The coordinators looked encouraged. "Usage and licensing price?"

"A million U.S. per."

Heads shot up. "What?"

"You heard me! I want top of the food chain. CNN, MSNBC, then the big three! Offer a dial-in preview. Give them five minutes to piggyback before BBC runs it."

"What the hell happened?" someone demanded. "The prime minister get skinned alive?"

The chief shook his head. "Better."

At that exact instant, somewhere in Rome, the Hassassin enjoyed a fleeting moment of repose in a comfortable chair. He admired the legendary chamber around him. I am sitting in the Church of Illumination, he thought. The Illuminati lair. He could not believe it was still here after all of these centuries.

Dutifully, he dialed the BBC reporter to whom he had spoken earlier. It was time. The world had yet to hear the most shocking news of all.

79

Vittoria Vetra sipped a glass of water and nibbled absently at some tea scones just set out by one of the Swiss Guards. She knew she should eat, but she had no appetite. The Office of the Pope was bustling now, echoing with tense conversations. Captain Rocher, Commander Olivetti, and half a dozen guards assessed the damage and debated the next move.

Robert Langdon stood nearby staring out at St. Peter’s Square. He looked dejected. Vittoria walked over. "Ideas?"

He shook his head.

"Scone?"

His mood seemed to brighten at the sight of food. "Hell yes. Thanks." He ate voraciously.

The conversation behind them went quiet suddenly when two Swiss Guards escorted Camerlegno Ventresca through the door. If the chamberlain had looked drained before, Vittoria thought, now he looked empty.

"What happened?" the camerlegno said to Olivetti. From the look on the camerlegno’s face, he appeared to have already been told the worst of it.

Olivetti’s official update sounded like a battlefield casualty report. He gave the facts with flat efficacy. "Cardinal Ebner was found dead in the church of Santa Maria del Popolo just after eight o’clock. He had been suffocated and branded with the ambigrammatic word ‘Earth.’ Cardinal Lamassé was murdered in St. Peter’s Square ten minutes ago. He died of perforations to the chest. He was branded with the word ‘Air,’ also ambigrammatic. The killer escaped in both instances."

The camerlegno crossed the room and sat heavily behind the Pope’s desk. He bowed his head.

"Cardinals Guidera and Baggia, however, are still alive."

The camerlegno’s head shot up, his expression pained. "This is our consolation? Two cardinals have been murdered, commander. And the other two will obviously not be alive much longer unless you find them."

"We will find them," Olivetti assured. "I am encouraged."

"Encouraged? We’ve had nothing but failure."

"Untrue. We’ve lost two battles, signore, but we’re winning the war. The Illuminati had intended to turn this evening into a media circus. So far we have thwarted their plan. Both cardinals’ bodies have been recovered without incident. In addition," Olivetti continued, "Captain Rocher tells me he is making excellent headway on the antimatter search."

Captain Rocher stepped forward in his red beret. Vittoria thought he looked more human somehow than the other guards—stern but not so rigid. Rocher’s voice was emotional and crystalline, like a violin. "I am hopeful we will have the canister for you within an hour, signore."

"Captain," the camerlegno said, "excuse me if I seem less than hopeful, but I was under the impression that a search of Vatican City would take far more time than we have."

"A full search, yes. However, after assessing the situation, I am confident the antimatter canister is located in one of our white zones—those Vatican sectors accessible to public tours—the museums and St. Peter’s Basilica, for example. We have already killed power in those zones and are conducting our scan."

"You intend to search only a small percentage of Vatican City?"

"Yes, signore. It is highly unlikely that an intruder gained access to the inner zones of Vatican City. The fact that the missing security camera was stolen from a public access area—a stairwell in one of the museums—clearly implies that the intruder had limited access. Therefore he would only have been able to relocate the camera and antimatter in another public access area. It is these areas on which we are focusing our search."

"But the intruder kidnapped four cardinals. That certainly implies deeper infiltration than we thought."

"Not necessarily. We must remember that the cardinals spent much of today in the Vatican museums and St. Peter’s Basilica, enjoying those areas without the crowds. It is probable that the missing cardinals were taken in one of these areas."

"But how were they removed from our walls?"

"We are still assessing that."

"I see." The camerlegno exhaled and stood up. He walked over to Olivetti. "Commander, I would like to hear your contingency plan for evacuation."