Chapter 11
"Une plaisanterie numérique?" Bezu Fache was livid, glaring at Sophie Neveu in disbelief. A numeric joke? "Your professional assessment of Saunière's code is that it is some kind of mathematical prank ?"
Fache was in utter incomprehension of this woman's gall. Not only had she just barged in on Fache without permission, but she was now trying to convince him that Saunière, in his final moments of life, had been inspired to leave a mathematical gag?
"This code," Sophie explained in rapid French, "is simplistic to the point of absurdity. Jacques Saunière must have known we would see through it immediately." She pulled a scrap of paper from her sweater pocket and handed it to Fache. "Here is the decryption."
Fache looked at the card.
1-1-2-3-5-8-13-21
"This is it?" he snapped. "All you did was put the numbers in increasing order!"
Sophie actually had the nerve to give a satisfied smile. "Exactly."
Fache's tone lowered to a guttural rumble. "Agent Neveu, I have no idea where the hell you're going with this, but I suggest you get there fast." He shot an anxious glance at Langdon, who stood nearby with the phone pressed to his ear, apparently still listening to his phone message from the U.S. Embassy. From Langdon's ashen expression, Fache sensed the news was bad.
"Captain," Sophie said, her tone dangerously defiant, "the sequence of numbers you have in your hand happens to be one of the most famous mathematical progressions in history."
Fache was not aware there even existed a mathematical progression that qualified as famous, and he certainly didn't appreciate Sophie's off-handed tone.
"This is the Fibonacci sequence," she declared, nodding toward the piece of paper in Fache's hand. "A progression in which each term is equal to the sum of the two preceding terms."
Prank 惡作劇
Gall 煩惱
Gag 笑話
Decryption 破譯
第十一章
"只是一個數字玩笑？"貝祖法希臉色鐵青，怒視著索菲。奈芙，一點也不相信這種說法。？"你對索尼埃密碼所做出的職業判斷就是一種數學惡作劇？"
法希一點也不明白為什麼這個女人如此莽撞。她不僅不經允許擅自闖入畫廊來找法希，而且還在試圖讓他相信索尼埃在生命的最後時刻還突發靈感，為世人留下一個數學玩笑？
"這個密碼。"索菲很快用法語解釋道。"簡直容易到荒唐的地步。雅克。索尼埃一定知道我們很快就會破譯它。"她從羊毛衫口袋裡取出一張小紙片遞給法希。"這是破譯結果。"法希看了看紙片：1－1－2－3－5－8－13－21"就這個"，他厲斥道。"你只是把這些數字按升序排列起來。"
索菲卻滿不在乎地、滿意地微笑道："正是這樣。"
法希壓低了嗓門，聲音如滾滾悶雷似的說："奈芙警士，我不明白這究竟能說明什麼問題。但是我建議你立刻到那邊去。"他焦慮地看了蘭登一眼。蘭登正站在附近，手機緊貼著耳朵，顯然還在聽美國大使館的留言。從蘭登煞白的臉色，法希能感覺到消息不妙。
"局長。"索菲冒險以挑戰性的語氣說。"你手裡的這一組數字正好是數學史上最著名的一個數列。"法希不知道竟然還有稱得上"著名"的數列，而且他當然不喜歡索菲簡慢的語氣。
"這是斐波那契數列。"她朝法希手裡的紙片點頭說。"這是一個整數數列，其中每個數等於前面的兩數之和。"
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