IT WAS JUST after ten o’clock when Donati escorted Gabriel down the flight of steps that led from the Apostolic Palace to the Via Belvedere. A light mist was falling; Gabriel zipped his jacket and hitched his overnight bag over his shoulder. Donati, coatless, seemed not to notice the weather. His eyes remained on the paving stones as they walked past the Vatican central post office toward St. Anne’s Gate.

“Are you sure I can’t offer you a lift?”

“Until this morning, I thought I might never be allowed to set foot here again. I think I’ll use the opportunity to take a walk.”

“If the Italian police arrest you before you reach your flat, tell them to give me a call. His Holiness will vouch for your fine character.” They walked in silence for a moment. “Why don’t you come back for good?”

“To Italy? I’m afraid Shamron has other plans for me.”

“We miss you,” Donati said. “So does Tiepolo.”

Francesco Tiepolo, a friend of the Pope and Donati, owned the most successful restoration firm in the Veneto. Gabriel had restored two of Bellini’s greatest altarpieces for him. Nearly two, he thought. Tiepolo had had to finish Bellini’s San Giovanni Crisostomo altarpiece after Gabriel’s flight from Venice.

“Something tells me Tiepolo will survive without me.”

“And Chiara?”

Gabriel, with his moody silence, made it clear he had no desire to discuss with the Pope’s private secretary the state of his tangled love life. Donati adroitly changed the subject.

“I’m sorry if you felt the Holy Father was putting you on the spot. I’m afraid he’s lost much of his old forbearance. It happens to all of them a few years into their papacy. When one is regarded as the Vicar of Christ, it’s difficult not to become the slightest bit overbearing.”

“He’s still the gentle soul I met three years ago, Luigi. Just a bit older.”

“He wasn’t a young man when he got the job. The cardinals wanted a caretaker Pope, someone to keep the throne of St. Peter warm while the reformers and the reactionaries sorted out their differences. My master never had any intention of being a mere caretaker, as you well know. He has much work to do before he dies—things that aren’t necessarily going to make the reactionaries happy. Obviously, I don’t want his papacy cut short.”

“Nor do I.”

“Which is why you’re the perfect man to be at his side tomorrow during the general audience.”

“The Swiss Guard and their helpers from the Carabinieri are more than capable of looking after your master.”

“They’re very good, but they’ve never experienced an actual terrorist attack.”

“Few people have,” Gabriel said. “And usually they don’t live to tell about it.”