Chapter 5 Summary

When Odd gets back upstairs, the bodachs are gone. The trouble might have root in Brother John's exploration of the structure of reality from his subterranean work place. Odd goes to the Abbey and down a set of stone stairs. There is a door with a sign: Libera Nos A Malo, which means "Deliver Us From Evil." He unlocks the door and walks toward another door: Lumin De Lumine or "Light from Light." A plasma screen reads Odd's palm print, and Odd steps into a small room. The room descends. A rectangle of red light ushers him forward to the third door: Per Omnia Saecula Saeculorum or "Forever and Ever."

Brother John, John Heineman, was Time magazine's most brilliant physicist of the year. Odd silently waits while Brother John decides whether or not to break his silence. Then Brother John offers Odd a...