But that was the rub. He was not a man who planned on failure. He had selected a goal for his life, and years before determined to reach it, regardless of cost to himself or others. On that altar he had sacrificed everything he might have been, the dreams of his dead parents, the education which they had hoped he would use for the betterment of himself and others, a normal, comfortable life with a woman who might bear him sons – all of that he had rejected in favor of a path of toil, danger, and utter determination to reach that single, shining goal.
And now? Was it all for nothing? Was his life to end without meaning? Would he never see the day for which he had lived? Was God that cruel? All these thoughts paraded through his consciousness while his face remained neutral, his eyes guarded as always. No. He would not let that be. God could not have deserted him. He would see the day – or at least see it grow closer. His life would have meaning after all. It had not been all for nothing, nor would what future he might yet have be for nothing. On that, too, he was determined.
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Ismael Qati would follow his doctor’s orders, do what must be done to extend his time, and perhaps defeat this internal enemy, as insidious and contemptible as those outside. In the meantime, he would redouble his efforts, push himself to the limits of physical endurance, ask his God for guidance, look for a sign of His will. As he had fought his other enemies, so would he fight this one, with courage and total dedication. He’d never known mercy in his life, after all, and he would not start showing it now. If he had to face death, the deaths of others paled even further than usual. But he would not lash out blindly. He would do what he had to do. He would carry on as before, waiting for the chance that his faith told him must lie somewhere beyond his sight, between himself and the end of his path. His determination had always been directed by intelligence. It was that which explained his effectiveness.
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CHAPTER 2
Labyrinths
The letter from Georgetown arrived in a Roman office, scarce minutes after transmission, where, as with any bureaucracy, the night clerk (what intelligence agencies call a Watch Officer) simply dropped it on the proper desk and went back to his studies for an exam on the metaphysical discourse of Aquinas. A young Jesuit priest named Hermann Schorner, private secretary to Francisco Alcalde, Father General of the Society of Jesus, arrived the next morning promptly at seven and began sorting the overnight mail. The fax from America was third from the top, and stopped the young cleric in his tracks. Cipher traffic was a routine part of his job, but was not all that common. The code prefix at the top of the communication indicated the originator and the priority. Father Schorner hurried through the rest of the mail and went immediately to work.
The procedure was an exact inversion of what Father Riley had done, except that Schorner’s typing skills were excellent. He used an optical scanner to transcribe the text into a personal computer and punched up the decryption program. Irregularities on the facsimile copy caused some garbles, but that was easily fixed, and the clear-text copy – still in Attic Greek, of course – slid out of the ink-jet printer. It had required merely twenty minutes, as opposed to Riley’s three laborious hours. The young priest prepared morning coffee for himself and his boss, then read the letter with his second cup of the day. How extraordinary, Schorner reflected.
Reverend Francisco Alcalde was an elderly but uncommonly vigorous man. At sixty-six, he still played a fair
game of tennis, and was known to ski with the Holy Father. A gaunt, wiry six-four, his thick mane of gray hair was brush-cut over deep-set owlish eyes. Alcalde was a man with solid intellectual credentials. The master of eleven languages, had he not been a priest he might have become the foremost medieval historian in Europe. But he was, before all things, a priest whose administrative duties chafed against his desire for both teaching and pastoral ministry. In a few years, he would leave his post as Father General of Roman Catholicism’s largest and most powerful order, and find himself again as a university instructor, illuminating young minds, and leaving campus to celebrate mass in a small working-class parish where he could concern himself with ordinary human needs. That, he thought, would be the final blessing of a life cluttered with so many of them. Not a perfect man, he frequently wrestled with the pride that attended his intellect, trying and not always succeeding to cultivate the humility necessary to his vocation. Well, he sighed, perfection was a goal never to be reached, and he smiled at the humor of it.
‘Guten Morgen, Hermann!’ he said, sweeping through the door.
‘Buon giorno,’ the German priest replied, then lapsed into Greek. ‘Something interesting this morning.’
The busy eyebrows twitched at the message, and he jerked his head towards the inner office. Schorner followed with the coffee.
‘The tennis court is reserved for four o’clock,’ Schorner said, as he poured his boss’s cup.
‘So you can humiliate me yet again?’ It was occasionally joked that Schorner could turn professional, contributing his winnings to the Society, whose members were required to take a vow of poverty. ‘So, what is the message?’
‘From Timothy Riley in Washington.’ Schorner handed it over.
Alcalde donned his reading glasses and read slowly. He left his coffee untouched and, on finishing the message, read through it again. Scholarship was his life,
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and Alcalde rarely spoke about something without reflection.
‘Remarkable. I’ve heard of this Ryan fellow before . . . isn’t he in intelligence?’
‘Deputy Director of the American CIA. We educated him. Boston College and Georgetown. He’s principally a bureaucrat, but he’s been involved in several operations in the field. We don’t know all of the details, but it would appear that none were improper. We have a small dossier on him. Father Riley speaks very highly of Dr Ryan.’
‘So I see.’ Alcalde pondered that for a moment. He and Riley had been friends for thirty years. ‘He thinks this proposal may be genuine. And you, Hermann?’
‘Potentially, it is a gift from God.’ The comment was delivered without irony.
‘Indeed. But an urgent one. What of the American President?’
‘I would guess that he has not yet been briefed, but soon will be. As to his character?’ Schorner shrugged. ‘He could be a better man.’
‘Who of us could not?’ Alcalde said, staring at the wall.
‘Yes, Father.’
‘How is my calendar for today?’ Schorner ran over the list from memory. ‘Very well . . . call Cardinal D’Antonio and tell him that I have something of importance. Fiddle the schedule as best you can. This is something that calls for immediate attention. Call Timothy, thank him for his message, and tell him that I am working on it.’
Ryan awoke reluctantly at five-thirty. The sun was an orange-pink glow that back-lit the trees, ten miles away on Maryland’s eastern shore. His first considered course of action was to draw the shades. Cathy didn’t have to go into Hopkins today, though it took him half the walk to the bathroom to remember why. His next action was to take two extra-strength Tylenol. He’d had too much to drink the previous night, and that, he reminded himself, was three days in a row. But what was the alternative? Sleep came increasingly hard to him,
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despite work hours that grew longer and fatigue that -‘Damn/ he said, squinting at himself in the mirror. He looked terrible. He padded his way into the kitchen for coffee. Everything was better after coffee. His stomach contracted itself into a tight, resentful ball on seeing the wine bottles still sitting on the countertop. A bottle and a half, he reminded himself. Not two. He hadn’t drunk two full bottles. One had already been opened. It wasn’t that bad. Ryan flipped the switch for the coffee machine and headed for the garage. There he climbed into the station wagon and drove to the gate to get his paper. Not all that long ago he’d walked out to get it, but, hell, he told himself, he wasn’t dressed. That was the reason. The car radio was set to an all-news station, and he got his first exposure to what the world was doing. The ball scores. The Orioles had lost again. Damn, and he was supposed to take little Jack to a game. He’d promised after the last little-league game he’d missed. And when, he asked himself, are you going to do that, next April? Damn.
Well, the whole season, practically, was ahead. School wasn’t even out yet. He’d get to it. Sure. Ryan tossed the morning Post on the car seat and drove back to the house. The coffee was ready. First good news of the day. Ryan poured himself a mug and decided against breakfast. Again. That was bad, a part of his mind warned him. His stomach was in bad enough shape already, and two mugs of straight dripped coffee would not help. He forced his mind into the paper to stifle that voice.