“I know all of you.”
Alon tightened the grip on the pistol behind his back as he tried to make out the face of the shadowy figure. “Really? What else do you know?”
“I know that Israeli Special Forces Team 5 is outside my door right now. You’ve brought the best of the best with you this evening.”
Lev felt a chill run down his spine. This man was completely at ease, and whoever he was, he knew everything about them. If this was a trap, it had been planned perfectly.
“Won’t you join me for a cup of tea?”
Taking a step forward, Leo thought he heard the hint of an Italian accent in the man’s speech. “Tea?”
“Yes … tea, Cardinal. We have a lot to discuss. You might as well be comfortable. And you can tell the men outside they can relax. I can assure you that I am alone.”
“They have their orders,” Alon said.
“I’m sure they do.” The figure stirred before leaning forward and bringing his face into the light. His piercing blue eyes looked like those of a much younger man, but his hair was snow white, as was a neatly trimmed goatee. Deep lines creased his pale face, while the translucent, parchment-like skin highlighted the raised blue veins in hands that had a slight tremor to them.
All three men froze with the sudden realization of who they were looking at. They stood there speechless with a foggy grasp on reality, as if they were just awakening from a dream, for they were all staring into the face of a man they had seen only in pictures.
But truth is sometimes stranger than fiction, and it was obvious that the man sitting before them was very much alive. They were all staring into the face of Eduardo Acerbi, and he was smiling.
CHAPTER 47
The astonished men attempted to gather their thoughts as they looked into the unblinking eyes of Eduardo Acerbi. Sitting before them was a man who had once been one of the richest and most powerful men in the world. As the enigmatic head of the powerful Acerbi clan, he had ruled over a vast international business empire until that fateful day forty years ago when he had suddenly disappeared without a trace.
“Gentlemen, please. Don’t look so shocked. Join me in some tea. You have my solemn promise that no harm will come to you from me on this night.”
Lev was the first of the three who was finally able to speak. “As much as I’d like to believe you, Mr. Acerbi, your presence here is a little disturbing, to say the least.”
“No one else in the outside world knows I’m even alive, Professor. If anyone is in danger, it is I.”
Lev and Alon traded looks before sliding their guns back into their waistbands. Eduardo had made his point. They both knew that if he had wanted them dead, they wouldn’t be listening to the sound of his voice right now.
“Come, Gentlemen … please, sit.”
The three men scanned the room once more before walking over to an intricately carved wooden table that dated back to the Middle Ages. Taking a seat, Leo noticed that Acerbi had laid out four place settings, indicating that somehow he had known beforehand that three guests would be joining him instead of two.
The old man smiled. “I don’t receive many visitors here, so this is a special treat. I’m sure the first question on your minds is my connection with my son. Despite what you may have heard, Rene and I are two completely separate entities. Although we may share the Acerbi surname, our views on the world do not fall under the umbrella of the same god.”
“Your son has committed the unspeakable, Mr. Acerbi,” Leo said. “I seriously doubt his actions are covered by an umbrella held by any god.”
“I guess that depends on which god you follow, Cardinal Amodeo.”
Leo raised an eyebrow. “The theology of the Cathars has always been a little cloudy to me, Mr. Acerbi. I’ve always considered them more like Christians, who clearly believe in only one god.”
Acerbi stood to pour some freshly brewed Earl Grey tea. He then opened a plain white bakery box and laid some buttery croissants out on their plates. “Cathars are Christians, Cardinal, which begs the question of how much you really know about our faith.”
“I’ve studied enough about the subject to know that yours is a religion of peace, and that many of your beliefs seem to be in harmony with the world around you. I also know that your people were persecuted hundreds of years ago by evil men who called themselves Catholics.”
“Actually, our near extinction was condoned by a Catholic pope, but those were different times, Cardinal. Most people in the Middle Ages were still barbarians. People who romanticize about that period in history usually have no true knowledge of the times. I can’t help but chuckle to myself when I read some of the fictional drivel written about the chivalrous knights of old in their shining armor. They’re usually portrayed as morally incorruptible men who come charging to the rescue on white horses, willing to sacrifice their lives in defense of the downtrodden. However, men who study history … men like yourself … know that nothing could be further from the truth. In reality, they had no code of honor. They were filthy, crude, vicious men whose morals more closely resemble those of modern-day motorcycle gangs. In short, they were thugs, plain and simple. The one exception was the Knights Templar. For the most part, the Templars were educated men who actually had a code of honor, but sadly they were exterminated by the French around the same time as the followers of my faith.”
Acerbi paused to cough into his napkin before continuing. “But I don’t have to tell you all of this, Cardinal. You were once a professor of history and theology at Boston College. I’ve read some of your papers on ancient Christianity … papers written after your discovery of several long-forgotten texts that had been misplaced in the old Vatican library. You and I are kindred spirits in a sense.”
“I’m pleased to hear you’re a fan of my work, Mr. Acerbi, but I’m still puzzled about your question as to which god I believe in. I would think my response to that would be obvious.”
The old man’s eyes crinkled around the edges. “As you probably already know, Cardinal, the Cathar view of Satan differs quite a bit from that of mainstream Christianity. We don’t see the devil as some sort of fallen angel, cast from heaven by God. Ours is a dualist theology that embraces the belief of two equal gods of comparable power and status … one benevolent and one evil. The god that we worship is a god of love … a spirit of pure light, completely untainted by all things physical. Unfortunately for us, the god of the physical world, the world we now exist in, is an evil god. He is the god of all things base and material. We call him Rex Mundi … you call him Satan.”
“So you’re saying you believe in both a
“It’s a little more complicated than that, Mr. Lavi, but yes, we believe in the existence of two god-like entities that are on par with one another in power, but we worship only one.”
“I don’t want to appear rude, sir,” Lev said, “but our time here is short. What’s all of this got to do with the virus your son has unleashed on the world … and how do you fit into the picture? I mean, for over forty years the world has believed you were dead.”
Eduardo continued to smile as he shifted his gaze back and forth between each of the men at the table. “To put it bluntly, Gentlemen, my son is insane. He is ruled by a dark force that has hovered over our family for almost seven-hundred years. Some have called it a curse … a curse that has doomed my son to the worship of all things material. What Rene wants, in all seriousness, is to be the king of the world.”
Leo and Lev eyed the old man suspiciously. There was no way to be certain that this mysterious and apparently isolated man wasn’t some kind of wolf in sheep’s clothing, a malevolent representation of a kindly elder sent by the Acerbi family to lead them further into the trap. Rene Acerbi had already proven that he was a very calculating opponent, and the man sitting in front of them was his father. Either way, one thing was crystal clear- Eduardo Acerbi was obviously highly intelligent, and his knowledge about them seemed limitless.
Lev continued to study the man’s eyes.
