Sign of the Cross

‘And that upsets you? Why would that upset you?’

Payne gaped at his response. ‘You gotta be kidding me! Her father runs Orvieto. He controls its security. You don’t think that’s relevant?’ He took a deep breath, trying to calm himself. ‘Did it ever occur to you that the soldiers who shot at you in Orvieto might’ve been working for Benito? That maybe they shot at you because they didn’t want you digging there?’

‘Nonsense,’ Boyd scoffed. ‘His office gave us permission to dig there in the first place. You can’t start digging without the appropriate paperwork. If you did, you’d be arrested on the spot.’

Permission? They had permission? That didn’t make sense to Payne. If Benito Pelati was trying to protect his reputation like Frankie claimed, then why would he allow anyone to dig in Orvieto? And of all the archaeologists in the world, why his daughter? Wouldn’t he look even more foolish if his own child — his own female child — showed him up in the public eye?

Then again, maybe she was selected because she was a relative. Maybe Benito knew the Catacombs were there all along and figured if Maria made the discovery then he could bask in her spotlight. Benito could tell the media that he had discovered new evidence about the Catacombs and sent his own child into Orvieto to uncover the truth once and for all.

Payne and Jones discussed the possibilities until Boyd changed the subject, assuring them that there was something more important to discuss. The message on the scroll.

‘Jonathon,’ he said, ‘I was wondering if you could assist me for a moment. I’m afraid I’ve forgotten the exact terms that your friend Manzak shouted at us in Milan, something about fighting a war. Do you recall with any clarity what he said?’

Payne nodded. ‘There was no compassion during the Crusades, nor during this holy war.’

‘Holy war, yes!’ Boyd jotted the phrase. ‘And Christ? What did he say of Christ?’

‘Something about how I thought he was fighting for Christ. Then he said he didn’t care about Christ because he knew what actually happened back then and realized who the real hero was.’

‘Real hero! Yes, those were his words! Splendid job, just splendid!’

‘And that means something to you?’

‘It might. It just might.’ He flipped to a clean sheet of paper. ‘And once I left, did he say anything else? Anything about God, or scrolls, or this holy war?’

Payne looked back on his conversation with Manzak and tried to recall what he’d said. Ultimately the tough part of being an interrogator is sorting through all the nonsense in order to expose value. ‘He said something about the truth at one point that kind of confused me.’

‘The truth?’ Boyd glanced at Maria for help. The term didn’t make any sense to her, either.

So Payne continued. ‘He said his pain would be temporary because he knew the truth and assured me that my pain would be eternal because I didn’t.’

‘Is that what he told you, that he already knew the truth?’

‘Or words to that effect.’

‘How bloody confusing! If he already knows what the scroll says, then there must be more than one. But how?’

Maria spoke up. ‘If Tiberius sent multiple scrolls to Paccius in England, couldn’t Paccius have sent several scrolls back to Rome describing his success?’

‘Paccius?’ Jones mumbled. ‘Tiberius?’

‘Of course!’ Boyd exclaimed. ‘How foolish of me! Paccius would certainly feel the need to update the emperor on everything that he accomplished in Jerusalem, and anyone reading those messages would become fully aware of their plot — even if they had no knowledge of our scroll!’

‘But wouldn’t — ’

‘Hold up!’ Payne demanded. ‘You two are getting way ahead of us. You’re starting to talk about other scrolls before you’ve even explained this one.’

Jones nodded. ‘Jon’s right. If you want our help, you have to fill us in. And the only way to do that is to start at the beginning.’

‘That might take a while.’

‘Don’t worry,’ Payne assured Boyd. ‘We bought ourselves some extra time at the airport.’

Lars knew his commander was expecting an update, but the truth was, he didn’t want to deal with him. At least not yet, not with such disappointing news.

At first he thought their mission was going to be simple, especially when they learned that Payne had used his credit card to buy four tickets to Geneva at the local train station. Unfortunately, while they were busy flagging down the angry conductor near Fribourg, they received a report that Jones and Boyd had both rented cars from an agency back in Bern. Confused, he ordered half his men back and told the others to continue their search of the train.

But that was only the beginning.

Before his men returned, Lars was informed that Maria Pelati had rented a limo to Zurich, and any attempts to contact her driver would be pointless, because of cellular interference in the Alps. Then he was told an American named Otto Buckner, a gentleman matching Payne’s description, had purchased eight pairs of tickets on eight different buses, and all of them were currently on the road and heading in opposite directions around Switzerland.

Of course what Lars didn’t know was that all of those purchases were false leads. The truth was that Payne and Jones had found their transportation in the long-term parking area at the Bern airport. They simply waited for a businessman to pull into the lot, then had Maria flirt with him to obtain his travel information. Once she discovered he was flying to Paris and would be gone for an entire week, Payne and Jones knew they could take his BMW to Kusendorf and wouldn’t have to worry about the car being reported stolen for days.

Dr Boyd managed to explain everything they needed to know: his discovery in Bath, his theories on Emperor Tiberius, and his translation of the scroll. Then, once he had answered all of their questions, Maria pointed out the mystery of the laughing man, described the statue on the roof of Il Duomo, and gave them some facts about Tiberius’s right-hand man, General Paccius.

Needless to say, their heads were swimming at the end of the session.

Just to be fair, though, they returned the favor by briefing them on their backgrounds, their deal with Manzak and Buckner, the cover-ups at the crime scenes, and everything else they could remember. By the time they finished, there were only two things that everyone was able to agree on. One, all of them were baffled. And two, if they had any hope of learning anything at the Ulster Archives, they needed to get some sleep.

Because tomorrow would be filled with even more excitement than today.

47

Nick Dial rented a hotel room a few blocks from the crime scene so he could walk to Fenway in the middle of the night if he felt the urge to reexamine the evidence. And the truth was, he probably would, since his body was still on European time. Or was it African time? Honestly, he didn’t know, since he’d passed through eight different time zones in the last day alone.

Dial checked his watch and decided he might be able to catch Cardinal Rose at the Vatican. They hadn’t spoken since Tuesday, and he was hoping Rose had found some additional information on Father Jansen. He already knew that Jansen was affiliated with the Pontifical Biblical Commission (PBC), though he didn’t know his exact role. Dial needed to know if Jansen was interning with a cardinal from Denmark or Finland, or if his position was more substantial.

The phone rang eight times before someone answered. ‘This is Cardinal Rose.’

‘Joe? This is Nick Dial at Interpol.’

‘Nick! I was wondering when you were going to get ahold of me. I left several messages.’

‘Sorry about that. It’s been a busy couple of days.’

‘CNN just reported that another body was found in Boston. Is that true?’

‘Very true. I just left Fenway Park.’

‘Was the victim another priest?’

‘Nope. This time it was a Pope.’

‘Excuse me?’