The Debt

by Glenn Cooper

  ‘Given the immensity of the actions and the attendant controversy likely to be engendered, I was considering a papal bull.’

  ‘I would tend to agree.’

  ‘Ordinarily, I would assign Vatican personnel to undertake the appropriate research and drafting but given the secrecy involved, I cannot do so. Is this something you might be able to help me with? I understand you have a facility with the subject matter.’

  Cal leapt at the opportunity. He’d studied papal proclamations and had written papers on papal bulls including his oft-quoted one, Papal Bulls – Alpha to Omega. In it he summarized the form and content of bulls from the first one, issued in 1059 by Pope Nicholas II, to the most modern one at the time of writing, released in 1998 by John Paul II. It would mean staying several more days in Rome but his teaching obligations were covered for a while and more importantly, he had Gil Daniels on his heels.

  ‘It would be a rare honor and a great pleasure, Holy Father.’

  ‘Can you believe the bastard killed himself?’ Cardinal Malucchi asked, popping an olive into his mouth.

  ‘He was obviously mentally unstable as evidenced by his deviant behavior. Do we have a problem, Pascal?’ Cardinal Leoncino asked.

  Upon hearing the news they had hurriedly assembled in Lauriat’s apartment hoping for the measure of reassurance that the cardinal secretary smoothly delivered.

  ‘I personally saw a copy of his suicide note,’ he said. ‘It was blessedly vague. He offered an apology to Celestine, though he failed to mention his transgressions. There was certainly nothing pointing to us.’

  Leoncino jabbed back. ‘You mean to you.’

  ‘Yes, Mario, to me.’

  ‘Then we’re in the clear,’ Malucchi said.

  ‘As to Moller, apparently so,’ Lauriat said. ‘However, our problems continue elsewhere. The press bulletin that Celestine had the Vatican issue blunted the public outcry somewhat.’

  ‘Only somewhat,’ Malucchi observed. ‘Coming here just now I walked through a fairly large protest in the piazza. They had all sorts of signs and some of them carried empty picture frames.’

  ‘Did they?’ Lauriat said, smiling. ‘I’m glad that people are coming to the conclusion that the only way to satisfy this enormous debt is to sell our artistic patrimony.’

  ‘But how much?’ Leoncino winced.

  ‘How much indeed? Lauriat said. ‘There is more to consider. I also have troubling news. The pope has had visitors. Gail Sassoon and her son, Julian, are in Rome along with Calvin Donovan.’

  ‘So, Celestine is pressing forward,’ Malucchi said.

  ‘It appears so,’ Lauriat said. ‘For the sake of the Church, we must press forward too.’

  TWENTY-SEVEN

  The atmosphere was often combustible whenever the Inspector General of the Vatican Gendarmerie Corps and the Commander of the Swiss Guards were in the same room. Although they lived and worked within the tight confines of Vatican City the two men had a relationship that lay somewhere in the netherworld between friendship and animosity. The Gendarmerie, a civil organization, was responsible for general police duties within the Vatican City while the Swiss Guards were tasked by ancient charter with the protection of the pope and the Apostolic Palace. Arturo Viola, the IG, had been a Roman police detective before moving to the Vatican Gendarmerie some twenty years earlier. Now in his sixties, with carefully dyed hair to maintain a semblance of youthfulness, his gut had begun to overhang his belt, but he still seemed fit for a man of his age. He was much shorter than his Swiss Guards counterpart, Kaspar Meyer, who used his height to lord over him. Meyer, like all the Guards, was a Swiss national, a thin imperious sort, who never seemed to crack a smile or launch a joke. The Guards were a military organization and the level of discipline within the organization reflected that. The Gendarmerie was a looser bunch, more like cops anywhere around the world. The conflicts between the two forces, such as they existed, arose from obvious cultural differences – Italian versus Swiss – but also from an overlap in duties. In practice, the pope received close protection in public places by a split-contingent of plain-clothes Gendarmes and Guards. Yet to the consternation of Meyer, Celestine had chosen Viola as his chief bodyguard, a coveted role. The pope enjoyed bantering with him in Italian and felt more at ease with his flexible style. He was, as Celestine once said, like a comfortable pair of shoes.

  Cardinal Lauriat brought the meeting to order, thanking Viola, his Deputy Inspector, Colonel Celestino, Meyer and his Deputy Commander, Klaus Zeller, for coming.

  ‘Gentleman, the agenda is simple: in this environment, how do you propose to increase the security of the pope and the residents of Vatican City and how do you intend to deal with the rash of demonstrations we are seeing on a daily basis?’

  As usual, there was a competition between Viola and Meyer to be the first to answer. The both began speaking at the same time and it was left to Lauriat to offer Meyer the floor.

  ‘We regard the current situation as business as usual,’ he said. ‘We have our robust practices and procedures and they are scalable to meet extraordinary threats. In a way, the threat of Islamic terrorism and our responses to it have tempered our capabilities. I have no doubt we can meet the present challenges. Zeller can speak to the details. As to the demonstrations, this is the responsibility of the Gendarmerie.’

  Viola seemed irritated. ‘We prefer to be proactive and not merely reactive. Plots against the pope and the Vatican are not spontaneous. Plotters plot. They talk among themselves.’ He paused to cough a few times, covering his mouth with a handkerchief. ‘Sorry, a bad cold. Yes, they talk among themselves. Their electronic conversations may be picked up by intelligence agencies. That is why we place a premium on our relations with external security services. Colonel Celestino can elaborate as he is in charge of these liaisons. He is also the point man for dealing with demonstrations in St Peter’s Square.’

  Meyer, who had been scowling, spoke before Celestino could. ‘I must object to the notion that we are not proactive. Of course we are.’

  ‘No one is doubting the capabilities of the Guards,’ Lauriat said patiently. ‘Colonel Celestino?’

  Celestino began by reminding the cardinal of the close ties between his department and Interpol. ‘Our Interpol National Central Bureau for Vatican City is tasked with collecting and sharing relevant information on crime and security with Interpol. Of course we also obtain data directly from the Italian intelligence agencies, but Interpol is a great clearinghouse of intelligence. I can tell you that as of this morning, we have no credible evidence of a plot against the Vatican. I do, however, have an officer who is fluent in several languages who is dedicated to scouring Internet chat groups regarding Vatican controversies. I regard it as an early-warning system. It is quite clear that the revelations about this debt and the speculation about the intentions of the Vatican regarding repayment have sparked tremendous debate and even vitriol but no specific threats have emerged at this time. Obviously the situation could change at any moment so our monitoring is continuous. Our operations and control room is staffed twenty-four hours a day.’

  ‘And the demonstrations?’ Lauriat asked.

  ‘As you know, the pope has instructed us to be more tolerant of freedom of expression in the piazza than some of his predecessors,’ Celestino said. ‘However, there are clear red lines that trigger action. We don’t tolerate hate speech or signage or any expressions considered blasphemous. We don’t allow megaphones. We don’t allow the rights of religious or touristic visitors to free passage and general enjoyment to become infringed. We don’t allow any nudity. We don’t allow large crowds to form. We will allow small, respectful demonstrators to congregate for a while before encouraging them to move along.’

  ‘I must say,’ Meyer said, ‘if it were up to the Swiss Guards, we would not permit any organized protests within the Vatican, even though we might sympathize with some of their attitudes.’

  ‘What is that supposed to mean?’ Viola aske
d.

  ‘It means that we always do our job as professionals even when we might have the personal opinions that the Vatican is straying from its course.’

  Viola’s hacking cough flared again before he managed to say, ‘Our personal beliefs must never enter into the conversation.’

  ‘No, I must correct you,’ Meyer said. ‘They must never enter into our work decisions but in a private setting, among colleagues, I see no harm in expressing an opinion when appropriate. Who among us can really say they support the dismantling of the heritage of the Church for the advantage of foreign bankers? It is somewhat horrifying, no?’

  Everyone around Lauriat’s conference table stiffened. It was left to the cardinal secretary to break the silence.

  ‘With all due respect, Herr Meyer, this is not the purpose of today’s meeting.’

  ‘Fine,’ Meyer said, stiffly sitting back in his chair, ‘what else can we do for you, Eminence?’

  Lauriat replied, ‘I would like to go over the schedule of the Holy Father’s public appearances for the next week so that we might anticipate all circumstances.’

  ‘I would ask the Holy Father to limit his public appearances,’ Meyer said. ‘I feel he is safest within the guesthouse with a cordon of Guards around it.’

  ‘The Holy Father has told me he has no intention of reducing his schedule,’ Lauriat said.

  Viola stifled a cough and said, ‘I for one am confident in the precautions we have taken. Besides, the pope has said that the Vatican is watched over by the Archangel Michael. Couple that with our collective expertise and I would say there can be no greater protection than that.’

  Cal was so immersed in the language and cadence of papal bulls that he almost didn’t pick up the call. When he glanced at the number, an unknown one from Manhattan, he reluctantly decided to answer. For all he knew, something was up with his mother. The molasses-slow growl of Detective Gonzalez brought him uncomfortably back to the real world.

  ‘How’re you doing, Professor?’ the detective said. ‘You still in New York or back in Boston?’

  ‘Neither. I’m in Rome.’

  ‘As in Italy?’

  ‘The very place.’

  ‘You get around, don’t you?’

  ‘How can I help you?’

  ‘I’m not sure you can, but seeing where you’re at, maybe I can help you. We’ve got an ID on the guy you popped. Europol had his prints. He’s from where you’re at. More specifically from some place called Catanzaro. You near there?’

  ‘It’s a few hundred miles south.’

  ‘OK. Well, once we had him ID’d we were able to find his hotel in New York and his passport and belongings. Seems he flew into JFK three days before the shootings. He’s a member of a mob. Shit, I can’t pronounce it. Don’t these people use vowels? N-D-something.’

  ‘’Ndrangheta?’

  ‘Bingo. You heard of them.’

  Suddenly Cal felt chilly despite the heat pumping into his hotel room. ‘They’re big in that region of Italy. Calabria.’

  ‘Yeah. Apparently they’ve got some associates in our fair city too. That’s probably how he got the guns though the serial numbers were filed so we might not know for sure. Anyway, I thought you’d like to know. It was an Italian job, like the movie. We’ve asked Europol to help run down known associates over in Italy to see if we can get a handle on motive, but this isn’t smelling like an ordinary robbery no more.’

  ‘Didn’t think it was,’ Cal said.

  ‘Well, you were right. Anyway, stay safe, Professor, and duck if you see any of them Ndra-whatevers over there. If I know more, I’ll fill you in.’

  Cal put down the phone and was about to open the mini-bar for something clear and cold to settle his nerves when he remembered he had an appointment. He needed to stay sober for a while.

  ‘This is excellent work, Professor, an ambitious and successful draft. And so fast! It would have taken my people very much longer.’

  Cal wasn’t used to having his work evaluated in real-time. That’s what he did for his students. And when the evaluator was the pope, the exercise took on a rather unique dimension.

  ‘I’m glad you’re pleased.’

  The draft papal bull ran to almost twenty double-spaced pages including references. A useful template had proven to be John Paul II’s bull Incarnationis Mysterium, ‘The Mystery of the Incarnation’, issued upon the occasion of the Great Jubilee of 2000. While papal bulls always had a certain audience among academics and the faithful, Cal was fairly certain that this one would be the most widely read in history. It was the document that had to lay down the theological rationale and argument for a monumental act of institutional charity and as such he had labored over every word.

  ‘I must say,’ Celestine noted, ‘that I am particularly pleased you gave prominence to Luke 11:41: “But give that which is within as charity, and then all things are clean for you.” For this will surely be a cleansing act for the Church and its followers, will it not?’

  ‘There will be many who take it that way, Holy Father. And realistically, there will be others who won’t.’

  ‘You are correct, of course. This will anger those who are willfully blind to the simple logic and beauty of the act. For the sake of the poor, we must have a poor Church. I will endeavor to explain my decision in essays, in interviews, in any way I can, but the bedrock principles we espouse will be present in this bull. Professor Donovan, I wish to ask you a question because your views are uniquely interesting. You were born to a Jewish mother and a Catholic father. You chose to become a Catholic. You are also a scholar of religion. What is your opinion of the manner in which I am choosing to repay this debt?’

  Cal took a full breath to give himself a moment to collect his thoughts. ‘I have qualms, I must admit, but fundamentally I support it. The Church has always been proud of the way it glorified Christ, the Virgin Mary, and the saints through art and architecture. Losing elements of the Vatican’s central repository of this work saddens me. However, the humanistic principles embodied by your action are far more important. Also, I must say that establishing a foundation that serves the poor of all faiths is heartening. It’s a far more powerful statement than limiting it to a single faith. The last thing I’d say, Holy Father, is that it’s politically enlightened to use the moral obligation of a debt repayment, particularly a debt that was brutally coerced, as an instrument to achieve the moral restructuring of the Church. That said, I do share the concerns of the Sassoons about triggering a tsunami of anti-Semitism.’

  ‘Thank you for your candor. I would like to explore these subjects with you in greater depth. Please give me a day to go over your draft in greater detail. Perhaps I might suggest a revision or two.’

  ‘I hope you will.’

  ‘It occurs to me that apart from one very meager breakfast, the two of us have never dined. What about tomorrow night? Are you available? I can do a little better than the cafeteria.’

  ‘That would be wonderful. There is something else I wanted to mention. I’ve received some information about the man who tried to kill me in New York. He was ’Ndrangheta, sent from Calabria.’

  Cal saw the pontiff’s Adam’s apple rise and fall within his fleshy neck. ‘I feared as much,’ he said. ‘The plotters will stop at nothing.’

  Julian had let Cal know earlier in the day that he wanted to have dinner with him and had made it clear he had no interest in going anywhere with Scotto’s bodyguards in tow. So Julian told Gail he’d be taking room service and turning in early. When it was time to leave, he slipped out of the Excelsior Hotel through the restaurant, avoiding Scotto’s night detail in the lobby.

  He’d told Cal he really craved a juicy burger so they met at the Hard Rock Café, where he got his wish.

  ‘Where’re your bodyguards?’ Cal asked.

  ‘I blew them off,’ Julian said, ordering a beer.

  ‘I don’t think that was a great idea.’

  ‘Don’t tell me you’re buying into Gail
’s paranoia.’

  ‘It’s not paranoia. She’s got it right.’

  Even after Cal told him about the ’Ndrangheta connection, Julian was cavalier.

  ‘I don’t know, Professor. Some shadowy guys sending a mob goon from Italy to prevent you from finding the loan? I think maybe you’ve been watching too many movies.’

  ‘It didn’t feel like a movie when I shot the guy,’ Cal said, before draining his vodka.

  ‘I’m sure it was traumatic but the papers said it was a robbery gone bad.’

  ‘Don’t believe everything you read in the papers.’

  Julian shrugged and steered the conversation away from conspiracies to politics. He and Gail were scheduled to see the pope’s proposed representatives to the IFH board in the morning and Julian wanted to find out as much as he could about the two cardinals who had flown in earlier that day. Over the din of loud music Cal sang Cardinal Da Silva’s praises but confessed to knowing less about the Spanish cardinal, although he was quite sure that Vargas would share Celestine’s views on the core mission of the Church.

  ‘I think you can assume he’s picked two of his most trusted brothers,’ Cal said. ‘You won’t find any daylight between their positions and his.’

  ‘Glad to hear it. They’ll be plenty of organizational bullshit and infighting to come. No sense starting out with it. One voice and all that.’

  Cal smiled. ‘You’re a pretty … confident guy for someone your age. Know that?’

  ‘You were going to say cocky.’

  ‘That was one of the other adjectives I was batting around.’

  ‘I’m my father’s son, I guess. My mother – my real mother – used to tell me that Henry was a cocky bastard when he was young.’

  ‘Did you always want to go into business like him?’

  ‘It was the last thing I wanted until I was a sophomore in college. I took a finance class for a lark and a bell went off. Of course I wasn’t interested in the family biz. Anything but, preferably something in tech, and preferably as far as I could get from New York. Until – well, all this shit. How about you? I read your father was a professor at Harvard. Did you always want to go into the family biz?’