The Eye of Moses - Vatican Knights Series 22 (2020), Rick Jones [learn to read books txt] 📗

da Vinci felt as though he was being admonished for allowing the breach to happen. The Consortium may be an elite organization when it came to clandestine operations with a formidable group of fighters, but they were not perfect or unbreachable, either. Like any organization, they had their faults.

“Let me know of the pontiff’s decision,” Mr. da Vinci managed. “We need to mobilize a unit immediately. Both the staff and the bowl once belonging to Nostradamus are the optimum items we need to attain before viable threats can be manufactured.”

“I agree,” stated Father Auciello. “I’ll call an immediate audience with the pontiff. I’ll get back to you.”

After the call was severed, Mr. da Vinci was left stewing. The Consortium prided itself as being a regulator regarding world matters, an elite guild that influenced global outcomes for the good of the whole. But with the Croatian frontline having been cut through with the ease of a hot knife slicing through a cake of butter, Mr. da Vinci had seen how vulnerable his league was. They were not the machines he believed them to be. In fact, they showed him the widening cracks within the seams.

Since the Shadow Klan was in itself a secret cabal, perhaps they would need the Vatican Knights to level the playing field, though he believed his team could also achieve the means. Nevertheless, Mr. da Vinci would wait on the pontiff’s decision.

 

CHAPTER

SEVEN

Inside the Papal Office

The Apostolic Palace

The Vatican, Vatican City

Pope Clement XV was a murderous pope who had once killed another while trying to attain the title of ‘Your Holiness.’ Though his plotting had failed him when he shoved an ill Pope Gregory XVII over the banister and sent him to the pavement of St. Peter’s Square, he eventually succeeded to the throne after Bonasero Vessucci’s passing, and after the resignation of Pope Pius XIV. Now, as he sat in the pontifical chair behind the pontifical desk, he listened to Fathers Auciello and Essex, the co-directors of Vatican Intelligence, as they relayed to him the recent military violation against the Consortium’s Croatian fortress.

Clement, who appeared adrift by the way he focused his sight to an imaginary point on the far wall and occasionally nodded, finally said, “This rod that once belonged to Aaron, you say, contains an element within the staff itself that has a power that’s trapped within a crystallized cocoon? A particle with a destructive and universal force?”

Father Essex nodded in confirmation. “The nature of its absolute strength is not clearly understood,” he told the pontiff. “But the force of the particle that’s embedded within the staff is clearly unmatched by anything on any current level of understanding when pertaining to atomic behavior, including that of nuclear weaponry. In fact, this particle appears to violate all the known principles and laws of physics.”

The pope hesitated for a moment. Then: “Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t Isaiah transport the Ark of the Covenant to Switzerland to be displayed and enjoyed by all religions?”

“It’s a facsimile,” answered Father Essex. “Much like the one in Axum, Ethiopia. The true artifact has been protected by the Consortium, along with other historical objects with and without sacred ties. The bunker was considered impenetrable, and the area unchartered.”

“Obviously not,” the pontiff replied. “And now you say that the staff of Aaron, which harbors this unknown power, is now believed to be in the hands of an organization that develops weaponry?”

“We do,” Father Essex answered.

“What kind of power are we talking about here?”

“The type of power,” began Father Auciello, “that can create galaxies or destroy them.”

“A remnant of the Big Bang, is that what you’re telling me? Something God has willingly allowed to alight within the head of a wooden staff, so that Moses could wield against Pharaoh as a show of His almighty power.”

“Yes, Your Holiness.”

“And this organization—” The pontiff cut himself off.

“The Shadow Klan,” Father Essex answered.

“This Shadow Klan, they took nothing else but the staff, correct?”

“That’s correct.”

“For within this staff lies the power of God.”

Neither Father Essex nor Father Auciello knew if the pontiff was talking to them or simply out loud to himself.

Then from Pope Clement XV: “And you believe that this militarized organization stole the staff to extract this particle to master and harness its power?”

Both priests nodded. But it was Father Auciello who spoke. “Should the characters of the particle be understood,” he told the pope, “and should they develop a designed weapon, then he who holds absolute power will also hold the scepter of rule, even over the superpowers. The United States, Russia, China—all these nations will have no choice but to recognize and bow before a new king.”

“Perhaps you’re overestimating the value of this element,” stated the pontiff.

“Your Holiness, the staff of Aaron was an all-powerful tool that had been used by Moses. With but a single touch upon the surface of the Nile, it nearly ruined a ruling kingdom with a string of catastrophic events. Now that we have a better understanding of science in regard to particles and atoms, can you imagine if that property became fully understood and utilized for a military application?”

“And this Shadow Klan, they have the means and the abilities to manufacture such a weapon of mass destruction?”

“Yes and no,” said Father Auciello. “They’re more than just an elite mercenary group made up of highly trained commandos from a number of special-operation groups. They’re also part of a political group that seeks to establish a global totalitarian state who are in allegiance with organizational principals and are in service as a global military unit. How many? Nobody really knows at this point. But the cabal is believed to number in the hundreds, if not thousands, worldwide.”

The pontiff sighed. Then: “The staff once belonging to Aaron is an interest of the Vatican. The reasons behind its taking, however, is not. Once we have the staff within our custody, then the threat will be neutralized.”

“That’s correct,” said Father Auciello.

“And now you come to me because you believe that