Digital Fortress

by Dan Brown

During the Renaissance, Spanish sculptors who made mistakes while carving expensive marble often patched their flaws with cera—“wax.” A statue that had no flaws and required no patching was hailed as a “sculpture sin cera” or a “sculpture without wax.” The phrase eventually came to mean anything honest or true. The English word “sincere” evolved from the Spanish sin cera—“without wax.” David’s secret code was no great mystery—he was simply signing his letters “Sincerely.” Somehow he suspected Susan would not be amused.