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Chapter 58
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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
Just for two weeks Chapter 61
To ensure his conversation with Mr. Jim would not be interrupted, Andrie Romano had turned off his cellular phone. Unfortunately, it was an expensive model equipped with a two-way radio feature, which, contrary to his orders, was now being used by one of his agents to page him."Capitaine?" The phone crackled like a walkie.Romano felt his teeth clench in rage. He could imagine nothing important enough that Suslowicz would interrupt this surveillance cachée - especially at this critical juncture.He gave Jimmy a calm look of apology. "One moment please." He pulled the phone from his belt and pressed the radio transmission button. "Oui?" Romano's anger stalled momentarily. A cryptographer? Despite the lousy timing, this was probably good news. Romano, after finding Esquibel's cryptic text on the floor, had uploaded photographs of the entire crime scene to the cryptography department in hopes someone there could tell him what the hell Esquibel was trying to say. If a code breaker had no
Just for two weeks Chapter 62
Amorth sat behind the wheel of the black BMW the Teacher had arranged for him and gazed out at the great Church of Saint-Sulpice. Lit from beneath by banks of floodlights, the church's two bell towers rose like stalwart sentinels above the building's long body. On either flank, a shadow row of sleek buttresses jutted out like the ribs of a beautiful beast. Amorth was looking forward to finding the keystone and giving it to the Teacher so they could recover what the brotherhood had long stolen from the faithful. How powerful that will make Copus peccate.Parking the BMW on the deserted place Saint-Sulpice, Amorth exhaled, telling himself to clear his mind for the task at hand. His broad back still ached from the corporal mortification he had endured earlier today and yet the pain was inconsequential compared with the anguish of his life before Copus peccate had saved him.Still, the memories haunted his soul. Release your hatred, Amorth commanded himself. Forgive those who trespassed a
Just for two weeks Chapter 63
"Une plaisanterie numérique?" Andrie Romano was livid, glaring at Sophie McEwan in disbelief. A numeric joke? "Your professional assessment of Esquibel's code is that it is some kind of mathematical joke?"Romano was in utter incomprehension of this woman's gall. Not only had she just barged in on Romano without permission, but she was now trying to convince him that Esquibel, in his final moments of life, had been a clown. "This code," Sophie explained in rapid French, "is simplistic to the point of absurdity. Marquis Esquibel must have known we would see through it immediately." She pulled a scrap of paper from her sweater pocket and handed it to Romano. "Here is my decryption." Romano looked at the card."This is it?" He snapped. "All you did was put the numbers in increasing order!"Sophie actually had the nerve to give a satisfied smile. "Exactly."Romano's tone lowered to a guttural rumble. "Agent McEwan, I have no idea where the hell you're going with this, but I suggest you
Just for two weeks Chapter 64
For several seconds, Jim stared in wonder at the photograph of Esquibel's PostScript. P.S. Find Jim Davis. He felt as if the floor were titling beneath his feet. In his wildest dreams, Jim could not figure out why. "Now do you understand," Sophie said, her eyes urgent, "why Romano ordered you here tonight, and why you are his primary suspect?"The only thing Jim understood at the moment was why Romano had looked so smug when Jim suggested Esquibel would have accused his killer by name. "Why would Esquibel write this?" Jim demanded, his confusion now giving way to anger."Why would I want to kill Marquis Esquibel?" "Romano has yet to uncover a motive, but he has been recording his entire conversation with you tonight in hopes you might reveal one." Jim opened his mouth, but still no words came."He's fitted with a miniature microphone," Sophie explained. "It's connected to a transmitter in his pocket that radios the signal back to the command post." "This is im
Just for two weeks Chapter 65
Amorth felt strong as he stepped from the black BMW, the nighttime breeze rustling his loose-fitting robe. He knew the task before him would require more finesse than force, so he left his handgun in the car which the Teacher provided to him. The plaza before Saint-Sulpice was deserted at this hour, the only visible souls on the far side of Place Saint-Sulpice a couple of teenage hookers showing their wares to late night tourists traffic. Their nubile bodies sent a familiar longing to Amorth's loins. He knew he had sacrificed much to follow Copus peccate, but he had received more in return. A vow of celibacy and the relinquishment of all personal assets hardly seemed a sacrifice. Considering the poverty from which he had come and the sexual horrors he had endured in prison, celibacy was a welcoming change. Moving toward the church entrance. He paused in the shadow of the massive doorway, he took a deep breath. It was not until this instant that he truly realized what he was about to
Just for two weeks Chapter 66
"What do you mean she's not answering?" Romano looked incredulous. "You're calling her cell phone, right? I know she's carrying it." Suslowicz had been trying to reach agent McEwan for several minutes. "Maybe her batteries are dead. Or her ringer is off."Romano had looked distressed ever since talking to the director of Cryptology on the phone. After hanging up, he had marched over to Suslowicz and demanded he get Agent McEwan on the line. Now Suslowicz had failed, and Romano was pacing like a caged lion."Why did Crypto call?" Suslowicz now ventured.Romano turned. "To tell me they found no reference to Draconian devil and lame saints.""That's all?""No, also to tell us that they had just identified the numerics as Fibonacci numbers, but they suspected the series was meaningless."Suslowicz was confused. "But they already sent agent McEwan to tell us that."Romano shook his head. "They didn't send McEwan.""What?""According to the director, at my orders he played his entire team
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