Seated at one of the communications consoles, Lev had changed into his traditional khaki shorts and white shirt that he wore open at the top, revealing a tanned chest full of curled white hair. Leaning back in his chair, he let his feet slip in and out of his flip-flops as he scanned the various lighted screens around the room. Satisfied that there were no other boats in the vicinity, he turned to the yacht’s first mate. “What’s our fuel situation?”
“Alex had us make a few runs to shore in the speedboats so we could fill up some empty fuel drums with diesel fuel. It took us awhile because we had to go to several different marinas in the middle of the night, but we finally topped off our tanks early yesterday morning.”
“I love that Greek. He’s one of the most resourceful men I’ve ever known. He’s just made it possible for us to go home.”
Lev picked up a phone and punched in a number. A few buzzes later he had Daniel on the line.
“Professor … I can’t tell you how relieved I am to hear from you. We’ve been sick with worry here at the villa.”
“We’re all fine. What have you been able to learn about this man Acerbi and his organization?”
“You better hang on to your hat, Professor. I’ve got a lot to tell you.”
CHAPTER 40
Ensconced in their self-contained world at sea, the land based dangers they had all been facing for the past twenty-four hours seemed far away to Leo as he sat drinking coffee on the bridge. Looking through the expansive windows, he was watching the sun come up over an empty ocean. He loved it out here. The sea was solitude, which he cherished, but there was also the exhilaration of movement across a medium that allowed anyone with a seaworthy vessel to go anywhere in the world. It was a hard thing to explain to those who had never ventured away from the land.
Over the past year, he had been able to take quick little breaks from his duties at the Vatican to spend some time ocean fishing with friends. He loved looking down into the clear blue water, where he could see the darting white flash of a fish at the end of a taut line, its unique movement telling him what kind of fish it was.
While some would flee in a panicky zigzag battle just beneath the surface, others, particularly large game fish, would run for the bottom until the line played out, forcing them to turn. The curling slackness in the thin plastic line was a sure signal that the fish was now charging back toward the surface. An experienced fisherman would start reeling in as fast as he could, for he knew that if he allowed the line to remain slack, it would snap when the fish suddenly crossed under the boat or dived once again toward the bottom.
Leo thought the battle for survival at the end of a fishing line was a great metaphor for the way everyone onboard was feeling right now. For the past few days, they had all felt the panic of being caught at the end of a taut line while they moved in a zigzag pattern just out of sight of those who sought to reel them in.
Lev Wasserman entered the bridge, bringing Leo’s thoughts of a solitary life at sea to an abrupt end. Lev’s usual tendency toward casual banter was absent as he stared through the thick windows at a vacant ocean without speaking. It was obvious to Leo that Lev was trying to come to grips with something.
“I can’t seem to shake the image of that chopper burning on the ground back at the compound,” Lev finally said. “I’ve been running it over and over again in my mind. Do you remember when I told you I was planning on taking an early morning flight around the castle to check out the surrounding area?”
Leo nodded his head.
“If the chopper hadn’t been destroyed, Nava and I would have been in the air over the castle when those helicopters attacked.”
Leo nodded again.
“We would have been shot right out of the sky. Someone was watching over us.”
“It certainly wouldn’t be your first encounter with angelic intervention, Professor.”
Both men looked at one another in silence, because in truth, neither of them understood the strange series of explosions that preceded the main assault back at the castle.
“Back to Israel?”
“Yes. The world’s a very chaotic place right now, Cardinal. At least the odds will be more in our favor once we’re back on home turf.”
“I was thinking of asking you to drop me off somewhere near Rome, but I see no point in going there right now.”
“I’m glad to hear you say that, Leo, because we can’t go anywhere near the Italian coast right now.”
Lev’s tone of voice had changed.
“So, it’s been confirmed?” Leo asked. “Acerbi was the one who attacked us?”
“I’m just now getting the details from Alex, but evidently the Carmela’s communication officer picked up some of the radio chatter between the helicopters and their base during the attack on the castle. She was smart enough to do a voice analysis on the person giving the orders. Turns out the voice print they recorded matched the one they had on file from one of Acerbi’s speeches. It was him … no doubt about it. Also, when we called the boat to let them know we were under attack, they immediately linked up to an Israeli intelligence satellite in geosynchronous orbit over Europe. They watched in real time as the choppers that attacked the castle returned to an airfield next to Acerbi’s chateau.”
“At least now we know for sure who’s trying to kill us, along with millions of other people in the world. We’ve got to do something about this guy, and the sooner the better.”
“We’ve been working on that since we came onboard, Leo … but there’s a problem.”
“What kind of problem?” Leo put his coffee down and let his green eyes zero in on Lev.
“Our intelligence people in Israel don’t want to tip their hand right now. They’re keeping the document we recovered a secret. The only thing that’s being reported to the authorities is the fact that Sarah was at his chateau. The French police did a cursory search of his property and came up with nothing to incriminate him.”
“Where is he?”
“Supposedly, he’s on one of his many business trips out of the country.”
“How convenient, but that won’t stop the investigation. It shouldn’t take long for the authorities to track him down and find out what he’s really up to.”
“That’s the problem, Leo. As soon as it was revealed that Sarah was at his chateau, several world leaders suddenly came forward to say he was the victim of a smear campaign … that she was never there.”
“Unbelievable. What about his chateau? Didn’t they find anything?”
“Squeaky clean. No sign of anything that resembled an operating room in the basement.”
“Did they check the third floor … the one Fredrick and Martha said was off limits to the staff?”
“Empty. The staff said it was being prepared for renovation.”
“They must have cleared the place out after Sarah escaped. What about the attack on the castle? How are they explaining that?”
“A sanctioned NATO raid on a heavily armed survivalist compound. The commander of the mission claims they were fired on first. If you remember, we activated our radar-guided ground-to-air weapons before we evacuated the castle. They were supposed to take out the inbound choppers. They fired as planned, but the choppers took evasive action and knocked them out. Apparently, their choppers were equipped with new, state-of- the-art systems that can defeat laser-guided weapons. NATO is also claiming that they were taking fire from large weapons from the castle itself, so they had to destroy it. Acerbi has managed to turn us into the bad guys and the French Navy is looking for us. Supposedly, we’re a rogue bunch of religious fanatics that were building a survivalist compound on French soil.”
“That’s crazy!”
“Crazy yes, but try to prove otherwise. According to international law, we had no business having the kinds of weapons we possessed on foreign soil. I’ll be the first to admit that we were allowing the Mossad to use the castle as a secret communications facility, but it was cleared through some of our friends in the French intelligence community. Suddenly, they’re not talking.”
“Damn! This Acerbi guy seems to have all his bases covered. It’s starting to look like he’s connected with
