The Nicene Cipher by C. G. Cooper

Author:C. G. Cooper [Cooper, C. G.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: C. G. Cooper Entertainment
Published: 2018-04-29T22:00:00+00:00

Rome, Italy

He’d been a lone wolf all his life, Ridley Shane.

Walking along the streets of Rome, he saw passersby as if through a mask. There was a time in his life where this sort of anonymity frightened him. Now, after years with the CIA, he preferred to be an obscurity, someone who blended into scenery.

He watched Beatricia Nespoli leave the Church of Saint Gregory VII, then followed every step she took.

It hadn’t been easy tracking her down. He had to get a word to the president, through Daniel Briggs, and had to do it in such a way that seemed innocuous. Just a little background info gathering. Not at all suspicious. Not like I’m trying to put a tail on a possible rat in the organization or anything.

He knew, instinctively, how it would play out. Word would get to Nespoli that the president wanted to know her current whereabouts. Nespoli would, in turn, be sure not to make any bizarre turns until she was sure the eyes were off her. This left Ridley a perfect opportunity to trail her throughout a normal daily routine, without any fear of winding up in some situation he didn’t want to be in – one, say, involving electric cattle prods.

The church was a rather modern structure of intersecting panels and sharp-angled gables. It was as if a Puritan-era house of clapboard siding was suddenly inflated to the size of a cathedral, given a sprucing up, and finished off by a sprinkle of divine tears.

She walked down Via del Cottolengo, past an apartment complex, then made the sharp left where the street ended. There was no right turn to make. The street was claustrophobically narrow, made more so by the two opposing blocks of apartments on either side.

He stalked her around the corner, taking a moment to linger at the turn, one shoulder against the corner building. A sharp smell of eucalyptus wafted under his nose. From where, he couldn’t tell. It was a breath from some grove somewhere. The air up to that point had been stale and still.

He rounded the corner and spotted her up ahead, halted before a locked electrical cabinet that obviously housed the power controls for one of the apartments. Though her back was to him, he could tell she was fumbling through her purse.

He was suddenly aware of exposure and moved behind a parked delivery van. Poking his head out slightly, he had a clear view of her just beneath the van’s side view mirror.

She turned and walked up to the cabinet, a key in hand. She opened it as one would a bus locker, and extracted a brown paper parcel. This she did without any glances up or down the street, as if the action was the most normal thing she could be doing at that time.

This didn’t tie in with his theory about how she would move if she knew she was being watched. Here was a perfectly out-of-the-ordinary act, executed in the plain of day, in a bland section of town.

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