He barked a quick laugh. It was wonderful how they could now look back on something so horrible and view it with humor. He raised his hand in a facsimile of a handgun, cocked his thumb, then said, “Bang.”
She fell back into her pillow with her hands over her chest, feigning death.
“So how are you feeling?” he asked in seriousness.
“I get to leave tomorrow. But you know me.”
“You want to leave now.”
“Exactly. I think they’re keeping me here to pump up the bill. What do you think?”
He winked at her. “Who wouldn’t want to keep you?” There was a pause between them, the mood growing serious. “Hall’s alive,” he told her. “He made it out somehow.”
“I know,” she said. “Adskhan told me.”
“You know he’s a threat to us, don’t you? We know about his illegal museum of stolen antiquities aboard his yacht, and his authorization to have Noah and Montario killed.”
She allowed her head to fall back into the pillow, her eyes staring upward.
“He knows we’re alive,” he added. “Your return here has made the news in a big way. The girl who discovered Eden,” he said, flexing his fingers in a gesturing form of quotations.
“Except there is no Eden and nobody believes me.”
“Except for Obsidian Hall, who I’m sure will do everything in his power to keep his little secret safe.”
She looked Savage directly in the eyes and saw intent. “What are you going to do?” she asked him.
“What should have been done a long time ago to a man like him.”
“Don’t hurt him.”
He grabbed her hand gently within his. “Listen. Hall is a man of notorious breed and will do anything to protect his empire. Right now you and I stand in his way and he will do anything in his power to make things right for him. Well, not this time,” he told her firmly. “People like Montario or Noah will never have to fear a man like him again. Good people. People like you.”
She wanted to ask him so many questions. But she didn’t want to hear the truth, either.
He stood.
“Where are you going?”
“I got a few errands to run,” he said, tracing the edge of his finger along the side of her face. She grabbed his hand and held it to her cheek. His heart pounded.
“Be careful,” was all she said.
“Don’t worry,” he said. “I’ll be back.”
“I’ll be at the Göbekli Tepe site tomorrow.”
“I’ll be gone a few days. But I’ll see you there.”
“Promise?”
He nodded and smiled, showing his rows of teeth. “I promise,” he said.
And then he was gone.
After a long and arduous day, the pontiff returned to the papal chamber only to find John Savage sitting in a chair, waiting.
After closing the door behind him, the pontiff looked questioningly at Savage, then to the door, then back to Savage. “How did you get by the Swiss Guard?”
“You know who I am,” he told him levelly. “You know my skills.”
“That I do,” he said, and then he took a seat opposite him. “I’m glad you’re all right.”
“No thanks to you, I understand. You knew where I was.”
“I wasn’t sure, since you disappeared off the SIV’s grid. But I surmised.”
“So you thought it best to tie everything up, regardless of the potential loss of life?”
“I did what I thought was best for the interests of the Church,” he returned. “And not a moment goes by that I don’t agonize over that decision. Not one.”
There was an awkward pause between them, the men facing off before the pontiff noticed Savage’s lack of attire. “You’re not wearing your collar,” he said.
“That’s because I surrendered it to the clutches of someone who needed it more than I did.”
“So, are you here for retribution?”
John waved a dismissive hand. “Of course not.”
“Then why are you here?”
“Just to tell you that I believe I know what you’re afraid of. And that I’m alive to tell the tale, if need be.”
“Eden no longer exists. And no one will believe you if the related allusions as to what lie within those crypts were real.”
“You mean Adam and Eve?” The pontiff’s jaw dropped. “That’s right,” said Savage. “You destroyed the crypts of Adam and Eve. More so, I had the opportunity to look upon them before you had the place leveled.”
“Adam and…” His words trailed.
“And Eve.
“No,” he whispered in distress.
John, however, omitted the deformities. “How will God look down upon you now?”
“I thought I was doing… what needed to be done.”
“Including the murder of an innocent woman?”
The pope looked at him with the appearance of a man who had aged exponentially over the past few days. “I’m glad you’re all right,” he uttered. “And I’m certainly glad that you didn’t follow through by hurting Ms. Moore.”
“I almost did more than just hurt her.”
“I understand that. I also understand that you were dutifully following my instructions in the name of the Church, which I take full responsibility for. My poor decision making, John, has cast me forever in a shadow in which I may have condemned my soul to the Lake of Fire. Please believe me when I say that a minute doesn’t go by where I don’t wonder about it. And I hope you can forgive me for my horrible transgressions.”
“Forgive?” He smiled. He recalled the moment when he told Alyssa that her forgiveness would mean a lot to him, and she granted it, seeing a good man beneath the hard-shelled exterior. “I came here looking for direction in search for inner peace, a salvation. But I didn’t find it — at least not here. My salvation came in the form of the one hundred pound woman you sent me to kill in order to hide a secret. And in the end she forgave me for my transgressions. The moment she did, I felt a wonderful uplifting I thought was impossible. So, Your Holiness, please be assured that you have my forgiveness.”
The pontiff’s face seemed to melt with relief, but not entirely.
“I believe you were frightened at the prospect of the discovery and acted in desperation to protect the interests of the Church because that’s what your position demands of you. You’re not an evil person by any stretch of the imagination, but simply misguided by a moment of poor judgment.”
“Nevertheless, I made the decision. And because of it, despite your forgiveness of my lack of ruling in this matter, I wonder if I will achieve the right to enter the world of Light and Loving Spirits.”
“A wise man just told me that a truly repentant man is a good man. And a good man will always find his way.”
“You’re talking about Leviticus, aren’t you?”
“I am.”
“Leviticus is a good man who has more right to sit upon the papal throne than I do at this moment.”
Savage feigned a smile and stood.
“I assume that I won’t be seeing you anymore?”
“You assume right,” he replied.
“Before you leave,” said Pope Leo. “Tell me, what were they like? What did you see?”
“I saw something that will never be seen again,” he said. “I saw… revelation.”
And then he left the chamber.
CHAPTER FORTY
Upon his immediate arrival at the hospital, while he was being was treated for dehydration, Hall had his two gorillas stand sentinel at the hospital door. Not because of his personal welfare, but to guard the content in his backpack.
When he returned to the Seafarer, which was waiting for him three miles from the Turkey shoreline and somewhere in the Aegean Sea, he had placed his treasure inside a glass case and had it hermitically sealed, which meant that oxygen had to be pumped out and argon gas pumped into the container to preserve the material.