Day Of Confession

154

Marsciano was pressed back against the wall when he heard the lock turn in the door. He'd heard the gunshots outside in the hallway. The breaking glass and the screaming. His prayers were twofold. That Father Daniel was coming for him. And that he wasn't.

Then the door banged open and Harry Addison stood there.

'It's all right-' he said quietly and closed the door behind him, locking it.

'Where is Father Daniel?'

'Waiting for you.'

'There are men outside.'

'We're going out anyway.'

Glancing around, Harry saw the bathroom and went in. A moment later he came out carrying three wetted hand towels.

'Tie this over your nose and mouth.' Harry handed Marsciano a towel, then went quickly to the glass doors and threw them open. Heavy smoke wafted in. At the same time, an apparition dropped from the sky.

Marsciano started. A tiny man with a huge head and larger chest stood on the balcony, a rope harness slung around him.

'Eminence.' Hercules smiled, bowing his head respectfully.

Thomas Kind's radio picked it up the same time it came over Adrianna's cell phone, her open line patched into the radio communication between her crews.

'I don't know if anybody cares in all this, but the railroad gates are open in the Vatican wall, and a work engine's going toward it.'

'Skycam, are you sure?' Adrianna was talking to her helicopter pilot, who was just coming in over Vatican territory from the south.

'Affirmative.'

Adrianna turned quickly from the phone and looked to Eaton. 'The Vatican railroad gates are open, a work engine's going in.'

Eaton stared. 'Christ – it's how they're getting Marsciano out!'

'Skycam, stay on the engine. Stay on it!' Thomas Kind heard Adrianna finish and click off.

Suddenly he was turning the key, starting the Mercedes engine. There had been no communication from any of the men inside the tower, and he couldn't wait longer to find out what had happened. Throwing the car in gear, he fishtailed out of the gravel path and onto the narrow road beside the tower wall. Peering through the smoke and ash, he accelerated. Suddenly bushes were flying past. Then there was a loud bang as he sideswiped a tree and slid sideways into the thick of a hedgerow. Where the road had turned he had no idea. Violently, he threw it in reverse. There was a roar of engine and the whine of tires. The car shuddered but didn't move. Flinging open the door, he saw the wheels spinning on the green of the torn shrubbery as if it were ice.

Cursing in his native Spanish, he climbed out, choking against the smoke, and ran off on foot in the direction of the station.