"The Last Secret" by Bernard Werber, summary

A detective story built around the anatomy of pleasure and the search for answers to the root causes of human behavior. The narrative weaves together high-level chess games, psychiatric experiments, and cybernetics. The mystery of a biological stimulus capable of subjugating the will determines the characters’ actions. The French writer created this text in 2001, combining fiction with the popularization of neuroscience.

The book is the second in the "Adventurers of Science" series. The story was preceded by the 1998 novel "Father of Our Fathers," and the reporter duo’s investigations continued with 2010’s "The Laughter of the Cyclops."

The Grandmaster’s Triumph and a Night Visit

The Palais des Festivals in Cannes is hosting the decisive match for the world chess crown. Neuropsychiatrist Samuel Fincher battles the Deep Blue IV machine. The human brain triumphs over silicon circuit boards. Fincher delivers a speech about the power of motivation, gets into a car with Danish model Natasha Andersen, and drives to Cap d’Antibes. Midnight brings breaking news. The owner of the villa is found lifeless, his smile frozen in absolute ecstasy. There are no signs of violence. The deceased’s companion reports to the gendarmes that her partner died during intercourse.

Parisian rain lashes the taxi window. Former criminologist Isidor Katzenberg, carrying a news tape, rushes to Montmartre to meet journalist Lucretia Nemrod. Three years ago, the pair completed an African expedition. The seasoned detective doesn’t believe a simple heart attack is the cause. Nemrod initially kicks his guest out due to a terrible toothache, but at a Getter Moderne editorial meeting, he suggests the topic to department head Christiane Thénardier. With the reluctant approval of their boss, the pair set off for the Côte d’Azur.

Autopsy and hypnosis

The cellars of the Cannes morgue greet visitors with the smell of formalin. Fifty euros unlock the glass door of the Antilles guard’s post, immersed in Shakespearean drama. Professor Giordano agrees to an interview for the sake of a personal profile in a magazine. The pathologist confirms a monstrous excess of endorphins in the deceased grandmaster’s tissue. There are no traces of poison. In the X-ray room, the doctor shows journalists a removed cranial trophy. The halves of Fincher’s brain float inside a glass flask in formalin. The doctor recommends talking to the deceased’s brother, who performs in a late-night variety show.

The "Merry Owl" cabaret restaurant is hung with masks. Stage hypnotist Pascal Fincher calls on volunteers to perform, demonstrating the power of suggestive beliefs and regressive dreams. Lucretia suddenly overcomes her childhood fear of tight collars. After interrupting a scuffle between soldiers and an artist on a nighttime beach, reporters question the victim’s brother. Pascal denies suspicions of envy and points to the fort on Ile Sainte-Marguerite. The psychiatric hospital there holds the secrets of the deceased explorer.

The Locked Man and the Island Fort

The boat "Charon," captained by the bearded captain Umberto Rossi, takes reporters to the island’s cliffs. Inside Vauban’s fortress, patients stroll freely across the lawns in civilian clothes, painting the walls with Salvador Dalí paintings. The tour is led by Dr. Robert, later revealed to be a patient with multiple personality disorder. The visit is interrupted by the authorities. The medical staff hastily expels the uninvited guests back to the mainland.

A parallel storyline reveals the clinic’s backstory. Former bank clerk Jean-Louis Martin loses his mobility after a car accident. He suffers from locked-in syndrome, despite remaining sane. His hearing and one sighted eye connect him to his surroundings. Dr. Fincher installs a monitor with a visual interface by his bed. By training his eye muscles, Martin gains the ability to type. Later, American surgeons implant cone-shaped electrodes in his cortex, connected to a computer running the adaptive program "Athena." The paralyzed patient becomes a silent co-author of the clinic’s reforms and takes the name Ulysses.

The pathologist’s evening call summons Lucrezia back to the morgue. She finds Giordano dead in a chair, his expression one of indescribable horror. A stranger, draped in a sheet and armed with a scalpel, lunges at the reporter. Isidore, arriving just in time, kicks down the locked door with his shoulder, saving his colleague, but the assailant disappears into the darkness. The vial containing the specimen is stolen and returned to the family.

The Epicurean Club and the Escape of the Captive

The hills of Cannes shelter the estate of the International Club of Epicureans and Libertarians behind ancient gates. Director Misha preaches the cult of instant pleasures. The idle rich man Jérôme Bergerac treats guests to vintage champagne while preparing the "Mimi" balloon, featuring a three-meter profile of Fincher, for takeoff. The arrival of militants from the religious league "Guardians of Virtue," led by a mystic nicknamed the Wrath of God, turns the meal into a brawl with chairs. In the confusion, Captain Umberto tranquilizes Lucrezia with a chloroformed handkerchief.

A girl regains consciousness inside a felt cell in an island fort. A screen opposite her is interrogated by a mysterious "Nobody." A jailer threatens sensory deprivation. The prisoner mentally constructs a safe castle, protecting her sanity from destruction. In the morning, Lucretia knocks down an orderly who enters with a tray and runs through the passages. In the workshops, paranoids, maniacs, and autistics assemble ultra-reliable Crazy Security security systems that finance the island’s autonomy.

The paranoid Pierrot agrees to open the way out, hoping to foil an imaginary plot. Pursued by paramedics, the journalist jumps from a twenty-meter cliff into the sea. The strait leads the fugitive to the Cistercian abbey on the Île Saint-Honorat. The monks break their vows to help the wounded woman, but call the hospital staff. The girl plunges into the waves again. The balloon carrying Jérôme Bergerac and Katzenberg, hovering above, lowers a life-saving anchor.

Uncovering the secrets of the brain’s centers

The chase for Umberto through the backstreets of Cannes culminates in an interrogation at a restaurant. The former surgeon confesses to everything. The events are based on James Olds’s 1954 experiments. The researcher discovered a forebrain bundle, the MFB, in rodents. The rats pressed a stimulation pedal thousands of times in a row, dying of exhaustion near the feeding stations. Olds was horrified by the scale of his discovery and classified the coordinates. Dr. Chernienko, who participated in the experiments, broke her vow by performing a lobotomy in St. Petersburg to cure her own daughter of drug addiction.

Fincher found Chernienko, underwent open-brain surgery, and connected the pleasure-zone electrodes to a radio receiver. The activation code was entrusted to the paralyzed Martin. Overcoming obstacles guaranteed the grandmaster a pulse of pleasure, dubbed "The Last Secret." Fueled by the stimulus, his brain crushed champions. The final battle against the computer turned tragic. Martin sent a bolt of bliss into the grandmaster’s moment of ecstatic lovemaking with Natasha Andersen. The champion’s heart exploded from the double overload.

Final of the game

The journalists infiltrate a locked section of the fort inside the hollow casing of a decommissioned computer. After neutralizing the cannibal Tokugawa and the strangler Pat, the partners find the paralyzed Martin. The paralyzed man’s helmet is connected directly to the steel unit of Deep Blue IV. The patient explains the doctor’s death as an accident. The computer’s mechanical limb grabs a revolver, aiming it at the detectives. Isidore pulls the power cord from the outlet, immobilizing the device.

Martin remains in the care of his returned wife, barred from accessing the Internet. The administration returns the clinic to its boring hospital routine, shutting down the sale of security devices. The magazine publishes a routine essay on memory without mentioning the brain’s deadly center.

Natasha Andersen marries Jérôme Bergerac in the presence of guests. On the dance floor, Isidore confesses his tender feelings to Lucretia. The couple retreats to the museum room of the old estate. Their intimacy combines physical attraction, warmth, and intellectual union without the need for surgery, proving the superiority of genuine emotion over artificial nerve stimulation.