The Lost Testament

58

Father Antonio Morini was again wearing civilian clothes and walking steadily down a narrow street in Rome when he received a text on his cell phone from a British-registered mobile.

He continued walking as he took out his mobile and read the message, which was brief to the point of abruptness. It simply stated ‘On sale’ and gave the address of a website he’d never heard of before, but he knew immediately what that had to mean. He turned around and immediately began retracing his steps, his stride noticeably brisker than before.

Back in his office in the Vatican, Morini sat down at the table and lifted the lid of his laptop to wake up the machine. As soon as all the programs were working again, he opened his browser and input the URL. Seconds later, he was staring at the images of the lost parchment.

This was immediate confirmation to him that the man Husani had obtained the genuine relic, but he still had no idea of the exact mechanism by which it had reappeared. The Vatican had for many years employed a policy of photographing books and manuscripts and other objects which were held in the Vatican Library or elsewhere in the Holy See, even objects which it did not officially acknowledge that it owned. In an encrypted folder on his hard drive, Morini had copies of those original photographs of the relic. He was absolutely sure about what he was looking at.

Although it would take a lot of work before anybody would be able to read the entire text, Morini guessed that whoever possessed the parchment would eventually decipher it. And then they would fully understand why it was such a colossal threat to the credibility of the Vatican, of the Pope and indeed of the entire Roman Catholic religion.

He walked out of the Vatican again and as soon as he was out on the streets he made the call.