The Key

84

Vatican City

Clementi swallowed drily, his eyes fixed on the darkness of his office, staring at nothing. He had promised to call Pentangeli back once he’d checked in with his field operatives and found out what was happening. The latest report lay open on his desk, filed from the airport in New Jersey. He had dialled the contact number on the cover sheet, but no one was answering. There was a bump next door and the scrape of a chair across the floor. His Holiness was awake, undoubtedly roused by the sound of the phone ringing.

Clementi put the phone down and flicked on the desk lamp, revealing the spill of newspapers across the office floor where he’d knocked them over in his hurry on the way in. He dropped to his knees and started tidying them up in case the Pope decided to pay an unscheduled visit. If asked, he would say it was something to do with the global financial market; His Holiness always glazed over when he started talking about money — therein lay a large part of the Church’s problems.

As he placed the last newspaper back on his desk his eyes snagged on the front page. It showed two photographs, one of Liv Adamsen and one of Gabriel Mann. Above them was the banner headline: MISSING PRESUMED MURDERED?

An overwhelming wave of pure hatred consumed him. How could these people, these nobodies, be causing him such trouble?

He looked back up at the computer monitor to check the time and spotted the unopened email from earlier. It had been sent by Dr Harzan, the operations manager at the desert compound. He had skipped over it because of the ringing phone and the pressing urgency of the other email in the inbox. He opened it now and read its short but wonderful contents. It was miraculous, like a ray of sun shining through storm clouds, or the answer to a long-held prayer. We found it — and it’s far, far bigger than any of us dared hope.

Clementi read and reread the note, all the stress of the last weeks — years even — melting away in the warm glow of those few simple words.

They had found it, buried in the desert of northern Iraq, hidden throughout history, only to be found again by him, for the greater glory of God.