The nervous troops spoke quietly with Morgen about slipping away in the dark. More than one asked him to bring civilian clothes to make the escape easier. None of them seemed to know what they were guarding. That secret seemed restricted to a select handful, among them the sergeant who had come to Morgen for absolution.

“One night in the compound, after I said mass, Willi Max—the sergeant—and I slipped away from the main barracks and entered the mine. The great cavern had been turned into a fortress. All through its corridors were caches of arms, ammunition, explosives, and booby traps. They showed me how the entrance was mined, designed to produce a controlled cave-in to block access. Once past the entrance, the sergeant vouched for me and I was accepted without question. My request for a tour of the mine was readily granted.”

Morgen struggled to control his anger and disgust at the memory. “I was able to do this, Your Eminence, because as you well know, many within the church—especially the anti-Semitic among us—had served the Reich and its aims too faithfully.” Morgen ignored Braun’s warning frown and continued. “I hadn’t wanted to believe the sergeant’s story; but when the makeshift vault was opened and the golden box with the Sophia Passion, her shroud, and the other documents was revealed, all doubt gave way to awe. After the box was returned to the vault, the sentry opened a separate compartment and displayed the written pact between Hitler and Pope Pius XII.”

Morgen focused on the cardinal’s eyes as he said: “When I read the text of the papal concessions, I felt an implosion of my faith that unhinged my self-control.” Morgen shook his head slowly, the regret still obvious after more than half a century.

“I can still see myself, almost as if I was detached from my body. It was as if I was no longer in control of my own fist as it flew toward the smooth whiteness of the sentry’s neck. My arms seemed to be controlled in that moment by a force beyond me. Again and again I struck the sentry until he slumped to the floor, bloody and unconscious.”

Morgen’s breathing came quickly and deep as if his body were reliving the exertion. “And then I reached for the golden box. From behind me came a shout ‘Stop!’ I turned to see the young sergeant who had shown me all this facing me; he held his service Luger leveled at my chest

“ ‘Shoot me!’ I said. ‘I’m ready to die.’ The sergeant shook his head. ‘No,’ he told me. ‘You must leave.’ I turned and was amazed to see the shroud’s safe closing of its own accord, actuated by the mechanical whining within the wall. I turned to reach for the box but the sergeant lunged forward, shouldering me out of the way as the safe door closed. He saved my life. Otherwise I would have been trapped inside with it.”

Morgen shook his head. “Sometimes I wish I had been trapped in there.” His hand shook as he sipped at his tea. “He told me that there were security devices even within the vault, booby traps so that a person would be killed trying to steal it.