The Venice conspiracy

CHAPTER 49

Present Day Hotel Rotoletti, Venice Valentina is in Tom's tiny shower, simultaneously trying to sober up and live down the embarrassment of arriving on his doorstep in the early hours. Though Tom's been at pains to reassure her that there's nothing to be embarrassed about, she seems mortified about what she's done.

Tom is just thinking about taking a walk to grab coffee and pastries when his cellphone rings.

'It's Alfie – can you speak?'

Tom's surprised but pleased to hear his old friend's voice. 'Yes, of course. Thanks for calling. Did you find anything?'

Alfie sounds stressed. 'Not as much as I thought. I used our computerised search engines to trawl through everything connected to the keywords liver – Etruscans – symbols – squares – oblongs – snakes – rituals – priests…'

'Sounds quite a trawl.'

'It was.' Alfie pauses as if he's looking around, making sure no one is watching. 'Tom, I'm nervous about what I'm going to tell you.'

'Go on.'

'Etruscan is one of those dead languages, so it's been hard to cross-check things and find definite sources, but I came across a tale that may cause some concern within the Church.'

'Alfie, the suspense is killing me.'

'You know of the Piacenza Liver, right?'

'The bronze artefact that was used to teach priests how to divine livers?'

'That's the one. It's widely believed to be the oldest and best-preserved of Etruscan artefacts, but there are suggestions of something that considerably predates it.'

'Another metal liver?'

'No. Something more precious. An artefact referred to as the Tablets of Atmanta. It's made up of three silver tablets that interlock to form a single oblong scene, and allegedly dates back hundreds of years before the birth of Christ.'

Tom feels his pulse quicken. 'Go on.'

'The tablets are said to depict an awful vision by a netsvis called Teucer. Apparently he went blind – either during the vision or just afterwards, I can't work out which – but it seems his wife was a sculptress named Tetia and she captured the vision in these tablets. The middle one is believed to show Teucer; while another depicts him and his wife with their child, who neither of them lived to see. The final tablet is said to show a divinity that at the time was unknown in the Etruscan pantheon but is thought to be a demonic deity like Aita, lord of the underworld.'

Tom is fascinated. 'And the snakes, any mention of them?'

'I nearly forgot: the Tablets of Atmanta are also referenced as the Gates of Destiny.'

'Gates?'

'Yes. It seems hundreds of snakes were etched into the tablets. They ran vertically and horizontally and overlapped each other so they formed what looked like gates.' He hesitates. 'I guess the gates to the afterlife.'

'That's great, Alfie. Really helpful.' Tom hears Valentina moving around the bedroom. 'Why were you nervous about telling me this?'

There's a pause before Alfredo Giordano answers. 'It's not what I've told you that makes me nervous, Tom. It's what I haven't told you. The records are incomplete. Some of the information has been classified "restricted". Whatever's in there is so sensitive it's been locked up in the Holy See's secret archives.'