Day Of Confession

158

Marsciano had seen the towering figure through the smoke at the same moment Hercules had thrown his crutch at the black suit. Seen him come up the hill on the far side of the Vatican Radio tower, moving steadily toward it. In that instant Marsciano knew he would not be on the train when it left. Father Daniel or not, Harry Addison and the curious, miraculous dwarf or not, there were other things here. Things that he, and he alone, had to deal with.

Palestrina no longer wore the simple black suit with its humble clerical collar; instead, he was dressed in the vestments of a cardinal of the Church. A black cassock with red piping and red buttons, a red sash at his waist, a red zucchetto on his head. A gold pectoral cross that hung from a gold chain around his neck.

He had paused at the Fountain of the Eagle on his way there, finding it easily, even in the dense smoke. But for the first time ever, the aura of the great heraldic symbol of the Borgheses, which had always touched him so deeply and so personally, from which he had drawn strength and courage and certitude, failed him. What he gazed upon was not magic, did not feed the secret warrior-king in him, as it always had. What he gazed upon was the ancient statue of an eagle. A sculpture. An adornment atop a fountain. Nothing.

A great breath was expelled from within him, and, hand over nose and mouth against the horrid, acrid smoke, he moved on toward the only refuge he knew.

He could feel the thrust of his giant body as he moved up the hill. Feel it even more as he threw open the door and started up the steep, narrow marble stairway toward Vatican Radio's upper floors. More still as he pushed, heart pounding, lungs bursting, to kneel finally on the black marble floor before the altar of Christ in the tiny chapel just off the empty and vacant broadcast rooms.

Empty. Vacant.

Like the eagle.

Vatican Radio was his spire. Self-chosen. The place from which to command the defenses of the kingdom. The place from which to broadcast to the world the greatness of the Holy See. A Holy See more exalted than ever – one that controlled the appointment of bishops, rules for the behaviour of priests, the sacraments, including marriage, the establishment of new churches, seminaries, universities. One that over the next century would be joined, little by little – hamlet to town to city – by a new flock representing one-quarter of the world's population, making Rome again the centerpiece of the most powerful religious denomination on earth. To say nothing of the enormous financial leverage to be garnered through control of that country's water and power, which in turn would govern when and where and what could be built or grown, and by whom. In a very short time a chilling old concept would become the new and lasting one – and all because Palestrina had had the keenness to foresee and create it. Roma locuta est; causa finita est. 'Rome has spoken,' it translated; 'the matter is settled.'

Except that it was not. The Vaticano was under siege, part of it burning. The Holy Father had seen the darkness. The Eagle of the Borgheses had given him nothing. He had been right about Father Daniel and his brother the first time. They had been sent by the spirits of the nether world; the smoke they had created was filled with darkness and disease, the same that had killed Alexander before. So it was Palestrina and not the Holy Father who was mistaken: the thing perched on his shoulder was not the emotional and spiritual infirmities of an old and fearful man but indeed the shadow of death.

Suddenly Palestrina raised his head. He'd thought he was alone. He was not. There was no need to turn. He knew who it was.

'Pray with me, Eminence,' he said softly.

Marsciano stood behind him.

'Pray for what?'

Slowly Palestrina rose up and turned. Looking at Marsciano, he smiled gently. 'Salvation.'

Marsciano stared.

'God has intervened. The poisoner has been caught and killed. There will be no third lake.'

'I know.'

Palestrina smiled once more and then slowly turned back to kneel again in front of the altar and make the sign of the cross. 'Now that you know, pray with me.'

Palestrina felt Marsciano step behind him. Suddenly he grunted. And there was a piercing light brighter than any he had ever seen. He could feel the blade pierce the center of his neck. Between his shoulder blades. Feel the strength and rage in Marsciano's hands as he pressed it down.

'There is no third lake,' Palestrina cried. His chest heaved, his massive hands and arms clawing, flailing behind him to reach Marsciano. But unable to.

'If not today, tomorrow. Tomorrow you would find a way to create another horror. And after that, another. And then another.' In his mind Marsciano saw only the anguished horror of a face seen in close-up on his television screen only moments before Harry Addison had come. It had been that of his friend Yan Yeh as the Chinese banker was led to a waiting car in the Beijing compound after having been informed of the deaths of his wife and son, poisoned by the water in Wuxi.

Staring blindly at the altar cross, over the white blaze of Palestrina's hair in front of him, Marsciano felt the ornate letter opener in his hands as he pushed down, twisting slowly and with all his might as he did, driving it deeper into the neck and body that roiled and writhed like some monstrous serpent trying to escape. Afraid that it might slip out of hands already coated and slippery with the statesman's blood.

Then he heard Palestrina cry out and felt his body shudder once against the blade, and then he was still. A huge breath escaped Marsciano and, letting go, he stumbled back. Bloodied hands before him. His heart pounding. Horrified at what he had done.

'Holy Mary, Mother of God' – his voice was a whisper – 'pray for us sinners, now and at the moment of our death…'

Suddenly, he felt a presence and looked around.

Farel stood in the doorway behind him.

'You were right, Eminence,' he said softly, and closed the door behind him. 'Tomorrow he would have found another lake…' Farel's eyes went to Palestrina and he stared for a long moment before he looked back to Marsciano.

'What you did had to be done. I had not the courage… He was, as he said, a street urchin, a scugnizzo… nothing more.'

'No, Dottor Farel,' Marsciano said. 'He was a man and a cardinal of the Church.'