Ernesto Russo

Ernesto Russo is a security guard at the Pitti Palace in Florence, a man whose unremarkable career and personal disappointments make him an unwitting but pivotal figure in the escape of Robert Langdon and Sienna Brooks. At twenty-nine, overweight and resigned to the fact that his childhood dream of playing European football will never come true, Russo has spent three years working in a closet-size office at the palace, always with the same dull job. His routine is broken only by the occasional curious tourist knocking on the little gray door outside his station, which he usually ignores until they stop.

Encounter with the Soldiers

On the morning of March 18, the banging on the gray door is intense and continuous. Annoyed, Russo leaves his television set, which is loudly playing a football rerun of Fiorentina versus Juventus, and marches toward the sound. He stops at a massive steel grate that remains sealed across the hallway except at a few specific hours, enters the combination on the padlock, unlocks it, and pulls it to one side. After stepping through, he follows protocol and relocks the grate behind him. When he reaches the gray wooden door, he yells through it that it is closed and cannot be entered, but the banging continues. Reluctantly, he unlocks the door and pushes it open a few inches, finding himself face-to-face with a soldier whose cold eyes make him step back. The soldier holds up an official carnet bearing an acronym Russo does not recognize, and behind him, a second soldier is crouched down tinkering with what appears to be a toy helicopter. Russo hears police sirens nearby. The soldier asks if anyone has come through the door that morning, and Russo replies that no one has. The soldier orders him to keep it locked and allow nobody in or out. When asked if this door is the sole entrance, Russo confirms that it is, and that there are no other hidden exits from the Boboli Gardens other than the traditional gates. The soldier thanks him, and Russo closes and locks the door, then heads back up the corridor, unlocks the steel grate, moves through it, relocks it behind him, and returns to his football match.

Subdued by Sienna Brooks

Shortly afterward, the pounding on the little gray door resumes, firm and relentless. Russo grumbles in frustration, knowing the strange, cold-eyed soldier is apparently back, but his timing could not be worse because the televised football match is in overtime with Fiorentina a man short and hanging by a thread. He knows there is some kind of trouble outside that morning—all the sirens and soldiers—but he has never been one to involve himself in matters that do not affect him directly. Stealing a last glance at the game, he heads off toward the pounding. He opens the steel grate, moves through it, and closes and locks it behind him. When he finally unlocks the gray door and pulls it open, expecting to see the same lifeless gaze from a moment ago, he instead finds a pretty blond woman. She holds out a folded piece of paper, which he instinctively reaches out to accept. In the instant he grasps the paper and realizes it is nothing but a piece of trash off the ground, the woman seizes his wrist with her slender hands and plunges a thumb into the bony carpal area just beneath the palm of his hand. Russo feels as if a knife has just severed his wrist, followed by an electric numbness. The woman steps toward him, and the pressure increases exponentially, starting the pain cycle all over again. He staggers backward, trying to pull his arm free, but his legs go numb and buckle beneath him, and he slumps to his knees. A tall man in a dark suit appears in the open doorway, slips inside, and quickly closes the gray door behind him. Russo reaches for his radio, but a soft hand behind his neck squeezes once, and his muscles seize up, leaving him gasping for breath. The woman takes the radio as the tall man approaches, looking as alarmed by her actions as Russo is. The woman casually explains that it is dim mak, Chinese pressure points that have been around for three millennia. She whispers to Russo that they do not want to hurt him, but they need to get through. When she eases the pressure on his neck, he tries to twist free, but the pressure promptly returns, and his muscles seize again. He gasps in pain, barely able to breathe. She demands the key to the steel grate, but he manages to say he does not have it. The tall man examines the mechanism and calls back that it is a combination lock. The woman kneels down next to Russo, her brown eyes like ice, and demands the combination. He replies that he is not permitted to give it. Something happens at the top of his spine, and he feels his entire body go limp. An instant later, he blacks out.

Aftermath and Revelation

When Russo comes to, he senses he has been drifting in and out of consciousness for several minutes. He recalls some discussion, more stabs of pain, and being dragged, perhaps. As the cobwebs clear, he sees a strange sight—his shoes lying on the floor nearby with their laces removed. He realizes he can barely move; he is lying on his side with his hands and feet bound behind him, apparently with his shoelaces. He tries to yell, but no sound comes; one of his own socks is stuffed in his mouth. The true moment of fear comes when he looks up and sees his television set playing the football match. He is in his office inside the grate. In the distance, he can hear the sound of running footsteps departing along the corridor, and then they slowly fade to silence. He is stunned that somehow the blond woman has persuaded him to do the one thing he was hired never to do—reveal the combination for the lock on the entrance to the famed Vasari Corridor.