The Vatican Games

by Alejandra Guibert

  They had now reached the final test. To acquire new power-ups, it was necessary to choose the surprise option. She had not imagined that the surprise would be the environment. The unforeseen setting which began to unfold disturbed Vera. It would not be an easy transition. Her sensory response was compromising her progress. She should not be fearful if she was determined to reach her goal. The 3D extension of the St Callistus catacombs made Felix rise from his seat. He did not know that setting. If the sector came from Daniel’s work, perhaps Vera had reached the final stage. Vera shivered with the frozen presence underground. The burnt, crucified martyrs, the popes in their stone niches. Half a million lifeless bodies. The narrow passageway to the galleries where ghoulish figures had come to their final rest.

  Flaming torches in hand, Clarissa and Lark set off overcoming the first obstacle. At the entrance at the end of the stairway the giant spider clung to its dense web. Her slow movements did not prevent her agile legs from being a pointed threat while a colony of bats tried to distract them and push them towards her sticky trap. It was an agility test. The limited space left no room for the slightest slip. Clarissa and Lark looked at each other and smiled. Up in the skies they had passed a much more difficult test of movement. Clarissa cast the net she had taken out of her boot, catching the colony of bats and hurling them against the spider’s web. The feast on offer was far too tempting. The spider immediately diverted her attention. She now chewed insatiably on the bats’ heads, the stricken animals flapping their wings in a vain attempt to escape. Each one left staked alongside the spider. After piercing the viscous interior of her head with a sword, Lark opened up a gap in the web to step through. The spider did not respond, while the wings of the bats still flapped, hanging from her mouth.

  A dark path awaited them. Shrivelled mummies hung from the walls, keeping them company along the galleries. Vera pushed up her score as Clarissa and Lark fought against vermin, living mummies, mechanical artefacts, poisoned barbs and creatures of the night. What they did not expect was to encounter the invisible, that which eludes the senses. In itself indescribable, except for the brief awareness of its consequence.

  The energy field which absorbed Lark was unforeseeable. Vera felt the discharge in her left-hand glove. To protect him she activated the last smart device Lark had left. Felix heard Vera’s sharp cry when she saw Lark disintegrate inside the energy force he had just broken through. The blue light turned an incandescent orange on touching Lark’s winged body. He had only just managed to turn and stretch his arm out to Clarissa, his hand outside the energy field. A few seconds before disintegrating as if he had never existed. Clarissa was surrounded by the same light. She closed her eyes awaiting the same fate. The shielding force field had been Lark’s last act. Activated with the ring on his saving hand he enveloped Clarissa in a veil of protective light. Lark had saved her.

  ‘Vera, are you all right?’ Felix could hardly remain detached. The retinal projection only allowed him to see the changing images of the surroundings. Landscapes and settings advanced at the speed of Lark’s and Clarissa’s movement. Default beings and characters, figures which appeared and disappeared according to the need to destroy them in order to proceed. Felix was only able to imagine the avatars’ actions, invisible to him. Clarissa and Lark moved as a projection on Vera’s retina. When he saw her take off the glove, Felix knew that Vera had lost Galo’s Lark.

  Shrouded by the protective light, Clarissa crossed the energy field. She had completed the last of the challenges in the catacombs. The ‘surprise option’ had earned her hundreds of points, allowing her to advance.

  She fell curled up at the foot of the wall of St Peter’s Basilica. To gain access through the wall would allow her entry into the secret room. If Vera recovered from the loss of Galo, Clarissa would manage to pull herself together and act fast. She knew her emotions had been a hindrance when the time came to save Lark. The fire which had burnt his wings had been fed by her distress at the prospect of losing him. Once more she had to put her emotions on hold. Against Vera’s will, Clarissa’s body seemed to retain the impressions of the previous moment. Forging ahead was not what she wanted to do. The lack of meaning was making itself felt in her flesh. She was paralysed by the thought that the virtual loss was as real as what she had lived through. She had no time to waste, not even seconds. Vera gave out a yell full of urgency to dispel her immobility. This time it sounded to Felix like a combative shout rather than a shout of despair. Clarissa uncurled in a single movement which set her on her feet. She felt the wall to find the access mechanism. The Swiss Guard’s footsteps could be heard ever more clearly.

  Felix gathered that this was the final stage. They did not have much time. The alarm to vacate the building had been set off. The vocal warning was repeated every twenty seconds. Instructions by the female voice sounded soothing in the recorded message of controlled alert. Through the window Felix could hear the voices of security staff and police from the lower courtyard. He looked out of the window. They were scanning the staff’s PECs two by two and he imagined the evacuation of the building would take time. A few minutes? He heard doors opening on the lower floors. They had presumably sent guards to check each office.

  The secret entrance opened onto the inner corridor. The Swiss Guard was turning the corner with the weight of the wall closing in on his footsteps. Clarissa slid her body around it to enter the corridor without being seen. She waited with her ear to the wall until the sound on the other side had disappeared. She took one of the torches from the inner wall. She had advanced only a few steps when she stopped short. She was at the door to the Basilica’s secret room. At last she would be able to access the Holy Book.

  Why had she stopped? She should enter right away. Two guards patrolled the circular corridor in opposite directions eventually to meet in front of that very entrance. Clarissa’s eyes pierced her retina. What else could Vera do, if not lead her towards the final moment? Clarissa remained immobile as if it were not Vera controlling her movements. Was it possible for an avatar to resist acting out their role? She knew very well Clarissa was not an independent being, but she was not sure whether it was she herself who had frozen. Clarissa stared at her blankly. Her eyes met Vera’s as if to say to her: what now? She was at the door which would finally enable her to reach catharsis. She had arrived at the place where she would confirm the truth. It was not enough. Vera felt a stab. As if a fine needle of light cut through their mutual gaze, reflected in a perfect circle on her own retina. What now? She closed her eyes when she felt the stab. When she opened them again, Clarissa was already on the other side of the door. The guards had just positioned themselves in front of the entrance which Clarissa had crossed thanks to the master key in her boot. From the high gallery surrounding the enclosure she leant out to look at the room. It was not luxurious or even big but basic and functional. An iron staircase descended to the centre where the chest was resting on a pedestal. She started climbing down the stairs oblivious to the two pairs of fiery eyes that followed her movements from the darkness behind the railings facing the chest. Vera got a bigger fright than Clarissa when the double growling coming from the dribbling jaws broke into the silence. The two heads of the mastiff went through the bars so close to Clarissa that Vera could smell their reeking breath. For now that was just a warning. They went back to the darkness and Vera to the task in hand.

  Clarissa no longer looked her in the eye. Her gaze circled the room following the walls covered in hieroglyphs. Once again Clarissa stopped. Her perception was Vera’s perception. More than ever they had to be one to succeed. This time Vera understood what it meant. Clarissa had managed to catch her attention. Now she must do what she knew best. It was the right place and time to act.

  ‘New code. In there. That’s it,’ the words only audible to herself. ‘Felix!’

  ‘Tell me. I’m right here next to you.’

  ‘I’m going to write new code. When I tell you, you must substitute it. You must be ready to d
o so at exactly the right time.’ Vera knew that Clarissa would only get one chance. On entering the secret enclosure the chest with the Holy Book would open only once. If she managed to open it, she could see its contents. That would be the final epiphany to reach catharsis. Vera used the last control device left to her. She pressed standby. She had five minutes to write the substitute code. There was no need to remove the mind-corrupting code. All she had to do was write its replacement.

  ‘I’m coming out.’

  ‘Vera, there’s no time.’

  ‘I know I’ll soon see what’s embedded in Cf. Once I’ve written the code you must substitute it when I tell you to,’ Vera repeated the instructions.

  This time Felix understood he had to let her act. From the back of the room he saw the 3D images of the secret enclosure freeze. Without removing the glove, Vera opened a small window on the screen. She began to write.

  Before leaving the enclosure, Clarissa would have to put back the book and seal the chest. Otherwise the two-headed mastiff would burst through the railings. It guarded the knowledge in the Holy Book, which had to remain in the enclosure. Clarissa would be granted just one opportunity to absorb that knowledge. At the end of the road she had no further ally or weapon options left. She would not be able to save herself from its jaws. Either of them would rip her head off in a single bite. If Clarissa did not reach the end, Vera would have no hope of replacing the code. With the security guards nearby, the moment for enacting her plan would have passed.

  Once again Vera picked up pace, running her fingers over the screen, more confident than ever with the certainty that Clarissa had helped her reach, or she Clarissa. The silence was intense. The depth of the moment in all its enormity. Clarissa descended the stairs expecting a trap, sensing a raid. When she stepped off the last step and had both feet on the black marble floor of the enclosure, it seemed as if the walls were caving in on her. She evaded the pieces of hieroglyph which were flying around haphazardly until she realised that they were not lumps of brick or stone falling off the walls, but pieces of paper. They fell on the floor like rain, peeling off in thousands of fragments. The clarity of the stripped walls revealed the next task. The chest would only open once Clarissa had put the hieroglyphs together again. Like a jigsaw on the walls.

  On its own, the concentration required to complete this task would be enough to put anyone into a trance. Vera had the speed of a coding expert. When she resumed the game, the window no longer framed the exterior darkness. The timid reflection of the moon was creeping in to reveal the shiny perspiration on her face. Felix was beset by a growing sense of powerlessness. Perhaps he should abort the game. Although Vera no longer communicated with him, he imagined she was in difficulty. If he disconnected her he might cause her greater harm.

  ‘Vera, at least give me a sign that you’re all right.’ Felix waited what seemed like an eternity, although it was no more than a few minutes. Vera did not relieve his anxiety. She had no way of responding. What Felix and Vera had speculated upon was now materialising in the flesh. Vera had fallen into a trance.

  Clarissa lifted the heavy book in both hands. The emanation escaping the chest did not seem to affect her. It was Vera who felt the drowsiness in her face, preventing her from operating the controls or changing direction. If she wanted to get as far as Galo had managed to, she should not resist. She was at the mercy of the game. She let herself be led by her stupor. Vera could not even recognise where she was. She was now in a hypnotic state. What followed was the only thing that became as crystalline as it was unalterable.

  Out of the darkness of the chest the silver embossed letters on the cover clearly stood out. The Bible. When Clarissa began flicking through the scriptures, everything stopped. The two-headed mastiff stood as if turned to stone. Clarissa began to read. ‘…Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth…’ The pages followed on one from the other and none could be skipped. ‘…Cursed is the ground for your sake; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life… In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread until you return to the ground… For dust you are, and to dust you shall return… Jehovah saw that the evilness of man was rife in the world… he regretted making man… the children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and the land was filled with them… midwives feared God… Every son that is born you will cast into the river… Jehovah hardened his heart… a plague… every firstborn shall die… laws… atonement of guilt… offerings… sacrifice…’ Clarissa absorbed human history thus revealed in hundreds of pages of the Holy Book. ‘…every bed on which he sleeps shall be unclean… impurity… shall slit its throat… scatter its blood… keep my statutes… condemned… torn by beast… defiled… let none deceive his brother… walled city… they are my serfs… I will appoint over you terror… I will cut down your images… armies…’ The harsh words continued to pile up, unyielding. Their narration foretelling disaster. ‘…prophecies… the flame of the fire shall not be quenched, and all faces shall be burned therein… prediction… give the command…. scum… I shall gather you in my anger and in my fury…’ Just as suddenly as tender words appeared ‘…we come to adore you… they rejoiced… came down like a dove…’, damning words would re-emerge. ‘…Repent… cut off your right hand… shall have no recompense… we threw out demons… because they were sinners… thrown to the fire… foolish man… ruin …And they were judged each according to their works…’ In just a few minutes Clarissa reached the last page. Thus she read the scriptures to the end. ‘Seal not the words of the prophecy in this book, for the time is nigh… If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the Book of Life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.’

  The last sentence wrenched Vera from her stupor with the clarity of the precise moment for what she had to do. Felix was beside her, waiting. Vera again took control of the game.

  When Clarissa lifted the book by its golden covers, the pages hung like the thousands of people condemned in its name. With a click Clarissa lit the flame. The dog barked furiously shaking its heads enraged by the fire burning over the chest, trying to find a way to get through the railings. The game would not release him while the book was still in the enclosure. The Holy Book was burning on top of the chest. The blackened covers were a crude representation of its already inexistent content. Before burning her fingers, Clarissa dropped into the chest what remained of the charred volume, sealing its fate.

  The book fell into the chest slowly as if gravity had vanished from the enclosure. Vera was approaching the end of the game.

  ‘Felix! Now!’

  Felix, holding the new code between his fingers ready to overwrite Daniel’s code, dropped it almost simultaneously onto the screen. The code was replaced. He had no way of knowing what Vera and Clarissa could see before their eyes. For Felix the Bible remained intact in the chest. He could see it in the 3D images, which he followed engrossed in the darkness of the office. For Vera and Clarissa the lid of the chest was closing on the translucent wisp of smoke which emanated conclusively. The Holy Book’s gold covers were buried in the chest. The Holy Book had been replaced. Clarissa had successfully completed level five. She had survived. Her cathartic process was just beginning.

  When the chest closed, Felix knew Vera had completed the game. He no longer felt the same urgency while he checked the new code on the screen. Vera, on the other hand, felt as if she had been turned inside out like a glove.

  What she experienced was neither of a brilliant white light, nor a whirl of cosmic flashes, nor an entry at the sound of speed. First it was only the weeping of consciousness. As though emerging from the maternal womb into the unknown universe that is the world. Just the emergence. With it, the pain of abandoning the
protective, encapsulated world. Like a newborn baby girl Vera renewed her perception of the space around her. Seeing spaces in which she had never been before. Spaces so inexistent, they were real.

  What Vera had been seeking had found her instead.

  The dimension Vera entered had left behind the place where she had learnt to be. It could have been over months, or a mere second. In the infinity of cosmic expansion or the smallness of an atom. That place where her perception was, with neither time nor space. She perceived the mind in cells. She saw the atoms of her own body and viewed herself in space. She and space as one. With the beings she knew and those who were different but equally a part of her. She became aware of life in the common spirit. She saw life stretched out timelessly. Without opposites. Everything was the same and one. The invisible light had reached her as if nothing of herself existed. She found herself immobile in the universe, almost like the static lake where the only thing was to be. Where everything from the past and future was. There was Galo, in the living essence of the lake. Without seeing him, she felt his presence. Almost more real than if she were seeing him with her own eyes. Perhaps only a glimmer was all that was needed; so clear that there was no language that could express it. So strong and vast in its depth that it was not possible to know it in words. Mere seconds in Vera’s life. An eternity in its true perception. Vera allowed herself to be known by an all-encompassing consciousness. It touched her to give her a hint of its light.