Angels & Devils

Organizers: Animesh Nayan (B-tech 5th sem) : Anurag Prasad (B-tech 5th sem) For any queries contact: anayan_b04@iiita.ac.in aprasad_b04@iiita.ac.in

Disclaimer:
All the facts and figures mentioned in this book are product of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously and any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons, living or dead is purely coincidental. The author does not hold himself responsible for violation of any copyrights. The author warns presence of explicit contents in this book which may cause severe anxiety, psycho neurotic depressions and disorders, nausea and similar symptoms of mental illness subject to medical treatment in non-mathematician races and hence recommends readers discretion. There is no copyright to the content and anyone can modify, distribute and destroy the contents of this book as long as it does not destroy communal harmony and raise genocide. The author wishes you all the fun and joy reading the book.

Acknowledgement:
A debt of gratitude to Dan Brown, one of the greatest story-tellers of this century whose work has been brutally modified throughout this book To the team of Effervescence MMVI, for showing trust in me. And last but not the least to all the great mathematicians Fermat, Euler, Newton, Miller and others for enlightening the world with their discoveries.

The Prologue
If you have the vision unborrowed, To save the humanity sorrowed... If you can plan shrewd strategies,, To win over orthodox algorithms.. Be a part of this endless contest of light and dark,, Where fear cripples faster than any implement of war.

Index:
1. An Introduction 2. The Path of Illumination 3. Galileon Melodrama 4. The clue 5. Mersenne mystery 6. An Out-Swinger 7. The mail 8. Elgamal Encryption 9. The challenge 10. Devils Angle 11. The sundial 12. Get to the roots 13. The checker board 14. The Final Gateway

Chapter 1: An Introduction Sunday, October 22, 2006. World-renowned Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is summoned to the worlds largest scientific research facility CERN, where something far too unexpected has happened tonight. Physicist Leonardo Vetra has been brutally murdered, his chest branded with a terrible burn, imprinted with an ambigram of a centuries old underground organization- the Illuminati.

Leonardos scientific discovery of the millennium, the most powerful energy source known to man antimatter has been stolen and made a lethal weapon to destroy the ancient and the holy city of Vatican which is holding Il Conclave-the sacred ceremony to elect the most powerful religious leader in the world-Pope. A mans quiet genius was being used as a tool of destruction, potent and unstoppable, and the entire power structure of the Roman Catholic Church was sitting on a time bomb. Vittoria Vetra, Leonardo Vetras daughter was a scientist in CERN and was lately involved in the discovery of antimatter with her father. A woman of tremendous personal strength, an expert numerologist and a computer science graduate from Stanford, Vittroria was an exceptional ten pointer throughout her academic career. She joins hand with Langdon and together they launch themselves for a mission failing which the faith of humanity in divine power would be lost. Robert Langdon realized today was going to be a day of endless surprises for him. Vittoria Vetra looked nothing like the bookish physicist he had expected. Lithe and

graceful, she was tall with chestnut skin and long black hair that swirled in the backwind of the rotors. Her face was unmistakably Italian-not overly beautiful, but possessing full, earthy features that even at twenty yards seemed to exude a raw sensuality. As the air currents buffeted her body, her clothes clung, accentuating her slender torso and small breasts. The X-33 space plane roared into the sky and arched south toward Rome. On board, Langdon sat in silence. The last fifteen minutes had been a blur. Now that he had finished briefing Vittoria on the Illuminati and their covenant against the Vatican, the scope of this situation was starting to sink in. "Thanks for coming," Vittoria said, her voice quiet. Langdon emerged from his daydream and looked up. Even in the stark fluorescent light of the cabin, there was an aura of composure about her-an almost magnetic radiance of wholeness. Her breathing seemed deeper now, as if a spark of self-preservation had ignited within her . . . a craving for justice and retribution, fueled by a daughter's love.

Chapter 2:

The Path of Illumination

Whole world sat in a state of paralyzing dismay as all the major News channels in the world were broadcasting a tape in which a person who claimed him self to be a member of some ancient organization illuminati had threatened to destroy Vatican in six hours. They were also telecasting an image which was taken from a remote camera hidden somewhere inside Vatican City, the CERN authorities already having confirmed it as the antimatter canister. An LCD display on the canister showed 5: 47: 12, which possibly was the time after which the batteries will expire leading to mankind witnessing an inconceivable disaster, a loss irreparable in centuries. But how could it possibly be true? Despite the archaic appearance of Vatican, every single entrance, both public and private, was equipped with the most advanced sensing equipment known to man, the sacred fortress being guarded by the Royal Swiss army , one of the deadliest armed forces in the world. If someone tried to enter with any sort of incendiary device it would be detected instantly by the most advanced metal detectors and radioactive isotope scanners. The faintest chemical signatures of combustibles could be detected by olfactory filters designed by the American DEA. The man in the tape didnt look like Osama Bin Laden or a militant from Lashkar-etaiyaba but employed terror. He was a European, his voice startlingly calm as he spoke in accented English,

I represent men of science. Men who are searching for the answers. Answers to mans destiny, his purpose, his creator. For two millennia the church has dominated the quest for truth. You have crushed your opposition with lies and prophesies of doom. You have manipulated the truth to serve your needs, murdering those whose discoveries did not serve your politi. Vatican is nonnegotiable. We have waited four hundred years for this day. At midnight, your city will be destroyed. The only way you can save your city is, follow the path of illumination, a path that passes through the four Altars of Science, a path that only few very enlightened souls in the history of mankind have traversed. You have less than six hours in your hand and youve got two alternatives, either seek the support of best of your brains and reach the church of Illumination or ask your God to do miracles.

Chapter 3:Galileon Melodrama

Robert Langdon, a historian and a professor of religious symbology at Harvard University, a soul who had spent his life studying, researching and writing books on Illuminati history, knew what path of illumination was being referred to here. He had no minutes to waste. He threw a glance at his Mickey Mouse wrist watch, five hours and ten minutes left; he needed a miracle, a Goddamn miracle. Vittoria had no idea what the path of illumination could possibly be, but what she knew for sure was that the claim couldnt be hoax We need to act fast, said Langdon to a puzzled Vittoria. But we hardly have any clue, said Vittoria. The clue has already been given to us. All I need is a book written by a guy named Galileo, said Langdon, his voice marked by confidence. She sounded surprised. "You don't mess around. What's in it?" "It is supposed to contain something called il segno." The sign? "Sign, clue, signal . . . depends on your translation." "Sign to what?" Langdon picked up the pace. A secret location. Galileo's Illuminati needed to protect themselves from the Vatican; so they founded an ultra secret Illuminati meeting place here in Rome. They called it The Church of Illumination. The clue to the path of illumination is hidden in a famous Gallileos work very few people know about. The path of illumination was designed by Gallileo, the master himself. In a matter of minutes, the duo was seen rushing to the Vatican archives which preserved the most secret codices of Christianity and the access to which was permitted only by a

written decree of the curator and the board of Vatican librarians. The archive was rumored to hold such treasures as Leonardo da Vinci's missing diaries and even unpublished books of the Holy Bible. Langdon had petitioned seven times for access to the library but was denied all the time. Crisis always overpowers orthodox rules. Father Jaques Tomaso, the curator of Vatican museum was the toughest librarian on this earth. Since Jaqui Tomaso's reign had begun, Langdon had never met a single noncatholic American scholar who had been given access to the Secret Vatican Archives. As they entered the library, Tomaso gave Vittoria an awkward look. What disrespect did she intend by coming into Vatican City in short pants? Robert Langdon and Vittoria Vetra had the official recommendation, so he couldnt presume the authority to question them. Langdons mind was barely able to accept that he had been granted access to this ever wanted treasure. In the very next moment he was busy scanning the indexes of the library. Vittoria was at his side, keeping pace effortlessly.

Chapter 4: The clue

Langdon wasted only a few restless minutes before he found the famous work he was looking for. It was a manuscript in a Folio bin and the label in its front read DIAGRAMMA DELLA VERITA Galileo Galilei, 1639 Langdon didn't need any encouragement. With his academic life's dream right in front of him and the thinning air in the Library, he was in no mood to dawdle. "It'll take some time to read all the pages. said Vittoria. "Time's something we don't have. We'll have to split the work" replied Langdon. He cut the stack like a deck of cards and lay the first half-dozen pages in front of Vittoria. "It's in here somewhere. I'm sure." Only essay. No math or diagrams Vittoria said, scanning the pages of her half. Langdon flipped again. Nothing. He kept flipping through a dozen or so pages. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. "I thought this guy was a mathematician," Vittoria said. "This is all text." Langdon's hands began to sweat inside his gloves. Show yourself, damn it! Show yourself!

"Any luck?" asked Langdon to an already busy Vittoria. Vittoria shook her head. "Nothing that looks purely mathematical. I'm skimming...but none of this reads like a clue. Wait Have you ever seen numbering of this kind on the pages of a book? said Vittoria. She was scowling, squinting at something on one of her folios. Langdon looked at the invisibly small page numbers in the upper right-hand corner of the sheets. He could barely trust his eyes. They were not numbers but lower case English alphabets. What purpose could these alphabets serve in an ancient Italian manuscript? Langdon argued to himself. Vittoria shrugged. She too was looking tipsy. Langdon asked her to write down all the alphabets on a piece of paper and form a concatenated string and while doing so Vittoria found that some of the pages didnt have an alphabet. She applied simple logic to leave a white space for each such page. The text still doesnt make any sense said a frustrated Vittoria. Scientists always study things that make sense? Dont they? You are no exception Miss Vetra. What if this is a ciphered text? said Langdon. Vittoria Vetra felt her senses were not as free as Langdons. Robert, she said Do you intend to hit and try all possible ciphers when we are already running short of time. Nobody travels on the road to success without a puncture or two and let me tell you my dear young lady. Experience is like a comb that life gives you when you are bald. Vittoria was in no mood to share Siddhuism with Langdon, but she knew he doesnt joke too often. Langdon continued, We need not try all of them, but only some of them which were discovered till 16th century. It means, this must be a mono-alphabetic or a poly-alphabetic substitution cipher or a transposition cipher chuckled Vittoria. Fortunately the answer is even more precise said Langdon Do you see anything special about the last 8 letters of the ciphered text. Not that I noticed. Why? Its v, i, g, e, n, e, r, e Vigenere. Blaise de Vigenre?. a 16th century French Diplomat and Cryptographer who had invented a trivially unbreakable autokey cipher Vigenre cipher which had earned the moniker le chiffre indchiffrable, meaning unbreakable in French. Langdon glanced up. "That was fast. Please don't tell me you're an Illuminata." "Hey," she said, "you're talking to an Italian scientist who has invented some of the most efficient algorithms to break such ciphers and guess what; I do not even need a key to break this cipher. The Ciphertext was: KEYUJ FGEV IZJIYIG EKW FFWFCJR AYGYO ZGCVEGW TSW APWAWJR TFJQCH EVA HTIB MRQ RRDTL TJL EPKSB

ZOX IHXW IL JTWCC ENU BELHYB A 16th century cipher was not supposed to pose much challenge to a 21st century Miss Vetra, soon she was busy applying some algorithm to the ciphered text and in a matter of two or three minutes and some interpretations, the decrypted text was lying naked in front of them. The duo shared a smile of victory. ************************************************************************ [Angels Clue: A brief description of the cipher here is to guide you on the right track. An autokey vegenere cipher encrypts a plain text by shifting each plain letter by the value of corresponding letter in the key. The first n letters are encrypted by the n letters of a keyword (referred to as key in general) and then the key is generated by appending the plain text to it. Conventionally, a=0, b= 1 z=25. If c=2 is shifted by e=4, we get g=6.A modulo by 26 is taken in case the value is greater than 25. Let us consider an example to explain things in detail. If the keyword is war and the plain text is Attack an enemy now, the key will be warattackanenemynow.

Plaintext: ATTACK AN ENEMY NOW Key: WARATT AC KANEN EMY... Ciphertext: WTKAVD AP ONRQL RAU

************************************************************************ [Devils Signature: Welcome all the desperate and vehement souls to the first level of your errand. As you might already have anticipated, your job is to decipher the Galileos Clue, the indizio and find out the key. If you already have tried some trivial attacks, done some frequency analysis and got some result, I congratulate you. If you have not, Id say, Dont loose hope. It is possible to fail in many waysbut to succeed is possible only in one way. Go on. Read the story. There is always light at the end of a dark tunnel.]

Chapter 5: Mersenne mystery

Robert Langdon was glad he had a company, and that too of a beautiful young scientist who inspired more of aesthetic admiration than intellectual appreciation. Langdons female colleagues often ribbed him that his collection of Museum-quality artifacts was nothing more than a transparent attempt to fill an empty home, a home they insisted would benefit greatly from the presence of a woman. Langdon always laughed it off, reminding them he already had three loves in his life-symbology, water polo, and bachelorhood-the latter being a freedom that enabled him to travel the world, sleep as late as he wanted, and enjoy quiet nights at home with a brandy and a good book. But sometimes emotions overflow and Langdon might never have guessed in his sweetest of dreams that hell fall in love with an Italian physicist.

What if he doesnt survive today? Langdon felt mocked by his own destiny. Robert, his thought was interrupted by Vittoria. You wont believe this but key to this cipher has a unique inherent property. The sum of the letters in the key is not an ordinary number. Langdon now looked intrigued. Its a Mersenne prime, said a delighted Vetra allowing herself a rare moment of pride in her work. Langdon closed in on her with surprise. Let me see that thing.

She was perfect. Just bloody perfect. Marin Mersenne was a 16th century French mathematician and music theorist who was least distrusted as illuminata by the church. Even today most of the historians know that Mersenne was a French monk. He had discovered a unique property in numbers which were known as Mersenne prime after his name. It actually made perfect sense.

[Devils signature: I must be cruel only to be kind,

Thus worse begins; and bad remains behind. At this stage, if you have exhibited some keen discernment and know what to do next, I still encourage you, else if you are a person of subnormal intelligence or if your mental acumen is well below what can fairly be described as average, I insist not to give up your ardent desire to read the story but at your own risk.]

Chapter 6: An out-swinger

The Galileos clue was a poem having four lines in all and Langdon had deciphered the segno in the very first reading. For a moment, hearing the verse aloud, Langdon felt transported in time . . . as though he were one of Galileos contemporaries; listening to the poem for the first time . . . knowing it was a test, a map, a clue. Langdon exhaled. There was no doubt in his mind. You found it, Ms. Vetra. She smiled tightly. Good, now can we get the hell out of here? Not till we are done, said Langdon The poem references illuminati markers disguised as religious sculptures and I certainly need some help regarding that from the Vatican curator. Father Jaques Tomaso didnt really look pleased by the undeserving presence of a woman in shorts and an American inside the Vatican museum handling some ancient manuscript without his consent if permission was a word far too derogatory. Excuse me Father! Could I ask you a favor? asked Langdon with a degree of politeness in his voice. A Harvard scholar is asking me a favor? I feel honored, replied Tomaso with a surge of sarcasm. I know what quest has brought you here Mr. Langdon. I wonder why impertinent Americans have a superficial that they owe the world more than any other race and try to establish themselves as the self-proclaimed protectors of humanity while for over hundred years the greatest acts of terrorism and brutal genocides have been committed by the government and the military of the United States Of America and not by some furtive gang of masked desperados. You are responsible for leading the world into a technofascist future where religion is not allowed to question the moral course of an action. You have always tried to prove you were the first to discover and not to mention your ugly

tools to secure your inhuman corporate plutocracy. You are guilty of such larcenies as stealing the theories and therapies from ancient works like Vedas and getting them published in your name through your patent laws. I am not a mass-media programmed dweeb Mr. Langdon and you might be wondering why the hell am I dictating this all to you? This is because the indizio you have worked out had been deciphered two decades ago during the reign of then Pope John Paul I and so unfortunately you are not the first man in this century to decipher the clue to the Path of Illumination. Langdon was a genuine soul and not a morally retarded pro-government American patriot but he had never expected such a violent remark against America by a European. Nevertheless, what concerned him most at this moment was that if the church of illumination had already been found two decades ago what path of illumination was the man in the tape talking of. Did we just kill all those brain cells for kicks? said a frustrated Vitorria. Langdon could hear his father speaking the old New England aphorism: If it wasnt painfully difficult, you did it wrong. To hell with the path of illumination, today hell miss the very first episode of the new season of his favorite series Lost. He now himself felt lost in some plane crash on a deserted island striving to get rescued.

Chapter 7: The mail

Robert Langdon was an illuminati scholar and all he could think of in this chaotic and jumbled state was that why illuminati would be involved in Leonardo Vetras death? Langdon expressed his concern to Vetra. The illuminati may have believed in the abolition of Christianity, but they wielded their power through political and financial means, not through terrorist acts. Furthermore, the Illuminati had a strict code of morality regarding who they saw as enemies. They held men of science in the highest regard. The expressions on Vittorias face changed all of a sudden. There is something I need to tell you Robert. My father was a catholic priest who considered Physics Gods natural Law and through science he hoped to prove Gods existence to the doubting masses. He was a Theo-physicist. Theo-physicist? Langdon thought it sounded impossibly oxymoronic. And the discovery of antimatter is conclusive evidence to the Theory of Genesis. The comment hit home. Langdon suddenly found himself thinking of the antireligious Illuminati. Vittoria, he said, You told me none other than you and your father knew of it, not even the director of CERN. I fear you were wrong. There indeed is a third person and he must have communicated with your father in some way or the other. Vittoria nodded, still looking troubled, I hope so. And what better way to communicate in this electronic age than an e-mail?

Robert Langdon was a man who possessed exceptional clarity and agility of intellect and Vittoria couldnt resist herself from admitting he was a genius. But a new drama had begun now. To access the mail account of her father she needed the password, the Goddamn password. Vittoria now looked worried. At CERN confidentiality of research and conversation was ensured by highest possible degree, the network encryption being so secure that a million computers doing a billion operations per second would require a trillion years to decrypt it. After a moment of pause Langdon said, You look troubled Miss Vetra. I thought CERN could provide us the password for investigation in this state of emergency. If only they could Robert, replied Vittoria. CERN has some strict protocols so as how to restrict eavesdroppers trying to gain unauthorized access to the private affairs of a scientist. An eavesdropper may be a sick and psycho scientist well within its walls or the network administrator himself. There is no such thing as Kith and Kin in the scientific community. So the password is encrypted by an encryption algorithm chosen by the user of the mail account himself. All we can do then is ask for the encrypted password and decrypt it ourselves for I do not see another way out. And what encryption algorithm you think your father had used? asked Langdon to continue the conversation. Robert, she said The encryption algorithm he used was discovered in the year 1985 by an Egyptian American cryptographer ElGamal which has these days become the basis of Digital Signature Algorithm (DSA) and has been adopted as digital signature standard by almost all the major security agencies in the World including National Security Agency, USA.

Chapter 8: Elgamal Encryption

Robert Langdon knew all his knowledge of History and Geography is not going to work here. He once again threw a glance at his wrist watch. 3 hours and 46 minutes left. No passion as effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear and Langdon at this moment was pondering over this rightly said quote. Meanwhile Vittoria was busy extracting some sensitive piece of information from CERN through a telephonic conversation. As she finished her call, there was an expression of relief on her face. We still have hope Robert In the next few minutes Vittoria was busy explaining the encryption algorithm to Langdon. Elgamal encryption is a public key algorithm which is based on the intractability of discrete logarithm problem.

The keys are generated by choosing a cyclic group (Zp), where p is a large random safe prime and g, a generator of Zp. A random number x is selected such that 1<x<p-1 and y g^x (mod p) (0<=y<p) is calculated. P, g and y are published as the public keys and x is retained as the private key. To encrypt a message M which is a number between 0 and p-1, the sender chooses a random number k (1<k<p-1) and computes: c1 g^k (mod p) And, c2 M.y^k (mod p) (0<=c1<p) (0<=c2<p)

The Ciphertext is sent as the pair of values (c1, c2). The intended recipient recovers the plaintext M by calculating M c2. ((c1^x)^(-1)) (mod p) (0<=M<p) Now, the problem that forms the basis of such a strong cipher is to calculate x from the equation yg^x (mod p) which is computationally very expensive for large values of prime p. If one calculates the private key x, he or she can decrypt the Ciphertext.

Chapter 9: The challenge

Vittoria didnt even have the slightest of intuition that all these complex terms of modular arithmetic and exponential congruence will pass well above the head of a guy like Langdon who at this moment was as frustrated as one would be after listening three or four songs of Himesh Reshamia or as one would be after coping with a two hour long lecture on Quantum Physics by a prof from some other planet. So, do you have the keys and the Ciphertext? asked Langdon as if trying to prove he was not an ignorant fool. Only the public keys and Yes, of course the Ciphertext. Vittoria put a piece of paper in front of Langdon on which she had scribbled some numbers which read, (7559699243, 2, 5601723156) (20652666, 868572005) So, how do we know the private key? asked Langdon. I think its a cake walk for me to generate the private key. replied Vittoria.

Vittoria now was busy writing some code on her notebook PC while Langdon sat and pitied his disability to help her.

[Angels clue: Lets have a better understanding of the encryption algorithm through an example: Let p=2357, g=2 Let x=2006 is chosen as the private key Then y=1449 2^2006 (mod 2357) Now, say M=28 is to be encrypted using public keys (p, g, y) To encrypt say we choose k=416 (1<k<p-1) and calculate C1= 1836 2^416 (mod 2357) C2= 2275416*1449^416 (mod 2357) To decrypt we use the private key x We have, C1^ (-x) (mod 2357) =747 C2=2275 Therefore, M= 2275*747 (mod 2357) =28 ..Bingo Remember M has to be an integer less than p. p is generally a very large strong prime. But to your utter relief, in the given problem p is not as large as the desired standard. In fact this is a lighter version of ElGamals encryption in which p is a 10 digit prime and the password can be 4-7 characters long comprising of lower and upper case English alphabets and numeric digits. So do not try to put extra effort as the devil may prompt you to do. To generate the corresponding integer representation for a character string consider it in base 62 where A=10, B=11.Z=35, a=36, b=37.z=61. Now, convert it to its decimal equivalent: E.g.: AB24= 10*62^3 + 11*62^2+ 2*62^1 +4*62^0 = 2425692 aXz = 36*62^2 +33*62^1 + 61*62^0 = 140491

Now, the decimal equivalent is M which is encrypted to generate the integer-pair (c1, c2). You have to do the reverse operation. Given the integer values p, g, y, c1 and c2 you have to find out x and then apply the formula to calculate M. Now, M should be converted to the corresponding character string to generate the password. This is all I can help you with. May God bless you at each and every step of your noble mission! ]

[ Devils Signature: You may be a victim of insane teaching techniques of your algorithm teacher or you may have passed all your programming labs through unfair means, but believe me or Miss Vetra if you are not able to write a program you may not get through this level. This is the level 2 of your errand and I want you to find out the password to the mail. If you are frightened of calculations involving big numbers and dont know how to play with them, I feel sorry for you.]

Chapter 10: Devils Angle Vittoria Vetra, despite her being a scientist had faith in divine power unlike Langdon who was a follower of apathetic agnosticism. She felt herself guided by an unknown source of power. Once she had recovered the password she logged into the account of her father and they were now busy scanning the mails in Inbox and Sent folders to carve out some clue. There was one mail in the Inbox which caught Langdons attention. Langdon asked Vittoria to check the mail. It read Subject: Novus Ordo Date: Wed, October 18,2006, 10:00 PM From: percorso @illuminazione.com To: Leornado@cern.com

To the church of illumination one reaches, Who is sharp and wise.. In the mystery of Devils angle, The holy path lies. Attachment: Map.jpeg [ Download]

Langdon jumped up high into the air after reading this mail.

Vittoria, he said I am damn sure that this is what we were looking for and I am glad our intuition has worked perfectly right. How could you be so sure? asked Vittoria. Do you still have a question? Look at the illuminati symbol- The All-Seeing Eye. Its damn perfect. The illuminati are highly fascinated by symbolism and numerology and their favorite tactic is to leave blueprints to their plans hidden in plain view. Architecture around the globe is laid out to represent their occult icons or structures based on occult numerology. The subject of this mail Novus Ordo means New Order which is an illuminati slogan through which they virtually show their power and omnipresence.

And what do you think is the message? I mean the rhyme Not that I can guess. Lets download the attachment and see. Vittoria Vetra now downloaded the attachment which was an image file.

Is it a map? Looks more like a geometrical puzzle. Vittoria now looked confused. What if the path of illumination has been changed and this is a clue to it? asked Langdon, his voice had a certain degree of confidence.

Vittoria by now had understood that this guy doesnt arrive at a conclusion without proper reasoning. If the illuminati still exist, there still exists the path of illumination. What do you think is the Devils angle? she asked. All I know is that this is a map of Vatican and the geometrical correlation among the ancient architectures is damn perfect. replied Langdon After a moment of pause he said, Its all so obvious. The Devils angle is the unknown angle and the unlabelled point in the map is the first altar of science. We have to find out a church that lies on the line joining St.Peters Palace and the Villa of Pius IV by calculating the Devils angle in what looks to me an isosceles triangle formed by three famous architectures. There are dozens of churches in Vatican. This is like finding a needle in a haystack. All the calculations have to be perfect. No more conversation but a simple geometrical calculation and it was all crystal clear. The first altar of science was the church of St. Stephen and the duo now rushed to the location to find out the next clue, the clue to the second altar of science.

************************************************************************ [Devils Signature: When I Play the Devil, I go by the wind, Thus I clothe my naked Villainy, with old odd ends. I am glad you have reached the Level 3 of your errand, but to get past the Devils door I want you to give me the Devils angle. A wrong answer at this level and youll loose your life. No mercy. I know the angels are guiding you.] ************************************************************************ Chapter 11: The Sundial At the church of St. Peter, the two desperate souls were scratching their heads to find a clue to the second altar of science. Suddenly Langdon said, Vittoria, I have heard that there is a sundial somewhere here at St. Stephen which is a secret chamber. There are two dials in it. It will open only when the smaller dial is aligned at a particular angle with the bigger dial. May be this angle is the Devils angle. It took Robert and Vetra some time before they found the sundial which was in a much deserted corner of the obelisk. To their extreme satisfaction as Vittoria aligned the dials at the Devils angle it slid open. Inside was a stone chamber on which were engraved some English alphabets and symbols. Goddamn Italian perfectionist, murmured Langdon. Langdon again asked Vittoria to write down all the symbols on a piece of paper. The concatenated string read something like,

TT~UHFTBHOHCR~~.IO~EHCOS~SP
Vittoria knew what to do next. Two more minutes and the text had been decrypted.

Now this time it was too easy. Its a simple cipher in which the letters of the plaintext are jumbled in some fixed pattern. We should better rush to the second altar of science Said Vittoria once she was done.

[Devils Signature: O my beloved Angel, to whom are you so kind? The path is all lightened but not for the blind. Welcome O Angels messenger to the Level 4. I want you to give me the name of the second altar of science. While you are busy decrypting the cipher Ill go and watch a Mithun movie Gunda. Its damn superb Ive heard. ] ************************************************************************

Chapter 12: Get to the roots Once again, at the second altar of science the duo was busy carving out possibilities and clues. Success doesnt come cheap and if at all it does, it comes to only those who deserve. Robert Langdon and Vittoria Vetra were carefully examining all the architectural masterpieces to see whether there was some hidden pictorial message or text that could be of their interest. Vittoria heard some passer by calling an iron pillar in the garden as the Devils Pillar and all of a sudden her instinct aroused. The Devil. Weve got him. She exclaimed with joy. She caught Langdon by his arms and led him to the pillar. On the pillar were imprinted these mystic words:

Heaven and Hell is a story of symmetry, Get to the root and unfold the mystery.
What does it mean? Isnt there any Cipher? Vittoria was least comfortable solving riddles and such clues hidden in poems from her early childhood days. All she was interested in was mathematics and science. This is not all of It. Replied Langdon, Look at these numbers imprinted along the circular cross section of the pillar. Vittoria closed in on Langdon. Amazing she said So, what do you think should we do next? Write down the numbers and then try to find out a solution. The number read: 3308870184563319662811410474591474634784915432274818881573146900209

What possibly are we going to do of such a large number? The name of the third altar of science has to be some text and not number. said a confused Vittoria. Didnt you read the poem? The clue is in there, in the poem itself. Its a cunning wordplay. A sudden burst of joy thundered Vittoria. Langdon once again had proved his being a genius. I got it. So, we have got to look for some typical characteristic of the resulting number that may generate some text. But I cant use my head to do the calculations. God knows how Fermat and Euler used to do it. Id better use a computer. While Vittoria Vetra was busy doing her calculations, Langdon in his thoughts admired the art of secret writing of the illuminati. Such perfection. Even if one gets the clue, he may not be able to decrypt the message unless he or she is a mathematical geek like Vittoria. Robert, he heard Vittoria speak This resulting number has a unique property. Its digits when grouped in 2 where 1st and 2nd digits form the first group, 3rd and 4th digits form the second group and so on, all lay between 0 and 25 which is only an indication that we have gone right. When there is a fusion of two great brains challenges seldom last long. Langdon and Vetra had got the name of the third altar of science. 45 minutes were left before the antimatter canister battery will expire. No more time to dawdle said one of them. Rush to the location.

[Devils Signature: Welcome to the Level 5. I hope you wont ask the angels for help this time. And if you are not able to get past this level, better stop believing that you know mathematics. Scratch your head or burn your computer, give me the name of the third altar of science.] ************************************************************************ Chapter 13: The checker game The altars of science it looked lied in some symmetry on the map of Rome. It was only an intuition that had come to Vittorias mind. Right now at this moment she was busy looking for clues at the third altar of science along with her companion, a Harvard scholar in his early 40s, Robert Langdon. And this time it wasnt painfully difficult for the duo to find out the next clue. Landons art-genius took the least possible time to reach the right segno which was a stone that lied underneath the sky in a courtyard. On the stone was carved a 3*3 checker-board with some of its positions filled while others left empty. Below it were carved some English alphabets. The checker-board was like:

******************** * 6 * 22 * 1 * ******************** * 13 * 16 * 10 * ******************** * 20 * 17 * 11 * ******************** FVP SLI XLJ MCB KHV FYB

Robert Langdon once again regretted his not being a mathematician while Vittoria chuckled and jumped as if a small kid had got bunch of chocolates. What do you think is this? A game of chess? asked Langdon. Intelligent people seldom make idiotic comments but undeniably they too are human beings. Vittoria gave Langdon an awkward look. This idiot doesnt know chessboard has 64 squares and not 9. This is a 3*3 square matrix damn it ! And I think its a key to some cipher . Vittoria though irritated replied calmly. And you know how to get it done. Right! Of Course I do. Vittoria knew Langdons curiosity has no ends and if she will continue explaining everything to him time will elapse and shell have to explain rest of it in heaven. She gave the matrix a variable name A. Now as she looked at the alphabets written below the check-board, it was all crystal clear to her. The alphabets were written in blocks of 3. This is a Matrix Hill Cipher and A is the enciphering Matrix. Vittoria it seemed had got the right direction. In a problem like this there is no wrong answer. They had got the name of the fourth altar of science and they rushed to the location knowing that there is one more hurdle to be passed before they will reach the Church Of Illumination.

************************************************************************ [Angels clue: In the Matrix Hill ciphers we use the enciphering transformation C AP (mod n) Where A is an m*m matrix (called the enciphering matrix), P is a column vector of numbers corresponding to a block of plaintext letters of length m. In the given problem n=26 where 0 to 25 map to letters a, b, c..z.]

************************************************************************ [Devils Signature: Welcome to the Level 6 of your errand. Give me the name of the fourth altar of science and take away the keys with you.]

************************************************************************ Chapter 14: The Final gateway The fourth altar of science was a church located somewhere in the northern outskirt of Rome and was the most mystic of all. It was a very old church, a typical example of illuminati occult architecture. It looked less like a church and more like a mathematical synagogue. On its pillars were carved various numbers and symbols. It was all so confusing for Vittoria and Langdon to get a clue here, the clue to the Church of Illumination. What are these symbols? asked Vittoria to Langdon. Landon was studying the symbols very carefully. He replied, These are not symbols but ancient scripts and on these walls are written the glory of great mathematicians of ancient world. So what do you think is the clue? The numbers The numbers? But how do we know? Its just that a historian knows more than a mathematician. Langdon looked naughty. Oh really! sniggered Vittoria. Jokes apart Vetra! I think its your job to do it next. Langdon showed Vetra some mathematical equations written on the pillars. In fact they were all linear congruence relations written one on each pillar and Vittoria guessed it quite easily that she had to solve a system of linear congruences. The relations were

X 7729136 (mod 10000223) X 9397530 (mod 10006721) X 8692034(mod 10010101) X 8693574 (mod 10153331) Vittoria looked at these numbers and smiled. Robert ! What time it is? she asked. 20 more minutes left replied Langdon. Get ready to board the X-33. Weve found the church of illumination They rushed to the Church Of illumination where they found the antimatter canister lying in the basement. They wasted no time and the X-33 arched towards CERN. On the plane, as Vittoria looked into the eyes of Langdon she felt emotions pouring out of her heart, a binding she couldnt explain. She had often heard that intense situations could unite two people in ways that decades together often did not. She now believed it. [Angels comment: Once you solve the linear congruences and generate X, convert this X to base 26 where a=0, b=1z=25 and get the name of the church of Illumination] [Devils Signature: Welcome to the Level 7.To Finish up and grab the flag give me the name of the Church Of Illumination. ]

*******************************