by Rene Fomby
Sam grinned back. “Well, I’ll remind you that dear little Maddie comes complete with a whole shitload of money, and while money can’t always buy happiness, it will pay for a Mommy’s day off every now and then.”
“There is that.” Sanders chuckled. “Too bad all of our kids don’t come with their own inherited fortunes. It would make raising them a whole hell of a lot easier. But I happen to know even that brings its own set of problems. You just have to look at the last few years of your own life to see that.”
“No, Bob, I completely fooled you there. You see, three or so years ago, when I was seemingly playing happy little housewife to my darling husband Luke, I was actually scheming away in the background to have him killed off, just so I could escape a kidnapping by the skin of my teeth, then escape burning up in my own house quite literally by the skin on my hands, jet back and forth across Europe for a year begging for anyone to step forward and help me save Maddie’s trust from bankruptcy, then step right into the middle of my father-in-law’s evil plans to take over the world. A country girl just needs a teeny bit of excitement in her life every now and then, that’s all.”
Sanders laughed, shaking his head. “Well, you certainly succeeded at that. It’s been a real pleasure getting to know you, Samantha Tulley.”
“The pleasure has been all mine, Bob Sanders. And I really mean that. Men like you and Gavin give me a renewed hope for our world, a renewed sense of innocence.”
“Innocence? Ha! Not often I’ve heard that word used in conjunction with my name, lately. But if it means anything, I’ve gotten that same feeling out of watching you, seeing what you’ve managed to accomplish in your life. A little widowed housewife from a small town in Texas. Who knew she’d be the key to putting the hiatus on the outbreak of World War Three?”
Sanders had stepped halfway through the hatchway when he stopped and looked back. “Maybe the Bible was right after all. Maybe the meek should inherit the world. Maybe it’s time we gave that idea a shot, don’t you think?”
Sam shook her head. “I don’t know, Bob. Why burden the meek with all this?” She found a chair and slumped down, completely exhausted all of a sudden. “You know, it’s kind of like this world is one big jigsaw puzzle, the kind with thousands of pieces, but no picture on the front to make it all make much sense. And Tulley has kind of taken that puzzle and tossed it all up in the air. So now we’re left trying to piece it all back together. Put countries back together, make peace with the Muslims. Make peace with ourselves. Do you really think we can do it? Can we really ever fix all the things that he has broken in such a short amount of time?”
Sanders leaned against doorframe, his own shoulders slightly sagging. “I don’t know, Sam. I wish I did. But the thing is, William Tulley wasn’t the real problem, here, he was just a match that ignited a firestorm that’s been brewing for a very long time. Every time it looks like mankind is finally making progress, something always manages to come along and burn everything to the ground.” He shrugged. “But what choice do we really have? The world may be in chaos, but we still have to pick up the pieces and start over again, trying to make things right. Put the jigsaw puzzle back together one more time. The only alternative is to just give up.”
Sam was nodding when Sanders suddenly remembered one last thing. “Oh, I forgot! I do have some good news to share with you. I think we located your stolen amphorae!”
“Really?” Sam sat up straighter. “Where? How?”
“We found some emails that suggested Tulley had them shipped to Brussels, where he owned some kind of invitro-fertilization clinic. They apparently already had a great deal of the equipment needed to open up the jars in a protected environment, plus they couldn’t very well complain, since Tulley was the boss. I let Mehmed know, and he and Dr. Hall are onboard with joining us for a raid on the place in a few days. That will give us enough time to identify where they might be storing the jars, so we can get to them before anyone tries to destroy the evidence. Once we have them secured, Mehmed and Dr. Hall can take command of everything and make sure they remain undamaged.”
Sam jumped up and charged across the room to give Sanders a big hug. “That is wonderful news! Now you’ve made my day!” Another thought came to her as she stepped back. “And Archibald Bennington? Did the emails say he’s working at the lab in Brussels? What I wouldn’t give to—”
She left the rest unsaid, but Sanders knew exactly what she meant. “No, actually, I think our friend Archie may have been an unwitting dupe in all this, the same as us. His name disappeared from any of the emails back and forth between Tulley and Boucher right after the jars were stolen. And we didn’t find any kind of communication directly involving Bennington either before or after the heist. So my guess is, they fooled him the same way they did us, then disposed of him once he was no longer useful.”
“Hmm. Now I kind of feel like a heel for all the bad things I’ve thought and said about him these last few months.”
“You’re not alone, there, Sam. I think there’s a lot of that to spread around. Tulley and Boucher have done a lot of damage.”
“Speaking of which, did you capture the Butcher? Or have any idea where he’s hiding?”
“I’m afraid not, Sam. He appears to have completely disappeared, and even Tulley has no idea where he’s holed up. But with the Tulley clan now in chains, Boucher has risen to Public Enemy Number One status, so if I were him, I’d find someone to rework my face and fingerprints and spend the rest of my life laying low. He’s had his day in the sun, and now it’s time to hide in the shadows.”
“But you won’t give up looking?” she asked.
“I will never give up looking for that bastard,” he promised.
132
Vatican City – Saturday
Savio rubbed his bald head as he read through the report. “Can this possibly be true, Joseph? And if it is, what in the world are we going to do about it?”
Joseph Pinotti pinched his nose, a headache slowly unfolding behind his eyes. “How can it not be true? My sources within the American government are impeccable, owing their true allegiance to the Church and to the Black Nobility, going back hundreds of years. No, my friend, we need to face the facts. There are only two possible scenarios. Either the pope is a true gift from God, plucked from the conclave at the very last minute to lead the world against Islamic heresy, or he was fully complicit in one of the greatest crimes ever committed against the faith.”
“But the evidence, it is all just circumstantial—” Savio was still having problems wrapping his head around all of this.
“Circumstantial or not, we know he was in constant contact with William Tulley’s field general, Peter Boucher, for months leading up to the conclave. Tulley’s emails back and forth with Boucher established that beyond any doubt. And also proved beyond any doubt that the new patriarch of Constantinople, Eusebius, is also a Tulley stooge. You cannot deny that the timing of Cardinal Orso’s escape from the conclave couldn’t have been more fortuitous, just as the name of the new pope was about to be announced. Then there was the matter of his illness, suddenly collapsing for no discernable medical reason. And, of course, there was the small radio device found in his tunic when he was taken to the hospital, an item we stupidly ignored at the time. A device banned by the rules of the conclave, and one that could only have been used to send a simple signal to someone on the outside. Like, you know, it’s time to fly the plane into the conclave. Yes, my friend, it is all circumstantial. But still, all in all, it’s a pretty damning story, wouldn’t you say?”
Savio found a seat and collapsed into it. “So what are we to do about this? Even if it’s true—”
“Even if it’s false, we have to take control of the situation.” Pinotti plopped down across the table from him. “Because, my friend, again there are only two possible scenarios. A, we do nothing, and hope that the Americans sit on the information and everything just blows away in the wind, like so much unwanted dust. But is that realis
tic? I mean, this pope has made an incredible number of enemies in such a very short period of time, both inside and outside of the Church. Do you really think these people will all just agree to look the other way? No, they’ll come hunting for him, loaded for bear, particularly all of the atheists, agnostics and even Protestants that now dominate European and American politics. They would like nothing more than to crush our Church for good, and this is the perfect opportunity to do so. Put the pope on trial at the Hague for crimes against humanity, rip the shrouds of our sacred Church away to expose our every secret to the masses, tear the very foundation of our faith out from under our feet. You know what that will mean, you know what secrets we’ve been hiding behind these walls for almost two thousand years. The Roman Catholic Church is on its knees already. If the loss of our top leadership, of every able-bodied cardinal wasn’t enough by itself, you’ve seen the same reports I have. The world is turning away from Christianity, and even in those few pockets where the faith is still alive and growing, they are not turning to our Church for the answers to their theological needs. The evangelicals are the future of the Christian faith.”
Savio had buried his head in his hands throughout all of this, but now he dropped his hands slowly to the table and looked up, staring at a picture of the pope that had only recently been hung on the wall opposite him. “Okay, Joseph, you’ve convinced me. What is our Plan B?”
133
Venice – Saturday, One Week Later
After seven thankfully crisis-free days, Sam was finally able to focus on a house-hunting trip to Houston. Her mother-in-law Margaret had taken command of her new granddaughter with great enthusiasm, and now Sam felt a good deal less selfish about stealing little Maddie away from her. Carlo Rossi kept calling, begging her to join him for lunch or dinner, but most days she managed to find some excuse to beg off. Gavin and Andy were off in their own little world, Andy now seemingly fully recovered from her ordeal, and were starting to hint at future plans together. And Mehmed was ensconced in the little lab in Brussels, where he had decided to finish the restoration and recording of the thirty-six stolen amphorae, concerned that another major move might do the jars more damage.
Before she could bug out of Italy, however, she needed to make sure that a new lab was in place in Venice to handle the jars that were still stored safely away in the bank vault. She checked the time. Mehmed should already be at the lab, so she called him there.
“Sam! So good to hear from you. What’s going on down there in Venice? How is little Maddie?”
“Maddie is doing great, thank you. She’s getting excited about our upcoming trip to Texas to pick out a new home and visit with her old babysitter and with Harry Crawford, whom she absolutely adores. And you? When is the family arriving?”
“They got here just yesterday. My wife and the children are busy settling into our apartment out here, so I decided to leave them to it and get some work done this morning, then join them later today for some sightseeing. But, Sam, I’m so glad you called! I’ve made a huge discovery!”
“Really? What is it?”
“It was something that had already been removed from one of the jars and scanned in. Or, given how many documents we’re talking, it probably came from several jars. The researchers out here in Belgium didn’t do all that good a job documenting what came from where. I think they were all just under a great deal of pressure from William Tulley to find out what was inside all of the jars. He was apparently obsessed with finding anything at all that could shine more light on his whole end-of-the-world thing.”
“Okay, Mehmed, you’ve got me hanging, here. What did you find?”
“Pretty much a full chronicle of the Lost Christian Church!”
“The what?” Once again, Sam was left wondering if there was an entire other history of Christianity that she had missed out on, growing up Jewish.
“The Lost Christians!” Mehmed took a second to catch his breath and settle down. “Okay, let me explain. You remember how I told you that the Roman Emperor Constantine—the real one, not William Tulley—had convened a church council at Nicea in the early three hundreds to settle the question of whether Jesus was man or God?”
“Yes, and they decided he was both, and Constantine declared that the question was therefore settled once and for all.”
“Right. Except that it wasn’t. While the duality of Christ was now official church doctrine, that didn’t mean that all of the Christians agreed. A large part of the Christian movement, the Arians, who mostly lived in various parts of North Africa, still believed Jesus was simply a man. And another large group, called the Nestorians, believed that he was actually two different people, one completely divine, the other human. That part of the church was mostly centered off to the east of the Roman Empire, in eastern Turkey, India, all the way to China and Japan. Christians in those parts were a minority religion, but in general that was seldom a problem. In fact, when the Buddhists were driven out of India and arrived in China in the late eighth century, it was a Nestorian bishop named Adam who translated all of the sacred Buddhist texts into Chinese. These translated writings were later picked up by the Japanese and now form the core foundation of Eastern Buddhism. Interestingly, many of the most important elements of Buddhism reflect Christian beliefs. Buddha Sakia is both God and man, born of a Virgin named Maia and descended from earthly kings. He descended from Heaven to absolve mankind of their sins. And, at the end, the perfection of his nature allowed him to ascend back into Heaven without dying.”
“Wow. That’s almost dead on.”
“Yes, and there are many more parallels with Christianity. So the question then becomes, is Christianity derived from Buddhism, or did Bishop Adam manage to sneak a great deal of his Christian beliefs into those Buddhist texts he translated? We may never know the answer to that.”
“So, what happened to these Nestorian Christians?” Sam asked.
“For a very long time they flourished. By around 1300, most estimates show that they comprised maybe fifty to sixty percent of all Christians throughout the world. In effect, they were the biggest Christian church at the time. But then it all came tumbling down. Over the next century, the entire world suffered under a minor ice age that caused massive famine and disease. Humanity at the time was deeply religious, and almost the entire planet believed that crop failures and pestilence were brought down upon their heads by angry gods. Gods angry that some among their midst were worshipping God incorrectly, or were worshipping rival gods.”
“Like in Judaism, where God often punished his chosen people because they somehow turned their backs on Him,” Sam suggested.
“Exactly. So you can imagine that when everyone around the world was suddenly starving to death, they would immediately begin blaming their wayward neighbors for their troubles. Plus, if food is scarce, why let the foreigners with their foreign ways have any of the scarce supplies? Add to that numerous attacks by the Huns and other groups on the largely defenseless people of Southern Asia, and by the end of the century, the Nestorian Christians had declined to only about five percent or so of the worldwide Christian population.”
“So about ninety percent of them were wiped out in only one hundred years? That’s incredible!”
“Yes it is. Of course, not all of them were killed. Many simply decided to join the majority and switched religions. It’s hard to tell exactly how all that shook out in the end.”
“But you said you found some core documents from the Lost Christian Church. And those amphorae would have been sealed up at least two hundred years before the Nestorians were wiped out. So what exactly did you find?”
“Okay, Sam, remember that Islam was founded in the early seventh century. In essence, early Islam was really just a variant of Judaism. Or, if you will, perhaps a derivation of Arian Christianity, which believed that Jesus was simply a man and not divine. Academically, we say that both Islam and Judaism—and Christianity, obviously—are Abrahamic religions, with the prophet Abraham at their
root. Jews claim to be descended from Abraham’s son Isaac, while Muslims trace their ancestry to Abraham’s son Ishmael.”
“And yet here we are, constantly at each other’s throats in the Middle East.”
“Over, among other things, who gets to lay claim to the same holy city, Jerusalem. Yes, family arguments can often be the most bitter and cruel. But, getting back to history, it is important to understand that the first Muslims were creatures of the sand, without much of what we would think of as a theological culture. So when they came roaring out of the desert to conquer Persia and, eventually, the Roman Empire, Islam was largely lacking in more sophisticated things like architecture, poetry, music. All of the trappings that go along with modern religion. So, guess where they got all the things that now fill that gap in modern Islam?”
“From the Lost Church?”
“Exactly. According to the documents I found, most of it was evidently coopted from the Nestorian Christians who lived among them. The architecture of their Mosques is stolen almost to the core from the architecture of the Nestorians and the Orthodox Church. You only have to look at Islamic domes and compare them to the Orthodox domes of Russian churches and palaces to see that. And as for Islamic music, church literature, rituals, even the concept of martyrdom, scholars have long contended that all of that is derived from early Christian beliefs. In fact, until Islam came along, the Christian faith was pretty much the only religion in history to embrace the idea of martyrdom, something that has since largely faded from view within that church. But when you hear of Muslims willingly sacrificing themselves for their religion, that comes straight out of the almost identical beliefs of the earliest Christians. Most of the early Christian saints earned that honor through martyrdom—it was a convenient way to explain to the nascent church why God would let bad things happen to his chosen people. He was simply bringing them home to Heaven early, as a reward for their faithful service.”