Papal decree

35

Not everything is what it seems. Who would guess that a simple London taxi, one of thousands cruising the British capital every day, would be the target of intense surveillance by the CIA?

David Barry remained at his command post, monitoring every detail transmitted on the screens and simultaneously anticipating and providing for every eventuality.

‘Great Russell Street,’ Staughton alerted them.

‘Is the team on the ground?’ Barry asked.

‘Affirmative,’ Aris assured him. ‘Prepared and waiting.’

‘Remember, we’re only going to observe. Any change in the plan must come from me and me alone. I don’t want any extemporizing, understood?’

Aris, Staughton, Davis, and the other technicians answered with an okay, so there would be no doubt.

Samantha burst into the control center at precisely that moment. Barry looked at her.

‘What do you have for me?’

Samantha made a brief report on each of the victims and their professional and personal background. Barry listened carefully while keeping his eyes on the monitors.

‘Jesuits?’ Barry commented when Samantha was through reporting. ‘What’s the common denominator?’

‘All worked for the Vatican, but at different times,’ Sam informed him.

‘Is that all?’ Barry didn’t want anything to escape him.

‘Apparently so. I’m still checking on what they did for the Holy See. They could have even been working on the same project at different times,’ she replied.

‘Well done,’ he said, raising his voice. ‘Do we have the museum cameras?’

‘They’re with me,’ Davis said.

‘Staughton, man the satellite. We’re going to depend on it for the first few yards.’

‘It’s secure. No one will get away,’ the technician assured him.

‘Stand by, folks,’ Barry alerted them.

The taxi entered Gower Street and then turned to the left at Great Russell Street, where the museum appeared on the right. The taxi pulled over. For a few moments nothing happened, but then two passengers got out into the cold.

‘They’re with you, Staughton.’

The technician, so used to these situations, handled the joystick calmly. The image focused to show the two men crossing the street and entering the gates of the museum, which at that hour already had thousands of visitors. It was a great archive of human history, with thousands of objects from every continent, the most remote locations, and the most ancient civilizations.

The Ionic columns stood imposingly at its entrance, marking a separation between two worlds, the frenetic, modern one and the dead past.

‘Alert the agents on the ground,’ Barry ordered.

Aris communicated with his men.

‘Don’t be careless. I don’t want them to detect us,’ the director said.

‘They’re going into the building,’ Staughton said. ‘Now it’s up to you, Davis.’

The cameras of the Great Court, an enormous dome with windows, became the eyes of the control center. Various angles of the Great Court appeared on the central monitor.

‘There they are,’ Davis said.

‘Where can they be going?’ Barry asked.

Staughton superimposed a map of the museum on his monitor, defined the specified location, and designated the possible exits.

‘There are several possibilities,’ Staughton said. ‘They could go into the Reading Room, the circular library in the middle of the Great Court that only has one entrance and one exit. To the right they could go to the King’s Library, left to the ancient Egypt room, or straight ahead to the Wellcome Trust Gallery. Each location connects with other rooms.’

‘We have the Great Court well covered with cameras, so it’s better to place the agents at the exits. We don’t want to lose them,’ Barry ordered. ‘What are they doing there?’ he was asking himself more than the others. ‘What’s your plan, Rafael?’

‘It’s a good place for a meeting,’ Aris suggested. ‘You have to admit it.’

Barry said nothing but silently agreed.

The images continued to show the two men, the dark one and the white-haired man.

‘Define the image more, Davis,’ the director asked.

‘It’s at maximum.’

The maximum wasn’t much, and, additionally, the cameras lacked the resolution of the satellite image. They were not made for surveillance but only to save money and dissuade theft.

‘They’re going toward the cafeteria,’ a voice over the radio alerted them. ‘They’re passing me.’

‘Okay, Travis,’ Aris said. ‘Keep your distance.’

There were two cafes next to each other at the extreme north end of the Great Court. They served hot and cold drinks, sandwiches for every taste. Jews, Arabs, and believers of other faiths, including those of the church, could find something to eat there. No one was left out. The two targets chose the cafeteria on the right that had a line of about five people.

Barry was impatient. Too much suspense and too little information. He needed more than he had.

‘Are they going to eat?’ he wondered.

‘Looks like it,’ Staughton confirmed.

Barry looked at the technician as if he’d just had an inspiration. ‘Can you see through the glass of the Great Court?’

Staughton sat down in his chair and began playing with the controls. ‘If it’s not reflecting too much sun.’

The image that showed the outside of the building focused over it until it met the glass. The reflection on the east part was too much and obscured the image, just a white brilliance, but when it passed the Reading Room, it cleared and captured movement below.

‘Good,’ Barry said. ‘Go to them next and focus the image.’

Staughton executed the order quickly, and in seconds the image displayed the two men. Jacopo in the front of the Court Cafe line, Rafael behind.

Something was wrong about the picture. Barry smelled something funny and shook his head.

‘What’s going on?’ Aris asked about the gesture.

‘Something’s not right,’ Barry said.

Aris looked at the image, just like all the others. He felt he was missing some detail the director had noticed. What? All those cameras and agents, and the director saw more than they did.

‘What’s the matter, David?’ Aris insisted.

Jacopo and Rafael stood in line. There were two people in front of them waiting to be helped.

‘Son of a bitch,’ Barry swore.

The others continued in their ignorance. Barry grabbed his cell phone and dialed a number, then engaged the speaker so the whole room could hear. A beep indicated the call was beginning. The agents still didn’t understand.

‘What’s wrong with this picture?’ Barry asked.

No one answered. They looked blankly at the director and the image.

‘Does anyone know?’ Barry demanded.

Aris was the first to see it. ‘The phone isn’t ringing there.’

‘Order your men to go in, Aris. Detain them, without making a scene,’ Barry emphasized.

Aris gave the order over the radio. From the various internal cameras in the museum, agents could be seen converging on the cafeteria on the right.

‘Without making a scene,’ Barry repeated.

‘What’s going on, David?’ Staughton insisted.

Barry raised his hand to ask for silence. His eyes never left the central monitor.

The two men saw the six agents coming from different sides with their eyes fixed on them. They wasted no time leaving the line and starting to run away.

‘There they go, making a scene,’ Barry criticized, and then turned to Staughton. ‘The taxi. Can you get it?’

Staughton looked at him without understanding.

Jacopo and Rafael were caught quickly and brought outside the building.

‘Check their identity,’ Barry ordered. ‘Quickly.’

The images showed one of the agents searching the men. ‘We have here a Jacopo Sebastiani, Italian, and a… Steve Foster, English… taxi driver.’

Staughton finally understood Barry’s question. ‘It’s going to take time to find him,’ he said apologetically.

‘That son of a bitch,’ Barry swore again.

‘Uh!’ Travis interrupted over the radio. ‘Rafael would like to give the director some information.’

‘What is it?’ Aris asked.

‘Eight o’clock, the Osteria de Memmo I Santori, number twenty-two, Via dei Soldati. Don’t be late.’

Barry was furious, but he tried not to show it to the team. Rafael had made fools of them.

Not everything is what it seems.