Apocalypsis I

by Mario Giordano

  The diode flashed red.

  At the same time, Urs Bühler returned from a briefing with the special task force of the Rome Police that was investigating the murder of the papal chauffeur.

  »These fucking Italian assholes!« He was already yelling and raging when he entered the command center of the Guards. The guards in the room snapped immediately to attention or slipped off. Only Lieutenant Colonel Res Steiner followed him into his office and asked how it had gone.

  »These assholes are pushing us out of their investigations,« Bühler grunted. »They aren’t taking us seriously. All findings of the investigation remain under wraps. And again we were joined, of course, by two fucking foreigners with their ugly mugs.«

  »CIA?« Steiner asked.

  »CIA, FSB, Mossad – what do I know? I bet my ass that those bastards always get all the information. Damned motherfuckers.«

  Bühler thought for a moment and then he looked again at his vice commandant. »Any special incidents?«

  »Negative. Everything was quiet. Two sick reports, that’s all.«

  »Any news about the Padre?«

  Steiner shook his head. »The journalist is still with him.«

  Bühler furrowed his brow. »But it’s already very late. What are they doing in there?«

  Steiner didn’t answer. He was not the kind of person who liked to indulge in wild speculations. Bühler stood up from his chair. »I will pay the Padre a little visit.«

  Peter stared frustrated at the red diode. For some reason, he had really believed that it would work.

  »Okay, that was it. Let’s go.«

  »One more try,« Maria said. »Perhaps you mistyped.«

  »No, I did not mistype. We’re pulling out.«

  »Please! Just one more try!«

  Peter turned away from the keypad. »You do it.«

  She stepped in front of the keypad and entered the exact same numeric sequence again. And again the diode flashed red.

  »And we’re ready for take-off.«

  Maria nodded disappointedly. She followed Peter, who was suddenly in a hurry. However, after a few steps he stopped abruptly. And started thinking.

  »What happened?«

  Without answering her, he bolted back to the papal apartment and stared at the keypad.

  »I’ve got an idea.«

  »You’re right, we should leave it,« Maria whispered. After the third failed attempt, the alarm will go off.«

  Peter stared at the keypad. He had been so focused on the seven numbers that he had completely forgotten that there was also a star and a pound sign on the keypad. Seven digits was unusual for a code. Usually, PIN codes consisted of four, six or eight digits. Perhaps he had to press the star or the pound key after entering the numbers. A fifty-fifty chance with only one attempt left.

  Peter hesitated for another moment and then he entered the numbers again and pressed the star key with a fierce determination.

  Maria closed her eyes.

  The diode flashed green and the door opened with a click.

  »How did you know that?« Maria asked, baffled, as Peter broke the seal and pushed the door open into the papal apartment.

  »I didn’t,« he said with a wide grin on his face.

  »Huh-huh, very funny.« She closed the door behind her and let her eyes wander through the room. »And where do we find the hollow space?«

  Don Luigi was surprised as he looked at the commander of the Swiss Guard, standing in front of his house in the darkness.

  »Colonel Commandant? To what do I owe the honor of this late visit?«

  »Reverend, I –«

  »Monsignore, please, Colonel Commandant,« Don Luigi interrupted him.

  Bühler’s jaw muscles were pulsating in anger over the rebuke and he imagined how wonderful it would feel to smash the face of this arrogant Roman Padre who came from one of the best families.

  »… Monsignore, I have a few questions. May I come in for a moment?«

  Don Luigi shook his head. »Right now I am busy, Colonel Commandant. Let us schedule something for tomorrow.«

  »It is important, Monsignore,« the Swiss man hissed through his teeth.

  »There are important matters, Colonel Commandant, and there are urgent matters. And I am currently busy with an urgent matter. But as I said, tomorrow I can make myself available to you.«

  »I need to talk to the journalist who is in your house,« Bühler said.

  »That is not possible.«

  »Why not?«

  »I think that is enough, Colonel Commandant. Good night.«

  Luigi shut the door on Bühler, leaving him standing there alone in the dark. The Colonel Commandant was fuming with rage. But he also knew how much influence the chief exorcist had within the Curia and he did not want to risk a scandal. Not now. Not yet.

  All of a sudden, Bühler was convinced that something shady was going on. And in all these years, he had always been able to trust his intuition. With rapid strides he hurried back to the Guards’ barracks and on his way he radioed Lieutenant Colonel Steiner.

  »Steiner, raise the alert status. Order to all patrols to be increasingly vigilant. Call in all men who are on standby, I’ll be right there.«

  Peter was almost a little disappointed about the plainness and simplicity of the apartment. He had imagined the home of the most powerful man in the Catholic world to be more magnificent. Instead, some of the rooms appeared soberingly simple and bourgeois. Peter pictured a Duisburg boy from a humble background who, through intelligence and the willingness to lead, had made it all the way to the top, but had never been fully able to deny where he came from. Nonetheless, the apartment was big. Too big to tap every wall for a hollow space.

  »Let’s split-up«, he said to Maria. »Perhaps we’ll find a clue that could lead us to the right place in the wall. A spiral symbol, a snail, a sword – what do I know?«

  »I’m not stupid,« Maria replied, and got to work in the reception room.

  They moved quickly and didn’t switch the lights on. Peter drew the curtains so that the beams of their flashlights would not give them away. Without exchanging another word, they checked the walls of each room for clues to a hidden hollow space. Peter was amazed how composed Maria was. After all, she was breaking and entering the private rooms of the Pope. Nevertheless, she moved through the hallways and rooms with confidence and an almost casual air.

  As if she had often been here before.

  Forty-five minutes later, they had still not found a clue. Maria began to appear nervous.

  »I fear we’ve got to stop. I’ve got a bad feeling about this.«

  Peter hesitated. »What have we overlooked? There has to be something that we overlooked. But what? What?«

  He tried to focus and remember what he had seen in the individual rooms. He was suddenly convinced that he had already seen the clue without recognizing it.

  But where? Where?

  Time and again, his thoughts returned to the Pope’s private library, to the room from which Laurenz had fled down the fire escape.

  »Come with me,« he said to Maria, and ran into the library. Now he could almost feel it physically.

  »Look around! What do you see?«

  »Books. Books everywhere. The photo over there. A small writing table, a chair, two armchairs.«

  The photo!

  The twelve by sixteen inch framed picture stood between books on one of the shelves. It showed a view of the earth from space. In the right margin of the photo, you could make out the solar panels of the International Space Station.

  Visita Interiora Terrae Rectificando Invenies Occultum Lapidem.

  One by one, the status reports of the individual guards came in. However, none of the patrols reported any special incidents. But the more Bühler stared at the surveillance screens, the more convinced he became that something shady was going on, somewhere, not far away.

  »Check everything again,« he barked into the radio. »This is an order to all patrols.«
<
br />   Steiner was standing behind him. »What are we looking for?« Steiner asked.

  »I don’t know.«

  The Lieutenant Colonel eyed his commander for a moment.

  »Stop it, Steiner! Spare me this »you should give yourself a little more rest« look! I am neither overtired, nor am I paranoid. Increase the number of guards at the gates. I want to make sure that absolutely no one gets in or out of here. Is that clear?«

  »Yes, sir«, Steiner said, and watched Bühler storm into his office, pull his service gun out of the desk, grab a radio set and fumble with the earpiece until it fit.

  »I expect constant status updates!«

  »Yes, sir, Colonel Commandant, sir.«

  Without a clear perception of where to start but with the certain feeling that all of a sudden he was in a race against time, Bühler bolted out of the sala operativa. As he stood outside the barracks, enveloped in the mild breeze of the May night, and looked at the imposing structure of the Apostolic Palace rising before him into the sky, he suddenly knew where he had to go.

  »I’m going to check the appartamento,« he announced over the radio, and rushed towards the building.

  Peter took a closer look at the picture he had taken from the shelf.

  »Visit the interior of the earth and rectify what you find there, and you will discover the hidden stone.«

  Without much ado, he put the picture aside and examined the back wall of the bookcase. He had only just begun when he hooted triumphantly and yanked the back wall out. Behind it was a sheer wall.

  Maria didn’t say a word, she just handed him the briefcase. Peter pulled out a heavy hammer and a chisel. He used the hammer to tap the wall gently.

  »There is a hollow space,« he gasped, and applied the chisel.

  »Just be careful«, Maria warned him. »Don’t forget what happened to the poor worker!«

  Peter could not imagine how a hollow space in the wall was supposed to invoke a demonic possession, but he preferred not to discuss this with Maria, not now. With courageous force, Peter hammered the chisel into the wall. The noise was louder and the wall was harder than he had expected. After a few blows he was drenched in sweat but he was also grimly determined. So he continued to work his way through the hard cement – until the chisel punched through the wall. Peter flinched backwards. But neither a demon, nor acid or any other menace shot out of the small opening. Peter shone his flashlight inside.

  »Something is in there,« he informed Maria, as he took his hammer and began to increase the size of the hole carefully. When it was about a hand’s breadth wide, he reached inside and pulled a small bundle out, wrapped in old rags.

  »There is more!«

  Again, Peter reached into the hole and again, he touched something that was wrapped in rags. This one was bigger, though, some kind of roll. He had to perform contortions to get it round the right way without damaging it. He worked frantically to enlarge the hole a little more and eventually managed to pull the second item out.

  They placed both objects on the writing table. Peter took the smaller one of the two and unwrapped it carefully from the rags, which almost disintegrated in the process. They seemed to be very old indeed.

  Peter whistled through his teeth. In front of him, on the remnants of the rags, lay an amulet. A small necklace made of bluish stone beads with some kind of pendant made from the same material. Peter weighed the pendant in his hand. The front was engraved with a symbol, which consisted of multiple crossing lines. There was a wide X crossed by three horizontal lines, with one line at the top, one at the bottom and one at the center. The horizontal lines at the top and at the bottom ended in small circles, and the shorter horizontal line in the middle ended in small diamonds. It was a symbol that Peter had never seen before.

  »What does this mean?« Maria whispered.

  »I don’t know.«

  Peter turned the pendant over. The back was also engraved with a symbol, but this one was considerably smaller. Some sort of hieroglyph showing a stylized serpent above a vessel with a lid.

  Around the edges of the pendant, Peter could feel further engravings, but they were barely visible in the dim light.

  He opened the second package. This one contained various parchment and papyrus rolls, which also appeared to be very old.

  »These are Coptic characters,« Maria called out and tapped on one of the papyrus rolls. »The last stage of the original Egyptian language.«

  »We will deal with this later,« Peter said, wrapping the amulet and the scrolls back in the rags and tucking them carefully into his briefcase. »It’s time to leave.«

  He hastily swept the bits of wall from the shelf and into the hole. Then he carefully reinserted the back wall of the bookcase and put the photo back where it belonged. Maria was about to leave the library when Peter asked her to stop.

  »Not this way. We’ll take a shortcut.«

  He opened the window and looked along the fire escape into the courtyard. Everything seemed to be quiet. Peter reached out his hand to Maria.

  »Shall we dance?«

  Bühler could see the mess from quite some distance. The seal of the papal apartment was broken. He pushed carefully against the door – locked. The operations center contacted him on the radio.

  »Colonel Commandant, sir! Halberdier Wys has just reported that the emergency door in the Sala di Costantino was breached.«

  »Copy that,« Bühler gasped into the microphone. »I need immediate backup. All available units to the Palace, shut down all exits!«

  Bühler drew his gun, racked the slide and then entered the PIN code. With his gun drawn, he crept into the dark apartment. He noticed immediately that someone had closed the curtains. Quietly and lithely, Bühler moved through the darkness. He knew how to do these things and he knew that one false step might cost him his life. He did not feel any fear. He never felt fear when he was in the field.

  When the backup units reported via radio that they had arrived at the door, he entered the library and saw that the window was ajar. He bolted to the window and saw two figures running over the courtyard towards one of the exits. Bühler raised his SIG P220, aimed into the darkness, and fired four shots that tore the night apart and the peace in the Vatican.

  Approximately one hour later, the man who called himself Seth received a phone call in his private jet.

  »There’s just been a break-in at the Terza Loggia. Someone was faster than us.«

  »Who?«

  »The Swiss Guards are still in the dark but a name is circulating. Peter Adam. A German journalist.«

  »Do we know him?«

  »No, we don’t, Master.«

  »Did he find the relics?«

  »It is highly probable that he did. Even though the Swiss report that nothing was stolen.«

  »Where are the relics now?«

  »In the Padre’s house.«

  Seth held the telephone receiver in his hand and thought for awhile. His interlocutor at the other end of the line waited in deference until he was spoken to again.

  »You’ll find a way, come up with something. But I want this Peter Adam alive. I will be expecting your report.«

  After hanging up, Seth made another phone call.

  »I know how late it is, Cardinal,« he interrupted the grumpy whining at the other end of the line. »But I need to ask you a favor to protect our mutual interests. … Just two or three pieces of information fed into the right channels. … Yes, tonight.«

  XX

  May 11, 2011, Vatican City

  Neither the Osservatore Romano, the official newspaper of the Holy See, nor Radio Vaticano reported on last night’s incident. Yet rumors were bubbling everywhere, escalating to talk of alleged eyewitness accounts and a wild shootout with terrorists.

  The fact remained, though, that four shots had been fired, no more and no less, and that apparently none of the two unknown subjects had been hit. Or at least, no traces of blood had been found.

  None of this comforted Pete
r, not even remotely. He had spent the night in Don Luigi’s house and he had at least found some sleep on the old sofa, whereas the Padre had been brooding over the strange finds. He seemed even more electrified by the relics from the hollow space than Peter was, and spent the entire night trying to decipher at least some of the scripts. Maria had already returned to her convent.

  As Peter entered the kitchen in the morning, he saw the blueishly shimmering amulet lying on the kitchen table next to the spread out scrolls of parchment and papyrus, and he saw Don Luigi’s face literally glowing with excitement. He was wearing thin cloth gloves to avoid damaging the precious documents. Now that they had been brought to light, they were radiating the time they had absorbed. Peter could almost feel the centuries on his skin.

  He also noticed that the Padre had weighed the documents down by placing crucifixes on the corners and that he was keeping a little bottle of holy water handy.

  »Come on, Don Luigi,« Peter said, as Luigi continued to beam at him. »Don’t keep me in suspense. What did you find out about the amulet?«

  »I can’t tell you much about the amulet, not yet,« the Padre began weighing it in his hand as if its weight might reveal its secret. »I have never seen a material like it before. So I took the liberty of bevelling off a tiny sample and sent it to a geochemical research laboratory. In any case, it seems to be very old. Extremely old.«

  »How old?«

  Don Luigi shrugged his shoulders. »Ancient.«

  »What do the two symbols mean?«

  Don Luigi pointed at the crossed symbol on the front of the pendant. »For now, this one here doesn’t mean anything to me« he said. »But this one…« he turned the pendant over and pointed at the hieroglyph. »This is an Egyptian hieroglyph. It means djet, the Egyptian symbol for eternity. Although this translation is only a vague attempt. The Egyptians had a completely different concept of time. For them, eternity was something real and palpable.«

  »So perhaps the crossed symbol is also an Egyptian sign.«

  »I don’t think so. Look… the hieroglyph on the back seems to have been engraved much later. The cuts are less deep and far more accurate. The crossed symbol appears to be substantially older. I assume that the entire amulet was created solely for the sake of this symbol.«