Lugano, Switzerland. Same time.
Harry knocked on the bedroom door, then opened it, and he and Elena went in. Danny was alone, sitting on the edge of the bed intently watching the small television that sat on an antique table nearby.
'Where is Father Bardoni?' Harry asked. It had been more than two hours since the priest had gone upstairs to talk with Danny. Finally Harry had had enough of waiting. He would talk to Father Bardoni himself.
'He's gone,' Danny said, still preoccupied with the television.
'Where?'
'Back to Rome.'
'He came all the way from Rome and then left. Just like that?'
Danny said nothing. Just continued to watch the TV. The pictures on it were being broadcast live from China. It was night now in Hefei, and there was an eerie silence. Media reporters were saying nothing, only watching. As were the armed soldiers in goggles, masks, and protective clothing who kept them behind barricades. In the distance two separate but distinct red-orange glows were clearly visible against the black sky. Words were not needed. Closer shots, unimaginable. With rescue workers overwhelmed, mass burning of corpses had been ordered to prevent the spread of disease. In the lower right-hand corner of the screen was a muted graphic.
Last official death toll: 77,606
'My God…' Danny breathed. This was the first he knew about what had happened in China. He'd come on it by accident after Father Bardoni had left and he'd switched on the TV, looking for news about the police search for Harry and himself.
'Danny-?' Harry was behind him, prodding him.
Suddenly, Danny picked the remote from the edge of the bed and pointed it at the TV.
CLICK.
The screen went dark.
Danny looked to Harry, and then to Elena. 'Would you leave us, please, Sister,' he said quietly in Italian.
'Of course, Father…' Elena glanced briefly at Harry and then left.
As the latch clicked into place, Danny looked to his brother.
'Cardinal Marsciano is ill. I have to go back to Rome… I need your help.'
'Rome?' Harry was incredulous.
'Yes.'
'Why?'
'I just told you.'
'No, all you said was that Cardinal Marsciano was ill, you didn't tell me anything.' Harry glared at his brother. Instantly they were back to the conversation they'd had earlier when Danny shut down completely.
'I said before that I can't talk about it…'
'Okay, you can't. Let's try something else… How did Father Bardoni know you were here?'
'Sister Elena's mother general…'
'All right. Go on.'
'Go on about what?' Danny asked flatly. 'I have to get to Rome, that's all… I can't walk. Can't even go to the bathroom without help…'
'Then why didn't you go with Father Bardoni?'
'He had to get back. He was taking a plane from Milan… I could hardly be seen in an airport, could I, Harry?'
Harry ran a hand across his mouth. Danny was not only lucid, he was determined.
'Danny, our pictures are all over television. In every newspaper. How far into Italy do you think we'd get?'
'We got here, we can get there.'
Harry studied his brother, trying to find the answer he wasn't getting. 'A little while ago you warned me to leave here before I got killed. Now you're asking me to jump right back into the furnace. What changed it?'
'A little while ago I didn't know the situation.'
'What is the situation?'
Danny said nothing.
Harry kept on. 'Inside the Vatican. What the hell is all this about?'
Still Danny said nothing.
'Marsciano wanted me and everybody else to believe you were dead.' Harry kept pushing. 'He was protecting you… He said, "They will kill you both. Your brother for what he knows. You, because they will believe he has told you." Now you can add Elena to that… If you want me to put my life and yours and hers on the line, then you can fucking well tell me the rest.'
'I can't…' Danny's voice was barely a whisper.
'Give me a reason.' Harry was hard, even brutal, determined to get an answer.
'I-' Danny hesitated.
'I said, give me a reason, dammit.'
For a long moment there was silence, then finally Danny spoke. 'In your business, Harry, it's called client-counselor privilege. In mine it's called confession… Now do you understand?'
'Marsciano confessed to you?' Harry was stunned. Confession was something he'd never considered.
'I didn't say who or what, Harry. I simply told you why – I can't talk about it.'
Harry turned away to stare out the small window at the end of the room. For once in their adult lives he wanted them on the same side. Wanted Danny to trust him enough to tell him the truth. But now it was clear he couldn't.
'Harry,' Danny said quietly. 'Cardinal Marsciano is being held prisoner inside the Vatican. If I don't go, they'll kill him.'
Harry turned back. 'Who is "they"? – Farel?'
'The Vatican secretariat of state. Cardinal Palestrina.'
'Why?' Harry breathed.
Danny shook his head ever so slightly. '-can't tell you.'
Abruptly Harry crossed back, toward Danny's bed. 'They want you for Marsciano, that's the deal, isn't it?'
'Yes… Except it's not going to work that way,' Danny said. 'Father Bardoni and I are going to get the cardinal out. That's why he went back alone, to start setting things up, and because we couldn't take the chance of traveling together and us both getting caught.'
'You are going to get Marsciano out of the Vatican?' Harry stared in disbelief. 'Two men, one of them a cripple, against Farel and the Vatican secretariat of state? Danny, this isn't just two powerful men you're fighting, it's a country.'
Danny nodded. 'I know…'
'You're crazy.'
'No… I'm methodical, I think things through… It can be done… I was a marine, remember. I learned a few tricks…'
'No,' Harry said sharply.
'No, what?' Danny sat up quickly.
'No, period!' Harry was intense, decisive. 'It's true, I didn't come back for you in Maine all those years ago, but I'm making up for it now – New York to Rome, to Como, to Bellagio, to wherever the hell we are now – Well, here I finally am… and I'm getting you the fuck out. But not to Rome, Geneva… I'm going to try to get us there and arrange a surrender to the International Red Cross. And hope to hell that much spotlight will give us at least some rational measure of protection.'
Abruptly Harry crossed to the door. He had his hand on the knob when he looked back to Danny. 'I don't care about the rest of it, brother of mine, I am not going to lose you… Not for Marsciano or the Holy See, and not to Farel or Palestrina or anyone else…' Harry's voice dropped off. 'I am not going to lose you to them, the way I lost Madeline to the ice…'
Harry stared at Danny for a long moment, making sure he understood. Then he opened the door and started out.
'Who I am is me!' Danny's voice exploded behind Harry, stabbing into him like a knife. Harry stopped short, frozen where he was. When he turned back, Danny's eyes were riveted on his.
'Your thirteenth birthday. You saw it chalked on a rock in the woods when you walked home from school, the same long way around you always took when you didn't want to come home. And that day, especially, you didn't want to come home.'
Harry could feel his legs turn to rubber. 'You wrote it…'
'It was a present, Harry. The only one I could give. You needed to trust in yourself, because that's all any of us had. And you did. And you ran with it. You built your life around it. And you did a helluva job…' Danny eyes danced over Harry's face, studying him. 'Getting to Rome means everything to me, Harry… I'm the one who needs a present now… And you are the only one who can give it.'
For the longest moment Harry just stood there. Danny had reached into the pack and pulled out the trump card, the only one he had left. Finally Harry stepped back into the room and closed the door.
'How the hell are we going to get to Rome?'
'These
Danny picked up a flat manila envelope from the bedside table and slid out what was inside – long, narrow white license plates emblazoned with the black letters SCV 13.
'Vatican City plates, Harry. Diplomatic plates. Very low number. No one will stop a car with those on it.'
Slowly Harry looked up.
'What car?' he said.