One Month Later
Cardinal Leopold Amodeo was awakened early in the morning by the sound of voices outside the cabin. Shuffling from his warm bed, he opened the thick wooden door to find the head of the Mossad looking him straight in the face.
Leo rubbed his eyes. “Good morning, Danny.”
Danny Zamir smiled back. “Good morning yourself, Cardinal.”
“Haven’t you heard? I’m no longer a cardinal.” Leo peered over Zamir’s shoulder at several Israeli commandos standing among the trees. “Is this a social visit?”
“We’ve come to take you all home … and by the way, the pope has reinstated you to your former position.”
A sleepy voice called out from inside the cabin. “Who is it, Leo?”
“It’s the Mossad. It appears we’re surrounded.”
Zamir looked through the doorway and saw Evita Vargas curled up in a large chair under a blanket.
“Ask them if they want some coffee.”
“We don’t have time,” Zamir said. “There’s a chopper down on the highway and a plane waiting for us on the runway at the base of the mountain. Where’s Lev?”
“Right behind you.”
Danny swung around to see his old friend, Lev Wasserman, standing behind him holding the stub of a cigar in his hand. “We just heard about Acerbi on the shortwave radio. So it’s all over, eh Danny?”
“Yes. Eduardo finally agreed to take matters into his own hands after we followed two of Rene’s most fanatical supporters to a conference center on the grounds of a resort he owned in the Netherlands. We discovered a hidden stockpile of the virus in a secret vault beneath the building, along with hundreds of pounds of the genetically altered wheat. Once we had the powdered virus in our hands, it was a simple matter of having our scientists bake some croissants with the genetically altered wheat-apparently there was a special procedure involved to prevent the destruction of the delicate DNA. In the end, I believe Eduardo realized that he was the only one who could get close enough to Rene to get the job done, but I could tell it really broke the old guy’s heart.”
“Is there any way we could stop by to speak with him before we leave?” Leo asked. “I’d like to thank him. I’m sure he could use some support right about now. He appeared to be ill the last time we saw him.”
“I’m afraid that’s impossible, Leo. He disappeared three weeks ago.”