Allegra felt a little stunned. It was the very thing she and David had talked about and she had been wondering how she might raise such a delicate issue. Giovanni had come straight out with it. If anything, she had underestimated the intellect of this man, and just fleetingly, Allegra gave David cause to be jealous.
‘Won’t the Petronis of this world prevent you doing that?’ she asked.
‘Not if I just do it. It is time for the Church to allow intellectual freedom, otherwise the real message of Christ will be lost for ever.’
As Giovanni and Allegra left the restaurant and headed for the Old City and a nightcap at Patrick O’Hara’s, they were followed a little while later by the well-dressed Arab.
A short distance away Tom Schweiker was about to do a cross for the mid-afternoon bulletin in New York. The Vatican was showing no signs of giving ground on either the Dead Sea Scrolls’ dating or access to those who might be able to prove the truth.
‘Ten seconds, Geraldine… and live…’
‘And we’re joined now by Tom Schweiker in Jerusalem. Pressure seems to be mounting on allowing more light on the Dead Sea Scrolls, Tom.’
‘On two fronts, Geraldine. First, the dating of the scrolls and secondly, access. Earlier this week I put those questions to one of the internationally recognised academics in the field, Monsignor Derek Lonergan.’
For such a pompous blowhard, Derek Lonergan had seemed oddly reluctant to give an interview, but Tom had persisted, subtly appealing to Lonergan’s ego and suggesting that it would be a great loss if only one side of the story was heard. Lonergan’s ego was an easy target.
‘Monsignor Lonergan, for many years now you’ve been resolutely defending the Vatican’s dating of these scrolls as being two hundred years before the time of Christ, but the basis for that consensus is now coming into question. Do you still stand by those dates?’
‘Not a shadow of a doubt, my man. These scrolls are most certainly from the second century before Christ. Not a shadow of doubt at all.’
‘One of the planks that you have used for dating is based on the coins that were found in the area of Qumran?’
‘Certainly.’ Lonergan raised his chin and sniffed patronisingly at the camera as if it was a question to which any fool would know the answer. For an instant, the angle of the bright camera lights exposed the purple welt of a scar hidden under Lonergan’s unkempt beard.
‘Yet the first Director of L’Ecole Biblique claimed to have found a coin with the insignia of the tenth Roman Legion on it but when it was examined by impartial experts not only was it found to be not from the tenth or any other legion, but from Ashkelon dating at 72 AD?’
Derek Lonergan’s face started to match the colour of his scar. He was visibly furious at both the question and having to answer it.
‘That was an unfortunate oversight and obviously a coin that had been dropped in the ruins much later by a passer-by,’ he responded angrily.
‘Really? Nevertheless something the Director of L’Ecole Biblique took over five years to correct?’ Tom maintained a polite, calm, almost nonchalant approach which got the result he wanted. Lonergan was bordering on exploding.
‘One final question, Monsignor. Is it true that it has taken nearly six months to finalise the secondment of two scholars to the museum?’
‘The Israeli and Italian academics you refer to are being shown every courtesy,’ he replied, his obvious anger making his response even more unconvincing.
‘Monsignor Lonergan, thank you for joining us on International Correspondent.’
Tom unhooked his microphone and walked back to the car park of the Rockefeller. He wondered how much pressure it would take to make Lonergan crack and, in turn, force whoever was instructing him to relent on the issue of access to the scrolls. Tom was also troubled by the sense that he had met Lonergan before, a sense that was getting stronger from the moment he spotted the scar on Lonergan’s cheek. The journalist in him came to the fore and he was determined to find the missing pieces.
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
Roma
L orenzo Petroni read the surveillance report on Dr Bassetti and Cardinal Donelli’s dinner in the Jerusalem restaurant with a growing sense of desperation. Timing was everything and it was running out. Soon he would gather the Curial Cardinals for a brief on the Pope’s failing health and the possibility of resignation. Faced with the possibility of a Pope, and as a result, the Holy Church in a coma, Petroni felt sure the Cardinals could be manipulated into agreement, but all of that would come to nothing unless his own candidacy remained absolutely untarnished.
Petroni paced his office. He knew that his life’s ambition could be damaged by any number of factors, and until now he had been confident they were all under control. At least the woman had not found the actual Omega Scroll but she would need to be kept under continued surveillance. As far as the allegations of rape were concerned Petroni was confident they could be quashed with a straight denial. Perhaps the allegations could be turned to his advantage, invoking sympathy for a cowardly and totally baseless attack on an upright member of the Church. If necessary, money could create witnesses, he mused, and he began to develop a theme, one of Bassetti leaving her Order for a life of loose living and sex, wanting to attack those who maintained a chaste existence.
Donelli was another matter. Petroni knew that if Donelli was successful in starting an investigation into the Vatican Bank it would finish him. It was high risk, he mused, but so were the stakes for the Keys to Peter and Petroni’s adrenaline surged as he made up his mind. The ‘Italian Solution’ would need to be applied to Donelli. Suddenly, the buzzing of his intercom interrupted his thoughts.
‘Petroni.’
‘Daniel Kirkpatrick from CCN is on line two, Eminence.’
‘Lorenzo. Come stai?’
‘ Bene, grazie, e tu? ’ Petroni replied smoothly, automatically switching to diplomatic mode.
‘Well thank you, Lorenzo.’
‘What have you got?’
‘It’s Schweiker again. He’s making inquiries into the background of Monsignor Lonergan, your representative in Jerusalem.’
Petroni’s eyes narrowed. ‘What sort of inquiries?’
‘My sources are good here, Lorenzo. He seems to think Lonergan went by another name in a parish in Idaho?’
‘I would find that very hard to believe, Daniel, but let me look into it and I’ll get back to you.’
‘I’d be much obliged, Lorenzo. This sort of speculation can be very harmful to the Church.’
Petroni’s mood darkened as another factor from his past threatened to destabilise his lifelong grab for the Keys to Peter, even before a Conclave and election could be manipulated. First, Donelli’s investigation into the Vatican Bank, now this. It was as if the winds of the cosmos were massing to destroy his control and his mind raced as he sought a means of restoring it. Petroni unlocked the top drawer of his desk and took out the. 38 Beretta Cheetah pistol that he kept in a leather box. He aimed it at the far wall of his spacious office. Like Donelli’s proposed investigation into the Vatican Bank, any investigation into Lonergan that exposed Petroni’s own involvement might also derail his candidature for the Papacy and that could not be allowed to happen. It might not be necessary to kill the journalist just yet, but if he got too close, like Donelli, he would have to go. Given what was at stake, Petroni resolved to talk with Felici in the morning. He smiled inwardly at his choice of meeting place. Felici could come to the Vatican, but not to his office.
The Church must be returned to pre-Vatican II days where her authority was not questioned. Neither Donelli nor Schweiker could be allowed to succeed; whatever it took. In the end there was only one solution that was guaranteed.