“I guess you thought I understood all that.”
To make sure that she believed him, he squeezed her hand, looked deep into her eyes and assured,
“Trust me. As long as we do not contact her and risk a communication trace, our daughter is safe.”
Accepting his promise that Belle was safe, she looked across the canyon and asked,
“Where does all the electrical power come from?”
He too looked across the gorge, pointed to the trees clinging to the steep cliff and said,
“See those evergreen trees there? Some are actually communication towers. More than half of the trees in the forest above us are solar ray collectors. As long as the sun shines we will have sufficient power to operate and survive until we can figure out what happened.”
After giving her a tight and long hug designed to convey assurance, he left her to her thoughts.
An hour later, the survivors had completed ‘Priority Task One’, setting up communication and security. With all the emergency measures in place, sleeper satellites activated, secure communication channels opened and new codes entered, Santo returned to Maria. She was still standing at the cave entrance lost in thought. Without words, he took her by the hand and led her deep into the cave.
Lights shone from hidden corners to illuminate the arched ceiling as well as the crevices, nooks and crannies. If she were not sure that they were in a cave inside a mountain, she would have thought they were in something akin to a massive five star hotel lobby. As they entered one of the halls and only a few doors down, Santo pointed and said,
“This is our room now.”
Inside was a comfortable well-furnished and carpeted room. Off to the side was the kitchen. He said,
“There is food and supplies in another section of the cave.”
Inspecting both bedrooms, she concluded they were small but kept in mind that they were in a cave. The bathroom was small but adequate. She asked,
“Are all the other scientist looked after in the same good manner?”
“No, I thought it best if we took one of the smaller rooms. They are all better than this one.”
Without a further word, Maria collapsed onto the bed. Recognizing her physical and mental exhaustion, Santo left her and returned to the cavern to direct the repositioning.
Chapter 11
Under the Vatican
As a member of the Antiquities Research Council, Father Pietro Rivas had spent many years in dark and confining catacombs under the Vatican. He was looking for forgotten and hidden religious artifacts. An accomplished ARC researcher, he was also a world authority in Linguistic Paleography as well as an interpretive specialist in Hebrew, Latin, Greek, and Arabic. For the past year, he had been searching for a rumoured mysterious skeleton that ancient leaders of the church deemed offensive to the faith and therefore secreted away.
He and his aide, Father Giovanni, are currently crammed into a hot and dusty tunnel. The overhead electrical string of lightbulbs creates more shadows than light. From one of those shadows, Father Rivas happened to spot a dim circular fist sized glow that should not be there. It was shoulder high and upon close inspection knew that as long as it was not his imagination, there appeared to be a glow of light coming from a hidden chamber on the other side of the wall. As his excitement grew, from behind Father Giovanni enthusiastically added to the mystery saying,
“Father, come and look at this.”
Not clear what could be more exciting than a mysterious glow deep in the catacombs, Father Rivas turned around to see what had excited his aide. Father Giovanni was pointing to a same size hole on the opposite wall although considerably lower than the one Father Rivas was interested in. Considering the strength of his faith, Father Giovanni asked a disturbing question.
“How deep do you think it goes?”
Both were hoping that it did not go that deep.
There was no glow coming from the lower hole but there was interest and confusion about its angle. Father Rivas asked for the long sounding rod and inserted it into the lower hole. It quickly became clear there was a steep downward angle to it. He pulled the rod up and inserted it into the higher hole. Surprisingly it matched the angle of the one below. With furrowed forehead, he pressed his ear to the higher hole. Intently listening, he thought he heard soft muffled sounds. It eventually became clear he was hearing a chorus of prayers. When Father Giovanni too heard it, he mumbled,
“It is a message from heaven.”
Father Pietro Rivas had spent too many years as a methodical researcher to accept blind faith. He understood that heaven was not represented in the depth of the Vatican. He said,
“Hand me the laser pointer”
Turning the beam on, he then pressed the unit into the upper hole and asked Father Giovanni,
“When considering the upward angle, using your best guess where do you think the laser beam is pointing?”
After a long thought, Father Giovanni replied,
“I think it should be the Sistine Chapel.”
Nodding his approval, he commanded,
“Very well. Leave the laser beam in place while I am gone.”
“Where are you going Father?”
“While disappearing into the darkness of the tunnel, he replied,
“To the Sistine Chapel, where else.”
Upon entering the Sistine Chapel, in respect to the great Michelangelo, Father Rivas’s eyes predictably raised to the great ceiling. After a silent prayer, he walked about the chapel looking for a red laser beam radiating out of a hole from below. After a few minutes of turning corners looking high and low, he spotted the red beam ascending from a group of priests standing around a statue of the reverent Virgin Mary. As he approached, he saw them held in awe of a red light emanating out of her marble hand and beaming up to the ceiling. The priests were busy crossing themselves and mumbling words of ‘miracle’ as well as, ‘a sign from God.’
With the intention of touching it, one of the stricken priests slowly raised his hand to the beam. Another quickly reached out preventing it, devoutly saying,
“No, it is Holy, a sign from God.”
The others nodded their agreement. Not willing to accept it as a sign from heaven, at least not yet, with his eyes Father Rivas followed the red beam upward. He saw a fist sized hole in the iconic ceiling and the supposedly ‘miracle’ beam disappearing into it. Although doubting its origin, there was still the lifelong desire of seeing a legitimate sign from heaven.
As he walked outside to test that possibility, he saw the most powerful man in the Vatican hurriedly approaching. Commander Razk’s title brought fear to many and awe to a few. His official title was ‘Head of Vatican Confidences’. When it came to secrets and the security of the walled enclave, none, not even the Pope or the Council of Three Cardinals reigned over him.
He was a young man, many thought too young to shoulder the responsibility of Holy Secrets. However, his tenacity to get things done melded perfectly with his political diplomacy. In addition, he was not a member of the clergy, rather a laic not encumbered with Canon or religious dogma. Still, his responsibility to protect and uphold the faith had never fallen into dispute. The only mark against him was his appearance. Many thought that a better-looking man should represent the secrets. Commander Razk was short and fell well onto the side of a disagreeable appearance.
When Razk saw the ARC researcher coming out of the Sistine Chapel his curiosity was peaked. He stopped to ask,
“Father Pietro Rivas, what brings an honoured ARC investigator up into the sunshine?”
Not pleased referred to as a creature of the dark tunnels, his reply was blunt.
“Same as you Commander Razk, just to see what sunshine feels like. I presume you left your office to investigate the great miracle inside the Chapel.”
Ignoring the returned disrespect, for he got it all the time, he responded,
“Indeed. I have been called to the Chapel to investigate an anomaly.”
> “An anomaly? There are some of us who might refer to it as a miracle.”
“If it is, then I shall be the first to revere it. Have you seen it yet?
“Yes, as will you if you care to look up.”
Confused, Razk started scanning the sky. His unguarded comment reflected his disconnect from piety.
“Holy shit.”
Father Rivas’ reply leaned more to the faith.
“I very much doubt that.”
Beaming from the roof of the Chapel and streaking upward was the red laser beam Father Rivas had placed deep underground. He commented,
“Strange how the beam strikes that single small cloud way up there isn’t it. It’s funny how the beam stops at the cloud. One would expect it to pass through it. Maybe there is something in the cloud stopping it.”
The observation sent shivers through Commander Razk. Father Rivas was surprised to see him suddenly dash off in the direction of his office.
Chapter 12
In the main computer section of the cavern, Santo and Maria were sitting beside a Nazarene computer mastermind watching codes flash across the screen. Jessika Reynaldi was young and pretty with a major annoying habit that Maria dearly wanted to take a pair of scissors to. A strand of long blond hair constantly managed to fall over one eye and a flipping hand repeatedly swept it aside. Jessika said,
“I have the assets on line now Sir.”
While pretending to understand the graphs, Santo pointed to the screen and asked,
“How many companies do we still control?”
“All of them. It looks like whoever re-programmed the Sentinel Satellite was not interested in the House of the Nazarene assets.”
Then she suddenly added,
“No wait, somebody just attempted to get into one of our accounts in Spain.”
Because a mathematical algorithm involving finite rotating patterns protected the House of the Nazarene accounts, Santo was shocked. He asked,
“By whom?”
“Impossible to tell yet Sir but give me time.”
He commanded,
“Make it a priority.”
Suddenly Maria heard a swoosh of air at the cave entrance and turned to see a D-wing set down by the other three. A smile indicated that she recognized it as Waldorf’s personal vehicle. Intending to greet him, with Santo close behind, she approached the D-wing. When seeing him struggle out of the vehicle and reach back for a cane, for the first time both realized that he too was injured.
There was gloom in Waldorf’s face and defeat in his broken body. It was difficult for Santo to see the man he admired as a pillar of strength for the House of the Nazarene struggle to stand proud. He approached Waldorf bearing the stiff upper lip of a soldier exhibiting respect for a wounded comrade. However, Maria was not military and destroyed all the formality of military convention that Waldorf was desperately trying to demonstrate when she stepped forward and hugged him. With one shaky hand on the cane, the other wrapped around her, Santo dropped his pretense and thought it was probably the best medicine right now.
As they shook hands, Santo said,
“You need rest Sir, come I’ll take you to your room.”
Waldorf tried to sound strong but his weak voice gave him away.
“What I need is a status report.”
Santo then went through the procedures, reporting that all was operative and secure.
With assurance that everything was under control, at least for now, Santo pointed to the Great Hall and said,
“Come, I’ll take you to your room.”
It was hard for the staunch soldier to admit that he needed to lie down but he swallowed the bitter pill. They walked side by side through the cavern when Maria asked,
“How is Helga?”
His grim tone indicated that he was very concerned for her.
“Her injuries are serious but she is in good hands. I was assured that a full recovery, although far down the road is expected.”
Maria responded,
“Santo and I will go visit her.”
Both men understood that it was not possible. Rather firmly, Waldorf said,
“No. Save that for later. Right now there are too many important priorities to be attended.”
Standing at the door of his room, Waldorf turned to Santo and with a large degree of humility said,
“I apologize for my unacceptable civilian behaviour of breaking House of the Nazarene evacuation protocol. It was improper of me leaving you in that situation to save Helga. I don’t know what made me do that.”
Santo knew why and eased the apology with,
“Do not apologize. I would have done the same for Maria.”
Santo often had difficulty expressing his love for Maria. She understood that it was unlimited but not expressed as often as she would like. She had learned long ago to take what she could get and glean the rest from subtle comments. Leaving Waldorf to his rest, as they walked back to the computers she took his hand in hers and said,
“That was very romantic. Thank you.”
He also often had difficulty understanding her. He should not have asked ‘what was romantic’ but rather said, ‘I meant it.’ However, as a soldier it was just a natural question to ask.
“What did I say?”
“That you would express your love of me in the same way that Waldorf expressed his love of Helga. She was more important to him than all that was happening to the House of the Nazarene.”
It came to him eventually.
As they walked through the great hall, Jessika approached with a piece of paper in hand. While wiping a strand of hair from her eyes, Maria cringed. Handing the note to Santo, she said,
“I just received this. It’s a coded message from the Vatican.”
Santo read the message. Turning to Maria, he explained. “It’s from Commander Razk. He wants a meeting ASAP.”
He then said to Jessika,
“Return message to read, ‘will comply.’
Without another word, Santo turned and walked back to their room. Maria did not know what else to do but follow. Catching up, because she had never met the Commander, she asked who he was. Santo said,
“He is Head of Confidences to the Vatican, their top security officer. Of all the powerbases in the Vatican, he is the most powerful.”
“Why would he specifically ask to meet with you?”
“I have had confidential dealings with him before. I guess he trusts me. I will go see what he wants.”
Inside their room, while changing his clothes he said,
“This unexpected meeting puts a bit of a snag in the plans Waldorf and I had laid out. I was supposed to go on an important search and recovery mission but now that has to be set aside. There are too many things to do and far few people to do them.”
Suddenly Maria blurted out.
“Send me. I can do it.”
With his back to Maria, Santo produced a slight grin. It was not often he managed to manipulate her so easily. Pretending to ponder the suggestion, he mumbled,
“Well, it is a risk free mission, perhaps---”
She blurted out,
“It will give me something to do and I’m already qualified to fly the D-wings.”
As she followed him through the cave, he explained,
“You will need some background on the mission so you will have to talk to Zak Zander, that’s him over there with his nose pressed to the screen.”
She looked over and saw an old man bent over a keyboard. Santo continued,
“He is a contemporary interpreter of biblical and antediluvian legends. I want you to learn a little about something called the Great Earth War, some background material before you go on this mission. I’ll introduce you to him before I go.”
Chapter 13
As Maria and Santo were walking toward Zak, Waldorf approached from the great hall. He was unsuccessfully trying not to limp. Both turned to face him and Santo said,
“I thought I told you to g
et some rest.”
He had a weak body but the voice was still strong. In a scornful tone said,
“You don’t have my job yet Captain so stop ordering me around. Besides, who can rest with so much to do?”
He then asked a question that caused Santo to moan and Maria to produce a squinting scowl.
“Have you assign her the mission yet?”
Suddenly understanding that Santo had manipulated her into wanting to take the mission, in a stern voice she said,
“No he didn’t ask me a thing. He made it sound like it was my idea.”
Waldorf, not recognizing the difference, pointed to Zak and started limping toward him. As Maria followed, Santo was smart enough to retreat to his D-wing.
On approach, both saw that, as usual, he was bent over an ancient manuscript. Because he was ignoring the intruders, it was necessary for Waldorf to tap his shoulder. It was clear that he was annoyed at the intrusion. With a scowl not intended to be hidden, he looked up at his distracters.
Because he spent hours on end with his nose pressed into scrolls, people thought that it was nothing important and could disturb him at their leisure. Ignoring the deliberate scowl, Waldorf introduced Maria and explained the purpose of the introduction. Feeling that an apology was in order, Maria sounded repentant.
“I apologise for the interruption of your research. Apparently, I was asked to go on a mission and need a little background on it. The way I understand it, it involves an alien history of this Planet. I already know a great deal, so just give me the basics okay.”
Because Waldorf was having trouble standing, he pulled up a chair. It was clear to Maria that if she wanted to sit, it would be a long wait for the invitation. Zak, upon hearing that the intruders wanted information about his favorite subject to a small degree dropped his annoyance.
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