Inferno

The narration switches to the third person for the rest of the novel and begins from the perspective of Professor Robert Langdon amid a hallucinatory vision. He is standing on the bank of a river full of corpses, including one with its legs protruding from the river with the letter “R” written in mud on its flesh. He spots a silver-haired woman in her sixties on the far shore who he doesn’t recognize but instinctively feels as though he knows and can trust. She tells him to “seek and find” before exploding in white light.

Langdon then awakens in a hospital bed, his bloody clothes sitting on a nearby table and his beloved Mickey Mouse watch lost. He is questioned by a young British doctor in her thirties, Dr. Sienna Brooks, and her superior, Dr. Marconi, who only speaks Italian. Dr. Brooks asks Langdon where he thinks he is, and he believes he is at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston since his last memory is attending a lecture at Harvard University, where he teaches art history with a focus on symbols. However, as he looks out the window of his room, he recognizes a structure in the city outside and is shocked to realize he is 4,000 miles away from Massachusetts.

The point of view then shifts to a strong-built woman with spiked hair who arrives and enters the hospital, vaguely referencing a failed mission she must make right.

From looking outside, Langdon realizes that he is in Florence, Italy, and Dr. Brooks confirms that the date is two days later than he originally guessed, yet he has no memory of the lost days or how he came to be in Florence. Dr. Brooks explains that he arrived at the hospital three hours prior with a gunshot wound in his head that, thankfully, did little damage but likely concussed him and potentially triggered a short-term retrograde amnesia. Langdon was also muttering “ve…sorry,” which he translates to “very sorry,” and begins to worry that he has done something terrible.

Outside his room, Langdon overhears that a visitor has come to see him. He asks that they be allowed in but visiting hours have passed. The visitor, the spike-haired woman, barges in anyway, and as Dr. Marconi blocks the door to Langdon’s room, she shoots him in the chest.

A luxury yacht-turned-mobile command center named the Mendacium floats off the coast of Italy. Its captain, who is referred to only as “the provost,” awaits word from the spike-haired assassin, who he names Vayentha, that her mission was successful.

The provost reflects on his disciplined, meticulous work providing covert ops to the highest bidder on behalf of an organization called The Consortium. He reflects on the questionable actions of many of the clients he protects but concludes that he “simply provided his clients with the opportunity to pursue their ambitions and desires without consequence; that mankind was sinful in nature was not his problem” (19-20).

The provost then makes more vague references to a client he’d aided a year before whose request now imperils The Consortium’s operations and that it is now Vayentha’s mission to rectify the provost’s lapse in judgment.

Back in the hospital, Langdon is almost shot by Vayentha, but Dr. Brooks slams the door shut in time to lock her out. Dr. Brooks helps Langdon, whose head is still spinning, out of the hospital by sneaking through a second exit out of the room, grabbing his Harris Tweed jacket on the way out.

The pair hail a taxi outside just as Vayentha exits the building, opening fire on them and shattering the taxi’s rear window. The car peels away as Dr. Brooks rips a torn catheter out of Langdon’s arm.

On the Mendacium, the provost receives word from Vayentha that Langdon has escaped with “the object” (25). The provost calmly concludes that Langdon will likely contact the authorities as soon as he is able.

The point-of-view shifts belowdecks to Laurence Knowlton, a senior facilitator of The Consortium, who is reviewing a video file a client has asked to have uploaded anonymously to media outlets the following day. The video displays an image of an underground cavern and a pool of water, at the bottom of which is a plaque that reads “In this place, on this date, the world was changed forever” (27). The plaque also displays the client’s name and the next day’s date.

Dr. Brooks leads a still-dizzy Langdon to her apartment and hastily mends his remaining wounds. Langdon is struck again by the vision of the silver-haired woman and the river of corpses, and Dr. Brooks explains that recurring visions are common with amnesia. She offers him caffeine pills to counteract the sedative given to him while he was unconscious and asks him to call her Sienna. She then advises him to rest a moment and think of something to tell the police as she leaves to gather clothes for him from a neighbor’s apartment.

Langdon, alone in Sienna’s apartment and desperate for answers, Googles himself on Sienna’s laptop to see if any news stories might offer clues to what has happened to him, but he finds nothing. He also logs into his Harvard University account but finds no helpful email correspondence to suggest he intended to be in Florence.

While in Sienna’s office, Langdon sees mementos and newspaper clippings about Sienna as a young girl, which paint a brief picture of her life. She was born with a physiologically advanced brain that provided her with an astonishingly high IQ but led to her being ostracized by her peers. One of the articles tells how she was able to run away from home and hide in a hotel for a week, reading all of Gray’s Anatomy in search of clues as to what is wrong with her brain. The clippings also tell of her brief stint as a promising young actor before she eventually turned to medicine. Langdon is astonished by the stories and feels sorry for the hardships Sienna’s genius has brought her.

Langdon is then suddenly disoriented again and struck with the vision of the woman on the river. He tries to ask her who she is, and she quietly replies, “I am life” just as a massive, beaked mask materializes in the sky behind her and bellows, “And…I am death” (38).

Coming to his senses, Langdon worries about what the recurring visions mean for his own brain. Sienna’s office phone rings, and Langdon overhears someone from the hospital leaving a voicemail frantically detailing that the police are looking through Sienna’s forged files. Langdon realizes that Sienna is practicing in Italy illegally and is struck with guilt that whatever is happening to him may result in her being deported.

The point-of-view switches to Sienna, who delivers her neighbor’s clothes to a suddenly apologetic Langdon. After reassuring him, she goes to the bathroom to freshen up, where she removes a wig to reveal her bald scalp in the mirror as she breaks down in tears.

Aboard the Mendacium, Laurence Knowlton continues reviewing the video he is meant to upload to the media the next day and is increasingly uneasy. In addition to the plaque, the video includes an image of a plastic balloon filled with a yellow-brown liquid tethered to the floor of the underground pool, suspending the balloon underwater. The camera pans to a man in a beaked mask—identical to the one previously described in Langdon’s vision—who calls himself “The Shade” and cryptically claims to bring “hope” and “salvation” (43).