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Chapter 52
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Just for two weeks Chapter 53
Davis Jimmy, after staying away for so long in pursuit of his own ambition, and living his life as a Serene young professor at Harvard, passionate about arts and history finally found himself in an unexpected turbulence of an anagram, a granddaughter, paintings and the French Police in Paris on a single night that changed his entire life. Jimmy awoke slowly, a telephone running in the darkness - a tiny, unfamiliar ring. He fumbled for the bedside lamp and turned it on. Squinting at his surroundings he saw a plush Renaissance bedroom with Louis XVI furniture, hand-frescoed walls, and a colossal mahogany four-poster bed.Where the hell am I? The Jacquard bathrobe hanging on his bedpost bore the Monogram: HOTEL RITZ PARIS.Slowly, the fog began to lift. Jimmy picked up the receiver. "Hello?""Monsieur Jimmy?" A man's voice said. "I hope I have not awoken you?"Dazed, Jimmy looked at the bedside clock. It was 12:32 A.M. He had been asleep for only an hour, but he felt like he
Just for two weeks Chapter 54
One mile away, the hulking albino named Amorth limped through the front gate of the luxurious residence on Rue La Bruyère. The spiked cilice belt that he wore around his thigh cut into his flesh, and yet his soul sang with satisfaction of service to the Lord. Pain is good. His eyes scanned the lobby as he entered the residence. Empty. He climbed the stairs quietly, not wanting to awaken any of his fellow numeraries. His bedroom door was open; locks were forbidden for her. He entered, closing the door behind him. The room was Spartan - hardwood floors, pine dresser, a canvas mat in the corner that served as his bed. He was a visitor here this week, and yet for many years he had been blessed with a similar sanctuary in New York City. The Lord has provided me with shelter and purpose in my life.Tonight, at last, Amorth had begun to repay his debt. Hurrying to the dresser, he found the cell phone hidden in his bottom drawer and placed a call."Yes?" A male voice answered."Teacher, I
Just for two weeks Chapter 55
The crisp April air whipped through the open window of the Citroën ZX as it skimmed south past the Opera and crossed Place Vendôme. In the passenger seat, Jimmy Davis felt the city tear past him as he tried to clear his thoughts. His quick shower and shave had left him looking reasonably presentable but he had done little to ease his anxiety. The frightening image of the curator's body remained locked in his mind. Marquis Esquibel is dead. Jimmy could not help but feel a deep sense of loss at the curator's death. Despite Esquibel's reputation for being reclusive, his recognition for dedication to the arts made him an easy man to revere. His books on the secret codes hidden in the paintings of Poussin and Teniers were some of Jimmy's favorite classroom texts. Tonight's meeting had been one Jimmy was very much looking forward to, and he was disappointed when the curator had not shown.Again the image of the curator's body flashed in his mind. Marquis Esquibel did that to himself? Jimmy
Just for two weeks Chapter 56
Captain Andrei Romano carried himself like an angry ox, with his wide shoulders thrown back and his chin tucked hard into his chest. His dark hair was slicked back with oil, accentuating an arrow-like widow's peak that divided his jutting brow and proceeded him like the prow of a battleship. As he advanced, his dark eyes seemed to scorch the earth before him, radiating a fiery clarity that forecast his reputation for unblinking severity in all matters.Jim followed the captain down the famous marble staircase into the sunken atrium beneath the glass pyramid. As they descended, they passed between two armed Judicial Police guards with machine guns. The message was clear. Nobody goes in or out tonight without the blessing of captain Romano. Descending below ground level, Jim fought a rising trepidation. Romano's presence was anything but welcoming, and the Louvre itself had an almost sepulchral aura at this hour. The staircase, like the aisle of a dark movie theater, was illuminated by
Just for two weeks Chapter 57
Murray Hill place - the new Copus peccate World Headquarters and conference center - in New York City. With a price tag of just over $56 million. The 140,000-square-foot tower is clad in red brick and Indiana limestone. The building contains over one hundred and twenty rooms, six dining rooms, libraries, living rooms, meeting rooms and offices. The second, eighth, and sixteenth floors contain chapels, ornamented will mill- work and marble. The seventeenth floor is entirely residential. Men enter the building through the main doors. Women enter through a side street and are "acoustically and visually separated" from the men at all times within the building. Earlier this evening, within the sanctuary of his penthouse apartment, Bishop koldo Myositis had packed a small travel beg and dressed in a traditional black cassock. Normally, he would have wrapped a purple cincture around his waist, but tonight he would be traveling among the public, and he preferred not to draw attention to hi
Just for two weeks Chapter 58
Having squeezed beneath the security gate, Jim Davis now stood just inside the entrance to the Grand Gallery. He was starting into the mouth of a long, deep canyon. On either side of the gallery, Stark walls rose thirty feet, evaporating in the darkness above. The reddish glow of the service lightning sifted upward, casting an unnatural smolder across a staggering collection of Da Vincis, Titans and Caravaggios that hung suspended from ceiling cables. Still lifes, religious Senses, and landscapes accompanied portraits of nobility and politicians. Although the Grand Gallery housed the Louvre's most famous Italian art, many visitors felt the Wing's most Stunning offer was actually its famous parquet floor. Laid out in a dazzling geometric design of diagonal oak slats, the floor produced an ephemeral optical illusion - a multi-dimensional network that gave visitors the sense they were floating through the gallery on a surface that changed with every step.As Jimmy's gaze began to trac
Just for two weeks Chapter 59
The modest dwelling within the church of Saint-Sulpice was located on the second floor of the church itself, to the left of the choir balcony. A two-room suite with a stone floor and minimal furnishings, it had been home to sister Rosaria Van Spee for over a decade. The nearby convent was her formal residence, but she preferred the quiet of the church and had made herself quite comfortable upstairs with a bed, phone, and hot plate. As the church's conservatrice d'affaires, Sister Rosaria was responsible for overseeing all nonreligious aspects of church operations - general maintenance, hiring support staff and guides, securing the building after hours, and ordering supplies like communion wine and wafers. Tonight, asleep in her bed, she woke up to the shrill of her telephone. Tiredly, she lifted the receiver."Soeur Rosaria. Eglise Saint-Sulpice.""Hello, sister," the man said in French. Sister Rosaria sat up. What time is it? Although she recognizes her boss's voice, in twelv
Just for two weeks Chapter 60
Jimmy couldn't tear his eyes from the glowing purple text scrawled across the parquet floor. Marquis Esquibel's finial communication seemed as unlikely a departing message as any Jim could imagine. The message read: 14-4-2-1-1-10-6-24 O, Draconian devil Oh, lame saint!Although Jimmy had not the slightest idea what it meant, he did understand Romano's instinct that the pentacle had something to do with the devil worship. O, Draconian devil!Esquibel had left a literal reference to the devil. Equally as bizarre was the series of numbers. "Part of it looks like a numeric ciph.""Yes," Romano said. "Our cryptographers are already working on it. We believe these numbers may be the key to who killed him. Maybe a telephone exchange or some kind of social identification. Do the numbers have any symbolic meaning to you?"Jimmy looked again at the digits, sensing it would take him hours to extract any symbolic meaning. If Esquibel had even intend
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