Episode Three continued
Dateline: Behind the Sistine Chapel - November 6, 1:40 p.m.
The tourist helicopter carrying 18 Cardinals of the Church and a few prelates who had devoted all their efforts to preserving the Holy Eucharist, now safely protected in the tabernacles of the Lateran, settled down on the dormant winter grass adjacent to the Sistine Chapel. Debris could be seen directly south, but the back side of St. Peter's and the north side of the great Basilica which connected to the Sistine were untouched as the red-robed passengers disembarked and disappeared through a door leading to the Cortille della Sentinella.
Dateline: On the outskirts of St. Peter's Square - November 6, 1:45 p.m.
Another chopper approached the Holy See. This one was an unfriendly for aboard were those who had blasphemed their Creator and long ago pledged eternal loyalty to mammon. This moment the rage of the Legion was legion.
"Goddamm! The Basilica is still standin' What the hell happened?" blurted a furious Blix.
"I - I - I don't understand," Vendhem stuttered, grasping for some answer to why the whole southern section of the Vatican was nothing but rubble while all other complexes were still standing.
"Something went terribly wrong," Macelli rationalized. "If Elena set the coordinates everything should have gone."
"Yeah, the whole damn thing!" bellowed Blix.
"Ve must proceed with the Conclave immediately," urged a nervous Vendhem, "before they discover the source, if they have not already."
"Those candles ah sent shoulda taken out that blasted church, too," complained Edwin bitterly. "What the hell is happenin' heah, gentlemen?"
"The Master will be livid," interpolated Renschausen.
"I believe we must proceed with the alternate plan," the Chinese Kiang strongly suggested as the helicopter settled down on the flagstone surface of St. Peter's Square.
"No!" Vendhem insisted demonstratively, "Ve must do as the Master wills. That is to see first to my election and then all of this is minor. It vill not matter."
"Waell, it matters to me, pahdner," Blix's impatience with the ineptitude of those assigned to carry out the tasks had fueled his blood pressure. He was never one to accept mediocrity. "Listen, you get that done raht now, y'ah heah?"
"Ja voll, mein herr," Josef pandered. "Ve have the document. It vill be only a matter of hours before the bishops are admitted and a few more hours at the most until I am elected."
"You are sure of this, Monsieur?" Gestarde Eislaume's tone, for the first time, showed signs of doubt.
Macelli sought to quickly allay their fears. "Si. We will call a news conference and gather all into the Sistine. We know what we are doing. I have not spent thirty years in these wretched robes for nothing, gentlemen."
"Well, y'all better git it done or else," Blix was adamant. "Find Grabe and Serrano. Ah've gotta find mah men. Ah don't know if they got trapped in that there mess or if they're somewhere hidin'. Either way, ah've gotta find 'em. So do what ya gotta do. If ah don't heah from y'all before nine tonight, we'll see y'all at the palace in Iraq in the mornin'. We cahn't have any more of this foul-ups if yah get mah drift." The patronizing nods of most, who were fearful of his wrath, indicated clearly Blix was in charge and had gotten his message through. "Got it? Good. Adios, amigos."
Vendhem was the first off, followed by the bumbling girth of Macelli who plopped onto the cobblestone makeshift tarmac. Blix and the rest stayed aboard as the chopper lifted straight up and banked south as the Metroplex Mirror Publisher scanned the area with high-powered binoculars for signs of Ans, Soto, Collier or the Limo. He would search for another ten minutes as the gray helicopter circled the area and then widened its circumference until finally the limo would be spotted by the great granite Wedding Cake monument, away from the mass of people that still had not dispersed on Via della Conciliazione and along the Tiber and side streets leading away from Vatican City.
The Legion was desperately trying to regroup, They had not yet realized the depletion in their ranks or the numerous victories of the resistance. Only a few were actually aware of where things stood. Though it was true the Master's disciples were still in the dark as to what had happened, the Master himself was not. Nothing would stand in his way from finally taking the form of the Devil himself in the coronation of the prince of the world on the Field of Abraham in less than 24 hours! Nothing!
Next: PART V: The Shedding FIFTEENTH CHAPTER Episode Four
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