Papal decree

32

Sarah shivered. Cold sweat dampened her face, and fear overpowered her. She shut her eyes, but not even that stopped the sensation of imminent danger. The cold barrel of the gun pressed the back of her head, and fear gave way to panic. She could feel the end.

‘Don’t do it. Please,’ she managed to stammer out.

‘You know too much, and at the moment you’re an obstacle for us,’ a male voice said. ‘Your grave has been dug for a long time.’

How could this be the end? So slow and so fast at the same time, unforeseeable, unknown. The place was dark. She couldn’t see anything inside or out. Eyes shut, making a huge effort to keep from opening them, she felt only herself, and the barrel of the gun.

‘Good-bye, Sarah,’ a voice said.

Sarah’s body tensed, but her panic vanished. She resigned herself.

‘Francesco’ was the last thing she said before her face exploded in a sea of blood and flesh.

‘Time to wake up,’ he heard a male voice say, followed by two slaps to the face.

Francesco woke up from the nightmare, frightened. He was lying in a double bed. The man who had woken him up was the same one who’d approached him on Via dei Cestari. He was wearing a well-tailored Armani suit, and limped with his left leg. Francesco couldn’t say whether it was the same suit or not, but then he hadn’t had much time to observe. The man tossed a towel and some clothes in his direction.

‘The bathroom is out there,’ he pointed. ‘Take a shower and get dressed. You have five minutes.’

‘Where are we?’ Francesco asked, half lying and half sitting.

The man turned his back and left the room.

Francesco tried to remember the strange events of the night before, Sarah’s departure with the priest, the waiting, the phone call instructing him to go to Piazza di Gesu and then along Largo di Torre Argentina, where the drunk had approached him. He couldn’t remember what had happened after that. He must have been drugged. He couldn’t believe he’d have slept so easily without knowing where Sarah was. Where was she? Still in Rome? He was clearly in a luxurious hotel room, but it wasn’t the Palatino. He got up and went to the window. He opened the curtain and looked out over buildings stretching toward the horizon. It was morning. Below, the traffic was building up to a frenzy. He didn’t recognize any building in particular. He was not in Rome.

He looked for his watch, but it had disappeared. Damn. He looked for his cell phone, but couldn’t find it, either. All of his belongings had disappeared. The clothes the other one had tossed to him were new. He sat down on the edge of the bed and rubbed the back of his neck. He felt tired and disoriented. Someone had to have answers. Only he didn’t know if he was ready to know them.

He got up and took a quick shower before the crippled man returned to the room. He used the shampoo and gel from the hotel — a five-star, no doubt. He couldn’t understand the words on the bottles. No matter how much he washed, he continued to feel dirty, a filth that stuck to him even when he dried off. He was still devastated. He wanted to know about Sarah. His heart beat fast with anxiety and exasperation. He lacked the one feeling that gave a person well-being: control. Without it, he was totally lost, more than just geographically.

The man in the Armani suit returned to the room while Francesco was tying his shoelaces. He looked at the journalist disdainfully and opened the door.

‘Let’s go.’ It was an order, not a request.

Francesco went out hesitantly, unsure which way to turn.

‘Straight ahead,’ the other said.

‘Are you going to tell me where we are?’ Francesco asked.

‘This is not the time to ask me questions,’ the other warned. ‘Left.’

Francesco went left. There was a long corridor with innumerable doors, but they didn’t enter any of them. He came to a hall with elevators.

‘Push the button,’ said the man in the Armani suit.

Francesco obeyed. An elderly couple came out of a room and waited with them. The woman greeted them in English.

‘Hello.’

‘Hello,’ they both replied.

Francesco was apprehensive.

‘Don’t take the next elevator,’ the unknown man whispered.

A bell announced the arrival of the elevator. The two men let the elderly couple take it and waited for the next one. Francesco went in first. The man in the Armani suit pressed a button that Francesco couldn’t see. The doors closed and the elevator began to rise.

It was only a few moments, but to Francesco it seemed an eternity. He felt more anxious and alarmed as they ascended. The thought struck him that the unknown man would tie him up on the top floor, and he imagined falling down the stories, desperate, helpless, until he struck the floor below. On the other hand, it was hardly credible that whoever was behind this would plot such a complicated scheme for so simple an ending. They could have killed him more easily anytime.

Stop thinking about it, he ordered himself. Whatever will be will be.

The doors opened onto another corridor full of rooms. Francesco went out first, completely ignoring the luxurious decor.

‘Left,’ said the other one following him. ‘Keep straight ahead.’

Francesco complied, with careful steps, neither too fast nor too slow, expecting the worst.

‘Here,’ the other said, moving ahead to a door and lightly knocking twice.

From inside came a ‘Come in.’

The man in the Armani suit, always with an unfriendly expression, opened the door and let Francesco enter. Then he shut it, leaving him alone with whoever was inside the room.

Francesco found himself in an enormous suite. He couldn’t see who had told him to come in.

‘Buon giorno,’ he heard a man say. ‘Come closer.’

The voice came from a room on the right. Francesco found a very old man, seated in a chair, looking out a large window. He was dressed in white. He spoke perfect Italian without an accent.

‘Closer, Francesco,’ the old man insisted.

Francesco approached cautiously, never taking his eyes off the man. Who was he?

‘Who are you, sir?’ he finally worked up enough courage to ask.

‘Who I am is not important,’ the old man replied.

He got up painfully with the help of a cane with the gold head of a lion on the top, and approached the window. Francesco stood by him and looked out at the city spread before them. This time Francesco recognized it. He’d never visited it. He recognized the gold dome from news broadcasts. In front of them lay the holy city of Jerusalem.

‘Where’s Sarah?’ was a more important question.

‘In the service of God.’

What a ridiculous answer. What did he mean by that?

‘You in the service of God, too?’ he asked somewhat recklessly.

‘I?’ he smiled. ‘I have no master. Call me JC.’

‘JC? What do you mean by that?’

‘JC,’ the old man repeated.

Francesco pointed toward the city.

‘What are we doing here?’ He couldn’t hide his irritation.

JC didn’t answer right away. He looked at the city for a few moments and then sighed deeply, before he finally spoke, as coldly as an iceberg. ‘Jerusalem. It was here everything began… It’ll be here that everything ends.’