Miller stopped the progress abruptly.
He looked at Father Andre and said, "Father, if you have the Holy Grail, now would be a good time to hand it over. Things are about to get heavy."
The cleric looked at Miller curiously, then at Anabia. The biologist shrugged.
"We will need it to save Peter Williams," Miller said.
The cleric seemed to float about the floor. He looked at Olivia's pleading eyes, and something crossed his own features. He shook his head and rubbed his hand through his hair.
He seemed distressed by something.
"But how sure are we that they still have him? It's been more than six months now?"
That was true, Olivia reasoned. Miller stepped closer to the cleric.
"Yes, but they couldn't even risk killing him, they need him to get to Olivia," Miller argued.
The priest nodded. "Yes, yes," he said.
"Father, please," Olivia pleaded.
The priest stopped pacing. He looked at Miller. "You can't trust the Templars, the Half-face employs trickery and corruption."
"We have outwitted them till now, haven't we?" Olivia reasoned.
The priest nodded.
"We need proof of life."
"What?" Olivia glanced at Miller and then the priest.
"Yes, proof of life," said the priest. His head bobbed, and a crazy little smile was on his lips. "Let them give proof that your friend is still alive, that way we are sure we are not getting into a trap, yes."
Miller looked at Olivia. "Diggs found a way to reach them using your cell phone."
"Then we have to wait for him to join us," Olivia said impatiently.
—
The escaping car went through the lights at the intersection between Via del Mascherino and the Intesa Sanpaolo building. On instinct, Lin told the driver of the van to cut in through the narrow street of Via Delle Grazie. That way, if their query was going for cover in the Vatican, he would cut them off.
Lin was right. As the van came out of the intersection to join the traffic on the far left, they saw the car speeding towards them.
Pedestrians jumped off the curb as the Audi swerved to avoid colliding with the van. They leveled up on the road. Lin pulled his M16 and razed the side of the car, shattering the glass and putting holes in the doors.
Polizei smelled the disturbance and joined in the race.
"He's heading for the Vatican, sir!" the tech guy shouted.
"Well, let him, we own the Vatican."
He rained more bullets on the Audi as the driver rammed it. The car bumped off the road and onto the curb. Italians fled and cussed. A fruit stand went up in a spray of apples and raspberries.
Ripe, soggy fruit splattered the windshield.
Borodin cussed. "There's always a fruit stand in the way!"
"Just like the movies," Diggs said as he fired at the driver of the van.
Blood sprayed his windshield, and the driver's head went to sleep on the wheel. The guy beside the driver had ducked when Diggs fired. Now he had a shocked look on his face as the van ran free and spun out of control.
"Whoa, whoa!" Borodin shouted. He wasn't paying attention to the curb.
He rammed into a hydrant sticking out of the sidewalk. The Audi's bumper shredded, the hood twisted, and the car's rear went up in the air. It landed on its side in a screaming whine of horn, engines, and gas.
Diggs screamed, "Are y'all alright?"
Liam was shrieking too. "I think I'm cut in two! Oh God, I'm cut in two!"
"Shut up, you're not even bleeding!" Borodin said.
Diggs crawled out of the ruined car and saw that the assassin's van was wrecked about ten yards away. The van was on its side. White vapor rose from the body of the van, and one of the tires continued to rotate. As Diggs watched, someone staggered out of it and fell on their side. It wasn't the Asian assassin. On the other side of the street beyond the line of people was a pizza shop.
Borodin pulled the shrieking Liam out. Diggs said, "Head for the pizza shop, stay down."
Liam stopped shouting. Borodin asked Diggs, "How about you?"
"I'll cover your two, come on."
Polizei sirens were getting closer. One Polizei car turned the corner, another one followed. Diggs hung behind the turned over car. He looked over the edge in time to see the Asian peeping and taking aim.
Diggs fired at him, and the Asian disappeared. Diggs looked at Liam and Borodin. "Come on, guys, get out of here now."
Pedestrians dispersed in fright and screams. Liam and Borodin stumbled into the pizza shop.
Lin and Diggs started shooting at each other. Bullets hit the metal; sparks flew. People on the street have all but disappeared.
Diggs ran out of bullets, so did Lin too.
Diggs saw the Asian walk around the corner of the fallen van, towards where he was hiding.
Diggs jumped out with his gun and aimed at the assassin's head.
"You're out," said Lin calmly.
Lin took off his jacket slowly. He bit his lower lip, his nose flared. Blood stuck to a spot on his temple; it dripped down the side of his face and soaked the black shirt he wore.
Diggs took two steps back. The Asian advanced against him. The former agent saw what he was looking for; the Asian was severely hurt in his side, yet he should not have been underestimated.
"Freeze, Polizei!"
Three policemen staked themselves behind the door of their squad car. They looked young.
"Freeze!! Americans freeze!"
From behind the fallen van an assassin sprang out and began shooting at the police, they cowered and took cover in the back of their car. More sirens wailed in the distance.
Distracted, Diggs caught a blow on his jaw from Lin.
—
Miller got through to Liam Murphy. He heard the gunshots.
"Liam, what's going on out there?"
"Diggs is getting whopped!"
Miller and Olivia and the priest shared concerned stares.
—
Lin's hands were a blur of striking fists on Diggs' body; his chest, face, and abdomen. Lin kicked the American's left leg. Diggs buckled. He threw a punch at Lin's lower abdomen. Lin was too fast. He blocked the strike and drove his fist in Diggs' shoulder. Diggs screamed in pain and fell on his face.
Liam and Borodin saw this happen through the door of the pizza store.
"He's gonna come for us when he kills him," Liam said. "We've gotta get moving."
"We can't just leave Diggs, the Asian will kill him—"
"Look here, he'll want us to leave. He asked us to leave!" Liam glared at Borodin.
Lin was standing over Diggs’ body now. His chest heaved. He spat on the ground and looked around. He directed the assassin who shot the Polizei to go in after the other two.
"Come on." Liam pulled Borodin. "We gotta go!"
They ran into the kitchen, followed by frightened, wide-eyed customers hiding behind chairs and tables. The assassin barged through the door. He shot twice into the ceiling. Screams followed. Plaster fell all around the fierce-looking man in a black mask.
—
Outside, Lin turned away from Diggs' prone body on the floor. His van still smoked. The streets were mostly deserted now. A breeze blew police chatter to him. More police sirens were coming.
He walked back to the van and got a cartridge for his gun. He walked back to where he left Diggs' body, cocked his gun, and froze.
The former agent was gone.
Lin cursed.
"Fuck!"
—
7
Diggs was bleeding from everywhere. It tasted like sand in his mouth. His front teeth shook, and it felt like he might swallow them if he sucked hard enough. His insides felt like a mixture of molten bones and organs.
He staggered past the side of the pizza shop. That way, he confused the Asian. He found a side door and dropped in on the advancing assassin going after Liam and Borodin. Diggs stunned him with a palm hit against the chin; he fell. Diggs
took the man’s gun and put a bullet in his head.
He went through an open door, it led to the back. Liam and Borodin were running down the narrow backstreet with tall apartment buildings on both sides. Curious onlookers gazed from balconies.
Lin appeared, cursing and spraying saliva in the air, veins in his neck like thunder cracks. He shot indiscriminately at the alley. Liam and Borodin scampered into a doorway and flattened themselves against the door.
Diggs ducked behind a small dumpster. From there, he returned fire.
Lin screamed, “You and your friends are gonna die!”
Diggs shot at his leg; Lin shrieked.
“Do you know who you're dealing with?” Lin bawled. “We’re gonna get the Grail, and then you’re all gonna die!”
Lin was bleeding from his left foot. He fumbled forward, tried to fire his weapon again, but Diggs was faster.
Diggs shot the Asian in the wrist, and the gun fell off his hand. Lin lunged at him. Diggs dug his head into the Asian’s gut, hurling him off his feet. Lin turned Diggs over quickly and turned the former agent into a mook jong again.
Diggs was bleeding through his ears. He had picked a metal scrap with a sharp edge from the wreck in the street earlier. Diggs blocked the next strikes from the Asian. He slipped the scrap from his belt and dropped to his knees. Then he stabbed Lin behind his knee, severing an artery.
Diggs then brought the metal up into Lin’s side. He twisted, and Lin let out a guttural scream.
Lin fell on his back.
Liam and Borodin trotted over. They helped Diggs up on his feet. Just then, a black sedan stopped at the head of the narrow street. Olivia and Miller came out of it.
“Oh God,” Olivia breathed when she saw Diggs.
—
Anabia Nassif was driving the car towards the Vatican. He checked the rearview mirror to see if they were being followed. They weren’t.
Diggs was bleeding from his mouth in the backseat. Olivia tied him up with cloth torn from her shirt.
“We need to get him to a hospital,” Olivia said.
“No.” Diggs grabbed Miller by his shoulder. “You have to go on.”
Liam asked from the front seat, “Where’s the priest?”
“He’s safe,” Miller said.
“There's a safe house on Piazza Adriana, I’ll tell you when we are near it.” Diggs coughed. He looked at Olivia. “I killed him, I killed the Asian. But they will bring in reinforcement. You must hurry.”
Piazza Adriana came up before them in a minute. Diggs grabbed Olivia again and pushed something into her hand; it was a black flash drive.
“Take this, it contains everything you’ll need to take the Templars down.” He looked into Olivia’s eyes. “God be with you.”
Diggs stepped out of the car in front of the Hotel Alberico with the last of his strength. He strutted along the street and disappeared into an alley and was gone.
Miller said, “We are on our own now. Come on, Liam, step on it.”
—
Father Andre was waiting where Miller and Olivia left him. He looked at the team, questioning.
“Where is the CIA agent?” he asked.
“He’s hurt very badly,” Miller said. “We have to continue on our own now.”
The cleric sighed. He pursed his lips and frowned deeply. He seemed to age at that moment. He sat down on the edge of the dry pool.
Olivia showed the cleric the flash drive. “He left this,” she said. “Father, please take us to the Holy Grail. We don’t have much time.”
Andre looked at her face. “You’re afraid for your friend's life. You fear they’d kill him because of the Asian.”
Frank Miller came closer. “They’ll send fresh guys, even more ruthless ones. We don’t have to lose anyone—”
“Will the agent be alright?” Andre asked sharply.
Miller nodded. Diggs was a tough guy, he’d live, he said.
The cleric rose to his feet. He looked around the place and at the team. “No one else has to die for my sake again. We must move fast. Come. Follow me.”
Olivia walked beside the cleric while the others followed behind. He talked as they went.
“First, we have to ascertain that the value of life continues and that the exchange is still going to happen in good faith,” Father Andre said.
“I’m afraid I don’t follow you.”
They rounded a corner. “I’m saying that we do not show the Holy Grail to the terrorists right away, we have to know that they still possess the value of the exchange. Do they still have Peter Williams, and if they do, is he well and breathing, can he speak, just as he was when they took him months ago?”
“That makes a lot of sense, if you ask me,” Liam Murphy responded from behind.
The cleric continued. “And we must make the exchange in the holy place, under it. The Vatican, it is only here that I can show the Holy Grail.”
The cleric stopped walking. “This means, my dear, that we have to go up again.” He pointed at the concrete roof.
Olivia nodded, a dogged look on her face.
—
“This time, it will require both of our efforts. The rest of the team can wait below,” Father Andre said as they came up to the street. “We can be shadowed by Miller.”
Frank Miller walked behind, hanging back some yards away so as not to appear as a team.
“This way, we appear that we are vulnerable,” the cleric added. “The Templars love their victim to appear so defenseless. It feeds the ego of the Half-face, and of his minion, the Snake.”
The cleric glanced at Olivia sideways as he spoke.
They were standing opposite a pay phone on the Via Della Transportina. The 2:00 pm bus passed by slowly, and they quickly crossed the road. Father Andre gave Olivia a number to call.
“It is the Order's number. You will hear a tone like it would not connect, but it will. Then you’d hear a voice ask you to state your business—just say your name, then it will do the magic.”
He motioned Olivia towards the pay phone. “Come on, go, don’t be afraid, the Lord be with you.”
—
Olivia breathed. She murmured, “Here we go. For all our sakes, be alive Peter.”
A bell started chiming in a church. It sounded so close that she could hear the ropes pulling them as they wheezed in and out of the hatch holding them. It was a relatively quiet neighborhood here; the cry of police sirens still rang.
She dialed the number the cleric gave her.
The time came, held for about ten seconds and then there was a scratching sound and a click. Then it was quiet, and for a moment, Olivia thought she had been disconnected.
A smooth, clear voice said, “Dichiara la tua attività.”
Confused, Olivia glanced at the cleric standing by the road. But Father Andre was not paying attention, he was looking across the street at a woman pushing a tram down the road. She had long black flowing hair that was suspended in the air as she walked.
Olivia hesitated; she checked her repository of Italian words for a match for the terms but found none.
The voice said, “State your business, please.”
“Oh yes, this is Olivia Newton,” she said in a firm voice.
A long silence followed; she heard a click. They had hung up. She frowned. Olivia saw that the woman with the baby was gone. Father Andre was looking at her, his face contorted in a grimace.
Olivia poked her face out of the booth. “I think they just hung up on me.”
The phone started ringing. Olivia answered as it began to ring a second time.
“Hello?”
“Do you have the Grail now?” asked a young Italian voice.
“I need proof of life first.”
“Your friend is alive.”
“No, I need proof, it’s been seven months. I need proof he’s still alive and well.”
Silence.
“You shall have proof of life in one hour. Be at the Rosario del Floral in one hour
, counting from now.”
They hung up.
Olivia stepped out of the booth, sweating.
—
Rosario del Floral was a small flower shop between the Pizza Roma and the Hotel Emmaus. Olivia was greeted with the pleasant aroma of spiced pizza. It was like walking into a whole street that had been dipped in boiling delicious pizza. Her nose got a full dose of the smell. Olivia suddenly desired to run away from her mission and sit with a plate of pizza.
She slowed her pace when she passed the shop, the more to give the impression that she wanted pizza, not proof of life.
Father Andre hid in a clothing store a block away. Frank Miller also watched from an opposite apartment.
The smell on the street switched from food to flowers as she neared the shop. Or maybe it mixed effortlessly to give another aroma.
She stepped through the blooms of Begonias, Anemones, Amaryllises, Matsumoto Asters. It was a cornucopia of colors; she had never seen such a variety. She looked around, but there was no one in sight. She went to an open counter. There was a receipt machine, a telephone on the desk, and chair behind that. But no one.
Elevator music played somewhere in the place.
Olivia left the front desk area and walked through the aisles. The place was filled with more flowers at the back. She saw a door open there and almost ducked into the flowers.
The man that came out of the door was so tall that Olivia was afraid he’d get skinned on his bald head by the ceiling fan.
He was clean-shaven, he wore farm clothes, and he had a stern look on his face. His prominent nose was red.
He was carrying a bouquet of Snapdragons.
He stopped in front of Olivia and pushed the flowers into her hands.
“Do you like flowers?” he asked in a gruff voice.
“Definitely.”
The man turned around and went back the way he came.
Olivia walked into the sun with her flowers. In the middle of the bouquet was a CD.
—
Using their old radio connection, Frank Miller made sure Olivia hadn’t been followed.
“Turn left at the next alley and wait for my signal,” he said.
Olivia did as she was told. When she got to the alley, she saw a doorway and hid in it. In an instant, the door opened, and a strong hand pulled her into a dark room.
Hunt for the Holy Grail Page 35