corner, heading toward the cardinal and the archangels. He then lifted up into the air on outstretched red and black leathery wings, taking flight around the chapel, hissing and growling, his eyes changing from red to yellow and then to black before he landed in front of the wall by the altar. Behind the demon, a reddish pattern began to form on the stone of the chapel wall, spreading outward like bloody streams from a wounded river.
The cardinal felt the presence of Satan himself. He began to tremble but stood steadfast, refusing to let the demon see his fear. In an instant, the archangels formed a line between the cardinal and Satan’s hissing and spitting general standing defiantly in front of the bloody apparition spreading across the wall behind him.
The angels seemed to be speaking to someone. They stood in front of the shrieking demon, their golden light emanating around them. Without warning, a brilliant white light filled the chapel, and a feeling of total peace flowed through those witnessing the event. It was as if God himself was present among them.
In an instant, the apparition forming on the wall withered from sight, and Agaliarept once again fled to a corner of the chapel. His eyes were hollow pools of darkness that gave no indication of emotion. He seemed trapped and abandoned as he gave up a final, pathetic howl-becoming nothing more than a misty shadow before finally fading from sight.
The terrible burning wind in the chapel abruptly stopped, and the red mist hanging in the air slowly disappeared. Only the defeated echo of the demon’s final moments could be heard traveling underground through the tunnels. The archangels formed a circle and looked inward at one another, uttering words from an ancient language, while the brilliant white light illuminating the chapel began to fade, leaving the golden auras from the archangels to fill the space around them with an otherworldly glow.
The angelic visitation came to an end as suddenly as it began. All of the angels except for Gabriel slowly began to drift upward through the ceiling of the chapel, where they disappeared in a star-like burst of blue light too bright to look at. Leo shielded his eyes before looking at the ceiling in sad fascination, wishing they were still there, when he noticed Gabriel above him. “I have a message for you, Leo.” Gabriel was speaking to him.
Leo was unable to respond. He could only listen and squint upward into the eyes of the dazzling winged figure of the angel above him. Gabriel spoke again.
Leo had just received a prophetic angelic message, one he knew was meant not just for him, but for the whole world. This was a sacred communication from God, and Leo was humbled that the archangel had entrusted it to him.
His message delivered, Gabriel drifted back toward the front of the chapel, where he touched the stone of the altar and gently caressed the cross on the wall with his glowing hand before looking upward and slowly disappearing from sight. All the archangels were gone. The sweet smell of roses was all that was left to remind those present of what had just occurred. They had blessed and sanctified the chapel, thus keeping the Devil’s Bible forever beyond his reach. Leo knew in his heart that, even though he could not see them, the angels would always be close-by and that he could still talk to them in his prayers.
Cardinal Lundahl knelt down and retrieved the Devil’s Bible from the floor, holding it at arm’s length like a venomous snake that could strike him at any moment. He glanced back at Leo and Morelli, and with a grim look of determination, he turned to face the altar and began walking forward with the book. The cardinal walked slowly, his scarlet robes brushing the still-warm stone floor of the ancient chapel. When he had reached the end of the room, he gingerly placed the book on the altar below the carved cross on the wall and backed away.
The smell of rotting flesh again filled the room as the book smoldered and then erupted in flames. Blue, yellow, and red fire burned brightly on the altar until only ashes remained. For a brief moment, Leo saw the golden sword of Saint Michael hanging in the air before it slowly faded from sight and the smell of roses once again dominated the chapel.
They had all just seen a miracle. Even if no one ever believed them, everyone present knew that what they had just witnessed was evidence of God’s presence in the world. What they had seen with their own eyes would remain in their hearts and affect the rest of their lives forever.
The skies above the city had cleared, and the demonic wind was gone. The people of Rome peered out from the protection of their shops, restaurants, and homes. The sudden vicious storm had been accompanied by howls heard throughout the city, filling thousands with the certainty that the end of the world was at hand. Many had suffered from a form of demonic possession, falling to the ground in twisted shapes, growling and speaking in ancient languages they had no knowledge of. As the darkness lifted, the people affected by the presence of the demons found themselves wandering aimlessly through the streets in a daze with no memory of what had happened to them. It was as if they had just awakened from a very bad dream, but when they tried to remember, the details were too horrible for their subconscious to recall.
Inside the Basilica, the throngs of people who had crowded together to be closer to God had felt his presence in the face of a terrible storm, the likes of which no one in Rome had ever seen before. They had fallen to their knees and prayed aloud behind the massive doors protecting them from the wind and flying debris outside. The pope himself had rushed from his quarters to the altar in Saint Peter’s, where he had prayed for the salvation of mankind.
The drama of the miracle below Saint Peter’s Basilica was still unknown to the rest of the world. None of Rome’s citizens knew why the mysterious events that had occurred in and around the city ended as suddenly as they had begun. With the sun setting over the Eternal City, the bewildered mass of people who had gathered inside the colossal church began to flow outside into the square. Together, they walked out into the piazza toward the obelisk in the center, their eyes filled with wonder at the damage caused by the storm. Broken statues, glass, chairs, and other debris littered the ground around them, but despite the terror and damage caused by the storm, an unexplained sense of peace had settled over the city.
Chapter 49
Cardinal Lundahl staggered from the ancient chapel and collapsed into the outstretched arms of the priests and cardinals in the tunnel. His skin was pale-his breathing rapid and shallow.
“Shouldn’t we be getting him to a hospital?” Leo asked.
“No,” Morelli said. “He’s totally exhausted. I’ve seen this before after exorcisms. We will take him to his apartment and let the Vatican doctor look after him. He needs spiritual as well as physical healing now.”
“What about you, Father?” John said. “You took a pretty good hit on the head.”
Morelli smiled and pointed to his head for the others to see. The gash was gone. It had disappeared when he was translating what the archangels were saying. With evidence of miracles all around them, they realized that God was now working openly among modern man to show his presence in the world, and only fools or those hopelessly lost to his words would fail to heed his message of love.
Alon and John helped the priests carry the cardinal’s limp figure, snaking their way through the tunnel until they reached some ancient hand-hewn steps leading out of the catacombs to the grotto above.
John suddenly remembered the radio transmission they had received earlier from the yacht. “Do you think the rocket hit Jerusalem, Father Leo?”
“After what we just saw in the chapel, any miracle is possible, John.”
Everyone was still in a state of detachment following the supernatural events of the past hour. Their expressions were vacant. The physical world around them was slowly coming back into focus as they concentrated on going through the motions of living. They were functioning in the present, but their minds were still filled with the angelic vision they had just witnessed.
They continued upward through a doorway and out of the dank necropolis into the fresh air of the grotto beneath the basilica. The Swiss Guards loyal to the cardinal were everywhere as Francois guided Leo and the others through the doorway. A crew of paramedics and security officers carefully lifted the cardinal and placed him on a stretcher. Surrounded now by the light and splendor of the marble crypt, Lundahl opened his eyes and looked at Morelli as if he had just awakened from a dream. “Did we succeed, Father?”
Morelli took his hand. “Yes, Your Eminence, you placed the unholy book on the altar, and it was destroyed. Nothing remains but ashes now.”
“Good… good. Has anything else happened in the world since we were down in the chapel?”
