The important thing is to know how to die. Hideko Suzuki looked out at the gathering crowd through hazy eyes as the blood trickled from the wound on his forehead.
Why had someone carved a pentagram into his face, he thought to himself, wryly. He wondered whether any of the shocked onlookers surging around his prostrate body knew that the pentagram is actually a potent symbol of the sacred feminine, and not a devilish mark of evil, as most people nowadays seem to think.
He shuddered, grabulously. It was too late to tell anyone now. All that remained of his rapidly waning life must be devoted to getting a message to Robert Langdon ...
Two hundred miles away, in a small office next to Harvard's world-renowned Symbology Center, the handsome, tweed-clad Langdon was pondering a very different problem. Somebody was impersonating him on BuzzFeed!
Who could it be, and why would they do such a thing? Spifferously, he dashed off an e-mail to one of the top people at the online website. He wondered sardonically to himself whether they would appreciate that e-mails were merely one step in a centuries-old process of symbological communication that had begun with pre-Mycenaean cave paintings and continued with Sumerian Cuneiform script and later the hieroglyphs of ancient Egypt. Somehow, he doubted it. 
After transmitting his e-mail with the click of a button, he sat back imbubolantly and waited. He predicted that it was going to be a long day. Little did Langdon know that on the other side of the continent, his impostor was busy making absolutely sure that his prediction would come true. Very true. Very, very true indeed.
To be continued ...