The Lost Testament

4

‘Dear God,’ Morini murmured when Gianni finished speaking ‘Dear God, save us all.’

And then Morini fell silent, as his mind processed the information he had just been given. Finally, he began questioning the dying man.

‘But why did they put it there? Why didn’t they lock it away somewhere in the archives? Or even destroy it?’

Gianni shook his head. ‘I don’t know. I suppose the fear was that wherever it was hidden in the archives there was always a chance that some researcher might stumble over it one day. Destroying it was not really an option. You know as well as I do that the Vatican hardly ever destroys anything. I suppose putting it inside another exhibit in a glass case, in a part of the Holy See to which public access was never granted, and choosing a display case that would never be opened except under the tightest supervision and only then by senior Vatican officials, was seen as the safest alternative.’

‘Which we now know wasn’t safe at all,’ Morini retorted. Then he asked the obvious question. ‘Does anybody else know about this?’

‘The Prefect of the Archivum Secretum Vaticanum at the time we are talking about obviously knew what had happened, and he conveyed that information to the Holy Father. In return, he was ordered to reveal the facts to nobody except his immediate successor in charge of the archive. I was the third Prefect to bear the weight of this information and this responsibility, and you are now the fourth.’

‘And his Holiness? Does he know about this?’

Gianni nodded slightly.

‘Since that date, every pope has been made aware of it, and keeping each pontiff informed is one of your duties. If our present Holy Father should succumb while you are in the post, you will be required to explain the situation to the new occupant of the throne of St Peter. It is likely that you will be summoned to a private audience with his Holiness over the next few weeks to discuss this, once I am no longer here. But nobody else, nobody at all, inside or outside the Vatican, must ever learn what you now know.’

Morini nodded, his mind still reeling.

Then Gianni’s grip tightened on the younger man’s arm.

‘But you do understand, Antonio?’ he asked, his voice beseeching. ‘You do understand what must be done, what the Holy Father has instructed is to be carried out if the unthinkable happens?’

Morini nodded again.

‘You need have no concerns about that, my old friend. I know where my duty lies, and the importance of the Mother Church. You can rest assured that I will take whatever steps are necessary to ensure that it will never, ever, see the light of day.’

‘And the other measures that I explained to you?’ Gianni insisted.

‘They are unpleasant,’ Morini said, choosing his words carefully, ‘but in the circumstances I am certain that they would be entirely justified. Those, too, I will arrange to carry out if it ever becomes necessary to do so.’