The explosives man didn’t answer. He was listening into his headset. He turned to the two policemen.
“The C4 is Russian.”
The two policemen looked at each other.
“Russian Mafia?” Sonnenburg said.
De Luca shrugged.
The explosives man spoke into his headset. Then he turned.
“The wires connected to the accelerator pedal are dummies. The bomb is set for remote detonation.”
De Luca’s radio suddenly burst into life. Ferrara was shouting into his.
“Sir it’s going to blow!”
De Luca turned to shout up the road as the Alfa Romeo exploded. The detonation sent the car fifteen feet into the air, blowing the fuel tank, sending burning petrol into a rain that fell onto the road as the car crashed back down onto its roof completely destroyed. In moments the Alfa was a burned out shell.
Farina and Sforza were thrown over a hundred metres like rag dolls and they crashed heavily. Farina’s bomb suit was on fire. Police and firefighters began rushing towards the scene. De Luca ran to Farina first. The inside of his helmet mask was completely red. Nothing could be seen within. Firefighters called out to him but there was no response. Gently they removed the helmet. Farina was dead. His entire face soaked in his own blood. Sforza’s helmet had been ripped off by the blast. His neck had snapped and the back of his head was caved in.
De Luca pressed the talk button on his radio.
“Bauer! Come in Bauer!”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
The black Lancia sped through Rome’s crowded streets. Dennis was calling out what he saw on the satellite navigation’s screen. The voice was naturally in Italian and neither he nor Bauer spoke it. Dennis had tried to change the language to English but couldn’t work it out. Instead he shouted instructions to Bauer as quickly as he could.
They blasted over the ponte Victor Emmanuel, the bridge dedicated to the first king of a united Italy, and raced down the Victor Emmanuel road. The traffic they encountered was heavy and the blue light and siren bought them some time. On and on they sped through red lights. Dennis found a map in the glove compartment.
“Ah this will help,” he said reaching up for the lights in the roof of the Lancia, “Can you cope with a light on?”
“Yes.”
The traffic was thick and Bauer commented on it as he wove the Lancia in and out of motorists trying to avoid him.
“It might be better if we get off these main roads and onto quieter ones,” Dennis said looking from left to right down side streets, “What do you think?”
Bauer didn’t know Rome. It was the first time he’d been. The main streets seemed to be the better option but the traffic was getting heavier.
“There seems to be a lot of heavy traffic heading into Rome. I wonder if that’s usual for a Wednesday evening?”
“I don’t know,” Dennis replied. Then a thought struck him.
“There’s a champions league football match on tonight. Between Lazio and Roma. It’s a local derby. I saw it advertised this morning on television. It’s being played at the Olympic stadium which is home ground for both teams. It’s on the other side of Rome from the church. That’ll explain why there is so much traffic heading in from the south and east. The game doesn’t start for a while but I guess like most cities the traffic starts early.”
“I think we should take the side streets,” Bauer said weaving in and out of slower moving vehicles.
“It’s your call,” Dennis said.
Bauer could see the traffic ahead was slowing. The road a mass of brake lights.
“Well you have the map.”
“Okay. Okay. Let me just think. We are somewhere here. I can’t see any of the names of the side roads….”
Dennis kept glancing at the sat nav looking for road names to appear on the little five inch screen. Then he spotted one to the left.
“Via De Gesu. That means we are here. On the via Dellia Plebiscito. These roads here,” Dennis said talking more to himself, “Are no good and some will double back on us.”
Bauer raced down this road frantically sounding the Lancia’s horn as he dodged in and out of traffic. A bus pulled out of a bus stop in front of him and he sounded the horn cursing. The bus driver saw the blue light and stopped.
“Turn right here,” Dennis ordered.
Bauer swung the steering wheel and with a squeal of tyres the Lancia changed direction and careered off down the via Dei Fori Imperiali.