base to extend the ladder high enough to reach the balcony and attack from above.

With nowhere to run if Pavel reaches them, Langdon searches desperately for a solution and looks up at the ceiling fresco. Hidden among the painted clouds, he spots an out-of-place small metallic disk—something Langdon knows the original artist would not have included—and he takes it as a potential “road to salvation.”