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After the delegation had left them alone in the medical superintendent’s office Allegra put her arms around David and held him for what seemed like a very long time. David quietly wept on her shoulder.

‘I’m going to miss them so much,’ he whispered.

Allegra wiped his eyes, and David smiled grimly. ‘Thank you,’ he said. ‘You do realise that your life is never going to be the same again.’

‘I’m with you all the way, David. I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life,’ she said, her own eyes misty with tears.

‘Well, the media awaits. Something that I’m afraid we’ll both have to get used to.’

Dr David Kaufmann and Dr Allegra Bassetti took their place beside Gideon Wiesel in front of the huge media contingent outside the hospital’s main entrance. It was David who spoke first, a significant moment not lost on the Israeli nation.

‘It is with great sadness that I announce the death of my father, the Prime Minister of Israel, Professor Yossi Kaufmann, and my mother, Marian, his wife of many, many years,’ David said, pausing to regain his composure.

‘I have lost a great father and a wonderful mother,’ he said, ‘and Israel has lost two of her most distinguished citizens. After an appropriate period the members of the Liberal Justice Party will meet to elect a new leader of this great nation. This is not the time for political statements, but it will be known soon enough, so I would rather you hear it from me. I have been asked to stand and I have indicated that I will. I am humbled and honoured by the faith, trust and sympathy that has been shown to me tonight and I hope that, in time, I can earn the trust of the greater Israeli people. In the meantime, a man of great integrity and wisdom, the Deputy Prime Minister Gideon Wiesel, will assume the day-to-day running of the government. He has our total loyalty and support. Finally,’ David said, ‘I would urge calm and cool deliberation before we reach any conclusions about tonight’s atrocity. I am aware, as I’m sure many of you are, that the Palestinian President’s brother has been implicated in this attack. An investigation will hopefully shed more light on that, but as far as the Palestinian President is concerned, I want you to know that I have met Ahmed Sartawi and I share my father’s regard for him as both a leader and as a man of peace. My hope is that we can put this behind us and move forward to achieve my father’s vision of peace and prosperity for two great peoples.’

David Kaufmann had more justification than any other Israeli in calling for a massive retaliatory response, yet he was urging peace. David was going to lead by example.

Allegra and David knocked on Giovanni’s room on the seventh floor of the massive hospital.

‘ Avanti! Avanti! ’ Giovanni was propped up with pillows. His tired smile of welcome quickly faded. ‘David, I am so sorry. Knowing your parents was a pleasure and a privilege.’

‘Thank you, Giovanni.’ David smiled grimly.

‘Your father never ceased to amaze me. After all he went through in the Holocaust he was still able to apply that experience in a way that would reverse the treatment of the Palestinians. He was a real hope for peace here.’

‘I hope I will be able to do the same,’ David replied. ‘He was a wonderful role model.’

‘How are you?’ Allegra asked gently, her eyes full of concern.

‘I’m fine,’ Giovanni replied sadly. ‘Clearly my time has not yet come.’

‘When they release you, you must come and stay with us,’ David insisted. ‘I promise the secret service will not be too visible. Allegra and I have something very important to show you.’

Before Giovanni could answer, the Vatican’s spokesman appeared on the television that had been playing quietly in the background.

‘The Holy Father died at 9.37 this evening in his private apartment…’

Giovanni, Allegra and David, together with millions around the world, watched with sadness as the Vatican confirmed the Pope’s passing.

‘The first General Congregation of Cardinals will be held at 10 a.m. on Monday, 4 April, in the Bologna Hall of the Apostolic Palace,’ the spokesman concluded.

CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE

Roma

‘ G ood luck, Eminence,’ Vittorio said as he handed Giovanni the small suitcase from the back of the old Fiat.

Giovanni smiled. ‘There is an old saying, my friend: “he who goes in a pope, comes out a cardinal”. Besides, there are many far better qualified than I and it is not a job I seek. We will let the Holy Spirit decide, non e vero?’

Giovanni unlocked his suite in the new priests’ accommodation that John Paul II had ordered built in the Santa Marta Hospice in the Vatican grounds and deposited his suitcase. He sat at his small desk to read his breviary and then took a stroll in the quiet of the evening. Soon enough there would be no such freedom. The cardinals would all be locked up from the outside world until a new Pontiff had been elected. As Giovanni walked in the centuries-old gardens, he fell into conversation with the Holy Spirit, asking for guidance – that he and his fellow cardinals might elect a Pope of the Spirit’s choosing, perhaps someone like John XXIII, a man of the people, a man who could turn around the misfortunes and misconceptions of a Church Giovanni loved so dearly. Change would not come easily to a Church that for centuries had been rooted in dogma by those who put their own politics and power above the truth and the real message of Christ. Once released, the truth would be a beacon that civilisation so desperately needed. When all this was over, he thought, the revelations in the Omega Scroll might possibly achieve what John XXIII had not been able to.

As soon as the Vatican announced the death of Pope John Paul II, Tom applied to cover the proceedings from Rome. The day after the biggest funeral the world had ever witnessed, a weary Tom Schweiker prepared once again for another live cross.

‘We cross live to Rome and to Tom Schweiker for his thoughts on the Papal conclave to elect a successor to the third longest reigning Pontiff in the history of the Papacy.’

‘Good evening, Geraldine. It has been a long reign, although not without controversy. The media coverage of the Pope’s death has been full of praise for this Pope and until now, very few journalists have been prepared to air any grievances.’

‘A dark side, Tom?’

Tom nodded. ‘I think so. During the nine days of mourning for this Pope, sixty thousand Africans will die of AIDS under a Papacy that has been promoting the absurd notion that condoms cause the disease. That’s over six and a half thousand people dying every day, so you can imagine what some of the medical teams struggling with the disease think of that piece of dogma.’

‘And celibacy has been another issue?’

‘Very much so. Particularly when for the first thousand years of this Church, Catholic priests were happily married. And of course,’ Tom added, struggling to keep the bitterness from his voice, ‘this Pope did very little to strike at the cancer of paedophilia in the ranks of the priesthood. It was only when the media coverage of the abuse of children in Boston reached a crescendo that anything was done. Even then, the cardinal who was forced to step down was given a senior appointment and a spacious apartment here in Rome, and was a celebrant at one of the Masses for the dead Pope, so it’s hard to believe that the Vatican is very much bothered by paedophilia.’

‘Is that likely to change with the next Pope, Tom?’