He sat idle for several more hours as his mind vacillated between his own individuality regarding his own good and evil, wondering if he still had hope to see the light of salvation. Or more importantly, he wondered if the God of the Vatican was willing to proffer him the spark of a new beginning.
He sat there.
And he wondered.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
Inside the papal chamber Pope Pius XIV sat at his desk while Leviticus stood to the side wearing the uniform of Vatican Security rather than that of a Vatican Knight. It was all a ruse, however, to keep Cardinal Angullo from making further inquiries as to the alien dress of a Vatican Knight — the beret, the military attire, the insignia. He did not want Leviticus to become the catalyst of Angullo’s inquisitive nature, no doubt pressing from the cardinal a curious investigation into Leviticus’ wear, as to who he represented under the Vatican banner.
When Cardinal Angullo entered the chamber he did so with humility. He was slightly bent at the waist, giving his lean figure a slight curvature. Although his eyes were cast to the floor, they were there for only a short moment before shifting his gaze to Leviticus, then back to Pope Pius. “You requested my presence, Your Holiness?”
“Please,” he said pointing to the chair before him, “have a seat.”
Angullo lifted the hem of his garment and sat down, his eyes settling once more on the large man who stood sentinel beyond the pope with calculating appraisal. “You have security?” he asked. “Is there a problem, Your Holiness?”
Bonasero Vessucci ignored him by veering off into a tangent. “I’ve asked you here for a reason,” he told him.
“That’s quite obvious.”
“Giuseppe, I’m going to make this quite clear,” he said. “You’re being reassigned.”
Cardinal Angullo smiled humorlessly. “I figured as much,” he said. “I assume it’s in retaliation for being assigned your position when Pope Gregory took the papal throne?”
“Retaliation? No.”
“Then why? I believe my actions as second-in-command have spoken for themselves over the past several months, yes?”
“Your action, Giuseppe, as to the way you achieve your means to attain personal heights rather than through the divine guidance of God, disturbs me greatly. It’s all right to aspire. But it’s not all right to aspire against the principles of God, which is self over your fellow man.”
Angullo’s smile widened with sarcasm. “Now because you sit upon the papal throne, it somehow gives you the insight to read what is in the hearts and minds of men?”
“Hardly. I have watched your slow decline over years, Giuseppe. I sadly watched a man who was a giant in the College lose himself to his growing ambitions. I watched you slowly gravitate away from the true nature of God.”
“I see,” he said simply. “But your appraisal, Your Holiness, is completely without merit. I can guarantee that there are men within the College who see me with the same subjective eye; that I am a just man who keeps God close to his heart.” He fell back into his seat. “No, no,” he said, waving his hand in dismissal. “There is no true justification other than retaliation. And we both know it.”
“Believe what you will,” he returned. “But my intentions are whole when I say that I’m trying to save you.”
“Save me? And how will you do that? Will you send me to Boston to fill the vacancy you left behind?”
“You will be sent to a venue that I believe will do you good,” he stated firmly. “I need you to rediscover the man who was once essential to this Church. I need you to find yourself, Giuseppe. And by this, I will send you somewhere where you can best serve man and yourself.”
“I see.” He looked at Leviticus glaringly, but the large man held his gaze with an unblinking stare. “Were you afraid, Your Holiness, that I would come to some kind of violent means by this news, given your suspicion of me regarding the good Pope Gregory? Is that why you’ve called upon security?”
Bonasero did not want to provide the man with anything further. He simply cast off the cardinal’s question as something unremarkable and undeserving of a merited response. Instead, he deflected his question with direction. “Within a few days’ time you will be notified of my decision,” he said evenly. “Until then you will continue in the capacity of secretary of state until I find a suitable replacement.”
Cardinal Angullo gazed at the man for a long and unabashed moment before laboring to his feet. “As you wish, Your Holiness.”
When Bonasero reached his hand out, Cardinal Angullo accepted it and brought the pope’s hand to his lips, kissing the Fisherman’s Ring.
When everything was said and done, Cardinal Angullo left the papal chamber closing the door behind him.
As the bolt snickered into place, only then did the pope drop his shoulders to ease the tension. “He’s completely lost,” he whispered to himself.
Leviticus took the seat the cardinal just vacated. It was still warm. “So what happens now?”
Bonasero Vessucci continued to stare at the door, his eyes fixed. “We wait,” he said. “Should the good cardinal feel threatened, then he may act accordingly to his nature. If he feels that the throne is well out of his reach, then I believe he will act in a manner of desperation.”
“You truly believe he had something to do with Gregory’s death?”
“I can’t prove it,” he answered. “But Cardinal Angullo is not the same man. I truly believe he positioned himself to usurp the throne after he engineered my expulsion from Vatican City. But he didn’t count — or perhaps didn’t believe — on my rebounding back to the good graces of the College. I was his only true threat in the Preferiti.”
“So now you think he plans to retaliate?”
“I don’t know. But that’s why I need you here, Leviticus. I need your protection.”
“You’ll be safe, Bonasero. You have my word.”
“I know that. But there are other ways to get to me,” he said. “Poisons, ways that only a lost mind filled with dark ambitions could think of.”
“Then we’ll have the Knights watch the staff and kitchen crew, we’ll put eyes everywhere.”
“The value of the Vatican Knights is abroad,” he reminded him, “to protect the interests of the Church and the citizenry of its people, not security. We have people for that.”
“Then what?”
“I want you to shadow the good cardinal,” he told him. “I want you to watch his every move. If Cardinal Angullo is feeling the insecurities of his position, he may likely falter in his maneuverings knowing that time is limited and will need to act quickly. But with that being said, he will also be very careful not to draw suspicion with the death of one pope arriving so quickly after the death of another. After all, John Paul I was in office for one month until his untimely death with no questions asked. My death would only serve under the same scenario.”
“Understood.”
Pope Pius faced the Vatican Knight with obvious sadness lining his hanging features. “Leviticus, I need you by my side until the good cardinal is reassigned to a place where the Vatican is well beyond his tentacle reach.”
“There’s no need to worry, Bonasero.”
But the pontiff did worry.
Cardinal Angullo was a man of incredible cunning and calculation and not to be underestimated. And with that thought on his mind, Pope Pius the Fourteenth looked out beyond the open doors leading to the balcony and noted the dark clouds of a tempest moving quickly towards the Vatican.
The morning sun had crested the horizon, shining a light upon the smog that was already beginning to settle close to the valley floor.