SALVE ROMA! A Felidae Novel - By Akif Pirincci Page 0,79

over with a clenched grimace, the next bullet was already on its way and kept him upright. The wounds in his face and throat were the worst. The glasses fell out of his face, and also his fine hairdo couldn’t be saved in the end.

After Umberto had finally collapsed, the general and the two killers yanked up their weapons and fired at the approaching missile. It was so loud that I quickly hid behind the altar, rolled up and buried my head in my fur.

But despite all defensive measures the rockets kept dashing towards their victims, which finally stopped the pointless shooting, dropped their weapons and fled towards Filarete’s brazen gate. Umberto had done a very good job. Three explosions happening shortly after each other, roaring and accompanied by the disgusting sound of bursting flesh, finally ended this horrific episode.

When I dared to leave my dugout again, there were widespread pools of blood everywhere on the glassy ground. Umberto in his cassock had become a black island in the middle of a crimson lake. Headfirst, his face drowned in this thick fluid, but I didn’t feel sorry for him a whole lot. Except for radially drifting-apart gushes of blood, only marginal signs of their former existence were left from the general and his killers. A ripped off finger here, a part of a foot there, covered by a rag of leather, which once had been part of a shoe. Wads of smoke hovered over this ground zero, and I had to throw up because of the smell of burned human flesh and dynamite. Through the windows, which were decorated with a thousand saints, I saw that outside the new day was dawning.

All of a sudden the soldiers of the Swiss Guard, which had reported for duty, opened the mighty, brazen gates of the cathedral. I ran outside, just in time, before I could get trampled by impatiently waiting hordes of tourists. Have fun in there! shot through my mind. In front of me St. Peter’s square unrolled like a paradisiacal realm. I felt like I saw Rome, the beauty, for the very first time. The may rain had dispersed. The sun shone again, warmer and bright than ever, and the light reflexions of the puddles of water caused a funny itch in my eyes. I ran down the stairs and finally stood in the center of the plaza, surrounded by Bernini’s Colonnades.

My thoughts wandered to Antonio. Had he just meant well? No! Nothing was good that was bought with other people’s death. It sounded old-fashioned, not to say corny, but life was sacred. No statement fit better into this place than this. On the other hand I couldn’t hide my sympathy for his way of thinking, or should I call it ideology? The world was full of two-legged devils, which tried to turn this place into hell. They needed to be affronted. Yeah, if necessary they even had to be killed. »Ha ha, ›if necessary‹, a very catchy word indeed«, I heard Antonio laugh. »A word at which every member of the Western civilization would nod approvingly, just to turn on the TV a moment later as to not miss his favorite show. But when is ›if necessary‹, il mio amico?« And what shall I say, he was right. Still, it rested on the Western civilization to keep a sound judgment and to not become evil during the fighting of evil. Intolerance was like dirt, which consistently accumulated on the body. One had to wash it off every day, or lick it off in our case, so that it didn’t stiffen and harm the organism in the end. But even in the face of most stubborn intolerance, words benefit more than thousands of ultramodern weapons. Antonio had taught me this. As suddenly I missed nothing more than the affinity of the black cutie with the wedge-shaped face and the big funnel-ears.

But now I thirsted for my beloved Sancta, whom I had to deliver on my promise. I guessed that Gustav would be busy at the Forum Romanum for another two, maybe even three months, so that I could be busy with my Latin chattering goddess the whole summer long. And I didn’t want to be called Francis the smart-ass, if I wouldn’t be able to tell Gustav by body language that I, Francis, yes his Francis, wanted to spend my life with this female alone for ever and always. O God, in the end I’d even long for something that