»What do you mean by that, Colonel?«
»You need to evacuate the College of Cardinals,« Bühler blurted out.
»What are you talking about? You want me to call off the conclave?«
»No, not that. Arrange for a change of venue. To a secret location. To a monastery outside Rome, for instance. Such a place would have the additional advantage that the Guards could protect it much more efficiently.«
»Have you lost your mind, Bühler? Are you drunk? The conclave has to take place in the Vatican! And now I want to know from you, in detail, what the threat is that you are talking about.«
»Your Eminence, I cannot comment on this at this time.«
Cardinal Menendez stepped closer to him, fixing him with his eyes.
»You are not looking well, Bühler. Ashen skin, dark circles under your eyes. You are sweating. I’ve known you for quite some time, but if I didn’t know you, I would have to rate your behavior as highly suspicious.«
»Please, Your Eminence, at this point, I cannot comment on this any further. My information might even be wrong. Nevertheless, I would deem it safer to conduct the conclave in a different venue.«
»You know what, Bühler?« the Cardinal hissed into Bühler’s face. »I won’t do a damn thing unless you put all your cards on the table. Who do you think you are? You are a soldier! And right now, I am your commander-in-chief! Have I made myself clear?«
»Absolutely clear, Your Eminence.«
»So let’s try this again: Is there anything you want to tell me, Colonel?«
»No, Your Eminence.«
Menendez thought for a while. Then he said, »The conclave will take place in the Sistine Chapel as planned. And it will begin in three days, as planned! Until then… should I get the slightest hint of suspicion that you are no longer up to your job, I will have you replaced immediately. Nobody is indispensable, Colonel. Not even you.«
Bühler began to panic. If Menendez had him replaced, everything was lost. Then, Leonie was dead.
»I understand, Your Eminence.«
»Good for you. You may leave, Colonel.«
* * *
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
May 15, 2011 10:45:11 GMT+01:00
Re.: Curriculum Vitae Cardinal Alberti
Attachment: AlbertiCV.pdf
Dear Mister Manzoni,
As previously notified, I am sending you a detailed curriculum vitae of the Bishop of Turin, Sig. Cardinal Alberti. His Eminence is already filled with pleasant anticipation regarding the conclave, which is now only a few days away.
As Cardinal Alberti stated during the recent New York City Conference on the Improvement of the Relationship between the Catholic Church and Judaism, »The papacy and the pontiff himself remain guarantors for stable relationships, peace, and tolerance between Jews, Christians, and other religious communities.«
Cardinal Alberti, who is personally not aspiring to the Papacy, has been actively advocating interreligious dialogue with Islam since 1985, and as Bishop of Turin, he has made decisive contributions to important Curial Encyclicals. As you know, Cardinal Alberti is furthermore very popular in the Diocese of Turin and also known as the »People’s Bishop.«
In the days to come, the Cardinal will be pleased to make himself available to you for an interview.
Sincerely,
Mons. Franco Meli
Private Secretary to Cardinal Alberti
Via Lombardi 27
00187 Roma
* * *
* * *
From: stempf@erzbistum_koeln.de
To: [email protected]
May 15, 2011 12:23:51 GMT+01:00
Re.: RE: Interview with Cardinal Schiekel
Dear Mister Hilmer,
It is with pleasure that we reconfirm the interview you requested with Cardinal Schiekel for May 16, 2011, 10:30 am, at the Hotel Columbus. I will be waiting for you in the lobby.
Cardinal Schiekel would like to talk to you about his visions for an internal renewal of the Church. However, please understand that he will neither make any statements about internal matters or conclave preparations, nor speculate on the chances that individual cardinals have of being elected Pope.
As the second largest diocese in the world, the Archdiocese of Cologne has a particular responsibility when it comes to issues regarding the unity of the Church. Therefore, we will watch the election of the new Pontiff with particular attention and interest.
Sincerely,
Christoph Stempf
Press spokesman of the Archdiocese of Cologne
Marzellenstraße 32
50668 Köln
* * *
LXII
May 15, 2011, Ile de Cuivre, Mediterranean Sea
Peter heard distant footsteps above his head. Murmuring voices culminating in a monotonous chanting. Immediately, Kelly began to panic.
»He is coming! Vaunala cahisa! Kill me, Peter! Kill me fast! I’ve told you everything, Micama. Bajile madarida cahiso darisapa! I don’t want to talk to the angels again.«
»Who is coming?«
»HE is! Wearily Electors. Hoathahe Saitan! Kill me, Peter! You swore it to me.«
The footsteps were approaching the cell. The door was being unlocked. Kelly uttered an insane howl and fled into the backmost corner of the dungeon.
Two hooded monks entered the cell. They grabbed Peter without a word and dragged him with them. Peter tried to fight them off but the monks were strong and relentless. They simply hauled him along.
»You swore!« Kelly shrieked after him.
The two monks yanked Peter up the stairs and into the hall with the Sigillum Dei where Peter had watched the incantation ritual. Just like the night before, eleven monks in white cowls had formed a circle around the big stone with the occult symbol and were humming the exact same imploring chant. In the middle stood an additional monk, also clad in a white cowl, but his face was covered with a mask under the hood.
The two monks who had brought Peter in left him in the middle of the hall in front of the stone and joined the other monks in the circle. Fourteen monks. A thought flashed through Peter’s mind.
Why fourteen? Why not twelve or seven or nine?
»Welcome, Peter!« The monk with the mask greeted him.
»Do we know each other?« Peter replied.
»Oh, yes, Peter, we do! We just lost track of each other, for quite a long time. They hid you well from me. But the light led you back to me.«
Peter struggled to swallow down his fear and scanned the floor of the hall in search of the access to the sewage tunnel that Kelly had mentioned.
»Are you Seth?« he asked to gain time.
»Yes, Peter, I am. You have a lot of questions.« He turned towards the other monks and made an imperious gesture with his arm. And, as if by command, they filed out of the hall. Peter was left behind, alone with the man. Seth, in all probability.
»Peter, I want to show you something. Come here.«
Seth waved Peter over to the stone where he was standing. Reluctantly and hesitantly, Peter moved forward.
Do it! Do it now. They will soon be back.
»What about Maria?« he asked.
»She is alive. Unfortunately, she still has the relic. Whether she survives depends on you, Peter. You know that I need to have this relic, don’t you?«
»How many people have you already killed to get it?«
»Death, Peter, means nothing in the face of the light. But come, come here!« Seth signaled him to come closer and pointed at the Sigillum Dei. »What would you say if I promised you absolute power? Really and truly absolute power.«
»I would think that you are insane. Well, actually I think this already.«
»You need to open your mind, Peter. You need to recognize that you have lived your life up to now in a locked prison cell. But I can open it for you. Look!«
He placed a small golden nugget the size of a hazelnut in the center of the occult seal.
»Do you know what this is? Pure gold. One hundred percent pure gold. Gold with a purity that you cannot find in nature.«
»Okay, and now you are probably going to tell me that you have cracked the secret of metal conversion.«
»The question is: will you walk this path with us and become a Bearer of the Light?«
»Or?«
Seth shrugged indifferently and turned away. »Or do you want to die here?«
It was at this moment that Peter spotted a gap in the floor next to the stone. A circular gap. In the center of the circle, a rusty metal ring was flush-mounted into the stone.
Now! Now or never.
Seth turned back to him.
»Did you understand what I said? The choice is yours. Absolute power or dolorous death.«
Peter approached Seth and looked into his strangely dull eyes.
»I heard you loud and clear,« he said and hit him.
He aimed at the larynx and put his entire body weight into the punch. Seth collapsed to the floor, wheezing and holding his throat. Peter went for an encore, delivering two hard liver punches. Unable to scream and gasping for breath, Seth was squirming on the floor.
Peter did not waste another second. He stormed back into the basement, tore the latch from the door leading into Kelly’s cell, and yanked the frightened maniac out of his corner.
»Come on, Kelly, we don’t have much time.«
»Kill me, Peter! Kill me here! Kill me now!«
»Later. Right now you come with me. And be as quiet as a mouse or they will come and get you again.«
Kelly was naked, and Peter dragged him violently upstairs into the hall where Seth was still wheezing and squirming on the floor.
Kelly was horrified and trembling as he stared at the man in the white monk’s cowl.
»Nonuci dasontif Babaje od cahi…«
Peter pressed his hand over Kelly’s mouth. »Be quiet!« he hissed at Kelly. »Help me!«
He grabbed the rusty handle of the ancient sewer cover that he had detected and pulled with all his might. The stone did not budge, not even a fraction of an inch. He groaned and drew himself up to his full height. He saw that Seth was struggling to sit up. Kelly was in complete panic, cringing in a corner, whimpering.
Peter gave it another try. Again to no avail. Then he had an idea. He ran back into the cell, grabbed the bucket that was filled with Kelly’s urine and, when he returned to the hall, poured the stinking sludge over the gap. Seth staggered to his feet. Peter turned on his heel and knocked him down again. Then he jumped back to the iron ring and pulled again. Now the stone was lubricated with Kelly’s piss, and Peter could feel it move. Peter yanked and pulled with all the strength he had until the cover made a smacking sound and allowed him to lift it. From the hole underneath, a foul-smelling odor wafted towards him. Hastily, Peter grabbed Kelly and pushed him toward the hole.
»You go in first,« he hissed.
Kelly bristled like a cat, but Peter hit him again in his face so that he came to his senses, and then he pushed the skinny man into the stinking and dark shaft.
Before facing his fear and squeezing his body into the narrow shaft, Peter stepped in front of the unconscious man who had called himself Seth and removed the mask from his face. An old and haggard face, as far as Peter could tell in the light of the torches. No distinctive features. A bald skull and a scar on the forehead, which had the shape of a large V. Eyes without any sparkle. Peter had never seen this man before. And this one encounter with him was more than enough. And no matter what, Peter would never forget this face. Peter quickly searched the pockets of Seth’s cowl but did not find anything. All he found was a chain with a golden medallion that Seth was wearing around his neck. Without taking a closer look at the medallion, Peter took it. He had to hold it in his hands because the hospital gown that he was still wearing did not have any pockets.
Time was getting short. Peter squeezed his body behind Kelly into the shaft. His fear of the narrowness, the darkness, and the water that were waiting for him almost took his breath away; and all his strength. But Peter wanted to live. So he squeezed himself deeper and deeper into the shaft, which was much too narrow for him, so that it felt as if his shoulders were dislocating. He gasped for air and he cursed and he scratched his arms and shoulders until they bled, but he worked his way down, deeper and deeper. When he was about six feet in, he stepped on Kelly’s head and heard a muffled sound from underneath.
»Keep going, Kelly! Move!«
The shaft led about nine feet downward and ended in a sharp angle, which opened into another tunnel that was slightly bigger. Kelly and Peter struggled to squeeze their bodies around the corner but once they had managed it, they were able to turn around and crawl on all fours. The whole time, Peter was holding the necklace he had taken from Seth, holding it firmly in his hand.
»Which direction, Kelly?«
»I don’t know,« the Englishman whimpered.
Peter checked the air. He believed he felt a light breeze coming from the left, and moved in front of Kelly.
They were crawling through complete darkness and a sludge consisting of brackish water, decomposed seaweed and the filth of centuries. The smell was pestilential. But it distracted him from his claustrophobia, at least that. They kept crawling through the ancient pipe while at the same time, upstairs, Seth was coming to and raising the alarm. Upset voices and screamed commands were reverberating through the tunnel. But Peter and Kelly could not understand what they were saying. So they kept crawling on all fours, through the darkness and the stink, as if through a nightmare that did not seem to end.
And then, finally, he could hear the ocean.
From the distance, he had not seen the exit because it was already dark outside. But now he heard the ocean, he tasted the salt in his mouth. The sea-spray was blowing into the tunnel.
»Keep going, Kelly, we’re almost there!«
The pipe ended inches above water level. Peter saw white foam. Carefully, he let himself down into the dark water and waited for Kelly.
»Move, Kelly! They could detect us any second.«
»Kill me, Micama!«
»Shut your cakehole and keep moving. I will kill you, don’t worry. Right now, I still need you.«
He yanked Kelly into the water. And he noticed how exhausted the skinny Englishman was. Not to mention how exhausted he was.
Kelly could barely keep his head above water. Time and again, he went under, and when Peter pulled him back to the surface, he gasped for breath and coughed.
Whether he wanted to or not, Peter had to hoist Kelly under his arms to hold him above water and swim with him past the rocks through the surf. He was still holding Seth’s medallion in one of his hands, so that he could barely swim with that arm. So he decided to put the necklace into his mouth. In the distance were the lights of Montpellier, sparkling in the night sky. So far away. Much too far away.
But Peter did not dwell on that either. All he did was try to swim without losing Kelly or sight of the direction he was heading in. Swim, swallow water, gasp, swim. Another three feet. And yet another three feet. Swim. Fight. Survive.
The fortress was now lying behind them like a dark shadow in the night. Suddenly there were floodlights glaring into the darkness, long beams that looked like fingers trying to grab them. When one of the streams of light came dangerously close to them, Peter pushed Kelly under water. Afterwards he continued swimming. And kept swimming. Peter heard the chugging of a boat engine behind them. They were chasing them.
Peter was desperate but he kept swimming with Seth’s necklace in his mouth, holding Kelly as firmly as he could even though the Englishman had the tendency to slip out of his grasp. They were fighting their way through the dark ocean, one stroke at a time, until they reached the buoy. Peter had almost missed it but then he heard the metallic clinking of a loose chain. In a last supreme effort, he swam to the buoy and grabbed Kelly’s free hand to clasp it around the chain that dangled from the small plastic
buoy.
»Hold on!« he muttered, the medallion still in his mouth, and grabbed the lower end of the chain.
He was gasping as he took Seth’s medallion out of his mouth, caught his breath and looked around. The shoreline was still very far away. The boat was chugging somewhere behind them, spreading its greedy fingers of light.
»You can’t do it like this, Peter.« Kelly gasped next to him. »You won’t make it. Micama isaro lonu-sahi-toxa. Let me go.«
»Shut your trap, Kelly. I won’t let you go. Do you hear me? You have to live!«
Kelly gurgled something in Enochian.
Time and again, Peter’s fingers slid off the slippery chain. Time and again, he had to yank Kelly back to the surface, because the man was so weak that he went under, time and again. And Peter began to understand that every minute he spent at the buoy meant less strength to make it with Kelly to the shore that might save them. And so they both hung on the chain, helplessly, doomed to perish like fish on a forgotten hook. When Peter switched hands to get a better grip, Kelly slipped out of his grasp.
The emaciated Englishman went under, so fast that Peter could not even react. Peter was desperate, uttered a curse and put Seth’s medallion back into his mouth before taking a deep breath and diving after Kelly.
Above and beyond began to dissolve. Everything dissolved. The entire world. Peter dissolved. What remained was darkness, complete darkness, pain and fear. And yet Peter was diving deeper and deeper into the great nothingness, searching with his hands for Kelly, but all he found was emptiness. An endless void.
Little rabbit in the hole.
And there was another thought that flashed through his mind like the last spark of a dying engine. Dolphins.
Dolphins could dive for fifteen minutes and to depths of up to two thousand five hundred feet. People couldn’t. Peter’s body started reacting after the first few seconds under water, slowing his heart rate down. From 70 beats per minute to 45. After 13 seconds under water, Peter could feel the pressure in his lungs. He wanted to exhale. Just exhale. Peter forced himself to resist this urge. Because whoever exhaled also had to inhale. After 41 seconds under water, Peter’s consciousness began to fade away. His entire body was screaming from pain and fear and nearly all the muscles in his body were burning. Peter stopped thinking and he stopped searching for Kelly; he stopped being. All he wanted was to exhale.
Apocalypsis I Page 35
