The Dark Temple

by The Dark Temple (retail) (epub)

  ‘How can I help you?’ inquired a man with short-cropped black hair wearing a short-sleeved white shirt, as behind him two Swiss Guardsmen flanking the entrance checked out Harker from the corners of their eyes.

  ‘We’re here to see Archbishop Federar,’ Harker announced, suppressing any feeling of inadequacy he felt about how well-groomed the man looked compared to his own smutty appearance.

  ‘Is he expecting you?’

  ‘No,’ Harker replied, ‘but I’m a friend of his and was hoping he could spare me five minutes.’

  The doorman looked very unsure and shook his head. ‘I’m afraid he has no spare time currently, but if you would like to phone and make an appointment, I’m sure he could accommodate you.’

  Harker could tell this man was not for budging but he pressed on regardless as there was too much at stake. ‘I know this seems unorthodox but if you would just be so kind as to mention my name to the archbishop, I would be eternally grateful.’

  The doorman thought about this for a second before answering, all the while taking note of Harker’s less than presentable appearance. ‘And your name is?’

  ‘Professor Alex Harker from Cambridge University, and this is my colleague, Stefani Mitchell, daughter of the late Father Davies.’

  The mention of Father Davies produced an immediate effect and the doorman’s eyes were now full of inquisitiveness. He glanced beyond them both to the road behind, then to his left, and without further pause invited them both inside. ‘Please come in and I will see if the archbishop can give you any of his time.’

  With a grateful nod Harker allowed Stefani to enter first, then he strode past the two pontifical guards, who closed the door behind them as they headed on into the main foyer. The interior of the Palace was as beautiful as he had expected, with a high ceiling decorated with frescos. Numerous works of art adorned the white walls and he could not help but briefly admire them. Meanwhile the doorman picked up a phone from the reception desk and began a call.

  Stefani seemed less captivated by her surroundings, though, and by the time the doorman returned Harker had worked out why. For him it was a rare treat to see inside this treasure house, but for her it was just a further reminder that not only her father was dead but, given the reaction to his name at the door, it was something at the forefront of everyone’s minds.

  ‘Archbishop Federar would be most happy to receive you,’ the doorman announced with a smile. ‘We will now take the elevator up to his office.’

  Unfortunately the elevator was the point where the grandeur of the building stopped and, after a short ride in a modern, and by comparison very dull conveyance, they were both led to a waiting room. But before they even had time to sit down, the doors opened and Archbishop Federar himself appeared with a look of real pleasure on his face.

  ‘Alex, what a surprise,’ he began, clasping Harker’s hand warmly. ‘What has it been four… no, five years?’

  ‘Too long, Angelo,’ Harker replied, just grateful the archbishop was happy to see him, given recent happenings. They were hardly old and dear friends but he had first met this man when he was still only a priest and whilst Harker himself was training at the Vatican. Since then the two of them had remained in touch, but only about once a year and by e-mail. It was now as the archbishop turned to greet Stefani, that Harker realised it hadn’t been he who had secured this invitation inside but rather his female companion.

  ‘Miss?’

  ‘Mitchell, Stefani Mitchell,’ Stefani replied before also shaking the hand of the archbishop who noticeably took far longer over it than he had with Harker.

  ‘Miss Mitchell I, we, are so sorry for your loss. Your father was a wonderfully good man and we were all truly shocked by the events leading to his death. Please accept our sincerest condolences.’

  ‘Thank you,’ Stefani replied, seemingly pleased with the genuine affection being offered.

  ‘You won’t remember but we met many years ago when you were just a toddler and soon after the Vatican granted permission for your father to adopt you. I see you chose not to keep your natural hair colour.’

  Harker could have sworn she blushed, perhaps more out of embarrassment than anything else.

  ‘I never liked that red,’ she replied, stroking one of her locks. ‘Blonde is definitely more my colour.’

  ‘Both suited you equally, young lady, but it is a treat to see you again after so many years, though I must confess I wish it could have been under different circumstances.’ Federar pointed to the window overlooking the street they had just been standing in. ‘Later this afternoon I am due to give a press conference out there regarding your late father’s demise. Most unfortunate.’

  It was partially because Harker felt as if he had been jettisoned from the conversation that he now did his best to make himself heard. ‘That seems unusual, Angelo, since Stefani’s father resigned his priesthood years ago.’

  His comment had Federar nodding in agreement. ‘Yes, but given the nature of what happened and the media’s preoccupation with all things morbid, his Holiness the Pope himself suggested that we be as transparent as possible regarding Father Davies’s connection to the Church.’

  ‘What’s the point of trying to defuse a bomb once it’s gone off, that kind of a thing?’ Harker replied, now understanding what was going on. Damage control, basically, and it was the sensible thing to do.

  ‘Something like that, yes,’ Federar replied flatly. ‘An acute awareness of the intricacies of how the world works has always been your gift, Alex. Now, please come into my office and tell me why you’ve both arrived together on my doorstep at this most unhappy time.’

  As they followed the archbishop inside, Harker managed to lean close to Stefani and whisper out of earshot, ‘I didn’t know you were really a redhead.’

  ‘Yep, I was once a ginger,’ she whispered back as they took their seats. ‘There’s a lot about me you don’t know.’

  ‘So please tell me what I can do for you,’ Federar requested as he sat down behind his desk. He watched his two visitors look at each other briefly before Harker began to speak.

  ‘Firstly, Angelo, we want to thank you for meeting us at such short notice.’ With the comment Carter had made earlier still preying on his mind, he added, ‘I know my name and reputation inside the Vatican isn’t as high as I would like it to be…’

  Federar sat up straighter in his seat and wagged a finger in Harker’s direction. ‘That’s not true, Alex. There may indeed be some confusion and even concern about your actions over the past few years, but before we get started allow me set the record straight. You still have many friends within the Church, myself included, and despite some of our more vocal and energetic brothers who unfortunately equate you with some type of modern plague, I assure you those are in very much a minority. The ones that know you are aware that your intentions have been – and I don’t doubt always will be – pure and good.’

  Federar settled back comfortably having made his point and, although it was not as bad as Harker had expected, it could have done with some improvement, especially the plague part, but it did allow for the perfect segue. ‘Thank you, Angelo. That means a lot to me and I don’t want to take up any more of your time than necessary, but you mentioned plagues?’

  Federar did not shift in his seat but his eyes betrayed him when they opened wider, like those of a rabbit caught in the headlights.

  Harker continued, ‘Stefani and I have been attempting to make sense of her father’s death except it’s led us deep down a rabbit hole that we never expected.’

  ‘Extremely deep down,’ Stefani added.

  ‘Tell me, Angelo, are you familiar with the “three days of Darkness”?’

  By the way Federar’s shoulders suddenly slumped and his eyelids drooped, anyone would have thought he man was going into cardiac arrest. An uncomfortable silence descended upon them all until the archbishop’s lips began to curl in anger. ‘I was wrong. You are a plague.’

  ‘Now
, Angelo…’ was all Harker managed before Federar swiped the air with his hand and turned his attention to Stefani.

  ‘I apologise for my lack of patience, Miss Mitchell, but Alex’s obsession with all things conspiratorial is well known within the walls of Vatican City and incredibly frustrating.’

  ‘That’s not fair and before we go any further you should be aware that we already know about the unacknowledged secure section of the secret archives – the vault within a vault,’ Harker interjected, drawing Federar’s attention quickly back to him. ‘And also the Prophecy that, although not recognised officially by the Holy See, is nonetheless kept there under lock and key.’

  Federar said nothing but he did not look happy.

  ‘We also know that it was the reason Father Davies lost his faith and how the prophecy refers to “the blessed candles”, and what you might not know is that… we found them.’

  ‘What!’ Federar exploded, now appearing to be in complete shock.

  ‘Yes, Angelo, they’re very real, and I’ve seen them with my own eyes. The words inscribed within them reflect precisely those written in blood by Father Davies, on the wall of the house where he murdered the mother and son. The same words, I believe, he first saw in a document buried deep in the Vatican’s most secret archives.’

  That mention of murder had started Federar shuddering and he seemed to zone out as his eyes became glassy and unresponsive. Frankly he looked like someone who had just received the worst possible news imaginable.

  ‘You have been busy, Alex,’ was all he managed to say in little more than a whisper, whereupon his gaze fell to the floor for a few moments, before he looked up again with some fresh resolve in his eyes. ‘Let me be up front with you when I say that were it not for Miss Mitchell’s presence here, I would not be telling you what I am about to say. But it is the least I can do for a family member whose loss has so much been speculated on. Besides, considering what you already know, it may be you two who can best help me.’

  Harker looked surprised at this. The Vatican needed help from him? In your face, Carter! he mused as the archbishop explained further.

  Federar let out a muffled sigh and then his lips trembled as he prepared to say something that he evidently found most unpalatable. ‘You’re correct about there being a sealed section of the Vatican archive. It was created just before the beginning of the Second World War, and for obvious reasons. There was need for a highly secure area where documents, doctrines and artefacts could be kept hidden, due to their highly sensitive nature as regards to both the Catholic faith as well as humanity itself. And before you speculate further, no we don’t keep alien bodies down there… or anything like that.’

  The very mention of aliens had both Harker and Stefani leaning forward in anticipation, but as Federar vigorously shook his head they settled back.

  ‘Your father, Miss Mitchell, was an advisor to us here at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Holy Faith of which, as you know, I am the Prefect. He became convinced that “the three days of Darkness” prophecy was soon coming to pass, so he believed it was imperative that he be allowed to see the original kept within the archives.’

  ‘How did he know it was there in the first place?’ Harker asked.

  ‘He professed to have experienced a vison wherein St Peter himself disclosed its location and warned that the fate of humankind rested upon his revelation of it. I can’t say if this vision was real but, as a result, he was more than persistent and he even convinced two other bishops serving within this office not only of its existence but the necessity for an examination of the document as being crucial to the planet’s survival.’

  ‘Is the existence of this special archive widely known?’ Stefani seemed riveted by the archbishop’s disclosure.

  ‘There have always been rumours since it was first assembled, but that is not what convinced me eventually to allow him admission. There are only two people allowed access to the area at any one time – his Holiness the Pope and the Prefect of this Office – and only we knew what items were kept within it. There was no other way your father could have known it even existed unless some heavenly intervention had granted him knowledge of it.

  The archbishop was now on a roll but Harker couldn’t help but interrupt to ask a question now top of his list. ‘Why were only two people permitted?’

  ‘Because,’ Federar replied with a deep frown, ‘contained down there are things that might possibly cause even a man of the greatest faith to… question his beliefs.’

  The response seemed incredible and Harker now realised how not only honest, but trusting the archbishop was being, and he watched with respect as Federar continued.

  ‘Without the pontiff’s approval I allowed Father Davies to examine the original Prophecy in the company of two others, so that a shared perspective could be maintained.’

  ‘You didn’t even tell the Pope!’ Harker gasped, surprised by this omission.

  ‘It’s a decision I have wrestled with ever since but at the time I wanted his Holiness to be spared any embarrassment and I planned to inform him if they found anything of worth… which they did not.’

  This retelling of events had Federar growing paler and both Harker and Stefani remained respectfully quiet as he paused to prepare himself for what was obviously the hardest part of his story.

  ‘They examined and discussed it thoroughly over the next few weeks, and at the end of it all no conclusion was reached except that the Prophecy explained how the blessed candles were indeed the only means to prevent the total spread of darkness during this terrible time. The archive was then closed, and it was shortly after that Father Davies suffered a complete collapse of his faith. He was irreconcilable and, as you know, he left the Church to follow another path in life. With the exception of his loss to us, life here moved on as normal… that is until a few days ago when he… Well, you already know what.’ Federar glanced over at Stefani sympathetically. ‘But what you might not be aware of is that, since then, two bishops have been brutally murdered, along with their entire congregations, in the most terrible ways.’

  Harker thought back to those news reports playing on the TV as Legrundy had slit Dr Marceau’s throat open. ‘And they were the two advisors who had examined the Prophecy along with Father Davies?’

  ‘Yes,’ Federar replied miserably. ‘And it happened just as the prophecy said it would, just before the three days of darkness would begin.’

  Even with all Harker had seen, even after his vision, it was only after the archbishop’s latest disclosure that he finally began to accept the real possibilities and consequences of what he had learned over the previous few days. ‘Then we need to see it,’ he demanded with more force than might be justified, ‘and we need to see it now. Both of us.’

  Federar stared back at his visitors with the look of a beaten man and slowly he began to nod his head. ‘But only that one document and nothing else. And if you can make sense of it, Alex Harker, you are a better man than I am.’

  Chapter 25

  Harker poked his head into the cold and unwelcoming grey corridor stretching before him, as Archbishop Federar closed shut the palm-print ID panel located on the other side of the now open elevator.

  ‘And you and the pontiff himself are the only people aware of this place?’ Harker asked, glancing back at Federar.

  ‘That is correct, Alex. But without the required palm ID it won’t take you anywhere.’ He patted the scanner plate.

  ‘Very secure,’ Stefani added as she followed the archbishop, heading past Harker and out into the narrow corridor

  ‘Catholicism may be thousands of years old but when it comes to security we use only the most up-to-date technology.’ Federar motioned for them to both follow him as he proceeded down the narrow passage.’

  ‘And the most secretive,’ Harker remarked, referring to the place where they had accessed the elevator only minutes earlier.

  When Federar had ushered them both into the back room of his office,
Harker had expected to encounter a couple of pontifical guards who would escort them outside and as far away from the archbishop as possible. Instead Federar had pulled back a large oil painting of himself on metal runners, to reveal the door of an elevator. With the simple pressing of his palm against a dark glass-tile palm-scanning plate, the door had slid open. Once they had gathered inside, he repeated the procedure and the elevator had begun to descend about ten metres or so.

  ‘I never realised the Vatican went for all this James Bond stuff! Where’s Q?’ Harker inquired but, even though said in apprehensive jest, Federar did not find it amusing.

  ‘Please show some respect, Alex. This is the most highly secured area in the entire Vatican City, and for good reason too.’

  ‘Frankly, Archbishop, I’m surprised this section wasn’t incorporated within the secret archives’ building itself.’ Stefani pointed out as she followed him down along the corridor.

  Federar did not venture an answer until they reached a matte-black metal wall at the corridor’s end, whereupon he raised his open palm and placed it on a scanning plate cut into the frame. ‘The secrets we hold here are only intended for the very few, as you can see from the security,’ he said, motioning to a green strip of light that moved down from the top to the bottom of his hand before confirming his hand print with the one recorded in its storage banks. ‘And if anyone did search for it, then this is the last place they would look.’

  Harker watched the door slide down into a narrow cavity within the floor, now allowing them access to the secret vault.

  ‘Also the palace above us is actually built on Italian soil, and we are now about twenty metres from the Vatican border, albeit underground, so if this place was by some miracle ever broken into, the Vatican would technically be afforded some deniability as to the charge of hiding these items from the world at large.’

  ‘That seems pretty thin reasoning,’ Harker noted, though unsure if his analysis was foolish or showed total genius.