"My friends," Mortati said, stepping to the altar. His voice did not seem his own. "I suspect I will struggle for the rest of my days with the meaning of what I have witnessed tonight. And yet, what you are suggesting regarding the camerlegno… it cannot possibly be God’s will."
The room fell silent.
"How… can you say that?" one of the cardinals finally demanded. "The camerlegno saved the church. God spoke to the camerlegno directly! The man survived death itself! What sign do we need!"
"The camerlegno is coming to us now," Mortati said. "Let us wait. Let us hear him before we have a balloting. There may be an explanation."
"An explanation?"
"As your Great Elector, I have vowed to uphold the laws of conclave. You are no doubt aware that by Holy Law the camerlegno is ineligible for election to the papacy. He is not a cardinal. He is a priest… a chamberlain. There is also the question of his inadequate age." Mortati felt the stares hardening. "By even allowing a balloting, I would be requesting that you endorse a man who Vatican Law proclaims ineligible. I would be asking each of you to break a sacred oath."
"But what happened here tonight," someone stammered, "it certainly transcends our laws!"
"Does it?" Mortati boomed, not even knowing now where his words were coming from. "Is it God’s will that we discard the rules of the church? Is it God’s will that we abandon reason and give ourselves over to frenzy?"
"But did you not see what we saw?" another challenged angrily. "How can you presume to question that kind of power!"
Mortati’s voice bellowed now with a resonance he had never known. "I am not questioning God’s power! It is God who gave us reason and circumspection! It is God we serve by exercising prudence!"
129
In the hallway outside the Sistine Chapel, Vittoria Vetra sat benumbed on a bench at the foot of the Royal Staircase. When she saw the figure coming through the rear door, she wondered if she were seeing another spirit. He was bandaged, limping, and wearing some kind of medical suit.
She stood… unable to believe the vision. "Ro… bert?"
He never answered. He strode directly to her and wrapped her in his arms. When he pressed his lips to hers, it was an impulsive, longing kiss filled with thankfulness.
Vittoria felt the tears coming. "Oh, God… oh, thank God…"
He kissed her again, more passionately, and she pressed against him, losing herself in his embrace. Their bodies locked, as if they had known each other for years. She forgot the fear and pain. She closed her eyes, weightless in the moment.
"It is God’s will!" someone was yelling, his voice echoing in the Sistine Chapel. "Who but the chosen one could have survived that diabolical explosion?"
"Me," a voice reverberated from the back of the chapel.
Mortati and the others turned in wonder at the bedraggled form coming up the center aisle. "Mr…. Langdon?"
Without a word, Langdon walked slowly to the front of the chapel. Vittoria Vetra entered too. Then two guards hurried in, pushing a cart with a large television on it. Langdon waited while they plugged it in, facing the cardinals. Then Langdon motioned for the guards to leave. They did, closing the door behind them.
Now it was only Langdon, Vittoria, and the cardinals. Langdon plugged the Sony RUVI’s output into the television. Then he pressed Play.
The television blared to life.
The scene that materialized before the cardinals revealed the Pope’s office. The video had been awkwardly filmed, as if by hidden camera. Off center on the screen the camerlegno stood in the dimness, in front of a fire. Although he appeared to be talking directly to the camera, it quickly became evident that he was speaking to someone else—whoever was making this video. Langdon told them the video was filmed by Maximilian Kohler, the director of CERN. Only an hour ago Kohler had secretly recorded his meeting with the camerlegno by using a tiny camcorder covertly mounted under the arm of his wheelchair.
Mortati and the cardinals watched in bewilderment. Although the conversation was already in progress, Langdon did not bother to rewind. Apparently, whatever Langdon wanted the cardinals to see was coming up…
"Leonardo Vetra kept diaries?" the camerlegno was saying. "I suppose that is good news for CERN. If the diaries contain his processes for creating antimatter—"
"They don’t," Kohler said. "You will be relieved to know those processes died with Leonardo. However, his diaries spoke of something else. You."
The camerlegno looked troubled. "I don’t understand."
"They described a meeting Leonardo had last month. With you."
The camerlegno hesitated, then looked toward the door. "Rocher should not have granted you access without consulting me. How did you get in here?"
"Rocher knows the truth. I called earlier and told him what you have done."
"What I have done? Whatever story you told him, Rocher is a Swiss Guard and far too faithful to this church to believe a bitter scientist over his camerlegno."
"Actually, he is too faithful not to believe. He is so faithful that despite the evidence that one of his loyal guards had betrayed the church, he refused to accept it. All day long he has been searching for another explanation."
"So you gave him one."
"The truth. Shocking as it was."
"If Rocher believed you, he would have arrested me."
"No. I wouldn’t let him. I offered him my silence in exchange for this meeting."
The camerlegno let out an odd laugh. "You plan to blackmail the church with a story that no one will possibly believe?"
"I have no need of blackmail. I simply want to hear the truth from your lips. Leonardo Vetra was a friend."
The camerlegno said nothing. He simply stared down at Kohler.
"Try this," Kohler snapped. "About a month ago, Leonardo Vetra contacted you requesting an urgent audience with the Pope—an audience you granted because the Pope was an admirer of Leonardo’s work and because Leonardo said it was an emergency."
The camerlegno turned to the fire. He said nothing.
"Leonardo came to the Vatican in great secrecy. He was betraying his daughter’s confidence by coming here, a fact that troubled him deeply, but he felt he had no choice. His research had left him deeply conflicted and in need of spiritual guidance from the church. In a private meeting, he told you and the Pope that he had made a scientific discovery with profound religious implications. He had proved Genesis was physically possible, and that intense sources of energy—what Vetra called God—could duplicate the moment of Creation."
Silence.
"The Pope was stunned," Kohler continued. "He wanted Leonardo to go public. His Holiness thought this discovery might begin to bridge the gap between science and religion—one of the Pope’s life dreams. Then Leonardo explained to you the downside—the reason he required the church’s guidance. It seemed his Creation experiment, exactly as your Bible predicts, produced everything in pairs. Opposites. Light and dark. Vetra found himself, in addition to creating matter, creating antimatter. Shall I go on?"
The camerlegno was silent. He bent down and stoked the coals.
"After Leonardo Vetra came here," Kohler said, "you came to CERN to see his work. Leonardo’s diaries said you made a personal trip to his lab."