‘You brought back the dead and whoever was with you in the Haj, after the monstrous flood that drowned thirty people, around …’ the foreigner repeated for the fourth time. ‘Where are these living dead?’ he asked sardonically.
‘Around,’ he said. ‘I don’t walk around counting the life of each one.’
‘That we’ll have to see … we’ll have to see,’ the other replied. ‘Can you imagine the work you’ve made for me?’ An almost imperceptible look of irritation crossed his face.
‘You’re more than used to it. Someone has to do it.’ The voice remained calm, unaltered. Somewhat patient.
The foreigner left the window and sat down on the edge of the bed. He watched Abu Rashid with a certain reverence he wished to hide, which left him even more upset. He felt himself blush. The color rose in his cheeks. He hated this happening, especially when he was working on something important.
‘When did you see … the Virgin?’ Not without some fear he evoked the name of the Mother of God.
‘Every time she appears.’
The foreigner reacted as if it were blasphemy. He felt as if Abu Rashid were insulting his own mother, which is true, since the Virgin is the heavenly mother of every Christian.
‘And when is that?’ He decided to calm down. There was nothing to gain in losing control.
‘It depends.’
‘On what?’
‘On what she has to say to me.’
‘She’s the Mother of Christ, a Christian icon. Do you believe in her?’ Don’t lose patience, don’t lose patience.
‘I believe because I see her.’
‘It could be no more than a hallucination, man of God … of Allah,’ he corrected himself.
‘Allah is God,’ the Muslim countered.
‘But not mine,’ the other replied decisively.
‘Only one God exists. Mine could be yours.’
‘Leave the dogma. You believe because you see her.’
‘Correct.’
‘But she could be only a hallucination,’ he suggested.
Abu Rashid shook his head, denying it.
‘No. Hallucinations are like mirages. They deceive.’
‘And she doesn’t deceive?’
‘Never. Everything she tells me is always true.’ The word reflected the respect he had for the visions.
The foreigner got up again and paced from one side of the spacious room to the other. He sighed deeply, his hands behind his back.
‘What has that vision told you?’ he finally asked.
‘Oh, many things …’ He smiled.
‘For example,’ the foreigner insisted.
‘She spoke to me of the flood and the drowning.’
‘How many years ago was that?’
‘Ten.’
‘You’ve had this vision for ten years?’
‘More,’ the Muslim agreed, with the same smile on his face.
‘When did you have the first vision?’ the foreigner inquired, halfway between the bed and the door in his nervous demand. ‘Do you remember?’
‘As if it were today,’ Abu Rashid announced with a melancholy, nostalgic look, and remembered that day, his birthday, the eleventh, when she appeared at his side on the Mount of Olives, dressed in pure white, so brilliant that he had to shield his eyes with his hand. He was running back to the city to the same house he lived in today on Qadisieh Street to go with his father to pray at Hara mesh-Sharif.
‘Where are you going in such a hurry?’ she asked him in a calming, melodious voice.
Contritely, respectfully, the boy explained his duties to God and his family.
‘God is always within you. It is enough to hear and feel Him,’ she replied like the song of a nightingale. The melodious reply had made the boy stop to see her better.
‘Who are you?’
‘I have many names. Maria of all wishes and ideas. The Virgin, anything you want to call me, including Lady.’
The boy found that very strange. A lady with any name you want to call her?
‘Okay, okay, okay,’ the foreigner said, calling him back impatiently to the present. ‘So, according to what you’re saying, she’s appeared to you since you were eleven years old,’ he summarized.
‘Correct.’
‘Is there some specific day, some ritual you have to perform so that she’ll appear?’
‘No.’
‘Can you calculate how many visions you’ve had?’ He sighed. He was losing patience.
‘That’s easy.’
‘It is?’ At last there was hope.
‘It is. All I have to do is count the days since the vision on the Mount of Olives.’
‘I don’t understand.’ He returned to sit on the edge of the bed, attentive.
‘It’s simple. She’s appeared to me every day since then.’
The foreigner stared at him incredulously. ‘Are you saying the Virgin appears to you daily? That would be thousands of times.’
Abu Rashid confirmed it with a nod of his head.
‘And this fact hasn’t converted you to Christianity?’
‘As you can see, no.’
‘Why?’
‘Because the Virgin has never asked me to.’
‘And would you convert if she asked you?’
‘She wouldn’t ask,’ the old man affirmed with certainty.
‘But suppose she did?’
‘She wouldn’t ask.’
‘And what is it she tells you?’ The foreigner changed the subject.
‘I’ve already answered that.’
‘But I didn’t know you’d experienced thousands of visions of Our Lady. This changes a lot of things. Okay, give me some more examples.’ His tone of interrogation and challenge was obvious.
‘She told me you would come.’
The foreigner gave Abu Rashid time to continue.
‘She told me everything that’s going to happen to you and me.’
‘And it’s turning out true?’
The ring of a telephone interrupted them. It was the foreigner’s cell phone. It couldn’t be anything else, since Abu Rashid hadn’t given in to the marvels of technology.
‘Yes,’ the foreigner answered, getting up and going over to the window. He spoke in whispers so as not to be heard by the Muslim, still not convinced of his visions. Anyway, it was unlikely that Abu Rashid understood Italian.
The conversation lasted several minutes, always in the same nasal tone. He couldn’t be too careful. The foreigner tried to be as evasive as possible, letting unconnected words be heard, like problem, prove, certainly, I’ll do what I can … Suddenly he looked back at the chair where Abu Rashid was sitting and couldn’t help thinking that he understood, or rather that nothing was news to him. He concentrated on the words of the person he was speaking with, setting aside the ideas distracting him. He couldn’t let himself be influenced by words. Only facts counted. The call ended with a click on the other end. He would never dare to hang up first.
‘Did you get your instructions?’ Abu Rashid asked suddenly.
‘It was a private conversation,’ the foreigner protested.
‘About me,’ he asserted.
An ironic smile crossed the foreigner’s lips. ‘I didn’t know you knew Italian.’
‘I don’t, but I’ve known the content of that conversation longer than you have to live,’ he said powerfully.
The attitude in those words struck the foreigner. Something was going on here. ‘Well, do you know what’s going to happen next?’
‘We’re going to take a trip,’ he continued with a serious expression.
‘What else has she told you?’ He tried to change the subject, lightly, ignoring the old man’s hitting the mark.
‘That neither she nor her Son worry about communism or any other political conviction. They never divide the world between good and evil people. Everything bad in the world is created only by us, by our free, spontaneous will. So that when one prays to God to protect us, one really ought
to pray to man to defend him from himself.’
The foreigner got up and went over to Abu Rashid, looking down at him from his almost six feet of height.
‘Careful what you say,’ he warned.
‘I’m not afraid.’
‘I see that nothing is news to you.’
‘Well, no.’
‘Is there anything else you want to tell me?’
‘I know what they did with the body of the Pole,’ Abu Rashid said.
Confused, but trying not to show it, the foreigner put the gag that hung from the neck of the Muslim back in his mouth and made sure that the ropes tying his body to the chair were tight to prevent him from escaping.
14
Nestor
August 18, 1981
‘I’m so happy to see you recuperating, Your Holiness.’
‘Thank you, Marcinkus.’
The two men were sitting on a scarlet sofa in the papal office. Wojtyla had seated himself with difficulty. The scars of the attempt on his life remained engraved in his body.
‘To what do I owe the honor?’ the Pole wished to know.
The American sipped a little tea that the Holy Father had amiably sent for, the plate in one hand, the cup in the other.
‘A subject I fear will not please you, Your Holiness.’
The High Pontiff frowned, showing complete attention.
‘Tell me.’
Marcinkus arranged his black cassock on the sofa before speaking.
‘Well, I’ll be direct and concise, as the Holy Father deserves. I’ve been contacted by a man who calls himself Nestor and claims to belong to the KGB. He’s informed me that he was behind the assassination attempt of a year ago, and you can prepare yourself for others if you don’t comply with his demands.’
The pope’s face took on a look of disgust and suspicion.
‘And what are these demands?’
‘That you immediately stop financing Solidarity and stop pressuring the Iron Curtain. Suspend all the audits of the IWR. Increase investments in South America in a way he’ll specify.’
The pope closed his eyes and sighed.
‘Is that it?’
‘Immediately,’ Marcinkus replied.
‘And why did he contact you?’
‘Because I represent the IWR. I manage the money. He was specific,’ Marcinkus warned, taking a more serious tone. ‘Cease the donations immediately or you could be the victim of a new attempt and, he guarantees, this time—’
‘I understand,’ the pope interrupted with a raised hand. ‘What’s the time limit?’
‘The first offer was fifteen days, but I’ve managed to get a month.’
‘I’m grateful to you,’ offered Wojtyla, who got up and walked painfully through the office.
With his hands behind his back, cold sweat made the pope tremble, but Marcinkus didn’t notice. Being pope was more difficult than one thinks. Besides countless obligations, his life was always in danger, always.
‘What did you say this agent calls himself?’
‘Nestor, Your Holiness.’
‘Nestor, yes.’
‘Have you heard his name, Your Holiness?’
‘No, no.’
The pope walked slowly to the red sofa and looked at Marcinkus.
‘A month. We’ll talk again.’
‘Naturally, Your Holiness.’
Marcinkus got up, kissed the ring of the Fisherman, and left the office.
The pope let him leave in silence and remained silent for some time. Later, he got on his knees in the middle of the office and kissed the rosary he always carried with him.
‘Help me, Mary.’
15
Geoffrey Barnes was the CIA man in Europe. This was the simple way of explaining countless responsibilities and tasks. The specific name for the imposing position is the Director of Operations and Manager of Intelligence for Continental Europe. The principal headquarters was in the city of London in a perfectly normal building, very central, and for which we cannot give an address for reasons of national security. Thus, we designate it the Center of Operations only.
Geoffrey Barnes had hundreds of people in his charge spread over the continent, from subdirectors to department chiefs, agents, technicians, and collaborators, all on Uncle Sam’s salary. Their pockets were filled with money to keep them dancing to his tune. He who can, does, and he who cannot, quits. Like it or not, the best secret information always came from this side of the Atlantic, to be sent later to be expurgated in Langley, a place that can be publicized without fear of reprisals since it is of public, and even historic, knowledge. Barnes had only two superiors in the chain of command, the director general in Langley and the president of the United States. There was also intelligence-sharing among other agencies, in particular Mossad or other secret entities generously patronized by them.
Today the problem was the agency’s alone, the death of a longtime agent in the central station of Amsterdam in doubtful circumstances. The trip to the Dutch capital had been quick, without incident. The distance from London to Amsterdam was negligible. Accompanying Barnes was Jerome Staughton, promoted to Geoffrey Barnes’s personal assistant a year ago, who found his old position of data analyst in real time more to his liking. Being towed in Barnes’s wake was like carrying a tunneling machine on your back, subject to his caprice and mood swings, his deep guttural voice full of contemptuous reproach, and his desire to feed his gigantic body at all hours. Beyond the evident differences between being an analyst and an assistant, working on the ground was always more dangerous than being seated at a desk. It was career progress that wasn’t always welcomed, except for the pay at the end of each week. In any case, in spite of the seriousness of the situation, Barnes had been calm, in no way truculent, even convivial, not a very natural trait in a man who has to protect great secrets.
On landing at Schiphol, they found the cars waiting for them. Everything was planned to the minute. The cars were middle-range models to avoid raising suspicions, and they would obviously not appear to be CIA but rather FBI agents trying to learn more about what had happened and offer their service to every extent possible. One of the disadvantages of the disguise was their having to drive in the middle of traffic instead of opening a free lane. If they had been in the States or even the UK, they would have swept everything out of the way, but here they had to preserve appearances and good conduct, since the Dutch were known not just for tulips but also for hospitality. So the trip took them an hour. As soon as the station was in sight they noticed the presence of Agent Thompson, who had come ahead of time to survey the situation.
As soon as they got out of the cars, Barnes put his hands on the small of his back, stretching as if to make some discomfort or cramp go away.
‘This screws me up,’ was all he said. ‘This job is going to kill me.’
‘You’re going to bury us all, Chief,’ Thompson said, holding out his hand to Barnes and then to Staughton. Chain of command trumped good manners. ‘How was the flight?’
‘It’s taken us longer from the airport here than from London to Schiphol.’
‘It’s the time of day.’
‘Let’s get to business,’ Barnes ordered abruptly. ‘I want to get home in time for dinner.’
‘Over here.’ Thompson motioned to go inside the station.
‘What have you found so far?’ Barnes wanted to know.
Staughton was known to speak little, so his silence wasn’t a surprise. He was assimilating everything he heard and saw in order to process it later. He was good at this, in summarizing the parts, always trying to restrain the director’s impulsiveness.
The station wasn’t closed. Only parts were cordoned off by police tape, so civilians were constantly moving about.
‘They didn’t close the station?’ Barnes inquired.
‘They didn’t consider it necessary. The bathroom is in a corner away from the center of the station, so they decided to close access to that area and not affect normal function
s,’ Thompson explained. ‘The trains weren’t even late.’
‘Efficiency.’
‘Our man was named Solomon Keys,’ Thompson began. ‘Born in 1920.’
‘Solomon Keys?’ Barnes marveled. ‘He’s a legend at the agency. I remember seeing him once or twice. He was part of the establishment since the beginning. He came from OSS, if I’m not mistaken.’
‘Affirmative,’ Thompson continued, checking a note he had written in a small notebook with a hard black cover. ‘Member of the OSS from 1943 until the end of the war, recruited by the agency when it was founded.’
‘One of the founders,’ Barnes remembered, speaking more to himself than the others, remembering his own career up to now, to director of the CIA, here at Amsterdam Centraal. A lot of sweat and blood spilled, life in danger many times, and the loss. The loss of everything, family, women, normal life … The company demands exclusive commitment. It was what he was in the habit of thinking on lonely nights to justify what he had lost. The truth was he wouldn’t know how to live any other way. When a man had a level of information as elevated as Geoffrey Barnes, with the power and responsibilities inherent in the position, he no longer had a life of his own. It’s a cross to bear. His cross, the cross everyone carries each in his own way, some heavier than others. No one had any notion of what it was like to be a Geoffrey Barnes, what it was to have his work, what it was to know what he knew. No wife, dedicated as she might be, would have the temperament to wait endless nights, trying not to think about whether she would see her husband alive again. It was hard to work for the agency, but just as hard being the wife of an agency employee. As Jerome Staughton could attest, with his two failed marriages, thirty crappy years. You had to be a son of a bitch, as mean as a cobra, a bastard until the day you said ‘Enough.’
‘Right,’ Thompson noted. ‘He studied law at Yale at the same time he turned into a valuable resource for the CIA. He left the service in ’ninety-two and traveled around the world. Ah, and do you want to know something interesting?’
‘That’s what we’re here for. For tragic events I could have stayed home.’
The Holy Assassin Page 7