Page 32 of The Medici Return

He slid open the exit door and moved to the next car. Through the glass panel at the other end he peered ahead and saw no signof Malone. About a dozen people filled the seats ahead of him. Several were asleep. No one seemed to be readying themselves to leave. He stepped down the aisle and entered the space between the cars where a door leading off the train awaited. A red light indicated it was still locked, but the light changed to green once the train came to a full stop.

He opened the panel and stepped off the train.

CHAPTER 20

STEFANO HAD LISTENED TO EVERYTHINGCARDINALASCOLANI SAID, amazed at what he was hearing. He’d been read in on something huge, which showed the trust the secretary of state, and head of the Entity, had in him as head of the Gruppo Intervento Rapido.

Currently, the Entity employed about six hundred operatives around the world, and about five times that number in unpaid informants among the priests, nuns, and countless lay and clerical workers. The church possessed a massive global reach. Out of 195 countries the Holy See maintained diplomatic relations with 183. That was more than even the United States recognized. There were 120 apostolic nuncios, each one an ambassador that required supporting. Eighty-nine nations maintained Vatican embassies in Rome, which all required monitoring. Operatives were scattered throughout them all.

“Cardinal Richter has been relieved of his duties,” Ascolani said. “He’s been ordered to Munich to stay at the archbishop’s residence. I want you to monitor his trip tomorrow, without him knowing you are watching. Make sure he arrives there, then contact me.”

Surveillance videos showed that Richter left the Vatican Gardens and headed straight for the Apostolic Archive. Once it wasknown as the Vatican Secret Archive—secretconnoting “private” as opposed to “sinister”—but a previous pope had bestowed a less mysterious label.

First task?

Ascolani had been clear.

“Find out why Richter was there.”

He left the apartment and followed a road that led to the Court of the Belvedere. The archives were housed there next to the Vatican library. Three successive Swiss Guards checked his credentials before he reached the stairway that led up into the building. No one questioned his presence, as his Entity credentials contained the highest security clearance.

Inside were fifty-three miles of shelving laden with books, manuscripts, registers, and documents. The central repository of the Holy See. Everything there belonged to the current pope, and the ownership would be passed to his successor. This functioning organ of the church detailing two thousand years of struggle and accomplishment was closed to outsiders until the late nineteenth century. Today the main archive and the library could be accessed with permission from the prefect. Other areas remained highly classified, still denied to outsiders, including everything after 1958. Those materials could only be viewed by permission of the pope. Seventy-five years have to pass after a pope’s reign before the records of that reign are opened. The repository remained staffed twenty-four hours a day, albeit with fewer people at night. He headed for the prefect’s office, where a young priest sat behind a desk.

“Is Cardinal Richter still here?” he asked in Italian.

“And you are?”

He knew the clerks liked to flex their muscles, which was easy considering how many access restrictions the archive possessed. The Entity had eyes and ears inside the archives, and he wondered if this priest was among those. So he produced his credentials, which the young man barely noticed. “I am Father Giumenta and I need an answer to my question.”

“He was here. But is now gone.”

He waited, knowing this clerk knew what he wanted.

“He spent some time in the bunker, with the indexes,” the man finally said.

“Show me.”

“I’m alone here at the moment.”

Which meant he did not want to leave the desk.

“And I will need the prefect’s approval,” the priest added.

“By all means. And while you do that, I will check with Cardinal Ascolani and see what he says about… your needs.”

On the make-an-enemy pole the secretary of state outranked any prefect.

The priest stood. “Follow me.”

They walked into the main archive, then through a series of security doors and down a staircase. The underground bunker was two stories, fireproof and secure, with constant temperature and humidity control. He’d been down here before. Everything inside the bunker was classified, requiring papal authority to access through the prefect. So he was curious, “How did Cardinal Richter get down here?”

“He called the prefect, who granted access.”

Interesting.

They reached the bottom of the stairs, and the priest tapped a keypad that opened a steel door. Beyond were racks of metal shelving upon which lay sleeves, bound manuscripts, and plastic containers, each labeled and containing precious documents. He knew that, of late, everything related to the church’s sexual abuse scandal was stored here. So for the prefect to allow Richter inside, unsupervised, was a big deal.

“What am I looking at?” he asked.

---