Black Madonna

21

She’d changed little. There were a few, just a very few white and gray hairs scattered among the thatch of black, but her blue eyes were as liquid bright and ocean deep as ever they had been. Geraint hadn’t thought that eyes so dark blue could be found outside of Tir Na nOg, but he’d been mistaken. And he’d looked into them long enough to be sure, those many years ago.

“It’s been a long time, Geraint,” Cecilia said in her soft voice.

“I needed the time,” he said simply.

Geraint took her hand and led her down the marbled corridor, into the conservatory garden. He knew every inch of the house, and it hadn’t changed much in all this time. Some of the trees had grown more than he might have expected; the freak olive, with its cinnamon-edged leaves, had flourished and stood double his height now. He sat down with her at the bronze-topped iron table and presented her with his gift.

She opened the packaging, pushing back the layers of silky, pearl-colored tissue paper, and took out the dress. It was the simple, classic, small black dress that has always flattered the woman slim and small enough to wear it well. She was about to compliment him on it when her hand found the jewel box underneath it. Her eyes darted a glance at him, then dipped again as she flipped it open and took out the pearls inside. She smiled at him.

“These are truly beautiful,” Cecilia said quietly. “You flatter me.”

“Impossible,” he said, returning her smile. He was indescribably relieved to find that he could gaze steadily at her and not feel as if his heart was about to burst. “Flattery is an untruth. They suit you. Nothing less would have done.”

She put her elbows on the table and cupped her face in her hands. If her eyes had not quite cut him to the quick, the small, upturned nose, at least, gave him a pang that reached back through the years for his heart.

“You always were the perfect gentleman,” she said, the same quiet smile playing about her face. “Ah, it is good to see you. You look well. But a little tired. What have you been up to?”

“Ah, well, Contessa, that is a long story.” He grinned, lighting a cigarette for her.

“And like so many of your long stories, not one I’m going to be told,” she chided him. “You British are always so.”

He looked away with a rueful expression. “I’m not so sure of that, but in this case it’s purely business.”

“You are not married,” she observed.

“You neither,” he replied, wanting to get the ball out his court swiftly.

“I said you were the perfect gentleman,” she told him, “Men here, they want sex, or money, or a name, for reputation and wealth. And if they love me, it is swiftly over. I am no longer of such an age that I can summon that emotion so easily in a man’s heart, nor keep it fixed there.”

“I doubt that,” he replied with feeling. Cecilia de Medici had not changed so very much after all. But he stiffened just a little as she poured a second glass of wine for herself, not more than a few minutes after the first, which had been waiting for her when she arrived. He had only sipped his. That had been the reason why he could not, after her husband Bernardo died in one of Italy’s staggering tally of road accidents, come back to her. It was her fatal weakness, and if her face and body did not show the ravages as yet, it would not be so very long before they did. Not that that had worried him; it had been the effect on her emotions, the terrible black depression that settled on her when she was drunk, then remained with her for days stretching into weeks, further fueled by the endless drinking.

When she was like that, and she had been so very often, she drained emotion and life from all around her. Geraint hadn’t wanted to end up floating down the river, as others had before him. Lovers died because of this woman. She’d told him once, when he’d found the bruises on her and was ready to rip Bernardo apart with his bare hands, that sometimes she deserved them. Geraint had been young then, and uncomprehending but over the coming months had grown older and wiser very swiftly.

But it is bright here, he thought now, looking around at the sun-filled conservatory; and unless I am much mistaken that is Maria, her maid still, and by God she was an oasis of sanity in this household. And there are still the glorious paintings, and the sculptures, and the hoard of Medici papers the family discovered recently in some long-abandoned country house, so I am bound to be shown those I can get through this. There should be enough to keep all the bad memories at bay. The trick will be not to remember the good ones.

“what did he leave unfinished?” Michael said. Serrin was flicking through books, print-outs, and piles of paper, and

Englishman was calling up archival and library material from everywhere he could think to look.

“There isn’t really any single thing. There’s nothing specific when he died,” Serrin said. But I came across something interesting here, from a biography. Listen to this.

“ ‘He had progressively purified the syntax of his work throughout his career, finally reaching one supreme emotion that contains all others-and since some element of his sexuality crept into it, reason cannot always resist the overwhelming impression it conveys. John the Baptist leads to every temptation. I like to think that this was Leonardo’s last work-in some sense his final will and testament. His subject has ceased to be “a voice crying in the wilderness” He has reached the ultimate limits of human knowledge; he smiles and points at the source of evrything, which amazes him but which is unfathomable’.”

“And he has the Mona Lisa smile. The smile of the shroudman Matrix icon.”

“There’s something else too. The writer says that John the Baptist was painted at the same time that Leonardo was drawing terrifying images of an apocalypse. There are some entries from Leonardo’s diaries here about this.

“Ah yes: ‘The submerged fields will display waters carrying tables, beds, boats, and other improvised craft, out of both necessity and fear of death; on them, men, women, and children, huddled together, will be crying and lamenting, terrified by the furious tornado that whips up the waves and with them the corpses of the drowned… The waves strike against them and repeatedly buffet them with the bodies of the drowned, and these impacts destroy those in whom a breath of life still pulses… Oh, how many people you will see stopping their ears with their hands, so as not to hear the mighty noise with which the violence of the winds, mingled with the rain and the thunder, and the cracking of the thunderbolts fills the darkened air! Others, losing their reason, commit suicide, despairing of being able to bear such torture; some hurl themselves from the top of ridges, other strangle themselves with their Own hands, others again seize their children and kill them with a blow. Oh, how many mothers brandish their fists against the heavens and weep for the drowned sons they hold on their knees, howling curses on the wrath of the gods.”

“By the spirits, I had no idea be ever wrote anything like that.” Serrin closed the book; he looked genuinely distressed by what he’d read.

“But it makes sense,” Michael said. “It’s the Biblical apocalypse, isn’t it? And at the same time he paints John, the author of Revelation? For reassurance about deliverance? The Baptist may be a strange figure, but he looks incredibly serene to me.”

“Does it occur to you that if this kind of apocalypse was in Leonardo’s mind at the end of his life, that our quarry may be filled with something of the same horror and madness? And what could you do with twenty billion nuyen?” Serrin said, shaking a little.

“Oh, hell,” Michael breathed, turning a little pale himself. “You don’t think, surely-”

“I don’t know. We could be following the wrong route entirely. We just don’t know. And what did his biographer mean by saying that John the Baptist leads to every temptation?”

“Look, guys, I’ve had enough of this bollocks,” Streak said suddenly, getting to his feet. “You two are talking out of your arses. How about finding me someone to shoot? That, I can do.”

Michael had just opened his mouth to hurl some reply when there was a soft knock at the door. It was a maid, small and dark, holding a silver tray with a small card on it. When bade enter, she looked about her.

“You are English Michael?” she said, looking at the man.

“I am, thank you. That is for me?” he replied, puzzled. “Thanyou,” she said sweetly, putting the tray down on the table before him and sashaying out of the room.

“Who knows we’re here?” Michael questioned.

“Don’t touch it,” Streak growled. “It could have contact poison.”

“The maid isn’t dead,” Serrin said sarcastically. Streak pulled a pair of tweezers from one of his pockets and held up the card for Michael to read.

“A small token of esteem will arrive for you at five clock this afternoon,” Michael recited. “Beautiful handwriting.”

“That’s it?” Serrin enquired.

“That’s it.”

“From whom?”

“I haven’t the foggiest.”

“Get that bloody maid back in here!” Streak snarled. He took a couple of paces to the doorway.

“Let me,” Michael stopped him in a weary tone of voice. “I think I can handle this a little more diplomatically.”

He left for the domestics quarters and returned within couple of minutes, looking distinctly puzzled. “She doesn’t remember.”

“Oh, great, someone called no more than five minutes ago and she can’t remember what he looked like?”

“No. She doesn’t remember anyone calling. She doesn’t remember giving me the card. She says she’s been stocking the linen cupboards.”

“Did you get the right maid?”

“Give me a break,” Michael complained, “I can tell the difference between a maid in her twenties, five foot one or so, slim and dark, and one who looks like a retired member of the Bulgarian Olympic shot-putting squad.”

“Can you deal with it?” Streak asked Serrin. He drew the obvious implication that the maid must have had some memory-affecting suggestion implanted magically in her mind.

“Possibly, but why? He’s going to be back at five o’clock, right?”

“I suppose so,” Streak said, fidgeting. “I’ll be waiting for the bugger when he gets here.”

“We might actually want to talk to him,” Serrin pointed out.

“I had lasers in mind,” Streak said defensively. “I think we might opt for something a little less aggressive,” Serrin replied sharply. “Whatever, we’ll wait for Geraint. He should be back soon, and we’ve got three hours before the little token turns up.”

“Can we go sightseeing?” Kristen asked plaintively. “I’d really like to get out of here and look around.”

Serrin was on the point of refusing, when he stopped to think about it. “I don’t see why not if we stick to a car,” he said. “After this morning it would be best not to go about on foot. If they were prepared to take a crack at us outside a church, they’d take a crack anywhere.”

“Okay.” She was a little disappointed, and not able hide it very well.

“Look, when this is all over we’ll come back and see the place properly. And it’ll all be over one way or another very soon,” Serrin said soothingly.

“Yeah, and whether the Jesuits still want to kill you may still be up for grabs,” Streak pointed out. “Sorry be a party-pooper, but-”

“I think Geraint just got back,” Michael said, looking out the window. “Keep any wisecracks down. I was winding him up before, but I think this won’t have been much fun for him.” He decided, on impulse, not to trust Streak’s discretion in particular, so he got up and raced downstairs to the hallway.

It didn’t look good, “You okay?”

“Don’t ask. It’s no use. Nothing has changed. If anything, she drinks even more than before.” Geraint’s voice was filled with sadness, weariness, but above all resignation. “I want to be out of here tonight. I’ll fix something with the consulate. Get packed.”

“Someone is delivering something for us at five o’clock. I guess,” Michael extrapolated wildly, “that it may be some kind of message from our target. From the blond man, probably.”

“All right,” Geraint said, too drained of emotional energy to argue. “Get packed so we can be out of here right afterward. I have some calls to make. See you later.”

He didn’t even ask about their continuing researches, just made his way to his room and locked the door behind him.

That’s the difference between us, Michael thought after his friend had disappeared from view. We can both do the British gentleman act to a tee. Everyone looks for the deeper stuff behind that facade. I’m the lucky one. I don’t have any depth. I am facade. It’s a lot less stressful like that. I don’t end up locking myself in my room.

With a shrug, he turned and followed his friend up the stairs.

Across the city, three men stood ashamed before a seated figure, their heads held rigid but their eyes downcast. Their interrogator wore clothes akin to those of a Vatican cardinal, but simpler and more austere. Eyes the gray of graite stared out at them over the bridge of his hooked nose.

“So you failed,” was all he said speaking in harsh Spanish.

The men stayed silent.

“And now they may be one step nearer. Fortunately, we ahead of them. We know where the heretic is now. And against my better judgment, I shall grant you a second chance. Not that I will trust you alone, needless to say. Nadal will command the unit.”

The men did not look at each other, did not move at all, but their hearts sank. Juan Nadal was as fanatical as any commander they could have hoped to avoid. Formally titled an Assistant, nothing could have been further from the truth. Nadal was as powerful as the General himself and when he spoke at the Gesu, everyone listened. Those who had worked with Nadal in the New Inquisition didn’t speak of it. His name itself was only whispered, and then in fear.

“I hardly need add that if you fail this time, you will have an eternity to pray that you might receive the blessed mercy of purgatory. Remember that the faithful who disappoint God are more damned than those who have never heeded his words. Do not fail Him again.”

The men turned away and said nothing as they trooped quietly toward the unvarnished wooden door. The one to the left of the group twitched just slightly, a muscle in his left hand overtensed and dysfunctional. He bailed his hand into a fist and said nothing.