Robert Langdon 06 - The Secret of Secrets by Dan Brown

Author:Dan Brown
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2025-09-09T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 75

The U.S. ambassador’s residence in Prague—known as Petschek Villa—is a palatial Beaux Arts chateau whose French architectural grandeur inspired its local nickname, Le Petit Versailles. Built for Otto Petschek, a wealthy Jewish industrialist whose family was driven out of Prague by the Nazi occupation, Petschek Villa was overrun and inhabited by the armies of both the Nazis and the Russians. A touchstone of history, the villa now stands as an iconic landmark to the region’s dark history of occupation, oppression, and genocide.

After Hitler declared his intention to turn Prague into a “museum of an extinct race,” Petschek Villa was selected as a “trophy case” for Nazi triumph. He ordered that all of Petschek’s finest artwork and furniture be marked with swastikas, cataloged, and carefully stored in the basement for display once Germany won the war.

The thought made Langdon ill. He stared out the window as the limo curled up the driveway into a sprawling garden surrounded by a high iron fence with sharpened vertical members and security cameras. This fortress, he noted, would be as difficult to exit as it would be to enter.

“Oh my,” Katherine whispered as the regal home came into view. “This is the U.S. ambassador’s house?”

Built on a gently sloping convex line, its luxurious columned facade stretched nearly a hundred yards in length and climbed three stories to a copper mansard roof with hooded dormers—a European palace, quite literally.

“Now I know why my taxes are so high,” Katherine joked. “We house government employees in private palaces…”

Not quite that simple, Langdon knew, having read former ambassador Norm Eisen’s book The Last Palace, a detailed historical portrait of this astonishing home. In fact, the U.S. had spent an astronomical sum to purchase and restore the villa to its original glory after the war, having maintained it now for almost a century at great expense. America’s way of helping preserve the heritage of Prague.

Langdon had met Eisen once and recalled him sharing an inspiring account of his mother, Frieda, an Auschwitz survivor, who often said, “The Nazis took us out of Czechoslovakia in cattle cars, and my son flew back on Air Force One.”

“All in a single generation,” Eisen had pointed out.

Now, as the limo glided to a stop beneath the mansion’s columned porte cochere the U.S. Marine in the front seat jumped out, circled the vehicle, and opened their door.

“Watch your step, please,” he said. “These cobbles get slick in the snow.”

A cold wind whipped as Langdon and Katherine followed the Marine into a small, elliptical anteroom whose carpet bore the colorful symbols of an American eagle and American flag. Overhead, a cylindrical chandelier cast a sunburst pattern on the molded ceiling and walls, illuminating a stern portrait of U.S. Ambassador Heide Nagel.

Langdon immediately recognized Nagel from photos. Sixtysomething, she was a serious-looking woman whose pale skin was accentuated by stylish jet-black hair, which she wore in precise box bangs.

Footsteps approached, and a cheerful older man in a well-worn herringbone sport coat entered and welcomed them. After dismissing the Marine, the man motioned for Langdon and Katherine to follow him into the home.

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