Book of Secrets (2007)
The Book of Secrets, Library of Congress
From the film · 01:14:00
“I'm gonna kidnap the President of the United States.”
The Library of Congress, the great Reading Room dome above Ben as he works the catalog
What we know
A leather-bound volume in a hidden alcove of the Library of Congress, indexed by a code passed only to incoming presidents
The catalog code is a sequence of identifiers — XY 234.371, give or take an aging librarian's drift — that resolves to a particular shelf in a sub-basement most staff have never seen. The Book of Secrets, in the film's logic, contains entries in many hands going back to Washington. The entry I need points us to Mount Vernon: a specific spot beneath Washington's estate where, before he died in 1799, Washington personally walked a Mason's apprentice and showed him a tunnel. To read the next clue, however, I need the President of the United States to be in the same room as me, alone, willingly, for thirty uninterrupted minutes. Riley raises questions. The plan, regardless, proceeds.
The Puzzle
Take the President to Mount Vernon. Find the tunnel. Bring a bottle.