The salt water burned the inside his nose as the first wave washed over him. Evita was already past the breaking surf, swimming beyond the third sand bar over a rocky underwater ledge that dropped off into an indigo abyss.
“Come on, Leo. The water is crystal clear out here once you’re past the surf.”
Leo had spent countless hours lying on the beach behind the villa, but he had never actually gone swimming in the ocean there, preferring instead to do his early morning laps in the pool behind the house. Now, pushing his way through the turbulent surf, the soundtrack from the movie “Jaws” began to play in his head. Being by the ocean was different from being in the ocean.
Once he was past the pull of the surf, he began to relax as he settled into the rhythmic motion of swimming in the glassy water further out. Evita stroked up beside him and kept pace as they paralleled the beach. Already, he was beginning to see why ocean swimmers were so passionate about their sport. Without the necessity of having to flip around every time he came to the end of a pool, he was free to keep going, making it easier to enter the Zen-like state experienced by those who participated in any form of exercise that involved steady, uninterrupted motion over long distances.
Through his tiny swimmers goggles, he watched the colorful fish as they swam over the reef twenty feet below. He spotted some loners with black and white stripes, darting through holes in the rocks as they raced to hide among a field of tall underwater plants that waved in the current. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Evita, swimming down to the bottom. Once there, she lingered over a colorful patch of coral before looking up at him and kicking her way back to the surface.
Popping up beside him, she resumed swimming at his side. They swam for another thirty minutes, until both became winded and struggled back through the surf before collapsing on the wet sand next to the water’s edge. Leo glanced over at the dark-haired beauty lying beside him. Her eyes were closed as she held her face toward the sun, while beads of water dried on her perfectly tanned skin.
“So, how long have you been a Cathar?” Leo asked, turning on his side to face her.
Evita opened her eyes and turned her head slightly. “That’s a great come-on line, Cardinal. You should use it more often.”
Leo began to stutter as Evita giggled. “I only meant …”
“I’m teasing you, Leo. Lighten up.” She reached over and smoothed a tangle of wet, gray-streaked hair off his forehead as she peered into a pair of striking green eyes with a ring of gold deep inside. “I guess like most people, I was born into my religion. My family lived in Barcelona, but when I was three, they moved to Foix after my grandmother died and left her estate to my father.”
“Foix? Isn’t that the Cathar village we’re headed to tonight?”
“Yes. I find it quite a coincidence that my hometown has suddenly become the focus of our attention. At least I know the area, so that should help.”
“Is that when your family became Cathars … after you moved there?”
Evita sat up and tossed her long black hair over her shoulders. “I come from an unbroken line of Cathars that date back to the 13th century. We’ve been Cathars for over seven hundred years.”
“You look really good for your age.”
Evita giggled again. “You’re very witty, Leo. I think that’s one of the things I like best about you. So, what would you like to know? What was it like to be raised in a Cathar household? How did we practice a religion most people didn’t even know existed in modern times?”
“Yes, to all of the above.”
“It was no big deal, really. Since we lived in a Cathar community, we all shared in the knowledge of who we were and what we believed. It was kind of cool, actually … like knowing a secret that no one in the outside world knew about. We felt special. I’ve always loved my religion, and I can tell you now that we were all horrified to find out about Acerbi. If the outside world ever finds out that he’s behind this plague, and that he claims to be a Cathar, it will be disastrous for the rest of us. That’s why we decided to join forces with you. We want the world to know that Acerbi is a monster, and that it was real Cathars who put everything on the line in an effort to stop him.”
“I think it’s a foregone conclusion that Acerbi and his cohorts will be exposed to the world when all of this is over. The fact that he claims to be a Cathar is a little cloudy at this point, but if I have anything to say about it, his twisted theology will be exposed for what it is … an aberration of your true faith.”
“You sound very sympathetic to our plight, Cardinal. Wouldn’t it be ironic that the Catholic Church came to the rescue of our faith now, seven hundred years after they almost wiped us from the face of the earth?”
Leo rolled over on his back and stared up at the sky. “There’s a lot about your faith that makes sense, Evita. I have this overwhelming feeling that we’re connected in ways we don’t even understand yet.”
The sun was blotted out by Evita’s face hovering above his own. She leaned down and kissed him lightly on the lips before jumping to her feet. “Let’s go eat,” she said. “I’m starving.”
Leo struggled to his feet and glanced back at the ocean. “You and I need to have a serious talk if we make it through this.”
Evita glanced back over her shoulder as she headed toward the boardwalk that led to the villa. “There’s nothing to talk about, Leo. We’re both adults, and we’ll do what we think is best, for both of us.”