6. Vatican City

Vatican City

IN NOMINE PATRIS ET Filii et Spiritus Sancti.”

The Pope’s voice, amplified by the Vatican public address system, resounded across St. Peter’s Square and down the length of the Via della Conciliazione.

Twenty thousand voices replied: “Amen.”

Gabriel and Luca Angelli sprinted across the Piazza Santa Marta, then along the exterior wall of the Basilica. Before reaching the Arch of Bells, Angelli turned to the right and entered the Permissions Office, the main security checkpoint for most visitors to the Vatican. If Ibrahim el-Banna had cleared anyone else into the Vatican, the paperwork would exist there. Gabriel kept going toward the Arch of Bells. The Swiss Guard on duty there, startled by the sight of a man running toward him, lowered his halberd defensively as Gabriel approached. He raised it again when he saw Gabriel waving his Security Office ID badge.

“Give me your sidearm,” Gabriel ordered.

“Sir?”

“Give me your gun!” Gabriel shouted at the Guard in German.

The Guard reached inside his multicolored Renaissance tunic and came out with a very modern SIG-Sauer 9mm, just as Luca Angelli emerged through the archway.

“El-Banna cleared a delegation of three German priests into the Vatican at eleven-thirty.”

“They’re not priests, Luca. They’re shaheeds. Martyrs.” Gabriel looked at the crowd gathered in the square. “And I doubt they’re inside the Vatican any longer. They’re probably out there now, armed with explosives and only God knows what else.”

“Why did they come through the Arch of Bells into the Vatican?”

“To get their bombs, of course.” It was the chink in the Vatican’s security armor. The terrorists had discovered it through repeated surveillance and had used the Holy Father’s initiative of peace to exploit it. “El-Banna probably smuggled the bombs inside over time and stored them in his office. The shaheeds collected them after clearing security at the Permissions Office, then made their way into the square by some route without metal detectors.”

“The Basilica,” said Angelli. “They could have entered the Basilica from the side and come out through one of the front doors. We could have passed them a few moments ago, and we never would have known it.”

Gabriel and Angelli vaulted the wooden fencing separating the Arch of Bells entrance area from the rest of the square and mounted the dais. Their sudden movement sent a murmur through the audience. Donati was standing behind the Pope. Gabriel went quietly to his side and handed him the note he’d taken from el-Banna’s office.

“They’re here.”

Donati looked down, saw the Arabic script, then looked up at Gabriel again.

“We found that in Ibrahim el-Banna’s office. It says they’re going to destroy the Basilica. It says they’re going to kill the Holy Father. We have to get him off the dais. Now, Luigi.”