“According to him, they’re dead. He claims there was something in the darkness that took them, including Professor Moore.”
“And what do the Turkish authorities believe?”
“They believe Mr. Montario to be a confused individual, since he was showing signs of dehydration after being in the desert for two days before a shepherd boy found him.”
“You think—” He looked down at the sheet, at the name. “You think Mr. Montario knows the whereabouts of Eden?”
“I do. But I’m afraid that Mr. Montario met with a fatal accident upon his arrival in New York.”
“So there is no one left of the expedition?”
“No, Your Holiness. No one. But it appears that the Professor’s daughter, Alyssa Moore, visited him at the hospital. It’s possible that the transfer of information may have taken place then.”
The pontiff closed eyes that were iron gray, thinking. A slight breeze blew in from the balcony, alighting on their skin, a sweet caress.
Pope Leo opened his eyes. “The secret of Eden’s location must be maintained at all costs,” he said evenly. “I need you to find the girl, find the truth, and deal with it accordingly. If she knows the whereabouts of Eden, then I’m afraid the Church has no other recourse. We have to preserve its interests.”
Savage cocked his head questioningly. Was the pontiff telling him to commit murder?
“Your Holiness, how exactly am I to deal with this ‘accordingly’?”
“If she has those coordinates, John, then you have to make sure that she no longer has the capability to forward them to anyone else.”
“Do you know what you’re asking me to do?”
“I’m asking you to preserve the interests of the Church.”
Savage continued with his puzzled look.
“Do you know where the girl is?”
He nodded. “She’s at the Göbekli Tepe site in Turkey.”
“Then gather your team,” he said. “And find the girl quickly before she follows in her father’s footsteps.”
“Why?” asked Savage. “Why cover this up? Eden is a wonderful opportunity to share with the world.”
“In my eyes, finding Eden would be a blessing if it truly exists. But in the eyes of the Church it may be an abomination. So find the girl, John. Find the girl and keep the truth — right, wrong or indifferent — from getting out. And ask me no more questions.”
John Savage continued to look puzzled. Why would the Church look upon Eden as an abomination? And then: “Yes, Your Holiness.”
Pope Leo held out his hand for Savage to take, which he did, and kissed the Fisherman’s ring.
“God be with you,” said Pope Leo.
Having more questions than answers, John Savage left the Papal Chamber to gather a team to head for Turkey.
Beneath the Basilica is the Vatican Vault, where the treasures of Christendom lie. In one chamber sits the alleged cradle of Christ. In another the reputed heart of Joan of Arc, the only part of her that did not burn in the fire. And yet in another is the Ark of the Covenant. But in the final compartment, the L’Archivio Segreto Vaticano, whose vault contains a vast collection of historical texts and countless secrets of the Catholic Church, sat an aged scroll considered to be the earliest written account of humanity.
Beneath the spotlight glow of a single bulb, a gold cylinder that encased an ancient scroll of treated goatskin cast its bullion-like shine across the old man’s face. It had been years since he’d returned to the vault to regard its antiquities. But ever since he had authorized Alyssa Moore’s death to preserve the interests of the Church, he agonized over his decision. What was inside the cylinder, however, would help serve to justify his choice.
For a long moment he stood within its aura, taking into consideration the scholarly regard that “magic” was science not yet understood. That Eden was simply a metaphorical reference of man’s fall from grace for contesting the wishes of God, or by the interpretations of some, against the values of the Church.
But Leo knew that within that cylinder lay the truth of Edin, a metaphorical tale that was all too real. With hands that looked as thin and fragile as a sparrow’s wings, he picked up the cylinder and carefully unfurled the scroll from the tube.
It was a crudely drawn map written in a blend of fading inks indicating that Eden was situated at the junction of the Four Rivers, the Pishon and Gihon, now gone, in what was a passable interpretation of what is now Turkey.
Rolling the scroll further, he unveiled a diagram of a massive Mayan-like temple, not the biblical Garden of Genesis. Inside the temple were crypts extolling markings which appeared more scientific than ancient, with ships and chariots taking the dead to an afterlife without cherubs and angels, but to a place of multiple gods in chariots, a place of polytheism. This imagery alone was not catastrophic to the Church — that the people of Eden may have worshiped multiple gods rather than exercising monotheism.
The truth was far worse.
He studied the crypts, and at the crude designs of those who lie within them. And because of that he could not accept the weight of the truth.
He rolled the scroll back into its cylinder and carefully placed it on its mount. Where the gold tube came from or its history, he didn’t know. He only knew that its message was entrusted into his knowledge upon taking the papalship, and that its secret was to be maintained.
The old man closed his eyes, thinking the cost was too great. By condemning an innocent woman to death to keep the truth hidden from the masses, then he may have condemned himself to the pits as well.
His heart was truly heavy. And he prayed well into the night, hoping that God would see the value of his decision. That it was for the greater good.
But he was afraid that He said ‘No.’
CHAPTER SEVEN
“We’re not about that,” said the large man wearing the cleric’s shirt and Roman Catholic collar. He was about six four and weighed 245 pounds, but when the big man moved he did so with grace and economy, especially in combat. “Are you sure?”
John Savage looked Leviticus directly in eyes that were as brown as newly minted pennies, and shrugged. “There is no other interpretation,” he told him. “At least nothing I can come up with.”
Leviticus stood looking puzzled. He was one of the Knights of the Holy Order, the head of an elite command of soldiers who possessed a very particular set of skills far beyond the abilities of the Swiss Guard, whose purpose is to travel abroad to protect Vatican interests. Under his command, they had ventured into the jungles in the Philippines to save the lives of missionaries held hostage by terrorist factions. Other times they traveled to the Eastern Bloc to protect priests from dissidents. But whatever the mission, its aim was always to protect the sovereignty of the Church, its interests, or the welfare of its citizenry. But what Pope Leo was asking of them went against the conditions of their league or their mantra that loyalty was above all else, except honor.
“I understand that loyalty is to be placed above all else,” said Leviticus, “but to kill someone in order to preserve a Vatican secret, is that honorable?”
Savage toiled with this as well. “Do we dare question the pope?” he asked.
“If it’s to take the life of an innocent, then I say yes.”
“But if it’s to protect something of value, then it becomes an interest of the Church.”
“And once we go down that road, John, when will it stop? The moment we justify the murder of one, then it becomes easier to justify every other killing thereafter.”