Angels Demons Page 0,186

were frightened. The camerlegno was the only one who could enter the Pope's chambers unannounced.

The camerlegno entered alone to find the Pope, as he was the night before, twisted and dead in his bed. His Holiness's face looked like that of Satan. His tongue black like death. The Devil himself had been sleeping in the Pope's bed.

The camerlegno felt no remorse. God had spoken.

Nobody would see the treachery... not yet. That would come later.

He announced the terrible news - His Holiness was dead of a stroke. Then the camerlegno prepared for conclave.

Mother Maria's voice was whispering in his ear. "Never break a promise to God."

"I hear you, Mother," he replied. "It is a faithless world. They need to be brought back to the path of righteousness. Horror and Hope. It is the only way."

"Yes," she said. "If not you... then who? Who will lead the church out of darkness?"

Certainly not one of the preferiti. They were old... walking death... liberals who would follow the Pope, endorsing science in his memory, seeking modern followers by abandoning the ancient ways. Old men desperately behind the times, pathetically pretending they were not. They would fail, of course. The church's strength was its tradition, not its transience. The whole world was transitory. The church did not need to change, it simply needed to remind the world it was relevant! Evil lives! God will overcome!

The church needed a leader. Old men do not inspire! Jesus inspired! Young, vibrant, powerful... Miraculous.

"Enjoy your tea," the camerlegno told the four preferiti, leaving them in the Pope's private library before conclave. "Your guide will be here soon."

The preferiti thanked him, all abuzz that they had been offered a chance to enter the famed Passetto. Most uncommon! The camerlegno, before leaving them, had unlocked the door to the Passetto, and exactly on schedule, the door had opened, and a foreign-looking priest with a torch had ushered the excited preferiti in.

The men had never come out.

They will be the Horror. I will be the Hope.

No... I am the horror.

The camerlegno staggered now through the darkness of St. Peter's Basilica. Somehow, through the insanity and guilt, through the images of his father, through the pain and revelation, even through the pull of the morphine... he had found a brilliant clarity. A sense of destiny. I know my purpose, he thought, awed by the lucidity of it.

From the beginning, nothing tonight had gone exactly as he had planned. Unforeseen obstacles had presented themselves, but the camerlegno had adapted, making bold adjustments. Still, he had never imagined tonight would end this way, and yet now he saw the preordained majesty of it.

It could end no other way.

Oh, what terror he had felt in the Sistine Chapel, wondering if God had forsaken him! Oh, what deeds He had ordained! He had fallen to his knees, awash with doubt, his ears straining for the voice of God but hearing only silence. He had begged for a sign. Guidance. Direction. Was this God's will? The church destroyed by scandal and abomination? No! God was the one who had willed the camerlegno to act! Hadn't He?

Then he had seen it. Sitting on the altar. A sign. Divine communication - something ordinary seen in an extraordinary light. The crucifix. Humble, wooden. Jesus on the cross. In that moment, it had all come clear... the camerlegno was not alone. He would never be alone.

This was His will... His meaning.

God had always asked great sacrifice of those he loved most. Why had the camerlegno been so slow to understand? Was he too fearful? Too humble? It made no difference. God had found a way. The camerlegno even understood now why Robert Langdon had been saved. It was to bring the truth. To compel this ending.

This was the sole path to the church's salvation!

The camerlegno felt like he was floating as he descended into the Niche of the Palliums. The surge of morphine seemed relentless now, but he knew God was guiding him.

In the distance, he could hear the cardinals clamoring in confusion as they poured from the chapel, yelling commands to the Swiss Guard.

But they would never find him. Not in time.

The camerlegno felt himself drawn... faster... descending the stairs into the sunken area where the ninety-nine oil lamps shone brightly. God was returning him to Holy Ground. The camerlegno moved toward the grate covering the hole that led down to the Necropolis. The Necropolis is where this night would end. In the sacred darkness below. He lifted an oil lamp,