"Seat belts, please," Teabing's pilot announced as the Hawker 731 descended into a gloomymorning drizzle. "We'll be landing in five minutes."Teabing felt a joyous sense of homecoming when he saw the misty hills of Kent spreading widebeneath the descending plane. England was less than an hour from Paris, and yet a world away.
This morning, the damp, spring green of his homeland looked particularly welcoming. My time inFrance is over. I am returning to England victorious. The keystone has been found. The questionremained, of course, as to where the keystone would ultimately lead. Somewhere in the UnitedKingdom. Where exactly, Teabing had no idea, but he was already tasting the glory.
As Langdon and Sophie looked on, Teabing got up and went to the far side of the cabin, then slidaside a wall panel to reveal a discreetly hidden wall safe. He dialed in the combination, opened thesafe, and extracted two passports. "Documentation for Rémy and myself." He then removed a thickstack of fifty-pound notes. "And documentation for you two."Sophie looked leery. "A bribe?""Creative diplomacy. Executive airfields make certain allowances. A British customs official willgreet us at my hangar and ask to board the plane. Rather than permitting him to come on, I'll tellhim I'm traveling with a French celebrity who prefers that nobody knows she is in England—pressconsiderations, you know—and I'll offer the official this generous tip as gratitude for hisdiscretion."Langdon looked amazed. "And the official will accept?""Not from anyone, they won't, but these people all know me. I'm not an arms dealer, for heaven'ssake. I was knighted." Teabing smiled. "Membership has its privileges."Rémy approached up the aisle now, the Heckler Koch pistol cradled in his hand. "Sir, my agenda?"Teabing glanced at his servant. "I'm going to have you stay onboard with our guest until we return.
We can't very well drag him all over London with us."Sophie looked wary. "Leigh, I was serious about the French police finding your plane before wereturn."Teabing laughed. "Yes, imagine their surprise if they board and find Rémy."Sophie looked surprised by his cavalier attitude. "Leigh, you transported a bound hostage acrossinternational borders. This is serious.""So are my lawyers." He scowled toward the monk in the rear of the plane. "That animal broke intomy home and almost killed me. That is a fact, and Rémy will corroborate.""But you tied him up and flew him to London!" Langdon said.
Teabing held up his right hand and feigned a courtroom oath. "Your honor, forgive an eccentric oldknight his foolish prejudice for the British court system. I realize I should have called the Frenchauthorities, but I'm a snob and do not trust those laissez-faire French to prosecute properly. Thisman almost murdered me. Yes, I made a rash decision forcing my manservant to help me bring himto England, but I was under great stress. Mea culpa. Mea culpa."Langdon looked incredulous. "Coming from you, Leigh, that just might fly.""Sir?" the pilot called back. "The tower just radioed. They've got some kind of maintenanceproblem out near your hangar, and they're asking me to bring the plane directly to the terminalinstead."Teabing had been flying to Biggin Hill for over a decade, and this was a first. "Did they mentionwhat the problem is?""The controller was vague. Something about a gas leak at the pumping station? They asked me topark in front of the terminal and keep everyone onboard until further notice. Safety precaution.
We're not supposed to deplane until we get the all clear from airport authorities."Teabing was skeptical. Must be one hell of a gas leak. The pumping station was a good half milefrom his hangar.
Rémy also looked concerned. "Sir, this sounds highly irregular."Teabing turned to Sophie and Langdon. "My friends, I have an unpleasant suspicion that we areabout to be met by a welcoming committee."Langdon gave a bleak sigh. "I guess Fache still thinks I'm his man.""Either that," Sophie said, "or he is too deep into this to admit his error.
Teabing was not listening. Regardless of Fache's mind-set, action needed to be taken fast. Don'tlose sight of the ultimate goal. The Grail. We're so dose. Below them, the landing gear descendedwith a clunk.
"Leigh," Langdon said, sounding deeply remorseful, "I should turn myself in and sort this outlegally. Leave you all out of it.""Oh, heavens, Robert!" Teabing waved it off. "Do you really think they're going to let the rest of usgo? I just transported you illegally. Miss Neveu assisted in your escape from the Louvre, and wehave a man tied up in the back of the plane. Really now! We're all in this together.""Maybe a different airport?" Sophie said.
Teabing shook his head. "If we pull up now, by the time we get clearance anywhere else, ourwelcoming party will include army tanks."Sophie slumped.
Teabing sensed that if they were to have any chance of postponing confrontation with the Britishauthorities long enough to find the Grail, bold action had to be taken. "Give me a minute," he said,hobbling toward the cockpit.
"What are you doing?" Langdon asked.
"Sales meeting," Teabing said, wondering how much it would cost him to persuade his pilot toperform one highly irregular maneuver.
"请大家系好安全带。还有五分钟我们就要着陆了。提彬的飞机驾驶员大声宣布。此时"猎鹰者"731 正在下降，飞入清晨那细雨淅沥的灰蒙蒙的水雾里。
提彬看到，肯特郡雾蒙蒙的群山，正在不断往下降的飞机下面延伸开来。他心里自是充满了回家的喜悦。尽管乘飞机从巴黎到英格兰还用不了一个小时，然而毕竟隔了个世界。今天早上，他家乡那湿气逼人的春绿，看起来也格外的赏心悦目。我在法国的岁月已经结束了。我将回到我亲爱的英格兰，带着胜利的喜悦。拱心石找到了。当然喽，至于拱心石到底会把我们引向何方，这个问题仍没得到解决。也许是在英国的某个地方吧。究竟是什么地方，提彬还不知道，不过眼下，他正在品尝胜利的琼浆。
兰登与索菲在一边观望，提彬站起来，走到飞机座舱离他们很远的那一端，然后推开墙上的仪器板，露出了一个隐藏完好的保险柜。他输入暗码，打开保险柜，拿出两本护照。
"这是给我和雷米两人的。"然后他又拿出一大叠面值五十英镑的钞票。"还有两份是给你们两人的。"索菲一脸警惕的神色："你该不是想贿赂我们吧？"
"办事要灵活些嘛。比金山机场的工作人员会认你手中的钱。等我们一着陆，就会有英国海关官员到停机库招呼我们，还要上飞机来。我可不想让他进来，我会告诉他我在跟法国名人一道旅行呢。不过为避免媒体炒作起见，她不想让别人知道她在英格兰。你知道，作为感谢，我总要付一笔昂贵的小费给这位识相的官员。"兰登非常惊奇："那官员会收下这笔钱吗？"
"他们并不是逢人给钱都会收的，不过他们都认识我。看在上帝的份上，我又不是什么武器经销商。我是一位爵士。"他微微笑了笑："所以有格享受一些特权。"雷米此刻来到走廊，手中攥着德国黑克勒暨科赫公司生产的手枪。"阁下，我的日程表搁在哪儿呢？"
提彬瞥了仆人一眼："我要你和我的客人呆在飞机上等我们回来。我们现在还不能带他到伦敦各处乱跑。"索菲神色很是警惕："雷，我可是认真的，在我们回来之前，法国警方肯定会去找你的飞机的。"提彬朗声笑了起来："是啊，你想他们进得机去，看到雷米该有多吃惊吧！"
索菲对他的豪爽劲儿很是惊奇："雷爵士，你越境偷运了一名被你五花大绑的人质，这可不是小事一桩呐。""我的律师也这么认为。"他皱眉向机舱后面瞅了一眼："不过那畜生闯进我家，差一点把我杀了。那是无法否认的事实，雷米可以作证的。""可你把他捆住，又把他弄到伦敦来！"兰登突然插嘴。
提彬举起右手，仿佛是在法庭宣誓："阁下，请原谅一位古怪的老骑士对英国法庭制度愚蠢的偏见吧。我知道我本应报告法国当局，可我是个势利的人，我不相信你那些自由放任的法国人会做出公正的裁决。这人差点杀了我。是的，我强迫仆人帮我把他带到英格兰来，我的决定确实很草率，可是我的压力很大你知道吗？是我的错，都是我的错。"兰登不肯相信："压力来自你自己，雷，也许它刚刚离你而去了哩。"
"阁下。"驾驶员回头喊道："控制塔刚才发信号来，说在你停机库附近的路上出了些问题，所以他们叫我不要把飞机开往那里，而是直接飞往机场的航空集散站。"提彬架飞机来往比金山机场已经有十多年，然而还是第一次碰上这样的问题。"他们说了是什么问题没有？"
"调度员含糊其词，说大概油泵站泄漏了吧？他们要我把飞机停在航空集散站前，并说在没有得到进一步的通知之前，任何人都不能走下飞机，并说这是为了安全起见。只有等机场当局调查清楚后，我们才可以下机。"提彬半信半疑。去他妈的什么油泵泄漏，该不是里头有什么陷阱吧！油泵站离他的机库足足有半英里远呢。
雷米也很关心地说道："阁下，这似乎很不正常啊。"
提彬转身面对索菲与兰登两人："朋友们，我有一种不祥的预感，我怀疑前面有接机团欢迎我们呢。"兰登凄凉地哀叹一声："也许法希还将我当作是他那边的人呢。"
"要么如此。"索菲说："要么就是他太固执，不愿承认自己的错误。"
提彬没听他们说话。先别管他法希固执不固执，得马上采取措施。我们不能迷失最终的目标。我们离圣杯只剩一步之遥了。飞机在他们下面。"哐"的一声着陆了。
兰登一脸懊悔地说："雷爵士，我真该让警方把我抓起来，然后采用合法手段解决问题。我不该连累你们。""天哪，罗伯特！"提彬挥手打住："你真的以为他们会让其他人走吗？我把你带过来们已是同一条船上的人了。""也许这个机场不一样吧？"索菲说。
提彬摇了摇头："如果我们现在就停下来，那等我们在其他地方得到停机许可之前，接机的代表团就会开着坦克来接我们了。"索菲沮丧地倒在座位上。
提彬感到，如果他们要想推迟与英国当局产生冲突的时间，以便能争取时间找到圣杯，那他们就得大胆采取行动。"给我一点时间。"他说着，步履蹒跚地朝驾驶员座舱走去。
"你要干什么？"兰登问道。
"我得去参加个推销会议。"提彬说，他也不知道，要付出多大的代价，才能说服驾驶员去冒一次极不寻常的险。