The Devil's Magician

by Rick Jones

  After listening to the Milan command, Cardinal Alnasseri’s orders were simple:

  “Once the transaction takes place, kill the woman and her children, and head immediately to Damascus.” And with that the cardinal severed the call, then tossed the burner on the table beside him.

  A year ago, almost to the day, plans had been set in motion to usurp the position of the true Cardinal Alnasseri, a preferiti who had been permanently anointed by Pope John Paul III to oversee the Syriac Catholic Church in Damascus, when after the landing of Shepherd One at the airport, the true cardinal was intercepted and abducted by a terrorist team sent by Syria’s highest commander, a man by the name of Mabus, who was eventually killed by Kimball Hayden who then, as an warning to the faction, stuck Mabus’s head on a pike at the edge of the village just south of Raqqa.

  He was my brother, Cardinal Alnasseri thought as he sat in the shadows. But he wasn’t Cardinal Alnasseri at all. His name was Abdallah Kattan, and he was the half-brother of Mabus.

  Sitting in the darkness where Abdallah Kattan felt most comfortable, he recounted the moments that his brother Mabus had set in motion the night Cardinal Alnasseri arrived at the Damascus Airport. Since Abdallah Kattan looked remarkably similar to the real Cardinal Alnasseri, though his face was leaner, the similarity was close enough to register 84% on any facial recognition software program, the man being a natural doppelganger.

  As Cardinal Alnasseri entered a sedan provided by the church, the original driver had been murdered and his position as driver taken over by Kattan, who drove the cardinal to the outskirts of Damascus, turned in his seat with a suppressed weapon after pulling over the vehicle, and putting a round dead-center in the cardinal’s forehead, the wound a bloodless hole. Since that moment Abdullah Kattan had served the church under the guise of a second skin, that of Cardinal Alnasseri, his flesh crawling every time he put on the cardinal’s fashions because he felt like he was cloaking himself in hypocrisy.

  After clothing was exchanged, Abdallah Kattan had become a conspirator against the church and a member of the preferiti, and had every plan to become a cancer within the Vatican. Few would pick up the change of appearance since Cardinal Alnasseri was little known to those in the circle of the Vatican’s elite, but he was well respected, nevertheless, due to the nature and location of the church which was in war-torn Syria, a place that was far from the tranquil settings of the Vatican.

  With the transaction of funds from the Vatican, Kattan could carry out his brother’s legacy, though he would do so in sheep’s clothing. They would recruit, rebuild and retake. While he would also play his role to perfection as Cardinal Alnasseri, the usurper who would upset the balance within the church by crippling the image of the pope in the eyes of those within the College of the Cardinals, and create unimaginable chaos on a political scale.

  But there was a caveat to all this.

  The Vatican Knights.

  Wherever there was chaos, they would always provide balance. And they were led by one man who was known as the priest who was not a priest. A man by the name of Kimball Hayden.

  In the Middle East, however, factions such as the Taliban and al-Qaeda referred to him as something different. They referred to him as the Devil’s Magician.

  You’re still a man, Kattan thought. And you bleed like all men. As you killed my brother and hung his head on a pike for all to see ...I shall do the same to you.

  ...This I promise ...

  Abdallah Kattan continued to sit in the shadows where he felt most comfortable.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

  ––––––––

  Milan, Italy

  Jeremiah’s tablet chimed. Intel from the Vatican was coming in, which included the address of the theater of operation and the layout of the building plans. Using his fingers to maneuver through the schematics, the building had four entryways: one in the front, and one in the back next to the two garage-like doors inside the sally port. There was also a fifth door, but that was topside on the roof. There were no security or CCTV cameras, no outside monitors. The facility had no links to any alarm companies, suggesting that the system was either defunct, disconnected, or never existed.

  The best method to breach the warehouse was quickly discussed. And since the sally port was surrounded by a brick wall which included coils of razor-sharp wire that ran along its length, and a front door that was in plain view of city streets, they decided that the best point of entry was topside, through the door that led down to the second-floor offices.

  The Vatican Knights then checked their gear, their body armor, and made sure that their Kevlar helmets with attached NV gadgetry were functional. Once the check-down procedure was completed, they drove the van to the rear of the facility. The road was badly pocked and pitted and in desperate need of repair. But when they reached a thick tree line, they parked the vehicle and took measures to survey the facility with each Knight making a calculated assessment. The brick wall surrounding the sally port acted as the only means of security with barbed wire twisting and winding along the stretch of the wall. The garage doors that led into the warehouse were closed. But on the building’s south side there was no wall at all, no windows, just a stone siding that held a billboard for advertising, something about a local soft drink. But the image had faded and peeled over time, the words barely legible through the mushroom cap of a large tree that had grown over the years to conceal not only the advertisement, but the entire wall from street view as well.

  Driving the van to the billboard-wall and parking it beneath the advertisement, the team exited the vehicle with four members of the unit quickly taking positions north, south, east and west to survey the area from all sides with the points of their weapons leveled. Levi, however, grabbed a canvas bag, unzipped it, and removed a pneumatic gun that was powerful enough to drive a piton deep into brick or stone.

  After a six-inch spike was attached to a metal-fiber line that had been laid out for easy unspooling, Levi loaded a piton into the gun, aimed for a point just below the edge of the roofline, and pulled the trigger.

  The piton took flight from the barrel, the sound muffled.

  ...Whump...

  The spike took flight with the metal fiber unspooling along its rising trajectory, until the stake implanted into the stone masonry a few inches beneath the roofline.

  Levi then tested the line by climbing the metal wire to see if it would hold his weight, which it did.

  After establishing a second secured line, Levi, along with Eleazar, attached power-rope ascenders—which were battery-powered winches that wound its way up a rope at a speed of five-feet per second—to the metal rings of their belts, then lowered on the mechanism.

  The winches began to move upward along the metal line and carried them to the roofline, where they disengaged the winches and sent them back down for the team’s second run. After all the supplies were sent topside, Jeremiah, Joseph and Elijah rode the winches to the rooftop, and were aided over the edge by Levi and Eleazar.

  After the lines and winches were lifted and secured, the team gathered their gear, left the winches and line behind, and headed for the roof’s access doorway which was locked. After a few rounds from a suppressed MP7 took out the locking mechanism, Jeremiah swept the door aside and entered the building with his assault weapon leading the way.

  The Vatican Knights were in.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

  ––––––––

  Office of the SIV (Vatican Intelligence)

  Vatican City

  Father Auciello had seen it all from the eye-in-the-sky satellite. Inside the SIV Intelligence Lab beneath St. Peter’s Basilica, the entire tech team watched the Vatican Knights breach the facility from the top-side level.

  Jeremiah was leading the raid.

  The outcome, however, had yet to be determined.

  Motioning to a tech at the fourth station along the console, he said, “I need a link and live audio feed to Jeremiah.”

 
; The tech quickly dotted the glass-top console with his fingertips. A moment later an image from Jeremiah’s helmet-cam came online with an entire screen devoted to what Jeremiah was seeing through the face-shield of his Kevlar helmet. He was leading his team down a stairwell to the second level, the feed crystal clear.

  “Jeremiah, can you read me?”

  “That’s affirmative.”

  “We’ll monitor and survey the surrounding area in case hostiles approach while engaged.”

  “Copy that.”

  “Out.” Father Auciello turned to his tech team. “All right, people, monitor all streets and corridors for anyone or anything approaching the facility that appears suspicious. Convoys. Trucks. A battalion of running men. Anything and Everything. Is that clear? And I want to see is the full engagement of the Vatican Knights on Monitor Three.”

  Monitor Three was the most exclusive state-of-the-art monitor inside the lab with 4,320 pixels per square inch and a display so clear and three-dimensional, it was as if the scene was playing out live within the studio’s room.

  Everyone inside the SIV Lab could see Jeremiah moving cautiously through the corridors with the point of his weapon leading the way.

  Then just beyond the curve of the hallway, voices could be heard through Jeremiah’s headset; the language clearly Arab. But that meant little to Father Auciello since the demographic of this area was predominantly Muslim to begin with.

  What Jeremiah needed to do was to provide irrefutable evidence that the packages were there. And the Vatican Knights would also have to deal with taking away the faction’s ability to contact the cell in Damascus in warning, which would be a death sentence for Isaiah, Leviticus and the cardinal should they succeed. As tension rose with every step Jeremiah took towards the moment of engagement, Father Auciello sighed as a means to lessen the strain.

  Unfortunately for him, however, it didn’t work.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

  ––––––––

  Milan, Italy

  The moment the Vatican Knights heard voices, Jeremiah held up his hand to stop his team. Then to his team, he whispered, “I hear three.”

  “You got them?” asked Eleazar.

  Jeremiah nodded. “I’ll move in to confirm hostiles,” he said softly. “Should hostiles be confirmed, then the rules of engagement apply.”

  “Copy that.”

  “Stay close.”

  As Jeremiah moved down the corridor the voices grew louder. A pair was laughing as the third was obviously saying something in jest, perhaps an off-key joke. But it was also a clear indication to Jeremiah that their guards had their shields down, which was always an advantage for a Vatican Knight.

  More talking.

  More laughter.

  As soon as Jeremiah reached the bend of the hallway, he removed a small mirror from his pocket, extended the wand until it looked like a dental implement, and held the mirror in such a way that he didn’t have to expose himself to the hostiles. Not only were there three men as he believed, but there was a fourth man who was sitting against the wall with his chin tucked into his chest and an AK-47 by his side, the man acting as if he was sleeping, until he raised a hand to scratch his nose with his knuckle. And a fifth man who seemed detached from the rest. Taking on the number of heavily-armed hostiles in such a small area, which Jeremiah considered was too many for one Vatican Knight, would be difficult, so he relayed to Levi with hand signals that the action would need a dual threat to neutralize the situation. Levi was to dispatch the two on the left, and Jeremiah would take the three on the right.

  The remaining members would follow as a backup unit to liquidate those who may have been missed during the first volley.

  Returning the mirror to his pocket, Jeremiah raised his weapon. And as soon as Levi joined his side, Jeremiah counted down to the moment of engagement by ticking his fingers down from three ...

  ...two...

  ...one ...

  The Vatican Knights exited from the shadows with the points of their weapons raised.

  ...Phftt...

  ...Phftt...

  Two rounds from Levi’s weapon found the mark of both sentries, with his first shot striking center mass and killing the man instantly. His second shot was also on mark to the second target, the man’s mouth opening into a perfect O as a round entered his chest and exploded through his back, causing a blood gout to erupt from the exit wound. With the force of the round’s impact, the terrorist per- formed an awkward ballet before he finally fell to the floor.

  As Jeremiah homed in on his targets, he set off three bursts in quick succession, all loud spits.

  ...Phftt...

  ...Phftt...

  ...Phftt...

  The one telling the jokes took the first round, a clean headshot as a bullet wound magically appeared in his forehead before he went down.

  The second sentry, the one in the seat, appeared just as puzzled with the action much too fast for him to comprehend as a bullet struck the bridge of his nose. The round smashed and caved his face in with the fatal wound looking like the pucker of a sphincter, the bones fracturing inward. The moment the terrorist’s head snapped back, the wall behind him took on a tomato-like splatter of blood drip- pings and gore, the pattern similar to a Pollock painting. And then he slumped in his seat with his arms going limp by his sides.

  The third shot was just as quick and just as fatal. Before the terrorist could lift his AK-47, a round shattered his forehead, the impact lifting and tossing him backward in flight, as his body landed hard against the floor and skated a few feet into the shadows.

  In less than three seconds, the Vatican Knights had neutralized the unit.

  CHAPTER FORTY

  ––––––––

  Damascus, Syria

  ...00:00 ...

  Kimball Hayden’s watch had ticked off the seconds to zero moment, meaning that the Vatican Knights led by Jeremiah had initiated its assault against the terrorist group in Milan. And in his mind’s eye he could almost see the step-by-step process—could see their movements as they made their way through the hallways and corridors to clear the area. And if the truth be told, it was moments like these that Kimball missed most, when he went shoulder to shoulder with his brothers in arms to protect those who could not protect themselves. To see the faces upon those victims who suddenly realized the moment of their salvation by the sudden flare of their eyes, that they were not going to die by the hands of their captors, but would survive the day due to the saving graces of the Vatican Knights. Then he recalled the moments when those he had saved took his hand into theirs and kissed it, the moments always that of gratitude after seeing the cleric’s band that Kimball wore in his collar, with those he had just saved believing him to be god sent.

  Kimball sighed inwardly, pining for those moments.

  Then he examined his watch, noting that the mission in Milan was now entering its third minute.

  In the depths of the shadows, Kimball waited patiently for his call from the SIV.

  CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

  ––––––––

  Jeremiah and his team of Vatican Knights moved carefully down the second-story hallways, checking rooms.

  When the hallway split into a T-junction at the end, Jeremiah gestured for Elijah and Joseph to head left, whereas he would head right with Eleazar. Levi would stay behind and watch the junction as well as the rear, making sure that the hallway remained clear.

  Motioning to Elijah and Joseph to use their lip mics when necessary, they gave a thumbs-up and proceeded down the hallway.

  Turning right, Jeremiah led with Eleazar right behind him.

  * * *

  Elijah and Joseph moved quietly through the shadows of the corridor. Since the doors were closed and the lights inoperable, they employed their night-vision gear which turned their surroundings the color of lime-green. There were cabinets against the wall, all covered either by plastic or sheets. Chairs appeared to be placed with no real feng shui
setup to them, but were randomly scattered and un- used for a long period of time with some lying on their backs, the warehouse appearing to have been vacant for some time.

  They moved with feline grace and mobility, the Knights always silent.

  At the end of the corridor was another T-joint that led to other parts of the level.

  And there were voices, at least two, both speaking in Arabic and both out of sight, though close.

  Elijah and Joseph moved quickly down the corridor with the points of their weapons raised, the warriors readying themselves to converge and engage.

  As they closed in the voices grew louder.

  They grew nearer.

  The words in Arabic distinct and clear.

  Now the Vatican Knights were almost on top of them, the unit about to round the bend.

  The T-joint was ten meters away, now eight, with light spilling into the hall from where the Arabs kept some type of a light source, perhaps a lantern.

  Then into his lip mic to Joseph, Elijah said, “I’ll take the left side, you take the right.”

  “Copy that.”

  When they rounded the bend of the hallway, two hostiles apparently caught movement from the corner of their eyes but were too slow to react. Muted bursts of gunfire went off in quick succession as rounds punched holes through the bodies of the hostiles, the wounds opening like the blooming petals of red roses moments before they went down. Two AK-47s leaned against the wall, untouched, as the Vatican Knights continued their sweep without stopping.

  “Jeremiah,” Elijah whispered into his lip mic.