Russian Sleeper Cell by Nathan Monk

Author:Nathan Monk [Monk, Nathan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-10-12T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

The little dungeon they had now found themselves in was the type of dark that causes your eyes to see little firework flashes across your line of vision in an attempt to make sense of this much darkness. Suddenly, there was a faint blast of light in the room as Nadya pulled a lighter from her pocket and Caspian flinched for a second, having already become accustomed to the darkness. With this newfound light, he quickly began to look around the room for something more sustainable than a lighter. There were a few folding tables against the walls with things strewn about them. Unlike the upstairs portion, which was entirely round, the basement was square. He found a long cardboard box on one of the folding tables with slender beeswax candles inside. They lit a few of them and placed them around the room. There was no way out other than the locked door above them. Coming to terms with this reality, Nadya began to take an inventory of the items in the room to see if there was anything to help with their hopeful escape. Unfortunately, the parish had not stored anything helpful like a crowbar or explosives in the cellar.

As the candles flickered, there were flashes of gold light that caught Caspian’s eye and he became momentarily distracted by some of the icons that lined the downstairs room. A number of them were in disrepair; he assumed they’d fallen from the walls of the main church only to meet their demise on the ground. He wondered if this would be the icons’ final resting place or if they would be repaired and restored to their original spaces in the sanctuary. Nadya had many questions about Caspian’s exchange with their captor and so as she continued to investigate the room, she also began to assault him with a series of questions.

“You and Seraphim seemed to hit it off,” she offered as an intro to her inquisition. “What is that about?”

“There are some ancient animosities between the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church dating back nearly a thousand years. Some of those differences that exist between us are bigger than others.” He joined in the search as he continued, “Depending on how you look at history, the aggressions over the years can widen the gap between our two churches.”

“Considering I am about to possibly die for whatever your boss did to their boss, I would like to know a bit more than it’s a ‘widening gap’ if you don’t mind.” Nadya picked up a broom and then discarded it.

“It all began with the Filioque.” Caspian intended to continue but was interrupted.

“Fil-o-what?”

“Filioque,” he said flatly and exaggerating his enunciation of the word. “It is Latin for ‘and the son.’ According to the Eastern Churches, it is a phrase from the Creed that was improperly added.”

“So this whole thing is over an argument about words?” Nadya said indignantly.

“Well, it certainly started that way, but like most things involving humans, it didn’t end that way.

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