“Really?” Carmen spun back toward the phone in surprise. “I’ve never heard that before.”
“This wasn’t something that was reported in the press, but Brett is sure his source at the Vatican is rock solid.”
“What happened?”
“To use a worn-out cliché, the priest said that Marrese made a deal with the devil. Supposedly, the demon that possessed this man was indeed one of the highest order, assuming you believe such things.” The Oracle sounded skeptical. “In any event, the demon agreed to depart the man’s body on one condition and one condition only.”
“And what was that?” Carmen asked.
“The demon was going to give the priest some piece of information regarding the future of mankind. The priest had to act on that information, and in return, he would be made the leader of a new world order.”
“It sounds like the same type of thing that Satan offered Christ during the temptation in the wilderness,” offered Amanda.
“Only Christ never gave in,” Carmen added.
“Well, according to the story, Marrese did,” the Oracle stated. “The priest said in his e-mail that Marrese wanted to keep his perfect record of successful exorcisms intact, and he figured that he’d be able to simply ignore his end of the bargain.”
“And let me guess,” Carmen said. “He wasn’t able to.”
“No, he wasn’t. Apparently, in making that deal with the devil, he opened himself up to some kind of possession, at least that’s how the story goes.”
“What do you think, Ross?” Carmen asked.
“I think the e-mail from the murdered priest represents what he truly believed to be the case. As for all the spooky stuff, you know where I stand on that.”
Carmen knew exactly what the Oracle was saying. He was a man of science and was highly skeptical of the supernatural.
“And now we get to the connection to Renaissance,” the Oracle said. “We discovered something very interesting about Alexander Mironov. When we reviewed all that had been shared about him between intelligence agencies, we found that AISE, the Italian spy division that handles matters abroad, had posted briefs that Marrese had been seen with Mironov on several occasions. They couldn’t prove there was any mischief going on, but they wanted it out there, in case something came up.”
“Marrese has been spending time with Mironov?” Carmen asked. “That seems like an odd pair.”
“Ever since Marrese moved to Switzerland, AISE has kept an eye on him. It’s been difficult, as the man is as slippery as they come, but they were able to take several pictures of him and Mironov. Unfortunately, they’re always taken at night as the men slip into a restaurant or one of Mironov’s private villas.”
“Do any of the restaurants have security film?”
“No, Brett has already checked,” Ross told Carmen. “They’re always small restaurants and don’t have any sort of CCTV surveillance, and may even be owned by Mironov. It appears they pick their rendezvous locations carefully.”
“Do we know why these two men would be working together?” Carmen asked. “I mean, I can’t think of two people who are more different. When I think Mironov, I think dollar signs. Marrese may be into a lot of things, but money is not one of them. At least that’s what I’ve read.”
“To be honest, we have no clue. The whole thing is so weird we don’t know what to think. But the word on the street is that they’re cooking up something big.”
“Where is Marrese now?” Carmen asked.
“We don’t know that either. I’m going to try to discreetly reach out to AISE and see what I can find out. I need to be careful because we don’t want to involve the Italians at this point, not unless we have to. No offense.”
Carmen laughed. “None taken. What now?”
“Priority number one is for you to get some rest. We’re going to keep looking for Zane on our end. We’ll be back in touch with you first thing in the morning.”
“As soon as I’m done checking the area I’m going straight to sleep.”
“Thank you, Dr. Ross,” Amanda said.
“Have a good night’s rest, Amanda,” Ross replied.
Carmen ended the call and tucked her phone and her Beretta inside her coat.
“Are you really going outside?” Amanda asked.
“You want to sleep soundly, don’t you?” Carmen asked. “I don’t like nighttime surprises.”
“It just seems a little crazy to go wandering around, knowing those men could be out there. Of course you’ve done a lot of things that seemed crazy, and yet we’re still here.”
Carmen twisted her hair into a ball on top of her head before putting on a dark gray toboggan. She then pulled the hat down so far that only a small portion of her face was exposed. “They spent all afternoon chasing a woman with long dark hair. Tonight I’ll just be one of a hundred hats that are wandering around out there.”
Amanda shook her head as Carmen paused at the door and said, “Make sure you set the latch when I leave. And no one, I mean no one, is to be let in, besides me.”
With that, Carmen left the room and boarded the elevator just down the hall. As the doors slid shut, her thoughts turned to Zane. To keep him alive, they needed to find him soon.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
The call came at precisely 9:07 the next morning. Carmen had just returned from a trip down to the Grande Place to purchase a few staples, and Amanda was blow-drying her hair in front of the mirror. Carmen felt the phone vibrate in her pocket as she walked toward the bed, and pulled it out to look at the screen. It was the Oracle.
She motioned for Amanda to turn off the blow dryer. “Petrosino,” she said into the phone.
“Good morning. How are the operative and her sidekick holding up?”
“Fine,” Carmen replied. “I’ve already been out twice. No sign of our friends, so I think we’re in the clear for now. Have you located Zane?”
“That’s why I’m calling. I have good news and bad news.”
“Let’s hear the good news. I think I’ve had enough bad news already.”
“The good news is we finally got the system up and running, and Zane’s secondary tracking device was still sending a signal.”
“Where is he?”
“Strangely, the signal was only a couple of miles from you.”
Carmen set her bags on the bed and then, as was her new custom, walked over to the window and stared out at the square below. “Where exactly? I can leave immediately.”
“You haven’t gotten the bad news yet.”
“Go ahead.”
“There are actually two pieces of bad news… or challenges, as I prefer to say. The first is the location. We believe we may have gotten a misread. Second, we only received pings for about an hour, then they just disappeared altogether. Nothing. Not even a faint ping that would indicate some kind of blockage.”
“And the system was still up?”
Carmen could hear Brett talking in the background. “Just a moment,” said the Oracle, and the sound grew muffled as though he were placing his hand over the phone. After a few seconds the sound grew clear again. “Sorry about that. Carmen, we do have one possible lead. I’m going to put you on speaker, and Brett will take it from here.”
“Carmen?” Brett asked. “I think Dr. Ross told you that we lost our GPS signal around 1:00 a.m., your time.”
“He did.”
“Well, when the sun came up a couple of hours ago, I was able to obtain a few satellite images of the lake. Initially we thought we had nothing. There were a number of smaller craft, probably sailboats, and two of the larger steam-powered tour boats on the east end where we last received a signal. Nothing to get excited about. Well, I had to move on, and I asked Chris to look at everything behind me. The old two-sets-of-eyes theory.”