“You’re as delusional as Stefano!”

But Arturo doesn’t seem to hear her. “To rend asunder such a holy place? A monastery of almost eight hundred years? And for what? To build more extravagant condominiums for the rich and godless to dwell in, instead of us true believers?”

Alana’s jaw drops. “That’s it, isn’t it?”

Arturo locks his eyes on hers. When he speaks again, his tone is harsh and the façade of the grandfatherly cleric melts away. “What would you know of any of this? You brash American. You understand nothing of faith, devotion, or sacrifice!”

“This has nothing to with God!” Alana leans in closer. “You’ve done this out of some warped sense of vengeance. To settle a personal score. Nothing more!”

“I was sent by the archbishop of Genoa and the Benedictine primate in Rome to make San Giovanni whole again. I did everything they asked of me. I breathed new life into the monastery. And how did the Church reward that? They sold it to the devil!” His voice rises as his nostrils flare. “And then they stripped me of my abbotship and, with it, my dignity. They cast me aside.”

“Oh, my God.” Alana clenches her fist. She has never wanted to hit someone more in her life. “You’d destroy the world because they took your job?”

“It’s too late to stop Stefano, Dr. Vaughn. What’s done is done.” Arturo relaxes back in his seat. A self-satisfied smile crosses his lips. “And the legacy of San Giovanni will not be soon forgotten.”

Chapter

Sixty-One

The night passed in a sandstorm of activity. Alana spent much of it at AISI headquarters, helping to scour the ship manifests with the other agents. She only returned to her hotel after four a.m. to have a quick shower.

She doesn’t realize she has dozed off in the chair until she’s startled awake by the ringing phone in her hand. She jumps to her feet when she sees Sergio’s name on the screen. “You found him!”

“Yes,” Sergio says.

“Where?”

“On a cargo ship off the north coast of Egypt.”

He hasn’t reached Asia yet, thank God! “Heading for the Suez Canal?” she asks.

“I will fill you in when I see you. How soon can you be ready?”

“Five minutes. Less, if need be.”

“I will pick you up.”

“What about Byron?

“Military personnel only.” Sergio disconnects without another word.

Alana throws on clothes and hurries down to the lobby. A black SUV screeches up to the entrance just as she reaches the sliding doors. She climbs into the backseat next to Sergio. She recognizes the two dark-suited AISI agents in the front seats from the previous raid on the bomb makers’ lair.

“What do you know, Sergio?” she demands as the car pulls away from the curb.

“Stefano was hired on to the Cielo di Asia—a transpacific freighter out of Naples—on the same day it sailed. We came close to missing him. The shipping company, Napoli Marittima, had misspelled Russo with one s instead of two.”