Page 41 of Skotos
“That’s what Rome station is investigating.”
Thomas scoffed. “Come on. The Church? The Pope? That’s reckless, and well outside anything they normally do. Pius is too smart to go about murdering world leaders in their driveways.”
“Thomas is right,” I said. “Even if a fringe faction existed, the Vatican wouldn’t risk this, not the Holy See, not with so many eyes on the region. It’s too dangerous. The Pope would never—”
“You think the Pope’s above it? If it furthered their interest, their reach?” Manakin asked, his voice low.
“I think they’ve survived millennia by not being stupid,” Thomas said.
“You should brush up on your Church history.” Manakin exhaled slowly. “I wish I could agree, but nothing is impossible in our business, especially when power and faith mix.”
That line dropped like a guillotine, cold and final.
“I’m sending you both to Rome,” Manakin continued. “Officially, you’re on diplomatic courier detail. Unofficially, you’re to meet our contact inside the Curia. Use your best cover—no cowboy theatrics. If the Vatican is involved, tread carefully.”
“Manakin, seriously?” I snapped. “Wejustgot to Bern last night. We haven’t followed a single lead here. Shit, we’re sitting on a possible staging site andhaven’t even pulled at those threads. We need more time.”
“Will—” Thomas started, but I shook my head.
“No. We’re chasing shadows across Europe, and now we’re supposed to drop everything again and go to Rome based on a cryptic phrase in a coded message sent by two people we can’t even identify?”
Manakin didn’t raise his voice. He didn’t need to.
“Let the Swiss handle Lugano. We are coordinating with them already. Your job is to follow the killer, and right now, Rome is where the trail leads. Full stop.”
Thomas met my gaze. “We go where the target goes.”
I sat back, my jaw tight.
“And for the record,” Thomas added, “I agree with Will. The Church? The Pope? It’s a wild theory. They’re too smart, too visible, and too interconnected. Any political entanglement of this magnitude would be catastrophic.”
“You think the Vatican’s too careful to do stupid things?” Manakin asked.
“I think they’ve survived this long by not doing stupid thingsin public,” I said.
“Then maybe it’s not the Vatican,” Manakin replied darkly. “Maybe it’s someone inside it. Or something . . . something older, more hidden.”
The line went silent again.
“Understood,” Thomas said, resignation coating the word. “We’ll be ready when the car arrives.”
“One more thing,” Manakin added. “The phrase they used—the sacred spear—it’s showing up in another decrypted document. This one’s older, from Warsaw in 1946. We’re pulling the full file now.”
I shot Thomas a pointed look.
“Fine. We’ll be ready,” I said.
The line went dead.
I ran a hand through my hair and tried to blink away my disbelief. “Do youreallythink the Pope would do something like this? Organize a continent-wide revolution through murder? He’d be signing his own death warrant. The Church would never recover from the scandal to follow.”
Thomas shrugged. “The war may feel like the distant past, but Hitler’s only been dead a few years. A lot of people’s blood still runs hot, either for vengeance or to revive the insanity of his beliefs. Maybe the Pope isn’t as pro-Western as he says he is in public. Maybe he sees a play to increase his own power. Who knows?”
“But the Pope? Pius?”
“I know. It sounds nuts.” Thomas leaned back and rubbed his temples. “We’d better go downstairs. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Baroness didn’t have our bags packed and a car waiting already.”
“Right.” I grunted. “She said the line was secure. She didn’t say the tower wasn’t bugged for her pleasure.”
