Let the Games Begin (12 page)

Murder carried his one hundred kilos of fat to the fridge in the corner kitchen. ‘It's up to you.'

Silvietta threw the window open to clear the room of smoke. Outside, the rain had nearly stopped. She stayed there for a bit, staring out at the night, then she turned towards the other two.

‘What sort of plan do you guys reckon Mantos wants to offer us?'

Murder pulled out an old jar of mayonnaise and inspected it. ‘I reckon he doesn't have a clue. He's got no more ideas, he's flat. Didn't you see him at dinner? All antsy . . . I told you we should have gone along with Paolo and joined the Children of the Apocalypse. At this hour, right now . . . Think of the orgies, the sacrifices.'

Zombie tied bows in his laces. ‘They're in Pavia. It's ages away. And I've gotta work.'

Murder stuck a finger in the yellow cream and lobbed it into his mouth. ‘See how dead wrong you are. The Children of the Apocalypse organise their raids for the weekends. You go up there on Friday and on Sunday evening you come down on the train. Monday, you're back at work.'

Silvietta ran her hands through her hair. ‘Yeah, I suppose . . . Even if, at the end of it all, between getting there and back, it costs a wad.'

Zombie scratched his jaw. ‘I'll tell you something else. Saverio doesn't have the charisma of a Kurtz Minetti or, I dunno, a Charles Manson. Let's admit it, the Wilde Beasts of Abaddon are dead!'

‘They were never even born,' Murder corrected him.

‘No! That's not true.' Silvietta poured the washing-up liquid in the sink. ‘It's just a phase. You know that Saverio's been having a lot of family problems. I really trust him, though, and I won't give up on him. If it hadn't been for him, I wouldn't have become part of the Beasts, and I would never have met you guys. And also we agreed we'd give him another chance.'

‘Yeah . . . It's true. We owe it to him,' Zombie repeated, barely convinced.

At that moment the intercom buzzed.

Murder looked at the other two. ‘Who the hell is that?'

Silvietta huffed. ‘It must be the old lady from downstairs.'

‘And what does she want?'

‘She says that when we talk, she can hear everything. At the residents' meeting, the other time, she caused a stink. Just kept going on and on.'

Murder lowered his voice. ‘So what should we do? Be mute?'

‘No. But Murder, my darling, I've told you a thousand times to speak softly.'

‘If there's someone who speaks loudly here, it's him.'

Zombie put his hand on his forehead. ‘Of course. At the end of the day, it's always my fault.'

The buzzer rang again.

Silvietta moved towards the intercom. ‘What do I do? Should I answer? What should I say to her?'

Murder shrugged his shoulders. ‘Tell her not to be a pain in the arse.'

She took a breath and lifted the receiver. ‘Yes?!' She was
silent for a moment, then pressed the button. ‘All right. I'll let you up.'

Murder threw himself over the chillum, to hide it. ‘Are you mental? You let her up?'

Silvietta opened the front door. ‘It's Saverio.'

One minute later, the leader of the Wilde Beasts of Abaddon appeared. He was dressed all in black. Sunglasses. And had his hair shaved off.

Zombie moved closer to him. ‘Saverio, what have you . . .?'

Mantos gestured to him to shut up, then, with a theatrical movement, he took off his sunglasses and looked them up and down, one by one.

‘I know, you're thinking that the great Mantos is finished. That he's lost the spark, worrying about his family and work.'

Murder lowered his head guiltily.

Saverio stared at him, disappointed. ‘Murder, you were the first person who I let read the Tables of Evil. You, you didn't even know what the Satanic courts were. You don't trust in your Master. This is a sect united by its faith in the Malign. Remember that it is extremely difficult to get into, and extremely easy to get out of.'

Murder murmured: ‘Aw, come on, Saverio. I didn't mean to . . . I mean . . . you know . . .'

The leader of the Wilde Beasts of Abaddon looked out the window, then stared at them again.

‘From now on, Saverio Moneta doesn't exist any more. He died on this stormy evening. From now on, only Mantos, the high leader, exists. What day is it today?'

‘The twenty-eighth of April, I think,' said Silvietta.

‘Mark this date. Today is the turning-point of an epoque. The Beasts will come out of the shadows and conquer the light.
This date will be added to the Satanic calendar and remembered with horror by the Christian calendar.' The leader of the Beasts raised his arms to the ceiling. ‘I am the Charismatic Father. I am the wolf that carries death in the Good Shepherd's flock. I am the one that has had the idea!'

‘I knew he was a legend,' Silvietta screamed excitedly at the other two. ‘See? I told you.'

‘Tell us, Mantos!' Murder stretched out his hand towards his rediscovered Charismatic Father.

The leader lowered his arms and pulled a CD out of the pocket of his tracksuit. He threw it on the coffee table in front of the sofa.

Zombie jumped backwards, as if it was a tarantula.

‘Oh my God, what the hell are you doing with a CD of that bitch Larita?'

Mantos pointed at the disc. ‘Did you know where she recorded this live performance? In Lourdes. Did you know that her song “King Karol”, in honour of Pope Wojtyla, has been in the top ten for six months?'

Murder made a disgusted expression. ‘Traitor . . . She converted to Christianity. She is an enemy of Satan.'

Silvietta sat down in her boyfriend's lap. ‘Hey, don't be too harsh. I read an article in
People
where she explained why she abandoned the Lord of Flies. She was going out with Rotko, the lead singer of Remy Martin, and they both started down the tunnel of drug abuse. He's still a junkie, but she got free of it thanks to Don Toniolo. In rehab, she saw the light and converted to pop.'

Mantos shut her up. ‘Larita will die at the hands of the Wilde Beasts of Abaddon. This is the mission.'

A heavy silence fell over the room.

A dog somewhere in the distance began to howl.

Zombie scratched his head. Silvietta bit her nails. Murder cleaned his glasses on his t-shirt, then let out a deep breath and said: ‘That's huge! Really huge! I didn't expect anything like this.'

‘How will we do it? Have you got a plan?' Zombie stuttered.

‘Obviously. In Rome, tomorrow, there's going to be a party where all of the VIPs of Italy will be in attendance. Larita will sing during the party. We will be hired as porters. When the time is right, we will kidnap Larita and we will soak the earth in that bitch's blood.'

‘But first we can bonk her, right?' Zombie asked, visibly excited.

‘Of course, first we'll have a Satanic orgy. The next day, the Wilde Beasts of Abaddon will be on news programmes throughout the world. This is serious stuff we're talking about, not rumours of decapitated nuns. Each one of you will become a hero in the Satanic field, and an enemy throughout the rest of the world.'

Zombie caressed his throat. ‘But they'll catch us for sure, Saverio. I don't wanna go to jail.'

Mantos shook his head. ‘You won't go to jail.'

‘How's that possible?'

‘Don't worry.' The leader of the Beasts spun around slowly, then stopped and put his hands on his hips. ‘They won't ever catch us. Because we will commit suicide.'

The Beasts studied each other silently.

Murder spoke first. ‘Hey, hang on a second. Are you serious, Saverio? Isn't that taking it a bit too far?'

‘First of all, don't ever call me Saverio again. Second of all, don't be afraid. Death will taste of sweet liqueur to us. We will find ourselves sitting beside Lucifer.' Mantos lifted his arms. ‘Now kneel and honour your Charismatic Father.'

The three of them bowed down with their heads to the floor.

Mantos bent over, touched the crowns of his adepts' heads and, opening his eyes wide, began to laugh.

 

 

PART TWO

The Party

When dining outside, the Romans often discuss which is the most beautiful park in the city. In the end, inevitably, first place is disputed by Villa Doria Pamphili, Villa Borghese and Villa Ada
.

Villa Doria Pamphili, behind the suburb of Monteverde, is the largest and most scenic; Villa Borghese, right in the centre of the city, is the most famous (who hasn't been on the Piazzale del Pincio, which offers an unforgettable view over the centre of Rome and Piazza del Popolo?); of the three, Villa Ada is the oldest and the wildest
.

In the modest opinion of the author of this story, Villa Ada beats the other two hands down. It's very big; about a hundred and seventy hectares of woods, lawns and thorn bushes squashed between Via Salaria, the Olimpica Viaduct and the Sports Centre of Acqua Acetosa. It still houses squirrels, moles, hedgehogs, wild rabbits, porcupines, weasels and a rich community of birds. It must be the sense of total abandonment and negligence, but as soon as you enter one of the woods there's a feeling of being in a forest. The city and its sounds disappear and you find yourself amidst one-hundred-year-old pine trees, laurel bushes, muddy tracks that wind around impenetrable blackberry bushes and fallen tree trunks, fields of poison ivy and large lawns covered in weeds. Amidst the branches you can catch a glimpse of old abandoned buildings covered in ivy, fountains taken to pieces by wild fig trees and bunkers destined, to who knows what purpose. If you aren't extremely familiar with the park it's best not to venture in there alone, or you risk getting lost for days. The subsoil of the Villa is covered with the Catacomb of Priscilla, where the early Christians buried their dead
.

In the northern part, beyond the big artificial lake, is a
tree-covered hill called Forte Antenne because at the end of the nineteenth century the Italian Army built fortifications upon it to defend Rome from French attack. When Rome hadn't yet come into existence, in that position lay the city of Antemnae. The name, according to the Roman historian Varrone, derives from ante amnem (in front of the river) because that is the point where the Aniene runs into the Tiber. From that position, the city dominated the river traffic that headed towards the ford at the Tiberian Island. In 735
AD
Romolo conquered the city, its citizens were welcomed as Romans, and tenant farmers sent to occupy the land. From the third century
AD
onwards, the city fell into neglect and was abandoned. The highlands of Antemnae, during the centuries of Roman decay, housed the Alaric Goths who, coming from the north, prepared to attack Rome. Nothing more was said for centuries and centuries, until the seventeenth century. The area had become the farming estate of the Irish College. Then, in 1783, the land was bought by Prince Pallavicini, who built a country house on it. Ownership passed in the mid-eighteen hundreds to the Potentian Princes, and was sold in 1872 to the Royal Family, who turned it into their Roman residence. Victor Emanuel II, who was a great lover of the art of hunting, then acquired other lands that bordered with his, to turn it into his hunting lodge
.

Upon his death he was succeeded by Umberto I, who moved his whole court to the Presidential Palace. The country house was bought for five hundred and thirty-one thousand lira by the Swiss Count Tellfner, the administrator of the Royal Family's assets, and he named it in honour of his wife, Ada, with whom it seems he was deeply in love
.

In 1900 King Umberto I was killed by an anarchist. His successor, Victor Emanuel III, decided to move back to his grandfather's villa, and it was the official residence of the Royal
Family until 1946, the year in which the monarchy was ousted, and the king and his kin were forced into exile
.

The villa now passed to the Italian Government, with the exception of the Royal Villa, which the Savoys generously granted to the Egyptian Government as a token of their gratitude for hospitality received during the exile of 1946. The building subsequently became the Egyptian Embassy
.

From that moment onwards, Villa Ada became public property and was transformed into a city park. New roads were designed, specially equipped tracks for athletes were set up, artificial lakes were dug and many non-native trees were planted
.

In 2004, in order to fatten the local government's coffers, the capital city's mayor decided to auction the entire area of Villa Ada for the astronomical sum of three hundred million euro
.

The auction took place on Capitoline Hill on the 24th of December, amidst protests by infuriated Romans at what would go down in history as ‘the big rip-off'. Bidders included celebrities of the calibre of Bono from U2, the Russian businessman Roman Abramovich, Sir Paul McCartney, Air France and a cartel of Swiss banks
.

Unexpectedly, it was snapped up for the sum of four hundred and fifty million euro by Salvatore Chiatti, nicknamed Sasà, a businessman from Campagna (but otherwise of obscure origins) who had in the course of the nineties managed to amass an immense portfolio of real estate. He had at one point been in jail on charges of tax evasion and cattle-stealing, but thanks to the pardon he had been set free
.