While scrolling through the security footage with a guard on hand, Marta reveals that the Dante mask is not actually owned by the Palazzo but by a private donor and biochemist named Dr. Bertrand Zobrist. Sienna immediately recognizes the name, explaining that Zobrist is a cutting-edge genius in germline manipulation and a believer in the Population Apocalypse Equation, a mathematical model postulating that human population growth is adversely harming the planet and the species itself. She recalls Zobrist once saying, “The Black Death is the best thing that ever happened to Europe” (179).

On screen, the camera footage from the night prior is revealed, and it shows Langdon, Busoni, and Marta viewing the Dante mask. As Marta steps away for a moment, Langdon is seen removing the mask from its case and placing it in a Ziploc before handing it to Busoni. In the present, the Palazzo security guard aims his Beretta at Langdon.

Langdon tries to lie his way out by claiming Zobrist had given him permission to remove the mask from the case, but Sienna admits this cannot be so, as Zobrist threw himself to his death off the top of Florence’s Badia tower six days prior.