Chapter IV

It was cool and quiet inside the Air Italia 767, en route for Rome.

PENA AND MARCO SAT next to each other quietly talking about what they were going to be doing at the Vatican. Diego sat just behind them, occasionally leaning forward to fill in the gaps. Pena was still not convinced that this was at

all possible.

“So we can’t get into the Vatican?” Pena said skeptically. “Even as tourists?”

“We could, but the access is so limited that there’s no way we could get to Thomas. Besides, he’s going to be making his escape towards us,” Marco said matter-of-factly.

“And he’s going to do that because we have a man on the inside who is going to help him effect his escape.”

“That’s right.”

“So,” Pena queried, “why can’t this guy Thomas just walk out? Is he a prisoner in the Vatican? That sounds a little far fetched.”

Diego leaned forward, his large hands hooking over the seat cushions, “He’s not a prisoner, but he is so important to them that he would be with a large contingent of guards. And you can believe that if he made a run for it they would have something to say about it.”

Marco added, “And, most likely, they would ‘accidentally’ shoot Thomas dead in the confusion.”

“This guy is that important? So important that they would rather kill him then to let him just walk away?” Pena was coming around, but he just didn’t subscribe to the whole ‘prophecies of the future’ thing. It seemed too far-fetched Too dramatic. They had explained to him that in these prophecies there is a rough timeline that takes events from the time of Jesus, all the way forward until the start of the Great Battle, as they called it. Thomas knew this time line. Thomas knew all of these really important biblical things that the Vatican would stop at nothing to protect and conceal. Well, if nothing else this was kind of exciting. Much more interesting than interviewing witnesses who couldn’t remember what they ate for breakfast, much less what some mystery religious assassin looked like.

“He knows things, Mr. Pena. Thomas knows about the End of Days. He knows things that even the Pope doesn’t know. He purposely concealed some things so that he could see if the killings continued. When they did, he knew that there was more to it than just a bunch of religious propaganda,” Marco said.

Diego nodded, leaning his face between Pena and Marco. “When this started, I thought that maybe it was a ploy by the Vatican. They ‘accidentally’ loose or release some of the prophesies, and then the murders start happening. Then they could come back and say, ‘look, see . . . we told you so.’ Like maybe the whole things was a publicity stunt—”

“A violent one,” Marco interjected.

“Certainly,” Diego said. “But no more violent than any of the things they had done in the past. Marco, here, was trained in the Ustachi. He was going to become one of their thugs.”

Pena yawned, “This stuff is giving me a headache.”

“It’s a great deal of information to have thrown in your face. I would be quite skeptical myself. It’s just that, sometimes, you have to do what you think is right, even if it is contrary to your preconceptions. I believe that our belief system will go through quite a change. Even Diego and I. Thomas will have so much for us to interpret. All sorts of amazing things.”

“Things that we can never tell anybody else, ever?” Pena asked rhetorically.

“That’s right. Shocking things that if they fell into the wrong hands might jump-start the beginning of the end.”

That was something that had been particularly difficult for Pena to come to terms with. “If these prophesies told about the End of Days, and all that, then why couldn’t we use them to delay this catastrophe?”

Marco and Diego had explained that good gives us free will, and that he rarely tries to intervene in human affairs.

Pena countered that the bible is full of stories about God doing this, and prophets doing that. And, he asked, how can you even have the ‘prophesies’ if you have ‘free will’? The answer was that God may not be in complete control over everything. Everything got confusing when Lucifer and all of the other Angels were cast out of Heaven.

Well, things were confusing enough without even considering the Devil.

Marco turned towards Pena. “We must rescue Thomas. And ’“,e must hide him from the world. You are the only one who can do that. Both of us,” he said nodding to Diego, “we are tired old religious men. I don’t have the technical skills, nor the investigative savvy that you have. You have to protect him from the world. It is your mission in this life.”

Pena turned to Marco and Diego, “How can you say it’s my mission in life?

That’s kind of getting out there a bit, isn’t it?”

“You were requested personally,” Diego said.

“Oh, really,” Pena mused, “By who? Who requested that I give up my search for a bunch of murderous criminals, and probably throwaway my career to help some Vatican nut job escape the asylum?”

“Thomas,” Diego said very clearly.

“Thomas?”

Marco nodded, “Thomas asked for you. He described you to a ‘t’.”

Pena didn’t have much of a response. The look on his face was one of a guy waiting for a punch line. But this was no joke.

“None of this is an accident, Mr. Antonio Pena. This is your part. Now you must play it.”