Relics

by Relics (retail) (epub)

  Harker was confused by the remark. ‘What do you mean allowed?’

  ‘Well, His Holiness the Pope decreed that no one from the Vatican should attend, owing to the nature of his death. He was quite adamant about that. Shame, because Archie still had friends here.’

  Suicide was considered as an automatic ticket to hell by the Catholic Church, even if in recent years, people with psychological problems had been allowed some sort of absolution. But Archie, although deemed eccentric, was far from mentally ill, and it hadn’t helped that he’d chosen to hang himself from St Peter’s.

  ‘Salvatore, at his funeral yesterday, there was a cardinal present. Cardinal Rocca, I think.’

  Mention of the name drew a wide-eyed disbelieving look from his friend. ‘Rocca?’

  Vincenzo slammed his replenished drink down on to the lacquered wood cabinet beside him. ‘Rocca, Rocca, Rocca … that man seems to be breaking all the rules left right and centre. Are you sure of the name?’

  Harker nodded. ‘About six foot, mid-forties, black hair, glasses, sallow complexion.’

  ‘That sounds like him all right. He’s head of the Academy of Sciences and causing me untold grief at the moment.’

  ‘The Academy of Sciences?’

  ‘Yes, the good cardinal seems to be responsible for a rather large hole in the academy’s budget, and he has been dodging me for weeks.’

  And just like that, a huge piece of the puzzle fell straight into his Harker’s lap. Cardinal Rocca was clearly the Magi’s contact within the Church. It was too much of a coincidence and also the connection to the academy. He couldn’t involve Vincenzo in the events of the last twenty-four hours, but he had to find a way inside the Vatican.

  ‘Salvatore, you’ve known me for a long time, and I’ve always been honest with you, haven’t I?’

  The old cardinal seemed somewhat insulted by the remark. ‘What on earth are you talking about?’

  ‘If I were to tell you something about why I’m here tonight, but without giving you the whole picture, would you believe me?’

  Squinting over his glasses, Vincenzo was looking confused. ‘I’m not sure what you’re talking about, but, yes, I trust you.’

  Harker swallowed hard. He would have to be liberal with the truth, and it made him uncomfortable having to be less than honest with his friend and mentor. Harker swallowed hard. ‘I believe that something terrible is going to happen this morning – possibly aimed against the Pope and the world leaders gathered here for the summit. I think there’s going to be an assassination and an attempted takeover of the Church itself.’

  ‘An assassination?’ Vincenzo’s arm dropped to his side in disbelief. ‘Alex, a large number of the world’s secret services are here in force. Believe me when I tell you this is probably the most secure place on the globe at this moment in time.’

  Harker opened his mouth but was cut off before he could get another word out.

  ‘And as for taking over the church …’ he laughed incredulously. ‘no one person or group can just take over the Church. We’re not a company with shareholders!’

  Harker couldn’t blame the older man’s disbelief. If their roles were reversed, would he take it seriously either? He moved closer. ‘Salvatore, I can’t tell you how I know, but if you ever had any faith in me, then I beg you to draw upon it now. Something terrible is going to happen here today, and I believe the academy and Cardinal Rocca may be involved. I need you to arrange for me an audience with the Pope, today, before the summit takes place.’

  By the look on the cardinal’s face, you would have thought Harker had asked him to murder someone.

  ‘An audience with His Holiness! The summit begins in under two hours, and he’s entertaining world leaders even as we speak.’ Vincenzo sucked in a sharp, frustrated breath. ‘And you don’t even know for sure why you need to speak to him. Alex, you’re like a son to me, but you ask too much – and without even so much as a reason. The Vatican has rules and procedures as you well know.’

  Harker allowed a few seconds of silence before continuing, hoping to disperse some of the tension. ‘Salvatore, I would never ever ask this of you if I didn’t have a good reason. But I need to see the Pope.’

  Cardinal Vincenzo folded his arms and eyed Harker contemplatively for a few moments before giving his answer. ‘I’m sorry, Alex, but there’s only one man who can grant you an audience with the Pope at such short notice, and that’s the Pope himself, but as he is currently entertaining leaders from all around the world, well, it’s not going to happen. I’m sorry.’

  Before a knot of despair had even begun to fully form in Harker’s gut, a light yet gruff voice sounded behind them.

  ‘Then it’s lucky I’m here, is it not, my sons?’

  Both men turned to see Pope Adrian VII standing at the open doorway of Vincenzo’s office, in full ceremonial garb. Behind him stood four members of the Swiss Guards, each wearing the famous multicoloured uniform with pride.

  ‘So would someone like to tell me what’s going on, or did I just abandon the company of the most powerful political leaders in the world simply to catch up with you, Professor Harker?’

  Chapter 41

  ‘Your Holiness, I wasn’t expecting you,’ Cardinal Vincenzo swiftly made his way over to Pope Adrian VII and respectfully kissed the papal ring adorning the pontiff’s finger.

  ‘Neither was I expecting to visit you, Cardinal, but the professor here left an urgent message for me, so I asked the pontifical guard to inform me of his arrival. And here I am.’

  Harker deliberately maintained a look of surprise longer than he felt it necessary for Vincenzo’s sake, since the cardinal was doubtlessly curious as to why the Pope himself would take time out from such an important gathering merely to meet with an old acquaintance.

  ‘Cardinal, would you be so good as to allow us a moment alone?’

  ‘Yes, of course, Your Eminence.’

  Vincenzo threw Harker a smile totally void of animosity before leaving the two men alone and going to join the colourful security team in the hallway outside. Pope Adrian remained silent until the mahogany doors had clicked firmly shut behind him.

  ‘Professor Alex Harker …’ He strode over with his hand outstretched. ‘Welcome back to the Vatican. It’s been a while since you were last here.’

  Harker shook the pontiff’s hand, surprised by the strength in it. ‘Thank you for sparing time to speak with me, especially at such short notice.’

  Pope Adrian raised a hand to silence him. ‘Alex, before we speak any further, there is something important I need to say.’ He cleared his throat. ‘I know we have had some disturbing issues to contend with in the past, which have proved difficult for us both, but you need to know from the outset that my reason for granting you a meeting this evening is nothing to do with trying to prevent those issues seeing the light of day. I came here to meet with you simply because, despite our differences, I know you to be an honest man, and if you say it could be a matter of life and death, then put simply, I believe you.’

  The sincerity in his words caught Harker off guard, and he tried to hide his surprise. Could John Wilcox’s progression to the papacy have changed his character? He wasn’t sure, but the man standing in front of him seemed far less like the Cardinal Wilcox he had once known.

  ‘I appreciate that, Your Holiness, as I do also your willingness to hear me out. And I know that you have an international summit to prepare for.’

  Pope Adrian smiled graciously. ‘When someone I trust warns me that we are all in imminent danger, I listen. Now, if you please, what is going on that warrants such an urgent message?’

  Judging from how Vincenzo had responded to his desperate pleas for understanding, Harker decided to approach the subject with a bit more finesse this time around. ‘Some information has recently come to my attention suggesting there’s a plot to seriously harm the Church – and possibly you, here this morning.’

  His gaze holding firm, the Pope said nothing,
as Harker continued.

  ‘It seems there is a group either active within the Church or closely connected to it that is seeking to remove and replace you in a coup of sorts.’

  The pontiff remained silent, but a single raised eyebrow betrayed his growing curiosity.

  ‘I am sad to say that during the last twenty-four hours, I’ve witnessed several deaths perpetrated by this group in their efforts to keep this coup secret, including an attempt on my own life and the kidnapping of a friend.’

  A growing frown of concern now appeared on the Pope’s face. ‘Who is this group?’

  Harker knew he couldn’t say much without making himself sound like a conspiracy theorist. ‘I don’t know their name, only that they exist and are in some way connected with the Academy of Sciences and …’ He paused, unsure whether to take a gamble on suggesting Cardinal Rocca was involved. What the hell! If he was wrong, what difference would it make now? ‘With Cardinal Rocca.’

  Pope Adrian’s mouth fell open, his eyes widening in disbelief. It was an expression similar to the one Vincenzo had worn earlier. ‘Rocca?’

  ‘Yes, I believe so. I also believe whatever they’re planning is due to take place very shortly.’

  The Pope went pale as if in shock, and he began to rub his forehead furiously. As Harker watched the head of the Catholic Church reel from what he was being told, it began to dawn on him that the man’s reaction was more of a sudden realisation than complete shock. He had known something was going on.

  ‘Your Holiness, is there something you suspect already?’

  The Pope said nothing, but he just stood silently gazing at the floor.

  Ten seconds went by, then twenty … a whole painful minute passed by with neither man saying a word. Until, finally, Pope Adrian gave a slow, solemn nod of his head. ‘There has indeed been some gossip over the years, concerning Cardinal Rocca’s character and of behaviour unbefitting a man of the Church. Mainly …’ he gave an uncomfortable gasp as if embarrassed or ashamed ‘… to do with a preoccupation with ambition and power. But whenever I heard such stories, I always dismissed them as misinterpretations. Cardinal Rocca has a determined will and a strong clarity of focus, which is one of the reasons I appointed him to oversee the Academy of Sciences. But to even presume there is anything more is … well, shocking.’

  Harker watched in silence as the pontiff digested the possibilities, his look of dismay rapidly being replaced with resolve. ‘Do you have any proof of what you’re telling me?’

  A cold spike of uneasiness jolted through Harker’s body. He didn’t have anything except … ‘Your Holiness, I do know that the Vatican has been restoring certain sacred relics in secret.’

  ‘Go on.’

  ‘Before Archie Dwyer died, he sent me a note pertaining to certain relics that he had taken illicitly from the Vatican. He hid these same relics for me to find, and I did.’

  Harker let the dust settle around this bombshell as the supreme pontiff’s eyebrows rose a little higher.

  ‘Do you still have these relics, Professor?’

  Harker shook his head. ‘No, not any more. The same group I mentioned earlier snatched them from me as I was returning them to the Vatican.’

  If Pope Adrian had looked in any way surprised before, he now looked completely dumbfounded. ‘You were bringing them back to the Vatican?’

  ‘Of course.’ Harker nodded. ‘Relics such as those should be in the safe hands of the Church. I’m guessing that Archie’s decision to hide them was because he believed this rogue group was planning to steal them. For what purpose, I have no idea, but the man who took them from me boasted that they would usher in the end of the Catholic Church as we know it.’

  Pope Adrian’s expression began to darken, and his eyes seemed to sink further into his skull. ‘You appear to know a great deal, and, yes, it’s true, the Church is in possession of many relics unknown to the rest of the world. Such items have been carefully guarded for years, and they were never meant to pass beyond the Vatican’s walls until Father Dwyer saw fit to steal them. I wasn’t even aware of their existence until my coronation a few weeks ago. For it is only the Pope and a handful of cardinals who, at any one time, know where these items are kept. It is a responsibility that is passed on from one appointed principal to the next.’

  Little of this information offered anything new to Harker, who had already experienced the initial excitement of this knowledge earlier in the day. But, above all else, there was one question still niggling at him. ‘Why has it been necessary to keep these relics a secret?’

  Pope Adrian let out a cough as if he had just been punched in the stomach. ‘I’m sorry to disappoint you, but the answer is very simple, although rather long-winded.’

  He made his way over to the window and gazed out towards St Peter’s Basilica, where a huge number of TV crews and onlookers were congregating in the sunlit square below.

  ‘As children we believe, and are taught, that the world and all its rules are set in stone, we believe that nothing will ever change – and that includes us. It is a reasoning that we never completely lose, albeit in a lesser form, and so when culture or social change occurs around us, we rarely notice it because we change alongside it. In fact, it’s not usually until we reminisce about it in later years that we come to realise the huge changes that have taken place. It has been that way since mankind first existed, as part of the human condition, and has evolved to provide us with comfort and to help our minds deal with the truth – the truth that everything is in a continual state of change. So here we are, in the dawn of the twenty-first century with modern communication, new technologies, and knowledge that has begun to awaken people to this reality more than at any other time in human history. People these days actually want change more than ever before, and they want it now.’

  Pope Adrian turned to face Harker, with an expression full of absolute conviction. ‘I, therefore, believe it is time that the Catholic Church give its flock the change they so keenly desire. I’m not speaking of a total reshuffling of ideology all at once but simply the beginnings of a change to make the Church more relevant in the modern world. And the worshipping of these relics has no place in that.’

  The pontiff moved closer, his hands pressed together respectfully. ‘When you yourself saw these relics, how did you feel?’

  Harker thought back to the moment when Father Maddocks had shown him the crown of thorns. ‘I don’t think I’ve ever felt so exhilarated in my life. It was a feeling of total euphoria.’

  ‘Exactly,’ Pope Adrian declared assuredly. ‘But you felt such a strong connection over nothing more than an inanimate object, and there was no truth to those underlying feelings. Relics have been used unscrupulously like this in the past to control the faith of many, but that is a way of thinking that will soon come to an end. The Church has long taken such faith for granted. People are expected to follow the Church and its spiritual path blindly because that is the way of things, end of story. But I believe the opposite. I believe that we, its servants, should begin earning that faith. We should be showing, explaining, and convincing people of why it is the right path for them to follow, and for that to happen, the Church must begin to modernise. The ideology, the message, must never change, for that is God’s will, but the way the Church is administered … that is down to us, his servants. I will not fail the Christian faithful of the world in my responsibility, and that is why I want those relics to stay hidden as have so many popes before me.’

  By the end of this speech, Harker was feeling altogether giddy. To hear a man of God, let alone the bishop of Rome, speak so liberally about the role of the Church was as refreshing as it was worrying – refreshing because, deep down, he believed everything the Pope had just said, but worrying because it went against everything that he had been led to expect since childhood.

  ‘I understand, Your Holiness, and agree, it is the right time for change, but the group now in possession of these relics will, I fear, do anything to stop you.
And everything they’ve planned seems to converge on the Academy of Sciences. I know you have a lot to consider, but I must find my friend, and I’m almost out of time.’

  Pope Adrian barely hesitated in his response. ‘Then we must find this friend of yours at once, and we can be at the academy within five minutes. I will not wittingly allow anyone to defile Vatican soil with a crime.’

  ‘And your guests?’

  ‘They will survive. And we must make sure your friend does likewise.’

  Chapter 42

  ‘I’ve already told you, Superintendent Perone, that’s just not possible.’

  Lorenzo Rossi, head of the Vatican’s pontifical police, stared at the Italian lawman and his detective scornfully. ‘You might have noticed that we’ve got most of the world’s leaders here tonight, and what seems to be the entire global media camped outside my door, every one of whom is looking for a story. So if you honestly think I’m about to authorise a manhunt on Vatican soil, then you’re nuttier than the men you’re chasing!’ He rested both hands on his hips and glared at his visitors uncompromisingly. ‘My decision on this matter should be as clear as a child’s conscience, understand?’

  It was an odd analogy but the sarcastic tone of it made Perone’s face begin to turn a dark shade of red. He stroked back his silver hair with a quivering hand, concluding that this bunch of wannabe cops were more frustrating than his own in-laws.

  The grey-painted interior of the Vatican’s pontifical police headquarters was as musty as it was drab, and, after almost twenty minutes of heated discussion, Perone was no closer to gaining access to Vatican City. Standing next to him, the much calmer Detective Barbosa now took over the conversation. ‘Captain Rossi, we understand your predicament, but the criminals we’re seeking are responsible for a kidnap and the murder of at least five people, namely two priests and three church workers. If you don’t allow us in now, we’re likely to lose for good the signal we’ve been tracking.’

  The finality of Angelo’s statement created a sense of dread in Perone’s stomach, and Rossi’s stern, swift shake of the head compiled it. This wasn’t going to work, and Perone knew it, leaving him only one option. He gave Angelo a gentle prod backwards and stepped closer to the Vatican policeman.