The Secret Chapel

underground cathedral and their escape from it.

Leo took a sip of his wine and eyed Morelli across the table. “Anthony, I need to know if you can answer a question about where the book was located in the cavern. Did you know it was encased under solid stone?”

“You were wondering how Father Bianchi was able to replace it there.”

“Well, yes, we all were.”

“Before he died, he told me that when he returned to Satan’s cathedral under the desert, he placed the book on the translucent floor in the center of the room. He said the floor under the book immediately turned to blood and that the book sank from sight before the floor hardened again into a clear, black, gem-like surface, encasing the book several feet below. He knew this was Satan’s way of protecting his Bible and felt that no one would be able to remove it again until either Satan or God allowed it to leave that place.”

Ariella felt chills down her spine when he told them how the floor had turned to blood. “I still can’t believe we were down in that horrible place, much less lived to tell about it.”

John squeezed her hand and looked around the table. “I think the fact that we were singled out to be a part of all of this makes us the luckiest people on the planet right now.”

Ariella smiled across the table. “Not lucky, John … I think blessed would be a better choice of words. I guess we’ll never know why we were chosen, but God definitely has something in mind for us in the future. Our lives have a clearly defined purpose now.”

As the waiter approached the table to take their dinner order, Leo noticed the familiar face of the older security man as he materialized from the darkness of the piazza and headed straight for them

Arriving at their table, he nervously scanned the area around the restaurant before speaking. “Hello, Fathers. May I have a word with you?”

“Of course, Francois,” Morelli said. “Pull up a chair and have some wine with us. Leo, meet Francois, the Vatican’s chief of security and one of my best friends.”

Leo had never known the name of this individual-he had always just thought of him as ‘the older security man’. Father Leo had been slightly suspicious of this character, especially earlier when he had first met him standing next to the cardinal at Morelli’s apartment, the same day he thought that his friend had died. Leo was relieved to see that this high-ranking officer in the Vatican Guard was in fact one of Morelli and Lundahl’s closest allies.

Francois remained standing. “Thank you, Father. I don’t have much time, and I’m afraid you don’t either.” This last sentence caught the group off guard and sent their nerves back on high alert.

Morelli sipped his wine as he looked up at the security chief. “What’s going on, Francois?”

“Emilio has escaped our surveillance, and we don’t know where he and some of his friends are now.”

Leo and the others had completely forgotten about the evil little priest who grabbed the backpack in the tunnel while he was conspiring to have them all killed before they could reach the chapel.

Francois placed his hands on the back of an empty chair and looked around the table. “Until we have them in custody, I think it would be wise for all of you to leave Rome as soon as possible until we round them all up.”

Leo looked down and smoothed the white tablecloth with his free hand. “Who are these people, Francois, and why would they still be interested in us?”

Morelli noticed Francois nervously eyeing the group. “Go ahead, Francois, you can tell them what we know about Emilio. They are certainly a part of all this now.”

Francois relaxed slightly before speaking. “In short, gentlemen, Emilio and his followers are the evil ones we’ve been watching for some time.”

“What exactly do you mean by the term evil ones?” Alon asked. “I mean … are they some kind of demonically possessed beings or something?”

“No, my friend, they’re quite human. We’ve known for some time that the Church has been infiltrated by those who worship Satan instead of God. They’ve caused great harm to the Catholic Church. We’ve been gathering intelligence on them in an effort to see just how deeply they’re embedded and who their leaders are.”

“Are these the same people who’ve been working so hard to discredit the clergy in an effort to bring down the Church?” Leo asked.

Francois shook his head in agreement. “Exactly. We believe they were also tasked with obtaining the Devil’s Bible and handing it over to the Antichrist when he makes his appearance as foretold in Revelation. They are his earthly soldiers and are committed to furthering his rise to power. We think they still believe you have the book and will stop at nothing until they have it in their possession. I’m afraid that, until they’ve been captured, you are all still in danger.”

Ariella lifted her head from John’s shoulder. “But the book burned to ashes on the altar in the chapel.”

“We don’t know for sure if they realize that yet, Miss. Emilio escaped, but we captured one of the men who was with him when he tried to flee the catacombs. Apparently, Emilio believes the book still exists. When he found that the backpack he grabbed from John was empty, he thought you were all making a trial run without it to see if you would be stopped. He thinks the book is in a different location with another member of your group and has gathered his men to search for it. The safest thing for now is to let me have some of my men drive all of you to your yacht so you can leave the country until we have them in custody.”

Alon rolled his eyes at Francois. “These guys are all over the place. They aren’t just here in Rome. They were spying on us at the villa in Israel, and they shot at us on the highway when we were driving to the harbor at Caesarea.”

“That’s why the safest place you can be right now is out at sea on your yacht. We’ve also been in contact with an Israeli warship off the coast in international waters ready to escort your boat back to Israel.”

Alon stared at Francois with a newfound respect. The real Swiss security men really knew their stuff.

While they were still talking, a large black SUV pulled up alongside their table in the piazza, causing Alon to move his hand toward the gun under his shirt. Francois’s policeman’s mind immediately read his body language and quickly assured the group that the vehicle contained some of his men who would be transporting them to the yacht.

John stroked Ariella’s hair before sitting up in his chair. “So much for a quiet drink and dinner.” The exhausted group nodded their understanding and slowly rose from the table. John approached the SUV with Ariella and looked back at the others with a playful grin. “We call shotgun.” Opening the front passenger door, he realized that the man already sitting there actually had a shotgun and was glaring back at him. John quickly gave him a sheepish look and closed the door.

Leo and the others piled into the SUV and looked out at Morelli, who was standing by the table as if he was the last one to be picked to play a game of kickball. “Aren’t you coming, Anthony?”

Morelli walked over and took Leo by the arm. “I’m afraid not, Leo. My place is here. I’ll be fine. Francois and his men are watching over all of us.”

Right on cue, a second black SUV pulled up behind the first. Morelli hesitated. “We’ll join up again after we get control of the situation. Besides, I need to go pick up my car.”

“You mean my car.” Leo was relentless. Morelli laughed knowing that this would be an ongoing thing for years to come. He grabbed a bottle of wine off the linen tablecloth and tossed the waiter some Euros before climbing into the backseat of the second SUV with Francois. Within minutes, the two vehicles were speeding off into the dark streets, one headed for the harbor, the other for the Vatican.

The SUV holding Leo’s group raced out from the city center toward the harbor on the Autostrada Roma Fiumicino. Everyone except for the security men leaned back in their seats and began to relax when Lev’s voice crackled over Alon’s radio.

“Alon, do you read me? What’s your location?”

“We’re on our way, Lev. We should be there in less than thirty minutes.”

“Change of plans. Right after we came onboard the yacht, a bunch of vehicles with guys in suits armed with guns drove up to the dock alongside the yacht. We’re pulling away from the dock and out into the harbor as we speak.”

Alon shouted to the driver of the SUV. “Are those your men?”

The driver appeared horrified. “We were trying to keep a low profile. They’re not ours.”