The Hand of Christ (55 page)

Damn, thought CPT Scott, “MSGT Bryan, get me the DCI on the line; LT Williams, call the Colonel!”

Chapter Sixty

Papal Apartment

The Vatican

“
How did you know?” said Michael to the Colonel.

Colonel Camini didn’t smile nor frown, he seemed matter-of-fact and ineffectually said, “Dr. Sterling, it is my job to know anything and everything that relates to the security of His Holiness and the Vatican.”

Michael wasn’t so sure that was the reason.

A hand reached up and delicately touched Michael startling him; it was a response that was followed by a slight gasp when he saw whose hand it was.

Looking down at the Pontiff, the man’s tired eyes were fully open and stared back at Michael. Leo spoke through his oxygen mask, “Who are you?”

Immediately the Colonel interjected, “Your Holiness!”

Geoffrey was sitting dejected and slumped in one of the room’s simple wooden chairs when he heard Leo speak out. He could hardly believe it. The old man was alive! The plan wasn’t working out the way it was supposed to. He wanted to sink further into the chair as he felt, what seemed like, his own life draining from him. His feet were filled with lead, heavy and immobile. For appearance sake, he knew that he should have jumped from the chair and rushed to the Pontiff’s bedside, but he couldn’t move.

Leo’s voice was weak and would not have been recognized as his own, as asked, “Colonel, what happened? Where am I?”

“
Your Holiness, a man in the Square sprayed you with a poison. You are in your home, in the emergency medical suite. Your physician has administered a treatment to clear your body of the toxin.”

The Pope was remembering, “There was a man, a bald man. He had a pen. Something was coming from its tip, a cloud of smoke. What happened to him, where is he, Colonel?”

Colonel Camini looked at Michael and then back at the Pope and answered, “Your Holiness, the man who tried to kill you is dead. You should rest and not worry yourself with his disposition.”

The Pope closed his eyes to say a silent prayer for the dead assassin. Opening them he turned back to look at Michael and said, “I do not recognize you.”

“
Your Holiness, my name is Dr. Michael Sterling. I work for the US government. Yesterday, I had received information that your life was in danger and had reason to believe the assassin was already in Rome. I came here to try to find and stop the man.”

Colonel Camini interrupted, “Your Holiness, Dr. Sterling saved your life. If it hadn’t been for him, the assassin would have been able to administer all of the poison. Dr. Sterling got to him just in time.”

Leo raised his small and frail hand. It was shaking slightly as he extended it to Michael. His fingers were crooked and bone-thin from his years on the planet. Michael took the offered hand, and was surprised at its warmth and softness. The Pope squeezed.

“
Dr. Sterling, I owe you a deep debt of gratitude. Bless you, my son,” said the Pope.

“
Your Holiness, I need to show you something.”

Jimmy moved closer and the Colonel appeared ready to speak, but what he saw caused him to hold his tongue.

Michael reached into his coat and pulled out the worn leather book with gold-tipped corners. Jimmy and Colonel Camini looked at one another, but both remained silent.

“
Your Holiness, this book was given to me yesterday in Syria.”

The Pope stared at the embossed Roman numeral “I” on the book’s cover but said nothing.

Michael opened the book to the first page and showed the blood-red handprint to the Pontiff. Leo’s eyes shook with recognition when he saw it. Slowly he raised his hand once more and reached out to it. He caressed the handprint gently. The Pope reached to his own face and pulled off the oxygen mask and said, “Clovis circumtenui Unus. Clovis possesses the One; this is what he gave to Gelasius.”

Clovis?
Michael thought,
of the Merovingians!
Just as his father had said; instantly, Michael understood and asked the Pope, “You have seen this before, haven’t you?”

Geoffrey rose from his chair.

The Pontiff whispered weakly, there was a hint of shame in his voice, “Yes, yes, I have seen it before, I have seen his handprint.”

“
Was it on the Lost Apocryphal of Paul?”

The Colonel was dumbfounded.

Jimmy was unsure.

Monsignor Hauptmann was falling apart and shouted out, “Do not answer him, Your Holiness! Do not say another word to this man!”

“
Geoffrey, it is alright. It is time that the truth is told.” If possible, the old man looked weaker than he had moments earlier. Leo looked at Michael and said, “I have seen the Apocryphal. I have studied it. I looked for something, for anything that would tell me that it was not real. That, it was a lie.”

“
What did you find, what was the lie? Tell me!” The questions did not come from Michael, but from Jimmy. Colonel Camini held up his hand at Jimmy as if telling him to relax.

Michael’s head snapped toward Jimmy and the two friends looked at one another. Michael was confused at Jimmy’s intervention.

Jimmy offered no explanation.

“
I found the truth,” said the Pope, his shame more apparent. Leo inhaled deeply and after letting his breath slowly out said, “It pained me every time I saw it. I wanted to share it with the world, to make things right. At the same time, I wanted to burn it, to destroy it, and to rid the world of the shame it would bring the Church. In my moment when I should have been strongest, I shrank in my cowardice.”

“
The Apocryphal told you of the Crucifixion, of what truly happened to Christ, didn’t it?” asked Michael.

Leo looked at Michael but didn’t want to speak. He closed his eyes hoping that when he reopened them everything would be different. He hoped that it all had been a dream.

The Pope looked from Michael to Jimmy, and then to the Colonel. All three of them waited for the Pope’s response. Leo then turned his head back to Michael and said, “Yes, Dr. Sterling, the Apocryphal speaks of the truth about Christ’s life.”

Leo paused again, this time he appeared to hold his breath and then said, “Jesus did not die on the cross.”

And there it was, from the lips of the Pope himself. Leo’s tears flowed as if each drop emptied his body of the burden that he had carried.

“
Your Holiness, I think that you have been used.” Michael’s comment struck everyone by surprise, everyone except for Geoffrey whose world was coming undone. If one could have seen inside his mind, they would have been met with a torrent of fury, with an eruption of anger and incoherent thought. Geoffrey was trying with futility to keep it bottled in; his grip on control was weakening.

The old man looked to the CIA Officer, “Used? What do you mean?”

“
This book,” Michael held the book up for the Pope to see, “contains more than just The Hand of Christ. It outlines an esoteric group that calls itself the Order. They too believe that Jesus survived; they sought to return his descendents to the throne. It was their ancestor, and heir – Dagobert – that the Church killed many centuries ago. Over time they have worked to return to power by undermining and infiltrating world politics. Your Holiness, in this book is the name of the Ayatollah; your name is there, too.”

The Pope understood and responded, “They want me dead don’t they?”

“
Yes, I am afraid so. If they would have been successful today, I believe that they would have put another man in your place. One of there own.”

The tears that flowed from the corner of Leo’s eyes never stopped, leaving a salty trail down the side of his face as they dried. Quietly, he said what all in the room knew, “That means that one of the Cardinals is loyal to them.”

Michael put a calm hand on the Pontiff’s shoulder, “I am afraid that would be the case.”

The Colonel bore a gaze into Geoffrey, and flatly said, “They would need more than one man loyal to them to accomplish this.”

“
Your Holiness, what did you do with it?”

“
Dr. Sterling, I did nothing with the Apocryphal. I thought that I would be able to make everything right and had convinced myself to give it to the public. But I couldn’t. Instead, I put it back where I found it.”

“
Where?”

The Pope started to rise in his bed but was met with difficulty. Colonel Camini helped the Pontiff with his struggle to sit upright. Once propped up, the Pope raised his hand and pointed toward the window under which was the slightly damaged slab of marble, but was shocked at what he saw. Where the thick marble tile should be was an empty spot, a dark hole. Standing next to the newly opened chasm was Geoffrey. Gripped firmly in his left hand was the parchment, and in his right was a gun with a silencer affixed to its barrel.

No one in the room had seen Geoffrey bolt the Pope’s door; they had been too preoccupied by what the Pope had said.

There had been no warning of what came next.

There was nothing that any one man could do.

Monsignor Geoffrey Hauptmann had the advantage.

The silenced shots rang out.

Sound didn’t seem to exist.

His aim was expert.

Michael saw the Colonel fall.

Jimmy fell next.

Smoke exited from the freshly fired gun; Michael stood numb thinking that he was about to fall, too. Sound returned.

Leo cried out, “Geoffrey, what are you doing!”

Slowly the Monsignor moved toward the bedridden man never removing the gun’s aim from Michael. His look was crazed, his eyes furious. “I am doing what that fanatic, what that dirty Persian could not! I am going to finish the job!”

Out of instinct, Michael moved between Geoffrey and the Pope, shielding the Pontiff from the gun’s aim. Michael eyed the priest looking for weaknesses, trying to find the right moment to counter-attack. Geoffrey moved with a trained precision, there was no opportunity.

“
This isn’t how it’s supposed to happen! You were supposed to die in Syria; he was supposed to die here!”

He knows about Syria!

Then it hit Michael, “You’re a Novice! You are one of them aren’t you?”

“
A Novice?” Geoffrey laughed for a short moment, “I am the Second to the Messenger, next in line and not some two-bit Novice.” A look of hatred enveloped his stare the moment he uttered this.

“
Take out your gun and release the ammunition clip.”

Michael reached into his right pocket and pulled out the small Kel-tec pistol, and dropped the clip as he was told.

“
Release the bullet in the chamber, too, Dr. Sterling.”

Shit,
Michael thought as he slid the barrel back and sent the bullet like a small projectile through the air. The bullet made a small series of metallic pings as it bounced across the marble floor and into the hole where the parchment had been.

“
And the other one, Dr. Sterling. Don’t take me for a fool.”

Double-shit!
Michael removed the second Kel-tec pistol from his pocket and repeated the steps.

“
Throw them away.” Geoffrey commanded.

Michael complied.

Geoffrey pointed the weapon directly at Michael’s face and gruffly ordered, “Now, give me the codes!”

“
Codes? What are you talking about? I don’t have any codes.”

“
Don’t toy with me you goddamn pawn! You’ve read the book and seen the part that talks about our treasure. In that book are the codes to it. Now give them to me!”

“
Money? All of this is about money?”

Geoffrey’s lips slowly took the shape of a wicked and mocking smile. With a purely evil tone said, “You really are not as smart as the Director says you are.”

The Director
, thought Michael,
my Director?

Geoffrey had the face of pure evil and scowled as he said, “This isn’t about money. This is about ridding the world of the parasites and the entitled. Far too many years have gone by where the savagery of the elite along with their wretched solipsism was condoned: whips were cracked onto the backs of men in servitude while others hung from trees, or were burned in fires. Barbaric governments that rationalize torture, dismemberment, and murder through the twisting of religious dogma swirl like a rancid cesspool on this planet. We despise you small-minded lugubrious little insects. No, Dr. Sterling, this isn’t about money – money we have. This is about the return to the throne of the rightful ruler. This is about ridding the planet from the burden brought by the unworthy!”

“
Geoffrey!” Leo was horrified at what he was hearing, “You have been a trusted friend, a leader in the Church. Why are you doing this?”

“
Every infestation needs a pesticide, Joshua.” It was the first and only time that Geoffrey had called the Pope by his given name. Geoffrey’s declaration was simple, but one that the Pope didn’t understand; however, Michael did. What Michael would say next would nearly kill Leo:

“
The codes that you want control Iran’s nuclear missiles don’t they, you intend to fire them on the United States?”