The Plan by J. Richard Wright

Author:J. Richard Wright [Wright, J. Richard]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction
Publisher: J. Richard Wright
Published: 2013-04-17T23:00:00+00:00

~ 3 ~

“Where are they!?” Cardinal Malachi demanded, as he anxiously paced the length of the Chamber. He looked towards some thick woolen, wine-colored drapes along one wall covering a hidden passageway through which he expected Bishop Flavious Aquila and his group to enter at any moment. The curtain failed to move.

Five other clerics sat at the heavy oak table in the center of the room, exchanging worried looks but saying little. Other than the table and seven chairs, a threadbare area carpet that had once portrayed a colorful scene from Paul’s first missionary journey to Rome, four corner standup lamps bouncing indirect light off the ceiling and a scarred wooden cross on one wall, the room was bare of furniture. A thick, iron chandelier hung by a long and rusted chain directly over the middle of the room. Receptacles on it were filled with half-melted lumps of hardened, black candles which had not been lit for hundreds of years. Coffee cups, a brass ashtray in the shape of a splayed monkey stuffed with butts, a few wine bottles and partially filled glasses littered the surface of the wooden table.

The walls themselves were of rough-hewn stone, into which the remains of rusted, iron ringbolts were set, evidence of its historical function as an interrogation chamber. During the Roman Inquisition in 1252, the room had been well used when Pope Innocent IV authorized judicious torture as a means to secure evidence of a heretic’s wrongdoing. The thick walls would have effectively muffled the screams of the victims as they were forced to fabricate transgressions to stay the molten iron from their quivering flesh, or avoid having their feet slowly roasted over open fires. The reward for admitting heresy was a quick and merciful death, versus one that could drag on for many days.

Set deep in the bowels of the earth of Vatican Hill, beneath the Borgia Tower area, scarcely a few hundred yards away from the venerated basilica, the Chamber and the passage to the room was known only to a handful of Vatican personnel. Here, The Seven carried out their mandate under a strict oath of secrecy. As a covert organization they were thus able to support each other in daily political maneuverings within their defined responsibilities without any open acknowledgement of their hidden connection.

When Malachi was confirmed as leader of The Seven, he learned he was chancellor of a group that had been in existence for eight centuries. Before taking the oath of secrecy, however, Malachi made one thing clear to all: if he was going to be held accountable for the success or failure of the hunt, things would be done his way.

In addition to Malachi, The Seven were composed of: Father Benito Gallo who had first discovered evidence of a new Awakening and who was also a replacement recruit; Bishop Flavius Aquila, head of the Watchmen group, now en route to the Vatican with the detective; Monsignor Heinz Rautenberg who oversaw the Crusaders; Father Fredrick Gant who

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