‘That’s what they gave me,’ Sarah argued.
‘Do you think I was born yesterday?’ Adolph shouted. ‘All that’s in here are the agreements the Holy See made with Ben Isaac. Don’t fuck with me.’ He was completely beside himself.
‘Let’s stay calm,’ Rafael requested.
Things couldn’t get out of control, precarious as they already were.
Sarah was mystified. Jean-Paul had gone to the vault. She’d seen him go there. He had given her the case, and no one had opened it until now. How could…?
The superior general’s cell phone rang. He listened. Someone said something, and he immediately disconnected and put it back in his pocket.
‘How are we going to resolve this?’ Rafael asked.
It could turn into a bloodbath.
Another phone started to ring. After a few bars the ringtone became clear: ‘The Star-Spangled Banner.’ Barry’s phone.
‘Barry,’ he said, answering it.
He listened a few seconds, then took the phone from his ear and punched a key. ‘Okay, you’re on speakerphone.’
‘Good evening, gentlemen,’ they heard a voice say.
Sarah managed a half smile as she recognized JC’s voice.
‘Who is it?’ Adolph asked angrily.
‘You’re very rude, Adolph. Hanging up without hearing what I have to say,’ the voice reproached him.
Adolph was not worried. ‘Who are you?’
‘The last person who hung up on me is no longer with us. I have a very quick temper when it comes to bad manners.’
‘Cut the shit,’ Schmidt said arrogantly.
‘Oh, oh, oh! What impatience, Reverend Father Hans Matthaus Schmidt, or do you prefer your Jesuit name, Aloysius?’
The voice made Adolph and Schmidt uncomfortable.
‘My own name doesn’t matter. You can call me JC.’
‘Pope Luciani’s assassin,’ Schmidt whispered to Adolph.
‘Men are the most predictable creatures in existence,’ JC continued over Barry’s speakerphone. They don’t understand each other, they don’t share, they don’t like to lose. I’m including myself. I’m the same.’
‘Is there some point to this conversation?’ Adolph asked.
‘I’ve decided neither one of you will get the parchments. I shall be their faithful guardian.’
‘That’s not what we agreed,’ William put in, visibly discouraged.
‘We agreed to recover the parchments. I never said I’d give them to you.’
‘That was implicit,’ William argued.
‘I can be slow to understand,’ JC said ironically.
Adolph looked at Tarcisio furiously. ‘Do you see what happens when you get involved with criminals? The pope’s assassin, for the love of God. What were you thinking?’
‘I must add allegedly to your name-calling,’ JC corrected him. ‘In any case, I want you to lower your guns and go your separate ways.’
Nicolas laughed; so Schmidt did.
‘And we should just because you say so?’ Schmidt asked.
‘I’ll excuse the reverend father because he’s never heard of me. But I won’t repeat my order to lower your guns,’ JC declared.
The impasse and tension remained: Nicolas with two guns pointed at Sarah and Jacopo, Aris covering Schmidt and Adolph, Rafael and Barry pointing their guns away.
‘Kill them,’ Adolph ordered Nicolas.
‘Stay calm.’ Rafael tried to aim in Sarah’s direction to see if he could hit Nicolas, but Nicolas was shielded by the two of them. It would be a difficult shot.
Sarah closed her eyes in panic.
‘Oh, my God!’ Jacopo stammered, terrified.
‘Kill them,’ Adolph said again, without a trace of emotion.
Two shots echoed through the immense structure of the church. Nicolas was thrown forward, arms wide, pushing Jacopo and Sarah aside with the impact of the bullets between his shoulders.
Adolph looked around, but saw no one. The CIA men and Rafael did the same. Nothing, no one.
A chuckle echoed over Barry’s cell phone.
‘If you disobey me again, Adolph, it’ll be your head next time,’ JC warned.
The superior general was livid. Schmidt was sweating profusely. Rafael smiled to himself. Sarah was white as chalk, crouched on the cold floor. Jacopo was fleeing through the nave toward the exit.
The doors suddenly opened to admit a dozen agents under Daniel’s orders. Jacopo passed them without stopping. No one cared about the cripple who went running after Jacopo.
‘Both of your sides are defending a lie,’ JC offered. ‘You’re all very far from the truth. If you knew… if you knew. You can kill yourselves some other day, not today, with my people involved. Remember one thing. I see and hear everything.’ He disconnected the call.
Adolph suddenly left in the direction of the sacristy, muttering imperceptible curses, frustrated profanities, with Schmidt at his heels. Nicolas dragged himself along painfully, bleeding from both shoulders.
Rafael went to Sarah and hugged her. ‘Are you all right?’
‘I think so,’ she murmured.
Daniel came up to them. ‘How are you?’
‘It’s over for now,’ Rafael said. ‘We need to clean this up,’ he said, pointing at the bodies on the floor.
‘I’ll have it taken care of,’ he assured him, approaching Tarcisio and William to provide security for them. Then he prostrated himself before the secretary and cried, ‘Pardon my failure, Your Eminence.’
Tarcisio placed his hand on Daniel’s head. ‘You’re not guilty at all. You couldn’t have done anything, Daniel. The Lord’s plans are unknowable. Get up, my son.’
Barry extended his hand to Rafael. ‘The old man is tough.’
They shook hands. ‘Thanks, Barry.’
Barry looked at his watch. ‘Perhaps there’s still time to dine at Memmo.’
‘Okay,’ Rafael accepted. ‘Just let me see if…’ He looked in Sarah’s direction, but she wasn’t where he’d left her.
He caught a glimpse of her in the middle of the nave, looking at a trompe l’oeil fresco that created the illusion of a nonexistent cupola, an ingenious masterpiece by Andrea Pozzo. He ran over to her.
‘You made things real easy,’ she was shouting upward, red in the face. ‘Real easy.’
Rafael had never seen her like this; she was beside herself.
‘I could have died, JC. You played with my life,’ she continued to shout furiously at no one.
A coughing attack made her double over. She raised a closed hand to her mouth to stop the coughing. Rafael ran to help her.
‘Are you all right, Sarah?’ He was worried.
She coughed a little more and then calmed down.
‘Do you feel better?’ he wanted to know.
‘It’s over, thanks. Something caught in my throat.’
Rafael shook his head and looked at her hand.
Sarah followed his glance and understood. Her hand was full of blood.
69
It was like a rebirth.
