The Angel of Milan (25 page)

             
I confided in Dinard my unexpected meeting with Del Cielo, and relayed almost word for word what he had said. I’m pretty sure I left out those things of a personal nature about myself and Alessandra. My advice to him was to forget about Victorio Del Cielo, and not to speak a word of it to a living soul. I related to him what Burtuchi had said about Del Cielo being neither good nor evil, and therefore completely unpredictable in his actions. Dinard expressed his desire to leave the man alone. He said he had seen enough excitement, and had fulfilled his fascination with religious relics.

     I didn’t believe a word he said…

             
It turned out that Del Cielo was correct in his assessment of the cardinal’s health. As near as I could determine, his demise came at exactly the time Del Cielo left me at the café. When I had packed and the time came to actually leave St. Andrew, I felt a bit of remorse. Down deep, I knew I could never tolerate the life of a parish priest, but my friendship with Dinard and the pleasantness of the priests in residence had made that church home for a short time.

             
Of course, I would not miss the old snake who spied for Opus Dei, but Dinard assured me he would find a way for her to retire in the near future. She was still making the sign of the cross as I walked down the front steps, valise in hand. I could have sworn I heard her spit behind my back. 

             
Dinard insisted on walking with me up to the piazza where I would find a taxi to the train station. In a few hours I would be back in Rome. I threw my valise in the back of the taxi, and turned to give Dinard a bear hug. As we separated I flipped the Atonement Lot in the air like a coin, and he caught it, not knowing at first what it was.

             
“Adama, I can’t keep this. It is too important.”

             
“That is exactly why I am putting it in your care. I have never known a more righteous man than you, Father. Keep it safe, and if in your judgment the day comes that the world should know of it, then I trust you to make the right decision.”

             
With that, I was in the taxi and away to the train station, Dinard watching me go in disbelief.   

             
It was extremely unlikely that others would ever suspect that I had given the Atonement Lot to Dinard. They would assume that I had secreted it off to Rome, and that it now sat in the ultimately secure archive. The only probable exception was Del Cielo. I was pretty sure he felt the flip of the coin, and knew exactly where it landed. For that same reason, I was also sure that if Father Dinard were ever in danger over the Lot, he would have the protection of an angel to see him through.

             
It has been many years since that time, and up until now I have never seen my friend Father Dinard, the Lot, or Victorio Del Cielo again. I have made it a point to avoid Milan. I would be most disappointed if the
Mercedes
Roadster did not pull to the curb during my visit.

             
Oh yes, there is one more thing. When I arrived at the station, I bought my ticket and went to the waiting room. Finding a newspaper on the bench next to me, I buried my nose in it and read to pass the time. At the ticket counter, I overheard a man purchasing a ticket for Rome on my train. Immediately, my ass began to hurt. Peering over the top of the paper, I watched that little murdering bastard O’Malley purchase his ticket. I resolved right then and there that before the train reached Rome, I would find a way to ensure that my ass never hurt again…       

             
             
             
             
             
             
The burial of Cardinal Burtuchi took place a little over a week after my return. It was a solemn occasion with all the appropriate rituals of laying a Prince of the Church to rest. Maybe it was just my cynical nature again, but I thought I saw relief on a number of faces in attendance.

             
To my surprise, and amusement, I found old Bishop Marconi moving into the Cardinal’s old chambers. To everyone’s amazement, and maybe even his own, he was to be elevated to cardinal in the next installation ceremony. I would have thought that without Burtuchi, Marconi wouldn’t have had a friend in the world, let alone in the Vatican. It just goes to show you that the obvious is not always the case. Marconi had a friend (or friends) in a very high place. I was determined to find out who that was, and satisfy myself that others in the city state were not also involved in the same intrigues as Burtuchi. I must give Del Cielo credit, he now had his Trojan Horse in the Vatican.

             
As always, Marconi was pleased to see me, and we joked again about being surprised to see each other in this world.

     The one thing that remained a mystery to me was that not he or anyone else ever asked me about the Atonement Lot. Even the Cardinals B
atist, Montiforo, and Decessi
left well enough alone. I think they were too busy trying to cover themselves and build new alliances, now that Burtuchi had up and died on them. For everyone else, the best I could determine was that as far as anyone was concerned, Cardinal Burtuchi’s business died with him. If Burtuchi had known that, he would have jumped out of the box.

     As for those now maneuvering for power, they never realized that the control and authority they were seeking had already been granted to Marconi by sources unknown.

             
I did finally get Bishop Marconi out on the town one evening. It seemed to do the old man some good because his sense of humor henceforth moved back to the center of almost normal. To my surprise, he said that once he was installed as cardinal, he would offer me the once-in-a-lifetime option of leaving the order of Paladin, if I so desired.

     I turned it down in the blink of an eye. The thought of being a parish priest and winding up like Father Ignatius, picking my drawers to annoy a housekeeper, was just too much to bear.  

             
My involvement with Victorio Del Cielo did, however, give me a new appreciation for things unseen. Much of my skepticism had been stripped away, but while I now accept that there are angels and demons hanging about, I am still the “seeing is believing” type, maybe a little like Alessandra. Since Milan, my oppositions have all succumbed to either a punch in the nose or a bullet. There haven’t been any exceptions to date.

             
For myself, Victorio’s warning did not fall on deaf ears. Deep down, I had known for a long time that my heart was hardening in matters of my vocation. I have repented of my own complacency, and exercise great care not to cross that narrow line.   

             
Oh, the one thing I did do as soon as I unpacked was go to the private archive and look up everything and anything I could find on Grigori. I had never been very interested in these Rabbinical commentaries before, and had only given them a cursory review as a matter of course. This time it was different, and I studied them intensely. These old Rabbis may have been deep into their Kabbalah and mysticisms, but I now knew firsthand that there was some thread of truth to much of their Midrash.

             
The most startling information I discovered was of a personal nature. I found a reference to Aerrlion, a powerful Grigori who had not sinned by taking human women for wives. He was, of course, found to be complacent for not intervening in the abomination, and sentenced to exile from Heaven until Judgment Day, along with the few others who had not committed the abomination. Though exiled, they had not been condemned to damnation. They would instead be judged on their righteousness from that day forward until the end of this world. As best as I could tell, and from what I knew of him, Aerrlion was going to make it through just fine.  

             
The commentary on Arrelion was more lengthy than most of the others that were named, and when I got to the last few lines, a chill ran up my spine at what it said. “Arrelion was known to often be in the company of his companion, Lilith, Adam’s first wife, and a female demon of the night.” I don’t think she is a demon, but I know she is beautiful, whatever she is. 

             
I then, of course, researched all reference to Lilith, and with only one exception, the Jewish commentators of scripture all agreed that she had been transformed into a demon—a succubus—for her refusal to submit to Adam as her husband. Not a surprising outcome, given Middle Eastern attitudes toward women in general. The one exception was an obscure temple priest named Eli. He contended that although Lilith was ejected from the garden due to her refusal of submission, she never bit the apple. Lilith was not under the sentence of death as were Adam and Eve, and she would remain a nomad on the earth forever.

             
In the opinion of this humble scholar, Eli was right. 

1.
             
The Paladins were the foremost warriors of Charlemagne’s court. They first appeared in the early chansons de geste where they retrieved holy relics stolen from Rome through Christian martial valor.

2.
             
Milan Cathedral (Italian: Duomo di Milano) is the cathedral church of Milan in Lombardy, northern Italy. A large and elaborate Gothic cathedral on the main square of Milan, the Duomo di Milano is one of the most famous buildings in Europe. It is the largest Gothic cathedral and the second largest Catholic cathedral in the world.

3.
             
The Atonement Lot—Leviticus 16:8-10: “and Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats, one lot for the Lord and the other lot for Azazel. And Aaron shall present the goat on which the lot fell for the Lord, and offer it as a sin offering; but the goat on which the lot fell for Azazel shall be presented alive before the Lord to make atonement over it, that it may be sent away into the wilderness to Azazel.”

4.
             
The mysterious eighth order of angels, the gentle Grigori, were created by God to be earthly shepherds of the first humans. The Grigori were both physically and spiritually gigantic, at least by the standards of the people who later wrote about them. They served early humanity as vast reservoirs of information concerning the finer points of civilization, and their selflessness was beyond compare. They were also called the Watchers, as it was their job to observe humanity, lending a helping hand when necessary, but not interfering in the course of human development.

5.
             
Indulgence granted. May God give you pardon and peace and I absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Absolution given for sins confessed. In this case, an indulgence for sins yet to be committed.

6.
             
The Temple Mount of Solomon (Hebrew: Har haBáyit) or Noble Sanctuary (Arabic: Haram esh-Sharif) is an elevated plateau in the Old City of Jerusalem. Like many sites in Jerusalem, the Temple Mount is sacred to Jews, Muslims, and Christians. The Waqf, or Supreme Muslim Religious Council administers the site. Access to the Temple Mount is free and open to the public, and is a popular stop for tourists and pilgrims. However, both the Muslim administrators and the State of Israel generally forbid excavation of the Temple Mount. Other than a few shreds of pottery and bone with Hebrew writing, no object directly connected to Solomon’s Temple has been recovered.