Maria grinned at him. »Actually, he can be quite sweet sometimes.«
»Explain to me how this is possible,« Peter shouted. »How can a pope become a father?«
Sophia Eichner gave a ringing laugh. »But it was the other way around: first a father, then a pope!«
Peter wondered whether she was teasing him, but then he realized how dumb his question had been.
Laurenz sighed and folded his restless hands. »I was not even a cardinal when Maria was born and back then, I was not yet in the public eye. I know that I have lived with a lie for all these years, and that I could not be there for Maria like other fathers were. But somehow, Sophia and I were able to find a way. Even though Sophia faced a lot of criticism. But mainly because she is a Protestant.«
Laurenz laughed.
»To ask a Protestant academic for advice is deemed a greater sin in the eyes of the Curial circles than to have a reasonably open intimate relationship.«
»The real problems only started when I was elected Pope.«
»Surely you could have declined?«
»To be elected the Vicar of Christ on earth is an inhuman burden, but it cannot be declined!« Laurenz was upset. »Besides, I was on a mission.«
»Franz!« Sophia reprimanded him. She made a calming gesture with her hand and turned to Peter. »In order to put the rumors to rest, I was appointed the Pope’s official housekeeper. The rumors did not die down but at least I had an official status that justified my presence in the Apostolic Palace. Even though certain Curial circles were constantly afraid that I might have too much influence on the Pope, the people, the Romans in particular, seemed to be impressed by the fact that the Pope did not cave in when it came to this matter. The only thing that was really bad was having to live a lie.«
»Was this why Maria had to enter a convent?« Peter wanted to know.
»That was her decision,« Sophia Eichner replied. »Do you believe Maria would allow anyone to tell her what to do and what not to do? We could not even convince her to join us when we got out of harm’s way.«
Peter looked over to Don Luigi, who was smoking incessantly as if this was the only way to keep the living room demon-free.
»Did you know about this, Padre?«
»Of course. I was never aware of the full extent of the threat, but I knew who Maria was.«
»Was this the reason for your abdication?« Peter asked the former Pope.
»Yes and no. Seth tried to blackmail me with my fatherhood. But first and foremost, the abdication was a chance to escape and a strategic step to thwart Seth’s plans, which were already far advanced.«
»Who is Seth?«
»I don’t know,« Laurenz sighed. »Egad! I wish I knew who he was. I have never met him.«
»You are lying.«
»It is the truth, Peter. All we knew is that Seth is the leader of a Sethian brotherhood which calls itself the Light-Bearers. An early Christian Gnostic community that believed in the Apocalypse of Adam and the so-called Gospel of the Egyptians. For a very long time, this group was completely insignificant. We owe it to you that we now know more. We located an island in the Venetian Lagoon where the brotherhood had one of its centers. With the help of Mr. Nakashima, we were able to rescue a hostage who was held captive there and confiscate a hard drive. Most of the data still needs to be deciphered, but we do now know a little bit more about the Bearers of the Light. We know that they see themselves as successors to the Knights Templar. We know that during the 16th century they turned into an occult sect. The first leader of the brotherhood was John Dee.«
»The man who used the Sigillum Dei to make contact with angels?«
Laurenz nodded. »Together with his assistant Edward Kelly, he turned a harmless Gnostic splinter group into a dangerous occult network. By now, Don Luigi and I assume that John Dee somehow managed to get hold of a manuscript by Nicolas Flamel. It is alleged that in 1357 Flamel acquired a mysterious book with encoded alchemical formulas. It took him 21 years to decode them and only with the help of a Jewish sage in Santiago de Compostela, who identified the book as the original Book of Abraham the Jew, Prince, Priest, Levite and Astrologer. It is further alleged that Flamel managed to conduct his first successful metal transmutation in 1382. In any case, he died a rich man, many years later.«
»But where did the book come from?« Don Luigi interjected, only to continue by answering the question himself. »We assume that it goes back to Hermes Trismegistus, also known as Manetho or Thoth. This assumption is supported by the hieroglyph that was later added to the back of the amulet. But it could be that the knowledge is even older. And it must be extremely dangerous knowledge because whoever got a glimpse of it went out of their way to encode it. Only enlightened adepts were supposed to understand the whole truth.«
Don Luigi coughed hard as he extinguished an MS in the ashtray that was already overflowing with butts. »We assume that Hugues de Payens discovered parts of it in Sinai.«
»And Hugues de Payens turned on his heel to inform Bernard de Clairvaux,« Peter added. »He rushed to found the Knights Templar and made the Second Crusade possible, only to get his hands on this secret. And Malachy had to die because he saw the secret in his visions and wanted to share it with the Pope.«
»The question is,« Don Luigi said, »whether the Templars really did find the secret.«
»I don’t think so,« Peter said. »After what I experienced on the Ile de Cuivre, the Light-Bearers are still frantically searching for something, which seems to have gotten lost in the course of the dissolution of the Templars. And John Dee and Edward Kelly could not make the breakthrough either with their magic experiments in the 16th Century. However, in 1852 Helena Blavatsky, who was also a Light-Bearer, was in the Himalayas where she came across an ancient book in an unknown language.«
»How do you know all these things, Peter?«
»Kelly told me about it, in Turkmenistan. I have remembered it all again. I’ve begun to remember a lot of things. One of these things is a strange language that I understand. Kelly called it Enochian. The language of angels and demons.«
»Did you say Kelly? Edward Kelly?«
»I don’t know whether that was his real name. He is dead now. Be that as it may, Kelly talked a lot about ›Madame.‹ And according to what he said, Madame Blavatsky rediscovered the hidden knowledge of the Templars. But pretty much like everybody else, she didn’t really succeed with the decryption.«
»After her death, Aleister Crowley continued her research,« Don Luigi added. »And he founded his own order, the Temple of Equinox. Just a new label, nothing else.«
Aleister Crowley! Wearily Electors! Hoathahe Saitan!
Peter was stunned. »How do you know that?« he asked.
»From Colonel Bühler, the Commander of the Swiss Guards,« Laurenz replied. »After the murder of your American colleague he started his own investigation, which led him to the discovery of an international network of companies. He and his sister Leonie almost paid for that with their lives.«
»So Bühler knows?«
»He is on our side. As we speak, he is with Major Zeevi, leading an operation against what we think is the Rome headquarters of the Bearers of the Light.«
Peter leaned back on the sofa and thought for a while. Despite the fact that many of the mysteries of the last few weeks were slowly but surely piecing together to form a picture, the whole thing still did not make any sense to him. He noticed how tired he was. But sleep was not on the cards for him, not now, he knew that. Abruptly he rose from his comfortable seat on the sofa.
»Please excuse me for a moment. I need to get some fresh air.«
Without waiting for a response from anyone, he walked into the small garden behind the house where Don Luigi grew his orchids. Peter breathed in the mild night air, listened to the familiar hum of the Roman traffic in the distance, and inhaled the scent of the jasmine that climbed the rear wall of the little house.
Rome. Your town.
»Tired?«
All of a sudden, Maria was standing behind him. Like a shadow. Impossible to catch.
»I just wanted to be alone for a moment.«
»Oh, I am sorry.«
»No, it’s okay. I…«
She came a little closer. »What?« she whispered.
Her face, so close to his again. So close. Suddenly a waft of lavender was drifting through the air.
»You are so far away,« he said.
»Am I?«
»Endlessly far away.«
She kissed him, barely touching his lips, like an exhausted shadow that rested on his mouth for a brief moment.
»And now?«
Peter swallowed. »Better.«
She linked her arm with his and he could feel that she was trembling, just slightly, as if touched by a breath of cold air. She stood close to him. »I should have told you sooner.«
»That’s okay.«
»What do you think of them?«
»Your parents?« Peter gave a sudden laugh. »Ask me again later.«
»And when is later?« she wanted to know with a flirtatious tone in her voice.
»On our wedding day.«
Idiot!
She breathed out loudly and slapped him with her flat hand on the back of his head.
»Idiot,« she hissed and then she disappeared back into the house.
LXXIX
May 17, 2011, Temple of Equinox, Rome
Urs Bühler had seen death often enough. He had seen death come to him, to comrades and to targets. For some of these people, death had passed by; others he had taken. An uninvited, capricious and hungry guest, who was permitted entrance whenever he asked to be granted entrance. Death, this was something that Urs Bühler had learned, could not be refused entrance when the time had come. And if he was honest with himself, Urs Bühler had to acknowledge that he hated dying and killing almost as much as he hated the Italians. Well, at least at this very moment, crammed into an SUV with five other men, racing at maximum speed through the streets of Rome.
Urs Bühler was not afraid of death. Not any more. But since he had joined the Swiss Guards, he had been feeling like a better person. Like someone who was willing to work for God’s forgiveness. Like a human being who would never have to kill again. But the way things were going, God had already rendered His verdict against Urs Bühler.
As an officer of the Foreign Legion, Urs Bühler had been in charge of quite a number of commando operations. He knew how to plan and execute them. But he also knew only too well that every operation, no matter how well planned it was, harbored hidden and incalculable risks. Deadly risks. There was no such thing as routine in this job. Urs Bühler had seen perfectly planned operations with perfectly trained people end in bloodshed and disaster just because the reconnaissance department had confused the right side of a satellite image with the left side. The slight nervousness prior to the operation was as essential as the bulletproof vest. The tension sharpened the senses and would later, during the operation, completely dissolve.
Nonetheless, sitting in the backseat of the SUV on his way to Via Vincenzo Monti, Bühler felt an uncomfortable pressure in his stomach. It was not the fear that worried him. Only idiots and psychopaths were not afraid before going into the field. No, Urs Bühler had to admit to himself that it was worse: he felt an uncontrollable hatred for Seth and the people who had abused Leonie, and he wanted them all to die. This thirst for revenge was like a grimy film that clung to his cold-bloodedness and paralyzed his ability to focus. Bühler knew that he was jeopardizing his team and the entire operation with this feeling. Actually, it was his duty to inform Rahel Zeevi, who was the officer in charge of this operation and who had only reluctantly agreed to accept him as part of the team, and drop out of the operation. But he kept quiet and tried to focus on his task ahead.
At 11:40 pm, two black SUVs blocked the access to Via Vincenzo Monti in both directions, while other emergency vehicles diverted the traffic from the area. As it was late in the evening, Rahel Zeevi did not expect anyone to notice that there were no longer cars passing through the narrow street.
The men gathered at both ends of the street and waited for the scout to give them the signal. He was sitting in a car on the opposite side, watching the house.
Bühler could see the villa in the middle of the street. On the first floor, the lights were on. As he turned around again he saw the Israeli agent walk towards him. He thought she looked great in her bulletproof vest with the gun on her hip, freaking great. And she had even stopped being an Italian. But he still did not like her.
»Is everything alright with you, Colonel Bühler? You seem tense.«
»I’m okay.«
She nodded. »Good. As soon as Teams Alpha and Bravo are inside the house, you will move up your team. No rash acts of revenge, is this clear? Whoever we find in there, we need them alive.«
Bühler just nodded.
»Or do you have a problem with that, Colonel?«
»You’re the boss, Major Zeevi.«
»You said it.«
She turned away and talked quietly to the men of her team. They were all elite Israeli soldiers. Bühler was still amazed by the fact that the Israeli Secret Service could just walk into the territory of the Italian Republic and conduct an operation, but it seemed that conditions and circumstances had changed completely.
Bühler checked his team’s equipment and then he went over the planned procedure with the five men one more time. The young Swiss men nodded silently. They had volunteered for this operation, but Bühler knew that it would be too much for them. All five of them were trained as Special Forces in the Swiss Army but none of them had ever been in the field.
»We will stay together,« he tried to hammer into their heads. »We will do it exactly the way we did in practice. Nobody separates from the team without my order. And we won’t leave any man behind, is that clear?«
The men nodded.
»Then: Go!«
The radio call gave them Code Green. Quickly and in a crouched position, Rahel Zeevi and a team of five men moved towards the house, while Team Bravo advanced from the other side of the street. In front of the building, both teams took their positions and assessed the situation. Bühler saw two men make their way into the garden. Seconds later he received the order to advance. At the same time, the first two teams invaded the house. The front door exploded with a muffled burst of noise. Bühler heard breathless voices giving commands over the radio. They secured room after room, obviously without facing any resistance. Bühler noticed a bitter and metallic taste in his mouth. Something was not right over there. Bühler ordered his men into position.
Suddenly gunshots. A volley from a machine gun followed by the response. Bühler could even have said exactly which gun models were used. He cursed under his breath and hurried. When he and his team reached the villa, he could hear that there was still gunfire coming from the first floor. Then silence.
»Secured!« said a husky voice from the radio. And then Rahel Zeevi’s voice.
»Status?«
»Alpha three and four are down.«
»Status of target?«
»Dead.«
»Damn it!«
Bühler was surprised that she was suddenly showing nerves. He was almost beginning to like her.
»Bühler? Where are you?«
»In front of the house.«
»Stay where you are. Secure the area. Team Bravo to me. Use your eyes! We are not yet through with this!«
Bühler thought for a moment. Then he gave his men a sign and, with their assault rifles at the ready, they split up to secure different areas around the house that was still being searched by Rahel Zeevi’s team. Bühler could see the beams of the flashlights in the two upper floors, as he continued to listen to the throaty commands coming from the radio.
»Alpha One to Charlie One,« Bühler whispered into his headset. »Major, can you verify whether the house has a basement? If so, you should take a look at it.«
»Radio dis
cipline, Charlie One!« she barked angrily back at him. Bühler struggled to suppress the swear word that was about to escape his lips. Yet he heard the Israeli woman ordering two of her men to take a look at the basement.
The report followed soon thereafter. »Bravo Two to Alpha One,« said a voice coming from the radio. »You should see this for yourself, Major.«
Bühler could barely contain himself. He found it unbearable to be idly patrolling the garden of the villa, which had apparently been completely empty except for a single armed individual.
Moments later, Rahel Zeevi’s voice. »Fuck! What the hell is this? … Bühler?«
»Yes.«
»Get in here. Just you. I’m in the basement.«
Bühler already had a hunch of what to expect. He signaled his men to hold their positions and started running.
»Team Alpha, Team Bravo!« he heard the voice of the beautiful Israeli woman coming from the radio, but also the panic that was rising in her voice. »Evacuate the object immediately. This is an order!«
Bühler sprinted around the house. Just as he reached the entrance, he saw the flash of light. It seemed to fill the entire house and poured outside through each and every window. Bühler looked directly into the glaring and bluish white light of a fading sun. Almost simultaneously and even before he heard the explosion, he was hit by an enormous blast that threw him off his feet. Windows were shattered and doors were ripped from their hinges. For a brief moment, the entire structure seemed to balloon out, but this was nothing but a hallucination. For Bühler could not see a thing during the first few seconds. He only heard the dull blow that hit the building like a Titan’s fist, shattering the west wing.
Finally, when he could see again, he struggled to his feet. In mere seconds, his trained senses registered various things: the destroyed west wing. The fire in the upper floor. The collapsed roof. The severed foot lying next to him. The silence from the radio. He took one look to make sure that the severed foot was not his and then he flicked on his radio and called his men. They all answered, except for the one who had been patrolling the west wing. Bühler ordered them to retreat and gather at the end of the street. Then he stormed into the building.
Apocalypsis I Page 45
