The Serpent's Disciple

by Deborah Stevens

  “Do you think there might be one with Saint Anthony’s name on it?”

  “If there is, remember it most likely will not be under the name Saint Anthony. He was a monk at that time so it could be under his birth name or maybe under Antonio,” replied Father Cossa.

  Nelli closely examined several of the niches. There was one that seemed different. It had something mounted at the top of the curved arch. As she got closer she saw that it was an angel holding something in its hands.

  “I think I might have found something.”

  Everyone walked over to where Nelli was standing.

  “What do you think you’ve found?” asked Anthony.

  “Look at the angel, Anthony; it’s holding a box between its hands. Can either of you two make out the words on the urn?”

  “It’s Latin,” said Father Cossa, “the same as on the plaque in the chapel. This one I can translate. It’s only one short sentence, ‘Here rests Brother Antonio, c.1195 – 1231.’”

  He couldn’t believe what they had just found, but all Nelli could think of is the box must be hidden somewhere inside this room. There had to be a reason for them finding this burial chamber.

  “Anthony, the box must be hidden somewhere in this room.”

  He couldn’t help hear the optimism in his sister’s voice.

  “What box are you talking about?” asked Mary Ellen.

  “A box similar to the one I bought in Rome,” said Nelli.

  “Why would you be looking for a box?” asked Mary Ellen.

  Not wanting to reveal too much, Nelli said, “After buying the box I had a dream that I would find one just like it where Saint Anthony was laid to rest. First finding the statue of Saint Anthony and now the urn, I thought maybe my dream was more than just a dream, but that’s all it was, a dream.”

  Father Cossa was listening quietly and analyzing the events of the last several hours. Now there was this mention of a box. Could this be the same box that was spoken of in the prophecy, a box that was made for Saint Anthony to hold the words of Our Lord?

  He had sensed a strong presence of the Holy Spirit when this woman walked into his church. He had to ask and there were only two ways for her to respond. She would either look at him like he was crazy or it would be true.

  “Signorina Nelli, there’s a question I must ask you,” said Father Cossa. “Someone back there tried to kill you, my child. Finding the medal, discovering this catacomb, and the dream you spoke of, I must ask: Are you the Chosen One that was told of in Saint Anthony’s prophecy? I sensed there was something different about you when you entered our little church, Saint Giovanni Battista.”

  Completely taken off guard by the question, Nelli stood there staring at the priest not knowing how to respond. Her hesitation told Father Cossa what he already suspected.

  “You do not need to say anything more. The Lord brought us together and wanted us to discover this place. We must trust in His infinite wisdom. There must be something here we need to find. We will look more carefully.”

  Mary Ellen was still looking at Nelli in total disbelief.

  “Cardinal McKenna mentioned something about a Chosen One but I dismissed it.”

  “What did Cardinal McKenna say about the Chosen One?” said Anthony, startled by her statement. “You need to tell me everything you talked about with the cardinal, Mary Ellen.”

  Anthony was angry with himself for not considering that the cardinal would know about the prophecy and the Chosen One, and that he could have brought it up in conversation with Mary Ellen. Maybe somehow if he had known, the priest wouldn’t have had to die.

  As he waited for Mary Ellen to answer, he tried to remain calm.

  “Mary Ellen, you must tell me everything you discussed and leave nothing out.”

  “I told you we both received the same card with the cobra head on it. I thought maybe someone wanted to scare me—to stop asking questions about my brother’s case, but when I was told there was one found next to Father Robert’s body, I knew something more heinous was going on. Cardinal McKenna believes a false prophet has gathered his army to go to battle against the souls of the faithful here on earth. In each of our files, Father Roberto’s findings seemed to suggest suspicious behavior and activity between certain groups and individuals inside the Vatican. We both now think he was killed because he was getting too close to the truth.”

  “Does Cardinal McKenna know who this false prophet might be?” asked Father Cossa.

  “No, but he believes there’s a connection between an order called The Legion of Christ and a secret society called Propaganda Due or P2, believed by many to have been behind the death of Pope John Paul I. The conspiracy theory is that the Pope’s death was not from natural causes and that the Vatican’s Secretary of State, who was thought to be a member of P2, poisoned the Pope. The premise was that P2 was planning on taking control of the Vatican and creating a New World Order. He now believes that maybe the same thing is happening again and they are using the sexual scandal as a way to feed upon and destroy the church from within, my brother being one of their victims,” she said. “Lastly, Cardinal McKenna believes the prophecy of Saint Anthony predicted this day. That the Chosen One must fulfill the prophecy and stop the false prophet from accomplishing his goal.” No one knew what to say next.

  Father Cossa decided to break the silence, but instead of addressing what Mary Ellen had just said, he turned towards Nelli, “As the Chosen One, we must help you find out the reason you were brought here.”

  The light from the torch was growing weaker. Luckily they had found a second one but they wanted to save that one for the tunnel.

  “Just a couple more minutes, Father,” said Anthony. “We need to see if the box is here, then we have to find the way out of this tunnel, or we’ll have to go back the way we came and take our chances. I need to get Nelli to safety.”

  Anthony went over to the opening in the wall to listen if anyone might have discovered the priest’s hole and were coming after them.

  Nelli and Father Cossa examined the walls and floor of the niche with the urn marked Brother Antonio on it, feeling for anything that might reveal a concealed compartment. There had to be something they were missing, but what?

  Father Cossa stepped back and stared at the clay pot. Then, he grabbed each side of the urn and gently started to rock it; it moved.

  Nelli was stunned, “Father, what are you doing? That’s centuries old,” said Nelli, frightened that it might crack into hundreds of pieces.

  “God intended for us to find this place. We must leave no stone unturned.”

  The priest was determined to figure out why. Anthony and Mary Ellen watched as Nelli and Father Cossa very carefully lifted the large clay urn and placed it on the floor. It wasn’t as heavy as they thought it would be. They both looked inside, expecting it to be sealed but the mouth of the vessel was open.

  “Mary Ellen, come over here with the light,” said Nelli waving her closer. “There’s something inside the urn.”

  “It looks like a rolled up scroll,” said Father Cossa looking at Nelli in disbelief. “I believe this has to be what we were supposed to find.”

  Across the room Anthony yelled out, “Did you find something?”

  “Si,” said the priest, barely audible, fearful that if he spoke too loud it might damage the ancient artifact. “There appears to be a scroll of some kind rolled up inside.” Then under his breath he said, “Blessed be the Lord.”

  “Father, please remove it from the urn,” shouted Anthony. “I want to get us out of here. We have spent too much time here as it is.”

  The flame from the torch was almost out and they would soon be in the dark again. Gently grabbing the end of the scroll, Father Cossa lifted it out. It was about twelve inches in length and about two inches thick. It was in remarkably good condition. It appeared to be a sheepskin tied with a thin leather rope.

  “Do you have it, Father Cossa?” asked Anthony.

  “Si, sign
ore, I have it.”

  “Anthony,” shouted Mary Ellen, “the torch is going to go out any second,” starting to panic at the thought of being in the dark again.

  “Grab the second torch and let’s get out of here.”

  CHAPTER 73

  Judah leaned against the wall, his breathing labored; he’d been hit in the shoulder and it hurt like hell. The shooter thought he’d killed Judah. That was a foolish assumption and he revealed himself too quickly. Judah got a clean shot and watched as his attacker’s body hit the edge of the balcony, falling to the floor below.

  Mattithyahu, in another part of the chapel, had killed the second shooter. He heard a gunshot, then someone groan and then another gunshot. The next sound he heard was a loud thud as something or someone hit the floor below.

  “Please, dear Lord, don’t let it be Judah.”

  Hiding behind a column that was not far from the ledge of the balcony, he slowly started to ease his way around the thick wooded structure. Just a little more and he would be able to get a look at what had made the noise. He was in position now. Just a quick glance and he would have his answer. The man lying on the floor of the chapel was dressed in the same black outfit as the man he had just killed. It wasn’t Judah, thank God. Both shooters were dead, so where was Judah?

  “Judah can you hear me?” talking into his headpiece. “Are you hurt?”

  “Look over towards your left,” said Judah, waving at him with his gun hand.

  As he ran towards Judah he stopped, ripping off the hood and shirt from one of the shooters. Reaching Judah he immediately applied pressure to slow the bleeding, at the same time, tightly wrapping the shoulder with the dead man’s shirt.

  “Big SOBs, weren’t they?” grinned Judah.

  “Looks like you lucked out, clean shot through the shoulder but you’ve lost a lot of blood.”

  “I’ll be okay, just give me a minute,” said Judah.

  “What do you make of this embossed cobra symbol?” asked Mattithyahu, handing the hood to Judah as he finished wrapping his shoulder.

  “I’d guess a cult of some sort,” said Judah, “but we need to find To’mas and Nelli.”

  “They were barricaded behind the altar the last I saw,” said Mattithyahu. “Are you able to walk?”

  “I’m fine, looks like the bleeding is stopping. Let’s go.”

  Heading down the spiral steps, Judah went to check the other body to make sure he was dead while Mattithyahu ran towards the altar. That’s when he saw the priest, off to the side by the statue of Saint Anthony, a pool of blood next to the body.

  “Damn, they killed one of the priests, Judah!”

  He was afraid they would find To’mas and the others dead too.

  Mattithyahu tried to prepare himself for the worst scenario. Reaching the altar he slowly looked behind it.

  “Well, are they alive?” yelled Judah, bracing himself to hear the worst.

  “There’s no one here,” said Mattithyahu. “They’re gone.”

  “What do you mean, they’re gone? We would have seen them if they tried to exit the chapel, check your GPS.”

  Judah continued to search the body for anything that could give them a clue on who the two dead men were.

  “Nothing … wait, it’s tracking. They’ve escaped somehow,” Mattithyahu said.

  CHAPTER 74

  Peter was very familiar with the prophecy of Saint Anthony. In fact he had spent millions of dollars on experts to study the life and writings of the monk, but he was troubled by one expert’s interpretation of some of the findings. This particular individual believed that when the “son of perdition” or the Antichrist returns, one known as the Chosen One will be shown a book containing the words of God to be delivered to the one who wears the ring of the fisherman.

  He had been foolish last time, this time would be different. He would have his own kingdom and no book was going to stop that from happening. With all his money and connections, how would this Chosen One accomplish what he hadn’t been able to? Even if it did exist, after this amount of time, the chances it was still intact were slim.

  If it was anything like the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, it would take years to piece it together and analyze the writings. It didn’t matter anymore. In a few days, the world would be worshipping a new Pope.

  If the only threat this time was a book, what did he have to fear—even if they were the words of God? The world had become so depraved he wasn’t worried even if they came from the one who had cast him out of heaven.

  For all practical purposes the blueprint for his master plan had already been written. He had to smile; the Book of Revelation included everything he needed to know. In it described the three great centers of faith and the description of each.

  First is Jerusalem, the most mentioned city in the Bible, the mother of true faith, believed their people to be the Chosen Ones. It will be at the center of the final world conflict.

  Then Babylon, the second most mentioned city in the Bible and the present day Iraq, the mother of false religions. It will play a central role. She will be revived and brought onto the end-time, staged to play a leading role (Rev. 14:8; 16:19; 17–18). How many times it had been destroyed because God’s people worshipped false idols.

  The third one was the one that brought him much pleasure: Rome, mother of the unholy, mixture of the two. This is where he would build his kingdom by defiling the Holy City and taking the seat of the Pope, declaring himself the representative of God on earth. This time he would rewrite the ending to the scriptures by adding another chapter.

  He realized his last attempt had failed because he had been too impatient. Since then the number of lost souls had multiplied beyond his expectations, with little help from him. Some of his foot soldiers had become leaders of their own groups around the world. Genocide and the use of terrorism was becoming an everyday headline in the paper.

  He would be heading to a secret location outside the Vatican fairly soon. The Council of Guardians knew what to do once the announcement went out over TV and radio. The world would be stunned learning of the Pope’s death, but even more shocked by an immediate replacement to the papal seat.

  There are three ways a Pope has been elected throughout history: the first is election by scrutiny or by secret ballot with a two-thirds vote, which is the one used most in modern times. The second is per acclamationem seu inspirationem (election by inspiration or acclamation), where electors simultaneously shouted out the name of their preferred candidate. The third is election by compromise (per compromise); a committee of nine to fifteen unanimously chosen cardinals is delegated to make the choice for all.

  Peter had already handpicked the fifteen cardinals; all he needed to do now was to sit back and wait. Although there was that one small matter that Thomas had kept from him. Peter was waiting to hear from Christine, if the problem had been taken care of. He wasn’t sure of all the details but better to attend to it now and not have any surprises. His cell phone rang; the incoming call was from Christine. In seconds, he would have confirmation that the problem was no longer a concern.

  “I’ve been waiting. I expect you left no trace?” said Peter.

  There was silence on the other end and then he heard Christine’s voice.

  “I don’t have good news to report Grand Master.”

  Peter’s rage could be felt through the phone.

  “Continue!” he snapped.

  “There are three dead and the target got away,” replied Christine.

  “This was supposed to be a precautionary measure.”

  He could barely contain his anger.

  “I asked you to take care of this!” His voice crackling with rage, “What’s the damage?”

  “One priest and two …. ” she hesitated, knowing what the reaction would be when she told him who the other two bodies belonged to.

  “And?”

  “The two others were disciples of P2.”

  Had he heard her correctly? Two of
his disciples dead?

  “How the hell did this happen?” yelled Peter.

  “The man with the two women was carrying a weapon. Then two more men appeared with guns. After it was over, I waited outside the chapel for them to exit. The two men with guns came out and took off running. I continued to wait for the woman and her companions, but they never came out of the chapel. So I went back in and they were gone.”

  “Did you find the exit they escaped through?” demanded Peter.

  “That’s what’s so bizarre. There wasn’t any other way out.”

  She didn’t care that he was the Grand Master. She did what she had been asked to do. It was back in his court now.

  Peter could hear the change in Christine’s voice. It was the woman he was familiar with, yet something concerned him. He now wondered why Thomas had asked Christine to have this woman followed.

  “Did you take care of the bodies?” he demanded.

  Catherine noticed the change in Peter’s voice. The rage was replaced by a cold businesslike manner.

  “Yes, they were disposed of, Grand Master. There is no evidence they were ever there.”

  “Don’t talk to anyone about this. I will get back to you.”

  CHAPTER 75

  Cardinal McKenna checked his phone again, no messages from Mary Ellen. He had to focus. Who should he trust, who could he trust?

  First he needed to get a message to the commander and let him know he had to talk to him without creating any suspicion. Phones could be listened in on and computers could be hacked. He’d have his assistant Robert contact Crevelli’s office under the pretense of needing to reschedule their meeting about the Pope’s upcoming audience with the bishops and cardinals.

  Since it wasn’t McKenna’s responsibility to coordinate the Pope’s schedule, he hoped the commander would read between the lines and realize McKenna had information concerning the Pope. Anyone listening in would think it was just the normal everyday communication between different departments within the Vatican. He’d leave a similar meaningless message with Mary Ellen.