From the moment he crossed the threshold, his eyes never left the cardinal's face. Julian had employed his time in Rome, and the Jesuit Book, to build a thick wall around his thoughts. He wondered now if his defenses would be enough to keep the cardinal out.
‘Everything you need to know, you will find on his face. Everything you need to see, everything you need to fear, you will find in his eyes. There you will find the answer too, the key.’ Julian recalled the words from the Jesuit Book to himself.
"Gentlemen, I usually do not receive guests on such short notice." The cardinal's voice was relaxed and his Italian accented English was soft, expressive and ironical. "Since, it is Mr. Blessing, I have made this exception. Sadly, the press of business will be calling me away rather soon, so there is some haste." The cardinal smiled his humorless smile.
"Church business, Eminence?" The derision in Julian’s voice sounded mild.
"Oh, Mr. Blessing, I exist to serve the Church only, as you know. Therefore, all my business is Church business."
"There is something I want, priest," Sokolov stated. His face mirrored his disgust.
The cardinal looked balefully at the Russian. “Mr. Sokolov, I can see you are a man built in mind and body for quick and often violent action. I must tell you, these are traits I do not admire. I see, also, you are missing your eyebrows and smell of smoke.” The cardinal looked to Julian, but he only shrugged. “Still, I will listen to your request,” the cardinal said and Julian’s mouth twitched.
“I want a man in Vatican Bank to help my business. You are that man,” the Russian said and Julian shook his head and waited.
“You seem to be a man of many wants. Life, unfortunately is filled with many disappointments,” the cardinal said mildly. “I am a man with few real wants, but what I want, I always receive.
"For example, I want you to remove yourself and your organization from Rome. No, let us make it from Italy altogether.” The tone was mild and smooth and the cadence was relaxed. Julian could feel the edge even if the Russian could not.
The following silence was punctuated by the ticking of a clock near the cardinal’s desk and time seemed to move slowly before Sokolov said, “Eat shit, priest.”
The Russian's accent was thick, but now doubly thick with distain. “I have business here and my business is no business of yours. There are things you do not understand. They are things that will get you killed. You can be dead any day I choose it, no matter who you are. So I’m not going anywhere.
“Anyone can be dead any day I say." The big man looked pointedly at Julian then back to the cardinal. "You understand? Bogdan Sokolov won't be leaving Rome anytime soon, your holiness." The Russian bowed slightly. "I have no time for this. I thought we could do business. We cannot. Blessing, we are going.”
Julian remained seated with the Russian towering over him.
Cardinal Luciano sighed. “I will find the answer tedious and uninspired, but I must ask for the sake of good form. Tell me, Mr. Sokolov, how would you propose to have me killed?”
“Simple,” the Russian said. “I would not. I have Blessing do it.” The man’s smile dripped condescension. “I have Blessing by balls. I have his woman, the doctor. To get her back, he will be my bitch and do what I say. If I say you are dead, you are dead.”
“Mr. Blessing,” the cardinal said, “do you see the trials you and I, and those like us, must endure?”
Julian said nothing. His eyes never strayed from the cardinal’s face. Across that face passed the flicker of a shadow. Julian saw it and he knew.
The cardinal’s face darkened, but only slightly. He felt sure Julian had seen something, but what and how much was still in doubt. Much depended on knowing now. “If you would be so kind, Mr. Blessing, please explain the realities to Mr. Sokolov. Remember, use small words and speak slowly. He isn’t terribly bright,” the cardinal said.
The angry blood rushed to the Russian’s face, the veins distended in his neck, his breathing ran quick and sharp.
Julian looked up briefly into the eyes of the big man then returned his gaze to the cardinal. For the first time that day, Julian smiled. He had found his corroboration. “You don’t have the doctor. You never did.”
“You know I do. I show you proof. I show you her things.”
“Sokolov, you really are an idiot,” Julian said. “The evidence you showed me happened to fall into your lap at the very moment you needed something to convince me. An odd coincidence, don’t you think?
“Listen,” Julian continued, “There are no coincidences. You were handed the evidence you needed so that you would take the fall. The thought was, I would kill you when you failed to produce the doctor.
“But, as I said, you never had the doctor.” Julian paused a moment. “His Eminence does.” Julian knew what he needed to know. Ailís’ location was being protected mentally. Luciano dropped his guard for a nanosecond and Julian could feed off the cardinal’s feelings.
Color drained from the Russian’s face and his eyes became small and ferret like.
“Bravo to you, Mr. Blessing, and I do believe the situation is becoming clearer to your companion with each passing moment. Do sit down Mr. Sokolov. You look tired.
“First, he discovers he has no leverage whatsoever,” the cardinal observed, “and soon he will learn he has no option but to obey. Life is sometimes full of sad surprises.”
The cardinal turned his attention to the Russian who remained standing. “In the strictest sense I suppose, you and I are in the same business. There is a difference though.
“While you lightly launder a few millions of dollars, I cleanse entirely hundreds of millions. You have become an annoyance, a distraction, and you are attracting the wrong kind of attention. Be gone from Italy by, shall we say, two days from now?” The cardinal looked expectantly at the Russian who only glared. “Good, with that settled, you may go.”
The big man was rabid with rage. “Priest, I am going to…” Sokolov clutched at his chest. His eyes bulged and pain etched his face deeply. He gasped for a breath that would not come. The Russian fell to his knees and his jaw went slack. Moments passed, annunciated by the ticking clock and the Russian’s approaching death rattle.
Julian said coldly, “Enough. You’ve made your point. I’m sure he understands.”
“But do you understand?” the cardinal asked and sat back further in his chair. The Russian fell to his knees gasping for breath, filling his lungs with air he thought he would never breathe again.
“As I said, Mr. Sokolov, you may go. Mr. Blessing shan’t be going with you. He and I, you see, have other business matters to discuss.”
***
“Bella,” Marino asked his inspector, “where has the wizard taken himself off to?”
“Which wizard? This town seems to be full of them lately. It’s like there is a wizard convention. It doesn’t matter. I have a very bad feeling about all of this. I’ve no evidence to support it, but today is the day,” the inspector said.
“The day for what, amore mio?” the sergeant asked.
The inspector turned and looked into her partner’s profile while he drove. Marino looked concerned. “Bella, what is it? Today is the day for what?” Enrico Marino, a man who feared little in life, watched his partner’s eyes turn to a sea of equal parts reminiscence and regret and he was afraid.
Bella took in a breath, held it then exhaled slowly. “Let us go see Cardinal Luciano. We have questions. He has answers. Today is the day we act.” She sighed heavily. “Today, tesoro mio, someone will die.” She smiled over at her partner, reached over and set the back of her fingers on his cheek.
***
“Mr. Blessing,” Cardinal Luciano said, “crassness is for the likes of Sokolov. The man is a simpleton and so crudeness works best when dealing with such scum.
“He is someone with whom we need not concern ourselves. Normally, he would run back to his cave, brood for a bit and fester for a bit more. He would then do something stupid. Stu
pid things attract the wrong kind of attention.”
The cardinal continued, “This cannot be allowed. To save us all a great deal of inconvenience, Mr. Sokolov will reach the street and die from heart failure. Sadly, we all succumb to heart failure in the end.” The cardinal sat back in his leather chair and smiled.
“And?” Julian asked.
“Well, you and I need not be crass with each other. We are from a different stratum, a different species, no? I need not threaten and berate you. I will ask you to assist me, you will comply and your doctor will go free.
“Isn’t that better than being tactless with each other?” The cardinal’s cold smile oozed insincerity.
Chapter Nineteen
Fr. Soski entered the cardinal’s residence through a little-used door accessed from the underground parking garage. He closed his eyes, cleared his thoughts and took a deep breath before continuing with his task. This door would close and lock behind him. The door and the hallway beyond were alive with energy, obscuring Ailís and keeping her shielded from outside intervention. She was effectively invisible. He moved ahead. There was no going back.
***
An enraged Bogdan Sokolov descended the stone staircase from Cardinal Luciano’s residence to the street. He reached the bottom step, turned and spit.
His right-side-up world lost focus as he suddenly found himself clutching his left arm before his universe exploded in a cascade of pain and fear. A hammer blow of more intense pain brought him to his knees.
Lightning flashed down both arms to the tips of his fingers and back up into his chest. He began to lose consciousness. He was suffocating. His vision narrowed until everything seemed far away.
His hearing became distant before his sight finally narrowed, then blinked out. Sounds mingled, blended into one fading noise, then silence. He was nowhere, but fully aware. Except there was nothing to be aware of.
Alone in a void, his attention turned to the only thing it could find. Bogdan Sokolov. He remembered the events that had shaped his life. He saw it all - the man he killed when he was ten; at thirteen, the first woman he raped, the first kidnapping of a government official, the torture of many and the deaths of scores of others. Bogdan Sokolov remembered it all, saw it all and with a sneer, died.
***
“What is it you want, Eminence?” Julian asked.
“There, you see? That is better, no? I will give you the Pope’s itinerary and you will kill him tomorrow.
“You and I will then leave Rome. There will be some consternation here we should avoid. Dead popes occasion such things but they provide delightful diversions. Unhappily, I am not all seeing or all knowing. Trying to defend oneself on multiple fronts is tiring. Our talents will complement each other, I feel.
“After you have accomplished your task, and while I move ahead with my plans, you will protect me from those who would thwart those plans. In the meanwhile, your doctor will be free. You, of course, understand?” the cardinal concluded.
It was taking all of his energy to protect his thoughts, but Julian did take time to smile. It was a small smile. A knowing smile.
The cardinal had given himself away. The prelate was right; he was not all seeing and all knowing. Their talents were complementary. Not the same. He had stated his one flaw in plain language.
The smile slid easily from Julian’s face. “I want to see the doctor. Now would be a good time.”
“Of course. I admire you Americans. You have such a sense of immediacy. You are right, sooner is always better than later. If you will follow me.” The cardinal rose, stayed behind his desk, and indicated a discreet door hidden in a fresco. The door that led from his study to a hallway beyond.
***
Fr. Soski thought, and Ailís could feel the thought, “Doctor, please put the chair down. I am a friend of Julian’s. You know that; you can feel what I am saying is true. Since you seem to have a plan, I’m not really rescuing you, but I am speeding the process. I will open the door now and I will get you away.”
He looked at the door. The lock mechanism clicked and the door swung open.
***
“Che bellezza!” Enrico Marino spat out in disgust as he and his partner approached Cardinal Luciano’s residence.
“Isn’t what just great? Oh, my,” the inspector said as she looked past her partner. “Enrico, shouldn’t you do mouth to mouth or something?”
Marino looked at his inspector as if she had gone mad. “A gangster? Mouth to mouth? Really? Is that your idea of a joke?”
“Well, he might be alive, no?”
“That,” Marino pointed at what had been Bogdan Sokolov, “that is dead. Even if he wasn’t, we would wait until he was.”
“So, dead one way or the other? Well that throws a kink into the investigation. The paperwork alone will take us days.” The inspector shook her finger at Sokolov. “You are a very inconvenient man. Most are, except for my Enrico of course, but you are more inconvenient than others.”
***
Ailís stumbled, feeling her way along the corridor, following the tall, thin priest. A week in captivity had left her muscles slow to respond and her mind sluggish.
Julian stepped into the hallway and felt her confused and distorted signature immediately. He spun on the cardinal. With hands outstretched, he raised a wall of pure energy that stunned and blocked any immediate counter attack. “Ailís! This way. Hurry!” Julian caught sight of Fr. Soski followed closely by the doctor.
Soski moved through the door and into the cardinal’s study. He forced a blast of energy ahead of him that pushed back the cardinal’s defenses.
Ailís was within a few feet of the door and Julian shouted, “Run! Get out now!” He took her by the hand and moved her through the office and into the hallway while Soski held the cardinal at bay. “Keep going until you get to the street.” Fear hid just behind her eyes as she nodded and ran.
With unfocused eyes she moved along the hall and made it to the huge double doors. She clung to the door jam, then staggered through and outside into a world she thought she would never see again. She reached the first steps before she heard the crash of furniture from inside.
Clutching the graceful curve of the stone stair railing, and with halting steps, Ailís Dwyer lurched down the stairs toward the inspector and her sergeant. She tried to see through pinpoint pupils. Her arms and legs wouldn’t work in unison and her voice followed none of her commands to shout a warning.
Bella reached Ailís first and sat her on the steps. There was no doubt in the inspector’s mind who this was. “Dottoressa Dwyer, can you hear me?”
Ailís’ head lolled to the side as she tried to focus, tried to speak. She felt tired, sick, heavy and afraid for Julian.
“Enrico,” Bella shouted her command. “Entirely too many people are falling out of this building! Call dispatch. I want everyone out here. We need two ambulances now and another couple just in case. I want the Carabinieri tactical unit, the fire department, the coroner, some traffic control cops. Have them get onto the Vatican. Get anyone else you can think of, anybody who will answer the phone. Get them here now, Enrico, then follow me.”
Her partner was already on his cell phone, “Bella, no!” he shouted. “Shit!” She disappeared into the cardinal’s residence as his call connected to dispatch. He shouted his orders and received confirmation of their understanding.
Enrico took the doctor’s face in his hands as she pointed to the body of Sokolov. “É morto. There is nothing to be done, Dottoressa. You rest.” He settled her gently against the stone railing.
He looked up at the towering residence and licked his dry lips. He then drew his sidearm and he ran. “Bella, wait!”
***
The cardinal’s counter attack was rapid and skillful. He pushed back Soski’s wall and the priest was thrown violently into a set of tables, careened off a leather couch, and onto the floor.
Julian could feel it. The cardinal was reaching out with his mind. His target
was Ailís. Julian sent out a pulse that changed Luciano’s focus and made the cardinal swear. Julian was the cardinal’s immediate threat now, a far more formidable threat.
Julian’s actions were automatic in the exchange that followed. The Jesuit Book had seeped into his flesh, his bones, his soul. Every cut and thrust was parried with near surgical precision. Luciano was shocked by the skill Julian demonstrated. Newfound skills do not easily overcome experience and the cardinal demonstrated that with a blistering array of attack and counter attack strategies. He couldn’t overcome Julian, but he might outlast him.
***
“Not this time, Eminence.” Fr. Soski spat the ecclesiastical title. The priest gathered himself, exhaled completely, then filled his lungs as he gathered energy around him. He stood and a ball of white-hot energy found its target.
Luciano was too busy being furious to be stunned. His cassock was smoking from the aftershock of energy. He had inhaled some of the superheated force and his lungs and chest burned.
The electrical charge the cardinal directed at Soski should have killed the priest, but an offsetting energy flow from Julian caused the cardinal’s attack to go wildly off target. It exploded a bookshelf, turning the mahogany to kindling and the books to pulp.
The cardinal was holding his own, the way any cornered animal would, with far more attacks than defensive moves. For their part, Soski and Julian could feel Luciano weakening. Still, he was a very dangerous enemy.
All three men were panting with the effort of assaulting and defending. Julian caught sight of a slight movement. The cardinal’s image had wavered for just a moment. Julian thought and Soski felt it, “Hall of mirrors.”
As an identical image of the cardinal began to form, Julian and his friend unleashed a barrage of superheated energy. The false image dissipated and the cardinal went to one knee.
In response, he unleashed a torrent of force that pushed his opponents back enough, allowing him time to stand and build his next attack.
Echoes Through the Vatican: A Paranormal Mystery (The Echoes Quartet Book 2) Page 20
