With time not being in their favour Vittoria, Robert, Ernesto, Sara and the Camerlengo made their way into an underground city of ancient, winding streets. Part museum, part ruin, they ran past ancient structures, some hundreds, some thousands of years old. The rectangular tombs are similar to little houses, complete with doorways, thresholds, windows, and terraces. Patrick seemed to know exactly where he's going and lead them down a narrow stone passageway. They hurry up a small hill. At the top of the grade there is a stone grotto, toward which the Camerlengo is racing. The others came to a stop behind him, breathing hard. "It must be here! It must be!" Patrick ripped aside some protective tarps revealing an underground area, part of a dig in progress. Patrick climbed down into it as a soft glow emanated from beneath him. As he came back up, he held the glowing canister of anti-matter. Carefully he set it down in front of Vittoria. "We have seven minutes," Robert announced. Vittoria hesitated as she felt the canister. "It's cold down here, isn't it?"
"What's wrong?" Sara wanted to know.
"Cold decreases battery life. We may have less than five minutes."
"So?" Patrick wondered.
"If I pull the power with less than five minutes the residual charge won't hold suspension. We should leave it here and get clear if we can. At least down here, the damage…" Vittoria couldn't even finish her sentence as the Camerlengo screamed "No!" snatching up the canister and taking off running back the way they came. "No, wait!" They shouted after him but he was already around the corner. Sara and Ernesto looked at each other in shock. "Fuck," the ginger exclaimed before they took after him. As the four of them reached St. Peter's Square, they watched as the Vatican helicopter climbed straight upward. "Oh my god…," Robert exclaimed as he realised that Patrick was flying. The crowd fell silent, all eyes turning upward, watching the helicopter recede into the clouds. Sara reached out for Ernesto's hand to hold and he pulls her closer, as a faint white speck appears far up in the sky; a billowing parachute and the Camerlengo dangled at the end of it. They all sighed in relief as the helicopter continued to climb far up into the night. Ernesto gave her hand a slight squeeze just as the helicopter exploded in a blinding pinpoint of white light. The pinpoint of light was tiny at first but shot out to either side in a searing white line expanding into a gigantic ball of hot white light. And then concussive force of the blast hits, like heat waves, rippling everything in its way. The Camerlengo, clinging to the parachute, is buffed wildly, spun over and over, tangling him in his cords, which makes him fall faster. The second wave hits ten times as powerful as the first. "Down!" Ernesto shouted and pulled her onto the ground, his body hovering protectively over hers as everything standing flattened – people, camera trucks, the fountain in the middle of the square collapsed in a shower of marble and water. Ceiling tiles fall and smash on the floor inside St. Peter's … statues topple. Sara clung to her partner as the wave knocked the breath out of her lungs. A few meters beside them, Robert and Vittoria dodged falling debris. Vittoria lost her footing as a chunk of plaster crunched off a building, plummeting toward her. Robert acted fast and pulled her to safety as the plaster pulverizes itself on the ground. Patrick's unconscious form now smashed through dozens of people before slamming to the ground at one edge of the square. The only sound that remained in the square is a soft night wind. The wounded picked themselves up off the ground, as everyone's attention turned to the body of the Camerlengo. Sara inhaled sharply as Ernesto pulled her to her feet, her side still burning from the gash. "Stai bene?" [Are you alright?] he wanted to know and she nodded. Her gaze fell onto Robert and Vittoria who were getting back up as well. Then jubilation resonated throughout the square as Patrick had opened his eyes and was helped back onto his feet by Chartrand. Relieved Sara brushed the ginger curls out of her face. "È finito?" [Is it over?] she wanted to know. "Lo spero," [I hope so] Ernesto sighed as they made their way over to Robert and Vittoria. "We should really get this wound looked at," he continued and pointed at her large gash that was still slightly bleeding. "Also… I could really use a shower and a bed right now," Sara added as Ernesto walked her to the infirmary of the Vatican. "Later, gioia mia," he smiled.
Sara winced as the nurse cleaned her wound and then wrapped a bandage around her torso. Her upper body only protected by her bra, she was glad that not many people were present. "Grazie mille," she thanked the nurse when she was done and made her way back to Ernesto, who awaited her with a fresh blouse. She thanked him and slowly started to button it up. As she reached her neck, she hesitated. "What's wrong?" Ernesto wanted to know. Sara looked up, one hand placed around the delicate necklace her mother had gifted her before she died. It once carried an image of her father within - who had bought the necklace in the first place - but her mother had replaced it with a picture of herself before she gave it to her daughter. "Oh… it's nothing," Sara waved off and carried on buttoning it up. Ernesto stepped closer and reached for her hands as she was done. "Amore?"
Her heart skipped a beat at the tone of his voice and she sighed. "I… I don't know…," she said, squeezing his hand. "Back in the archives… I saw him wearing the same Mickey Mouse watch Mom used to wear on pictures of her childhood, remember?"
Ernesto nodded. He had only met Laura Agnelli once but had heard many stories of her and seen pictures Sara had shown him. When Laura died, the world collapsed on Sara and he still thought she hadn't quite recovered. All the more now that they were engaged.
"Forget it… I'm just imagining things…," she then quickly added before he could utter a word. "We better go find Robert and Vittoria." With that she hurried down the hallway and Ernesto followed.
Robert and Vittoria were sitting on a bench at the office of the Swiss Guard. The buzz in the office was just as intense as in the square and in the Sistine Chapel. As Sara came to a halt in front of the glass doors, she witnessed the intimate moment between them and smiled slightly to herself. Well, she had already known that they were made for each other. Sara cleared her throat as she entered the office and the two looked at her startled. "Are you guys okay?" the young woman wanted to know and both of them nodded as Ernesto appeared in the door as well. "What about you?" Robert asked.
"Fine," Sara briefly stated.
Vittoria then stands, walking over to Richter's desk. "What are you doing?"
"Silvano's journals. I want them back," she answered. Vittoria felt in the surface of the desk and found the square outline of the inlaid panel where Richter hid the journals. Pushing down on the front of it the panel slowly slides open. The journals, which were placed on top of the television monitor, slide out and onto the desk. Vittoria scoops them up and walked back to the bench. Robert stood, surveying the monitor for a moment. "Richter said His Holiness suffered from seizures but steps were taken for safety," he pondered as he took the small key out of his pocket that Richter had handed him shortly before his death. "Made sure he was watched, he said. What if he was trying to give me this key?"
The others stepped closer to have a better look at the monitor. Robert lowered the key to the monitor, extending it toward the keyhole – the perfect fit. The power of the monitor winks to life and an image came into focus. "That's the papal office," Ernesto said.
"If the pope was worried about seizures he must have had Richter install cameras without telling anyone," Sara suggested. "To keep an eye on him. For safety," Robert continued. "Maybe it records." The image zipped backwards, rapidly to the shooting and all the way back to when Richter and the Camerlengo were alone together. They listened intently as Richter told Patrick about the journals and that Silvano was deeply conflicted about the implication of his work and in need of spiritual guidance. That's when Patrick found out about the experiment. The Holy Father had urged Silvano to go public, he thought the discovery might actually prove the existence of a divine power and begin to bridge the gap between religion and science. By then the look on Patricks face had changed to contemptuous, angry, and violent. Patrick had murdered the Vicar of Christ in order to protect the church from within, as he said, and conjured up an old enemy from the past to spread fear. Then everything turned for the worse and ended in the chaos they had all witnessed in person. Shocked, Sara took a step backward. She knew Patrick, or at least she thought she did… had spoken with him a couple of times before. She would have described him as compassionate and rational. "We need to inform Cardinal Strauss…," Sara said. Ernesto nodded and then went to go get the Cardinal. As they all watched it once more with a few cardinals and members of the Swiss Guard, Sara sat down on the bench, still not quite believing how the events on this awful day had turned out. "What are we going to do?" she wanted to know as the playback had finished. "The Swiss Guard will take care of it," Cardinal Strauss said, looking at Chartrand and this very moment the Cardinal seemed very, very old, Sara thought. "But within our walls."