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

as his body started to grow numb, he also became incredibly weak and lost his balance, the man falling to the balcony floor. The stars above him swirled crazily as confusion began to set in. Nothing made sense to him with the simplest things appearing difficult and nonsensical. And as he lay there looking skyward, he tried to speak. But his utterances came out as garble and throat clicks. And as the passing seconds seemed eternal in this pain, Pope Clement XV finally slipped into a coma from a hemorrhagic stroke when a high number of blood vessels inside the brain ruptured in perfect unison.

Finally, Pope Clement XV received that divine interference he had prayed for . . .

. . . But not in the way that he had expected.

CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN

Kimball’s Quarters

Vatican City

When Kimball Hayden returned to his quarters, he felt numb all over. Not in a physical sense, but in mind and spirit. He had left Isaiah and Nehemiah to be the sentries of Vatican City during his absence. And as Vatican Knights, they had performed their duties as required with the price of admission into Heaven fully paid. Nevertheless, Kimball felt the pang of survivor’s remorse. He left the jurisdiction of the Vatican with the noble intention to save Shari, but it would never be enough to counterbalance the loss of two lives that it took in order to save hers with the cost heavy.

Sitting on the edge of his cot with his eyes cast to the floor, Kimball lifted his head until they locked and fixed on the stained-glass image of the Virgin Mother. With his hands clasped and his fingers already interlocked in an attitude of prayer, he whispered, “I have never asked you for anything in regard to myself. Not a thing. And should miracles exist, no matter how small or insignificant they may seem, I need one now. I need to know that He’s listening to me. I need to know that He hears me and that He’ll give me this one gift, even though I may not deserve it. I need something to go on because I’m at the end of my rope. I’ve been here before and I’ve clawed my way back. But I’m not sure if I have the strength anymore.”

The room remained silent.

Then: “Others should not have to pay for my weaknesses. Isaiah and Nehemiah, they were good people who deserved better. Why them and not me when I’m the who carries the burden of past sins? Is this my Hell? To continue this way in Darkness with feelings that weigh me down. This depression?”

The welcoming arms of the Virgin Mother remained locked within the chips of stained glass. Her encompassing smile was frozen and forever locked, something that always made Kimball feel comfortable while he sat within the shadows of his personal darkness.

Now, there was a blanketing numbness as comfort escaped not only him but his quarters, leaving him feeling alone and abandoned. In observance, he considered that the Virgin Mother was nothing more than an image of colored glass when she appeared to have been so much more. And this was what he wanted to believe more than anything—that she was so much more than fragments of glass pieced together.

Leaning forward to place his head within his hands, he cried out so that his screams echoed off his chamber walls. Then as he laid down on the cot, he broke and sobbed because at the end of the day he was still human with human emotions.

While he was caught up in a midst of cathartic purging, the Vatican Knight, with the Virgin Mother watching over him, eventually fell asleep.

CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT

The Tyrrhenian Sea

Six Hours Later

The Corps of the Port Captaincies is the equivalent of America’s Coast Guard. At the moment of the registered blast, which was picked up by the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport, three maritime vessels were launched to investigate the area where flotsam was discovered by a drone three miles east of the blast’s epicenter.

As soon as the ships reached the debris field and the morning sun was burning bright, a helicopter was quickly dispatched from the deck. After making several passes over the area, they discovered a life form waving a hand. But as the chopper drew closer, they discovered that it was actually two life forms who were wading with one corralling another, a person who was obviously injured.

After a rescue basket had been lowered, the injured man was loaded and hoisted aboard the aircraft. When a harness was lowered a second time, the man secured himself and gave a thumbs-up, the lever thereafter pulling him up and into the bay.

What had drawn quizzical looks from the rescuers was the fact that both men were wearing the Roman Catholic collars of priests, yet they appeared to be more militant than men of pious nature.

One of the two, Nehemiah, had his broken arm mended and stabilized with a medical splint. Whereas Isaiah, whose breathing was labored due to three busted ribs, had them bound by a tight wrapping of gauze.

While the ships returned to port the commander asked pointed questions. But the Vatican Knights referred them to the principals of the Vatican, who summarily informed the superior officer that no questions would be answered because these men operated under the parameters of Vatican Intelligence, which was fully recognized by Roman authority.

Once the ships had docked, Isaiah and Nehemiah were summarily transported to Gemelli Hospital where they would fully recover.

* * *

When Kimball Hayden awoke, he did so inside a strange atmosphere. The room appeared lighter and less dense. And the light of the Virgin Mother was strong and warm and welcoming. As he sat up, he received a sense that something wonderful had happened. What it was he could neither determine nor understand the cause of this reaction, only that it was.

And when he stood, he did so within the light that was