Part 37 (2/2)

Abruptly Harry looked to Danny. ”Why are you so certain we're safe here... that Father Bardoni didn't tell them?-I saw him, Danny. If it was me, I would have told them anything they wanted to know.”

”You have to believe me, Harry...”

”It's not you. It's Father Bardoni. I don't have that much trust.”

Danny looked at his brother for a long moment in silence; when he finally spoke it was in a way that tried to make Harry understand there was more to what he was saying than simply the words he was using.

”This apartment building belongs to the owner of one of the largest pharmaceutical manufacturers in Italy. All he had to know was that Cardinal Marsciano requested a private place for a few days and it was done with no questions...”

”What's that got to do with Father Bardoni?”

”Harry, the cardinal is one of the most beloved men in Italy.... Look who helped him, and at what risk to themselves. I...”-Danny hesitated, then went on-”I became a priest because I was as lost and confused after I came out of the marines as I was before I went in.... By the time I came to Rome, I was just as lost.... Then I met the cardinal, and he showed me a life that was inside me that I never knew existed. Over the years he guided me, encouraged me to find my own convictions, spiritual and otherwise.... The Church, Harry, became my family... and the cardinal I loved like a father.... It was the same for Father Bardoni. It's why he would have told them nothing...”

The image of Father Bardoni in the bathtub was too strong: a man being tortured yet saying nothing. Shaken and moved, Harry ran a hand through his hair and had to look away. When he did, his eyes found Elena's. They were tender and loving and told him she understood what Danny had said-and knew he was right.

”Harry-”

The sharpness of Danny's voice brought him around and back to his brother. It was only then he saw the television was on in the background.

”There is something else.... If I didn't believe it before, Father Bardoni's murder confirmed it.... Do you know what is going on in China?”

”A catastrophe, a lot of people dead. I don't know. I haven't exactly had a lot of time to watch the TV. What the h.e.l.l are you talking about?”

”In Bellagio, Harry. When we were waiting in the truck for Sister Elena to come for us. You got a call on a cell phone.... It woke me.... I heard you say two names, Adrianna and Eaton.”

”What about it?” Harry still didn't understand.

”Adrianna Hall. James Eaton.”

Harry was both surprised and puzzled. ”They were the people who helped me get to you. How the h.e.l.l do you know them?”

”It doesn't make any difference. What's important is that you get in touch with them both as fast as you can.” Abruptly Danny moved his wheelchair toward his brother. ”We have to stop what's going on in China.”

”Stop what?” Harry didn't understand.

”They're poisoning the lakes, Harry.... One has already been done.... There are two more to go...”

”What? Who's poisoning the lakes? From what little I know, it was an act of nature.”

”It's not,” Danny said quickly, then glanced at Elena before looking back to Harry. ”It's part of Palestrina's goal... for the Vatican to control China.”

Harry felt the hairs stand up on the back of his neck. ”That was what the confession was about, wasn't it?...”

”It was a part of the confession...”

Elena crossed herself, ”Mother Mary...,” she said under her breath.

”A little while ago WNN ran a recap story on Hefei,” Danny kept on, pressing strongly. ”At two minutes and twenty-odd seconds past eight, there was a clip from the Hefei water-filtration plant-I know the time because I looked at my watch. In that clip was the face of a man who, if he isn't doing the poisoning, knows who is.”

”How do you know that?” Harry whispered.

”I saw him last summer at a private retreat outside Rome. He was there with another man, waiting to see Palestrina. Not many Chinese are invited to a Vatican retreat.” Danny was as intense as Harry had ever seen him.

”Adrianna Hall can roll the tape back to the second and find that picture. The man is short and standing to the left, and he's got a briefcase in his hand. When she has it, have her get it to Eaton as fast as she can.”

”What is Eaton going to do with it? He's a minor emba.s.sy official.”

”Harry, he's Rome station chief of the CIA.”

”What?” Harry was dumbfounded.

Danny didn't waver. ”I've been in Rome a long time, Harry.... Where I work, there are levels of international diplomacy where things are known.... Cardinal Marsciano has guided me into rooms most people would never know existed...”

Both Harry and Elena could see Danny's anguish. Bound by the Seal of Confession, he was jeopardizing his soul by revealing anything he had heard in it. Yet hundreds of thousands of lives were at stake, and he had to do something. And in doing it, he had to trust not in canon law, but in G.o.d.

Danny wheeled his chair back a little, never taking his eyes from Harry. ”I want you to go out of the building now. Call Adrianna Hall first, and do it from a pay phone. Then go to another pay phone and call Eaton. Tell him what I told you and that Adrianna is getting him the footage. Tell him to inform Chinese Intelligence-tell him they have to find the man with the briefcase. Underline that speed is everything. Otherwise the people in Beijing are going to have a couple of hundred thousand more dead to answer for...”

Harry hesitated for the briefest moment, then his finger pointed off. ”There's a phone right there, Danny. Why not tell Eaton yourself?”

”He can't know where I am or you are...”

”Why?”

”Because I'm still a U.S. citizen, and because a threat to China is a matter of national security. He'll want more from me, and he'll do whatever he has to do to get it.... Even if it means illegally taking all three of us into custody.... If he does”-Danny's voice faded to a hoa.r.s.e and exhausted whisper-”Cardinal Marsciano will die.”

Elena saw the look in Harry's eyes. Saw him stare at his brother for a long time before he slowly nodded and said, ”Okay.” She knew in her heart Harry felt what they were doing was wrong, even ill advised. But she had also seen him accept without a word Danny's special reverence for Cardinal Marsciano, understanding why he would risk everything to save him.

By going along, Harry had not only shown his brother how much he loved him, but in doing so had made-possibly for the first time in their adult lives-their mission the same: slip into the venerable city, free the prince imprisoned in the tower, and then escape alive. It was gallant, medieval, foolhardy, and would have been difficult enough even with Father Bardoni's help. But Father Bardoni was dead, and so his part of the burden rested solely on Harry. And Elena could feel him trying to work it out, to determine where they were now, where they could go from here. Suddenly Harry glanced at her, holding her eyes for a moment, then opened the door and left, still dressed the way he had been most all the time she'd known him, as a priest.

122.

Beijing, China. Zhongnanhai Compound.

Still Thursday, July 16. 3:05 P.M P.M.

YAN YEH SPENT THE DAY IN HORROR. THE FIRST reports had begun coming in from Wuxi just before ten that morning. A dozen serious cases of uncontrolled nausea, diarrhea, and vomiting had been reported to number 4 People's Hospital within a fifteen-minute span. At nearly the same time, similar reports came in from the number 1 and number 2 People's Hospitals. By eleven-thirty the Hospital of Chinese Medicine was coordinating an epidemic. Seven hundred cases reported, two hundred and seventy-one deaths.

Immediately the water supply had been shut down, and emergency service personnel along with police put on alert. The city was on the verge of panic.

By one in the afternoon there were twenty thousand poisoned. And eleven thousand four hundred and fifty of those were dead. Among them were Yan Yeh's mother-in-law and two of her brothers. That much he had been able to find out. Where his wife and son were, or if they were dead or alive, he had no idea. Even the towering influence of Wu Xian, general secretary of the Communist Party, had proven ineffectual in trying to find out. But what had happened was enough. Pierre Weggen had been summoned to the Zhongnanhai Compound.

Now, just after three, with still no news of his family, a solemn, deeply shaken Yan Yeh sat down with his Swiss friend at a table with Wu Xian and ten other grim-faced ranking members of the Politburo. The conversation was brief and to the point. It had been agreed to let the Swiss investment banker bring together the consortium of companies he had earlier proposed to immediately begin a leviathan ten-year plan to thoroughly and completely rebuild China's entire system of water and power delivery. Haste and efficiency were everything. China and the world must know Beijing was still in control and doing everything possible to protect the future health and well-being of its people.

”Women shenme s.h.i.+hou neng nadao hetong?” Wu Xian said to Weggen, finally and quietly.

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