Present Day Carabinieri HQ Lieutenant Francesca Totti finally hits pay dirt while going through Tom Shaman's cellphone records. Most of the calls are to numbers she already knows – Vito and Valentina's extensions at Carabinieri headquarters – but one other person on Tom's list proves so important she keeps him hanging on while she dials in the major on a conference extension.
Vito creaks back in his office chair and puts it on speakerphone while Valentina and Rocco hurriedly gather around his cluttered desk so they can listen.
Francesca does the introductions, 'Major, this is Alfredo Giordano, he's a senior librarian at the Vatican's Holy See. Father Giordano, Major Vito Carvalho and my colleagues lieutenants Valentina Morassi and Rocco Baldoni are now also on the call.'
Alfie clears his throat and sounds slightly nervous. 'Hello. I guess I should repeat some of the things I just told Lieutenant Totti.' He coughs again and gets his nerves under control. 'I, err… I've known Father Shaman – Tom, I mean, it's hard not to still think of him as a priest – for about ten years. Tom is a good man, a very good man and a personal friend. When he told me about your case, only little parts of it, I felt that I had to help.'
'How exactly were you helping him, Father?' asks Vito.
'Tom asked me to search the Vatican Library for information on the Tablets of Atmanta. You know about the artefact? Did he mention this to you?'
Vito looks to Valentina, who seems surprised and shakes her head. 'No,' says Vito, 'he didn't. What is it?'
'Three silver tablets that date back to Etruscan times. If you put all three together they form an incredibly valuable piece of art that is about the size of a sheet of A4 paper.'
Valentina finds herself sketching an oblong identical to the rectangular symbol they've been finding in Venice.
'On their own,' continues Alfredo, 'each tablet depicts a separate scene, supposedly the vision of a young Etruscan priest. When the tablets are joined together, they make one big scene, originally called the Gates of Destiny, though over the years it has also come to be known within the Catholic Church as the Gates of Hell.'
Francesca Totti prompts him: 'Father, please tell my colleagues what you told me about the importance of the tablets.'
'Si, si.' Alfie's voice becomes lower and more confidential. 'The tablets show many snakes – six hundred and sixty-six, to be precise – crawling over each other to form the bars of the gates. There is also an image of a very powerful god guarding them. That deity was not part of the recognised Etruscan pantheon, and this is the only artefact depicting him. I have found documents in the secret archives of the Holy See confirming that this is now recognised by the Catholic Church to be the first recorded image of Satan.'
No one around Vito's desk says anything – they're all trying to imagine exactly what the face and body of the demon look like.
'I'm not sure you quite understand the significance of this,' Alfie's tone grows even more serious. 'This drawing of Satan predates any made of Christ. Catholicism wasn't even a concept back in those days.'
'Exactly which days are those days?' asks Vito. 'When are we talking about?'
'Six hundred years before Christ was born,' says Alfie. 'The year 666 BC, to be precise. The Church believes the Tablets of Atmanta are essentially the birth certificate of Satan, a registration of the day he first came to earth in human form, and the reason why the number 666 has become so powerful and symbolically evil.'