Why did they hide that which inspired fear? Fear brought people to God!

The vault’s key was passed down from Pope to Pope. Camerlegno Carlo Ventresca had purloined the key and ventured inside; the myth of what the vault contained was bewitching—the original manuscript for the fourteen unpublished books of the Bible known as the Apocrypha, the third prophecy of Fatima, the first two having come true and the third so terrifying the church would never reveal it. In addition to these, the camerlegno had found the Illuminati Collection—all the secrets the church had uncovered after banishing the group from Rome… their contemptible Path of Illumination… the cunning deceit of the Vatican’s head artist, Bernini… Europe’s top scientists mocking religion as they secretly assembled in the Vatican’s own Castle St. Angelo. The collection included a pentagon box containing iron brands, one of them the mythical Illuminati Diamond. This was a part of Vatican history the ancients thought best forgotten. The camerlegno, however, had disagreed.

"But the antimatter…" Vittoria demanded. "You risked destroying the Vatican!"

"There is no risk when God is at your side," the camerlegno said. "This cause was His."

"You’re insane!" she seethed.

"Millions were saved."

"People were killed!"

"Souls were saved."

"Tell that to my father and Max Kohler!"

"CERN’s arrogance needed to be revealed. A droplet of liquid that can vaporize a half mile? And you call me mad?" The camerlegno felt a rage rising in him. Did they think his was a simple charge? "Those who believe undergo great tests for God! God asked Abraham to sacrifice his child! God commanded Jesus to endure crucifixion! And so we hang the symbol of the crucifix before our eyes—bloody, painful, agonizing—to remind us of evil’s power! To keep our hearts vigilant! The scars on Jesus’ body are a living reminder of the powers of darkness! My scars are a living reminder! Evil lives, but the power of God will overcome!"

His shouts echoed off the back wall of the Sistine Chapel and then a profound silence fell. Time seemed to stop. Michelangelo’s Last Judgment rose ominously behind him… Jesus casting sinners into hell. Tears brimmed in Mortati’s eyes.

"What have you done, Carlo?" Mortati asked in a whisper. He closed his eyes, and a tear rolled. "His Holiness?"

A collective sigh of pain went up, as if everyone in the room had forgotten until that very moment. The Pope. Poisoned.

"A vile liar," the camerlegno said.

Mortati looked shattered. "What do you mean? He was honest! He… loved you."

"And I him." Oh, how I loved him! But the deceit! The broken vows to God!

The camerlegno knew they did not understand right now, but they would. When he told them, they would see! His Holiness was the most nefarious deceiver the church had ever seen. The camerlegno still remembered that terrible night. He had returned from his trip to CERN with news of Vetra’s Genesis and of antimatter’s horrific power. The camerlegno was certain the Pope would see the perils, but the Holy Father saw only hope in Vetra’s breakthrough. He even suggested the Vatican fund Vetra’s work as a gesture of goodwill toward spiritually based scientific research.

Madness! The church investing in research that threatened to make the church obsolete? Work that spawned weapons of mass destruction? The bomb that had killed his mother…

"But… you can’t!" the camerlegno had exclaimed.

"I owe a deep debt to science," the Pope had replied. "Something I have hidden my entire life. Science gave me a gift when I was a young man. A gift I have never forgotten."

"I don’t understand. What does science have to offer a man of God?"

"It is complicated," the Pope had said. "I will need time to make you understand. But first, there is a simple fact about me that you must know. I have kept it hidden all these years. I believe it is time I told you."

Then the Pope had told him the astonishing truth.

132

The camerlegno lay curled in a ball on the dirt floor in front of St. Peter’s tomb. The Necropolis was cold, but it helped clot the blood flowing from the wounds he had torn at his own flesh. His Holiness would not find him here. Nobody would find him here…

"It is complicated," the Pope’s voice echoed in his mind. "I will need time to make you understand…"

But the camerlegno knew no amount of time could make him understand.

Liar! I believed in you! GOD believed in you!