dryly. "I reported this to you and it was probably taken as seriously as any of my other reports. Now you want me to lead you to the Templars' hidden treasury because the mother church is falling on hard times for covering up the sins of her pedophile priests?"
"No! This is not about the money." The cardinal's hands trembled as he blotted his brow again. "This time the pope knows what you say is true."
Tense moments of silence passed as both men stared at each other. Father Patrick leaned forward, dropping some of his resistance and the shield of resentment he had toward his superior.
"What has changed?" Father Patrick placed a hand on the cardinal's forearm.
"The Beast has grown bold, confident,flagrant . It came to His Grace and made him an offer he was told not to refuse . . . and then laughed at him."
Father Patrick blinked twice, stunned.
"It threatened the pontiff's life and then cited all the abominations in the church's history . . . all the blood on the hands of so many popes and showed him a . . . a catalogue of souls from our ranks.From the Crusades to the Inquisition to even turning a blind eye to the holocausts of slavery and Hitler. Our treasuries have blood on the silver. And then it laughed and said that we could not even raise our mightiest warriors against him because we had even betrayed our Templars."
The cardinal dropped to his knees before a stunned Father Patrick and gathered up his hands within his. "Patrick, we must make amends and make our peace within our ranks. If the pontiff doesn't go along with this diabolical plan to endorse the Antichrist as a unifying world leader, he will be assassinated, a demon will replace his seat, and all that we know and love will cease. The human devastation will be quantum. We must reach out to all faiths, all denominations, and bring all people together who believe in the Almighty . . . join our treasuries to keep this disaster at bay. We can no longer have sects and remain fractured as a house divided."
"Who is the one the Beast asks him to endorse?"
"That's just it. We do not yet know. The Unnamed One is making his rounds, going to various senior political sectors within all the nations, striking his deals and positioning for the imminent ascension. The Catholic Church is a huge block of worldopinion, hence we are in the crosshairs of this travesty. But we have word that he's going to all the other major religious leaders, too-if any accept this deal, there could be complete chaos."
"The pontiff cannot yield to this."
"No. He will not. He would give his life, he will die first for the love of God . . . but he is playing along for now, just as the others presumably are." The cardinal gripped Father Patrick's hands tighter. "He will wait until the last moment . . . until he gets a name. That name will come to you from us, only to the Knights Templar, so that it can be given to the Neterus. There has also been secret agreement by Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, andHindu religious world leaders . . . the pontiff has met with them all, the Dalai Lama among them, and each has vowed to give the name they receive to their warrior representative within the Covenant."
Father Patrick closed his eyes."Finally." He let out a hard breath and then opened his eyes to stare at the cardinal. "It took the end of times for men to see that the angels preside over us all . . . how sad. Maybe the Devil serves a purpose after all."
"We have heard there are angels that have actually come to you . . . to your warriors." Nervous eyes stared back at Father Patrick.
"You are now reading my reports." Father Patrick's tone was even, years of struggle with the church hierarchy and all its bureaucracy making it tight and unsympathetic.
"Yes," the cardinal said, nodding fervently. "The angels have protected your warriors, true? They will hear your prayers in this most critical endeavor?"
"Yes." Father Patrick's eyes held his superior's, but now rather than being filled with rage, sudden compassion caused tears to rise within them. "You have gotten to this level and never been witness to a miracle, have you? It was all politics and positioning. Until this happened, you didn't truly believe that evil existed, did you?"
"We . . . we