"The fire started in the Hall of Records. In the basement. All the paperwork was there; it went up like a torch. Shot up the stairwells ... the third floor became an inferno."

"Third floor . . . ?"

"Nursery and maternity ward," nodded Jennings. "Nothing left but ashes."

Thorn sagged, leaning heavily against a wall.

"If you'll excuse me . . ." said the nun.

"Wait." begged Thorn. What about the staff? Surely some survived."

"Yes. Some."

"There was a tall man. A priest. A giant of a man."

"Was his name Spilletto?"

"Yes," replied Thorn excitedly. "Spilletto."

"He was chief of staff," replied the nun.

"Yes. He was in charge. Is he ..."

"He lived."

Thorn's heart surged with hope. "Is he here?"

"No."

"Where?"

"A monastery in Subiaco. Many of the survivors were taken there. Many died there. He might have died. But he lived through the fire. I remember they said it was a miracle he survived. He was on the third floor at the time of the fire."

"Subiaco?" asked Jennings.

The nun nodded. "The Monastery of San Benedetto."

Racing to the cab, they poured over Jennings' maps. Subiaco was on the southern border of Italy; to reach it they would have to drive through the night. The cab-driver complained, but they gave him more money, tracing the route in red pencil so he could follow it while they slept. But they were too keyed up to sleep; instead they turned to Jennings' books, studying them under the dim interior light as the small cab sped through the Italian countryside.

"I'll be damned . . ." whispered Jennings, as he gazed down into a Bible. "Here we go."

"What is it?"

"It's all right here in the Bible. In the bloody Book of Revelations. When the Jews return to Zion "

"That was it," interrupted Thorn excitedly. "The poem. When the Jews return to Zion. Then something about a comet..."

"That's here too," said Jennings, pointing to another book. "A shower of stars, and the rise of the Holy Roman Empire. These are supposed to be the events that signal the birth of the Anti-Christ. The Devil's own child."

As the cab pressed onward, they continued to read, Thorn pulling from his briefcase the interpretive text he'd once used to prepare a speech in which he quoted from the Bible. It provided the clarity they needed to make sense of the symbols in the scriptures.

"So the Jews have returned to Zion," concluded Jennings as morning neared, "and there has been a comet. And as for the rise of the Holy Roman Empire, scholars think that could well be interpreted as the formation of the Common Market."

"Bit of a stretch . . ." Thorn pondered.

"Then how 'bout this?" asked Jennings, opening one of his books. "Revelations says: 'He will come forth from the Eternal Sea.' "

"That's the poem again. Tassone's poem." Thorn squinted trying to recall. "From the Eternal Sea He rises ... with armies on either shore. That's how it began."