The Goliath Chamber - Vatican Knights 24 (2021), Rick Jones [e ink epub reader .TXT] 📗

that it can outweigh anything of Darkness. But my guess is that he’s going to allow Darkness to rule his actions tonight. No one here stands a chance. So, if I were you, I’d walk away. In fact, I’d run. I’d run as fast and as far as I could.”

“He’s one man unarmed against four heavily armed men, all elite soldiers.”

“It’s said that a true warrior would rather go up against an elite army with his bare fists than to go up against a Vatican Knight with all the weapons he can carry. If you stay the course, then you’re about to put that proverb to the test.”

“He’s a man who’s lost, a sinner. My people have the Light deep within their hearts and are true servants of God. Not the one who wears the collar of a priest and believes himself to be so. Kimball Hayden is the devil’s minion, if not the devil himself.”

“Is that right?” Shari contested.

When the woman showed Shari the face of her wristwatch, Shari also noted the ring on her hand. The ring’s face was a ruby stone with an upside-down V, and under this tented V were the insignia letters N and S. But it was the watch that the woman was trying to drive Shari’s attention to as she tapped its face.

“Right now,” Antle began, “he’s been informed of your abduction and, as we speak, is on his way. His window of time is limited, however. If he fails to deliver himself according to our instructions, then you will die. So yes, and unlike you, I believe that when he walks through the gateway, he will fall to his knees in disgrace and beg not only for your life, but his. And then final judgment will be passed. This Darkness you say he will work in alliance with will have no bearing here.”

Shari remained silent. For someone who knew Kimball down to the very root and core of what motivates him, she knew it was because he had always moved to the beat of his own drum. They may have been rules and regulations and restrictions, but Kimball Hayden had been wired to cross these boundaries when necessary. Tonight, she knew, he would cross these lines by the urging of a great Darkness that would consume him, while serving the Light.

Shari could only stare at the woman’s watch that ticked down the moments to Kimball’s arrival.

CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

Rome, Italy

Kimball could literally feel his insides churning. His stomach kept clenching and unclenching as though trying to contain itself. And his bowels, hot and writhing, were as equally unsettled.

Shari had become a pawn in the scheme of things—that dangling chain that swung before the subject’s eyes in order to hypnotize him to do certain biddings. He had become mesmerized with a will not his own, but that of the Nocturnal Saints. He had been seized by the gravelly-voiced woman, a person who was quite diminutive in size, but one who carried with her a constitution of magnificent power.

As he walked along the street, he was so engrossed with the study of the hexagon-shaped recorder in his hand that he did not see a gathering crowd. Standing on a wooden crate, a disheveled looking man with rawboned features and matted hair was giving a sermon. People milled about as though they were trying to determine if they were listening to the ravings of a madman or the wisdom of a prophet. But as the speaker took note of Kimball while the Vatican Knight approached, he stopped in mid-sentence with his eyes suddenly detonating with wide-eyed epiphany and pointed to Kimball.

Heads turned to see the Vatican Knight, whose attention lay elsewhere, as he remained oblivious to the gathering.

“And behold!” said this prophet who continued to point a filthy finger at the Vatican Knight. “God sends unto man a wingless angel . . .”

But Kimball moved along at a rapid pace having no idea of the Italian this man spoke, or that he had become the subject of the prophet’s lecture.

Following the instructions on the recorder, Kimball reached the Pantheon and found the car with the license plate number DH 730NB. Underneath the front seat, as promised, was an envelope containing keys. Inserting the key into the ignition and starting the vehicle, Kimball laid the hexagon-shaped recorder on the passenger seat. It would now serve as a radio beacon to those keeping watch from afar.

Uploading the predetermined directions already programmed into the vehicle’s GPS screen, Kimball realized that his final destination would be the Monte Soratte mountain ridge thirty miles north of his position, the spot secluded.

Putting the car into gear, Kimball went to meet his future with Darkness budding and burgeoning from his heart.

CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

Vatican Intelligence

Vatican City

A Jesuit who was manning the banks of monitors that showed citywide images from CCTV scanners, had received information as part of a multi-team effort between agencies who were working together in collusion. Apparently, an officer remained nonresponsive to radio transmissions after trying to download data into his dash monitor after making a traffic stop, with the input incomplete. Calls were placed by dispatch to confirm his active duty, only for the channel to remain silent. Protocols were then initiated when the officer’s code of behavior became noncommittal. So, when CCTV cameras of the officer’s last known location were brought up to view, the recordings revealed that he had been approached by an unknown person who rapped on the officer’s window, and then a moment later, though the action was out of view, there was a spark of light and a possible muzzle flash. Then the unknown person appeared to have forced the officer, without any challenge, into the passenger seat. A moment later, the unknown figure returned to his vehicle and grabbed two items: a suitcase and a laptop. After he commandeered the police cruiser, he moved east according to the vehicle’s GPS tracker, and then west towards Vatican City,