Luis Rocha - Papal decree

One shot. Two. Right to the head to make sure. Schmidt couldn’t react, only staring at the fallen bodies of the agents, incredulously.

Tarcisio blessed himself. William fell out of his chair. Rafael pointed the gun at Schmidt and approached him. ‘Quiet. Get on the floor.’ He looked at Adolph. ‘You, too. Get on the floor.’

Adolph refused and looked at him sternly. ‘Do you know who I am?’

‘I don’t know, and I don’t care,’ Barry grumbled, approaching them. ‘Do what he told you, old man, before God calls you to wash His feet.’

Adolph got down, scowling with fury.

‘Check to see if they’re armed,’ Barry ordered Aris, who shook down Adolph and Schmidt, taking a gun and radio from the latter.

The adrenaline began to kick in.

‘What was all that about the pope giving in?’ Barry asked.

‘I have no idea,’ Rafael answered, turning to the cardinals, who didn’t know what was going on, either. ‘Let’s wait and see.’

‘Call your man,’ Barry ordered Adolph.

The superior general, his head resting on the floor, gestured toward Schmidt. Aris returned the radio to the priest.

‘Nicolas, where are you?’

The reply was immediate. ‘I’m up here at the entrance. I’m bringing you some company. There are Swiss Guards outside. Tell them not to come in, if they don’t want to get covered with her brains,’ he threatened. ‘I’m not kidding.’

Rafael felt as if he had been shot by them. Nicolas had said her. His heart was in his mouth, and he was upset, though not showing it. Was he talking about Sarah? If so, what the hell was she doing there?

‘I’m coming back,’ Nicolas’s voice came over the radio. ‘I’m not afraid of killing or being killed,’ he stressed so they’d know he wasn’t joking.

Rafael watched the entrance and felt desolate when he saw them enter through a side door. Sarah and Jacopo with Nicolas behind them, a gun in each hand pointed at their heads. They were walking so slowly it would take them an eternity to join them.

Rafael wanted to know how this could have happened.

‘What are they doing here?’ Barry asked.

‘I have no idea,’ Rafael replied.

‘What now?’

Rafael sighed. ‘Let’s be very careful.’

‘It’d be a shame to waste such a pretty woman,’ Barry said.

‘I don’t want any hasty moves,’ Rafael warned. Nothing bad can happen to Sarah. He’d never forgive himself.

Finally the three got to Saint Aloysius Gonzaga’s chapel.

‘Let the superior general and Father Aloysius get up,’ Nicolas ordered.

Rafael let them up. There were too many Aloysiuses in the story. Aris and Barry placed themselves behind them strategically, with guns pointed. They had to keep the game counterbalanced.

As Adolph regained his posture, his arrogance doubled. ‘Did you bring the parchments?’ he asked.

Jacopo hung on to the leather case that Nicolas was trying to grab from him.

‘This should be it,’ Nicolas said.

‘You’re not going to get away with this,’ Rafael warned. ‘There are agents everywhere outside.’

‘Shut up,’ Nicolas said. ‘This isn’t over until we say it’s over.’

‘Sons of bitches fanatics,’ Barry swore.

‘Bring me the case,’ Adolph said.

Nicolas obeyed promptly.

‘What now? Are we going to stay here staring at each other?’ Rafael asked.

Sarah’s frightened expression broke his heart. This wasn’t in his plans. He wanted to avoid it at all costs.

‘Let’s stay calm,’ Tarcisio asked. ‘No one else has to suffer.’

‘I have what I want,’ Adolph said, holding the case tightly.

He opened it and cautiously took out the contents, handling them like the most valuable of prizes. He checked them and his solemn face turned angry.

‘Is this some kind of joke?’ He grunted, waving the pages in the air with no attempt to protect them. ‘Are you joking with me? Did you think you could fool me?’

No one understood, but the papers certainly didn’t seem ancient rarities.

‘That’s what they gave me,’ Sarah argued.

‘Do you think I was born yesterday?’ Adolph shouted. ‘All that’s in here are the agreements the Holy See made with Ben Isaac. Don’t fuck with me.’ He was completely beside himself.

‘Let’s stay calm,’ Rafael requested.

Things couldn’t get out of control, precarious as they already were.

Sarah was mystified. Jean-Paul had gone to the vault. She’d seen him go there. He had given her the case, and no one had opened it until now. How could…?

The superior general’s cell phone rang. He listened. Someone said something, and he immediately disconnected and put it back in his pocket.

‘How are we going to resolve this?’ Rafael asked.

It could turn into a bloodbath.

Another phone started to ring. After a few bars the ringtone became clear: ‘The Star-Spangled Banner.’ Barry’s phone.

‘Barry,’ he said, answering it.

He listened a few seconds, then took the phone from his ear and punched a key. ‘Okay, you’re on speakerphone.’

‘Good evening, gentlemen,’ they heard a voice say.

Sarah managed a half smile as she recognized JC’s voice.

‘Who is it?’ Adolph asked angrily.

‘You’re very rude, Adolph. Hanging up without hearing what I have to say,’ the voice reproached him.

Adolph was not worried. ‘Who are you?’

‘The last person who hung up on me is no longer with us. I have a very quick temper when it comes to bad manners.’

‘Cut the shit,’ Schmidt said arrogantly.

‘Oh, oh, oh! What impatience, Reverend Father Hans Matthaus Schmidt, or do you prefer your Jesuit name, Aloysius?’

The voice made Adolph and Schmidt uncomfortable.

‘My own name doesn’t matter. You can call me JC.’

‘Pope Luciani’s assassin,’ Schmidt whispered to Adolph.

‘Men are the most predictable creatures in existence,’ JC continued over Barry’s speakerphone. They don’t understand each other, they don’t share, they don’t like to lose. I’m including myself. I’m the same.’

‘Is there some point to this conversation?’ Adolph asked.

‘I’ve decided neither one of you will get the parchments. I shall be their faithful guardian.’

‘That’s not what we agreed,’ William put in, visibly discouraged.

‘We agreed to recover the parchments. I never said I’d give them to you.’

‘That was implicit,’ William argued.

‘I can be slow to understand,’ JC said ironically.

Adolph looked at Tarcisio furiously. ‘Do you see what happens when you get involved with criminals? The pope’s assassin, for the love of God. What were you thinking?’

‘I must add allegedly to your name-calling,’ JC corrected him. ‘In any case, I want you to lower your guns and go your separate ways.’

Nicolas laughed; so Schmidt did.

‘And we should just because you say so?’ Schmidt asked.

‘I’ll excuse the reverend father because he’s never heard of me. But I won’t repeat my order to lower your guns,’ JC declared.

The impasse and tension remained: Nicolas with two guns pointed at Sarah and Jacopo, Aris covering Schmidt and Adolph, Rafael and Barry pointing their guns away.

‘Kill them,’ Adolph ordered Nicolas.

‘Stay calm.’ Rafael tried to aim in Sarah’s direction to see if he could hit Nicolas, but Nicolas was shielded by the two of them. It would be a difficult shot.

Sarah closed her eyes in panic.

‘Oh, my God!’ Jacopo stammered, terrified.

‘Kill them,’ Adolph said again, without a trace of emotion.

Two shots echoed through the immense structure of the church. Nicolas was thrown forward, arms wide, pushing Jacopo and Sarah aside with the impact of the bullets between his shoulders.