my previous existence again.”
“So you just walked away?” Leo asked.
“Not exactly … I had a plan. Over the years, the Acerbi family had made many powerful friends, friends who were not only powerful, but ruthless as well. They were capable of great evil, and if they had ever learned about my newfound faith, they would have killed not only me, but also my family. It was an easy decision, actually. I decided to simply disappear, leaving everything to my wife and child.”
“Why not take your family with you?”
Eduardo cast an understanding smile at Leo. “It was more complicated than just picking up in the middle of the night and running away. You probably don’t know this, Cardinal, but marriages in the Acerbi clan are always arranged to prevent outsiders from infiltrating our inner circle. My relationship with my wife had never been a passionate love affair, but even so, I had grown to love and respect her for the person she was, and I honestly believe she felt the same about me. I agonized for months about telling her the truth, but in the end, I realized that she would never give up her life as the pampered wife of one of the richest and most powerful men in the world. She would have shouted from the rooftops that I was insane, and my Cathar friends would have been exposed to the outside world … something I couldn’t allow. Finally, Colette and I concocted a plan. When it came to faith, she was the stronger of the two of us. We decided that I would leave … disappear and never return, while she would move into my chateau and become the nanny to my son. In this way, I would have someone I trusted watching over Rene, while at the same time, Colette and I would be kept apart, thus ensuring that I would not break my marriage vows … a huge sin in the Cathar religion.”
“You never saw Colette again?” Lev asked.
“My wife remarried and was later killed in a car accident with her new husband. After she died, Colette and I were secretly married here in this very house, but she continued to live at my chateau in the Loire Valley in order to keep an eye on Rene and ensure that he was being raised properly. We rarely saw each other until Rene turned twenty-one and Colette moved back here to the valley. It was because of her love that I am here today, Gentlemen. She died ten years ago, and I have remained here in Foix all of this time, awaiting the day when we will be together again.”
Silence descended over the room as Lev pulled a cigar from his pocket. “Do you mind if I smoke?”
“Make yourself at home, Professor. I love the smell of a good cigar.”
Shaking out the fire at the end of the match, Lev’s eyes narrowed as he glanced through the swirling blue smoke. “We don’t mean to rush you, Mr. Acerbi, but we’ve been led to believe that you still have contacts inside the Acerbi clan and that you have some sort of plan to stop your son. We’d like to hear it.”
The old man’s eyes took on the focused look of a warrior. “We will stop him through his greatest point of weakness … his religion.”
“His religion?” Alon leaned forward in his chair. “I thought the Acerbi clan worshipped this Rex Mundi character.”
“They do, but they’ve concealed that fact from the rest of their followers. Those outside the family believe they are part of a new-age religion dedicated to the accumulation of wealth and power for the common good. It’s an egotistic and modernized aberration of the old Cathar religion turned inside out, with Rex Mundi secretly at its core.”
“I’m still not following you,” Leo said. “Are you saying that the Acerbis have propagated their own church, and that their followers have no idea who it is that they are really worshipping?”
“Exactly, Cardinal. I couldn’t have said it better myself. While the Acerbis pray to Rex Mundi, their followers believe they are worshiping a god of love in gatherings that look more like corporate retreats. Away from prying eyes, their rich and powerful friends gather together in the countryside to network and indulge in secret ceremonies. In fact, their ceremonies are based on those of real Cathars … they’re almost identical … even down to the titles they bestow upon their leaders. They wear Cathar robes to mock us, but they’ve lost sight of what the real Cathar faith is all about. In short, the Acerbis have created a cult of power and money ruled by evil, while camouflaging their entire enterprise under the guise of a new religion of peace backed by money and power.”
The three men stared at Eduardo without speaking. He had just opened up to them about a world none of them knew existed, and the reality of it had taken them all by surprise. The old man appeared to be totally honest and open in everything he had said, but he had still not revealed his plan.
“We still need to hear how you plan to stop your son.”
“I’m coming to that, Professor, but first let me say that it’s important to me that you all know I made one last attempt to save my son’s soul before agreeing to meet with you. He has received copies of the translated scrolls, and I have been praying that he would read them … that their words would have the same effect on him as they did on me. Unfortunately, I learned that he threw them away and has even stepped up the timetable for continuing with his plan to wipe out half the world’s population. I was prepared to stop him myself, even if it meant spilling the blood of my own son, but my chance to do so has passed.”
By now, the sun had risen above the distant mountains, and as the old man turned to gaze out the window once again, his eyes glazed over. It seemed that he was looking inward instead of outward, as though nothing on the outside mattered anymore. When at last he looked back at his guests, he tried to smile, but the effort seemed too great. His face was filled with a look of total exhaustion.
“You’ll have to forgive me, Gentlemen. My mind tends to wander more frequently these days. It appears that, in my effort to prove to you that I was being truthful, I’ve left out an important part of the story.”
“What part would that be, Mr. Acerbi?” Lev asked.
“Last week I saw my son for the first time in over forty years.”
CHAPTER 48
Silence descended over the three shocked men as Acerbi’s mind seemed to drift. He was looking through the window at the twisted, shadowed branches of the trees across the road. Suddenly, he jerked forward and brought his face close to the glass, as if he were trying to see through the early morning mist, looking for something hidden in the distance, waiting for him to lower his guard.
Leo was beginning to wonder if the old man was as insane as his son.
“Eduardo,” Leo waited. “Eduardo … I don’t understand. Did you just say you saw your son?”
Acerbi leaned back from the window without answering. His expression remained vacant as he wandered over to the stove and turned on the burner to boil more water for tea. With the darkness outside now gone, their Israeli protectors were in danger of being exposed.
As if he could read their thoughts, Acerbi suddenly switched off the fire on the stove and sat down at the table.
“I apologize for insisting that our meeting take place here. I know you are pressed for time, but you must realize that this has been very difficult for me. As a father, I have come to the realization that I must betray my own son to those who will end his life and send his soul to where it must go.”
Lev nodded sympathetically. He could see the pain in the old man’s eyes.
“Please,” Acerbi continued. “There is more you must know before I tell you of my meeting with my son. Cathar society is divided into two general categories, the
