Via di Son Teodoro
Two Hours Later
Deputy Chief Inspector Hanaratti stood behind a series of desks where computers blinked as they scrolled lists. The national railway agency had been surprising cooperative. Or at least they had not been obstructionist. It had been the local police stations that had balked. Only a connection with a higher up in the Carabiniere, the national military police, had produced the manpower to board each of more than a dozen trains. That favor would cost the deputy chief inspector dearly.
So far, the search had produced two Bulgarians who had entered the country illegally, one man with a warrant outstanding for a minor crime and a woman smuggling cigarettes. Hardly a major war against crime. Manicci's men at the airport had lingered until after the flight on which Reilly had reservations had departed.
The net was, so far, empty.
Hanaratti lit his first cigarette in three years, ignoring the signs depicting a cigarette with a red line drawn through it. The first puff made him giddy. Perhaps it was the tobacco that gave him the idea.
'Manicci,' he said. 'The airline reservation was intended to throw us off the trail, do you not agree?'
Unsurprisingly, the junior inspector did.
'Why, then, would not getting off at Termini also be intended to mislead?'
Manicci was not one to risk giving answers that might conflict with what a superior had in mind. 'But, then how would this Reilly man and his companion leave the city? We have sent warnings to the rental car agencies.'
Well, perhaps the registered ones. A number of entrepreneurs rented a selection of automobiles out of storefronts or their homes to evade the numerous and burdensome taxes.
'I was thinking,' Hanaratti continued, 'they might not have left Rome at all.'
'Quite possible,' Manicci agreed, trying not to make a show of fanning away the cigarette smoke. 'But to what end?'
Hanaratti dropped the smoldering butt into a coffee cup, where it hissed angrily. 'We do not yet know. The only real connection Reilly has here was the rental car.'
'In which he was going to visit Hadrian's villa.'
The senior inspector nodded, a teacher encouraging a not-so-bright pupil. 'Perhaps, perhaps not. Perhaps he was the one who drove the car to the place it was destroyed.'
'To what end? He could have been killed'
'But he wasn't.'
Manicci knew better than to ask the point of his superior's rambling. He said nothing.
'Perhaps he had a reason to have the car so shot up. Or a reason to have it where it was.'
'Do we know what that might be?' Manicci ventured.
'No, but I think it might be in order to go back to the Knights of Malta, ask more pointed questions. I do not believe they neither heard nor saw anything last night. Someone must have at least heard gunfire. Someone would have at least looked out of a window. They are a large and wealthy organization. It would not surprise me if they had enemies, enemies who wished to make them appear in a less than favorable light. Having a crime committed on their doorstep might achieve that.'
Manicci failed to see how having a sports car shot up outside the priory could reflect anything, good or bad, but he knew better than to admit it. 'Shall I call for an appointment? With whom?'
Hanaratti picked up a newspaper. 'Happily for us, the media has taken an interest in an event that takes place only every five years.' He held up a page, showing a picture of a procession of men in what looked like seventeenth-century attire. 'Even publish schedules for the various meetings. Visiting members of their supreme council will be at a function at the Vatican this evening. That should leave the grand master and full-time staff at the priory. I think that would be an ideal time for a surprise visit.'
XII.
Circo Massimo Metro Station
Via del Circo Massimo
1830 Local Time
Lang and Jacob had chosen the anonymity of public transportation but now had the long uphill trudge to the priory before them. As they climbed the stairs out of the station, they faced west. Across the Tiber, a bloodred balloon of a setting sun limned the domes and towers of the Trastevere in picture postcard perfection.
Lang was more interested in the steep hill to his left. 'How far do we have to go?'
Jacob puckered his lips. 'I'd say a kilometer and a half. If you don't think you've recovered enough, lad, I can go it alone.'
'Not a chance. How close do we have to get?'
'Hard to say. You saw where I put the device but exactly how close…'
Lang's legs were already complaining of the climb. 'Explain it to me again.'
Jacob took out his pipe, thought better of it and returned it to a pocket. 'We had three choices: We could have tossed something nasty over the wall that would have wreaked bloody hell. That was a bit of a dice because we wanted to make sure we eliminated the people most likely involved in trying to suppress the James Gospel by killing you or nicking someone close to you. That would most likely be the grand master and his full-time staff. Once we located where they might be, we could have left a timed device, except we had no way of knowing when the sodding grand master and his henchmen would be where. So, the little gem I left can be set off with this.'
He held up a small black box.
Lang squinted in the fading light. 'Looks like a an automatic garage-door opener to me.'
'Right you are! That's exactly what it is. It works by sending out a low-frequency signal that activates the receiver, usually attached to your garage door. The question is, how close to the blooming door do we have to get for the signal to reach?'
Lang paused to bend over and massage his calves. 'And we find that out how?'
Jacob paused, too, puffing from the climb. 'By the most common of scientific methods: trial and error.'
'And suppose the wall prevents us from getting close enough?'
'Well, now, that would be a spot of bother. But it shouldn't. The ad on the telly said this bugger worked up to fifty meters.'
Lang began the uphill climb again. 'And if it doesn't, you get your money back?'
Jacob looked puzzled for a moment. 'Well yes, I suppose I do.'
Swell.
XIII.
Aventine Hill
At the Same Time
The dark, unmarked Alfa Romeo sedan pulled up to the massive wooden gates. The driver, a uniformed policeman, got out and rang the buzzer. After a prolonged exchange, the gates swung open and the car drove inside.
'Bloody hell!' Jacob spat. 'The sodding coppers are here! Now what?'
Lang stepped back into the shadows that now consumed almost everything at street level. 'We'll just have to wait.' 'Wait? How long? The visiting council members will be back from tea with the pope or whatever they're at.'
'I know, but we can't just ignore the fact the police are inside, probably in the building.'
'I thought collateral damage wasn't a concern.'
'It is where cops are concerned. Kill one of them and every law enforcement officer in Europe will be on our ass.'
