‘Where is it?’ Sam asked her, his stomach churning as the car went airborne over a rise in the road.
Gabriella wove through traffic like some kind of insane stunt driver. She hit the brakes and the car came to a shuddering halt before sliding up to the side of a tourist coach.
‘Hold on!’ she said, slamming the car into reverse.
CRASH!
They smashed against the Enterprise car behind, which was now totalled, its occupants trapped inside. Gabriella put the Maserati back in first gear and planted her foot, the burning rubber forming a smokescreen behind them.
She asked, ‘Are they still there?’
Sam felt carsick as he twisted in the seat to look for—
‘Yes!’ he said, the two remaining vehicles in the chase emerging through the carnage, the furthest one trying to run a couple of Guardians on motorbikes off the road as Lora and Eva continued to follow them.
Sam held onto the door handle tightly. ‘You really know where to go?’
Gabriella was silent for a moment as she navigated the late-night traffic chaos of Rome. There’s barely any room and everyone’s still going at breakneck speed …
‘I wasn’t sure you’d believe me, ha!’ she said, taking another sharp turn that had him pinned against the door.
She flicked her wrist and they shot around a couple of buses driving slowly in the middle of the road. Behind them, the Enterprise car horns blared as they tried to get past the lumbering buses. Gabriella had bought them some time.
‘That I wouldn’t believe you?’ Sam said.
She nodded, slowed the car and they squeezed past a traffic accident to much shouting and abuse from those standing in the road.
‘But then the bad guys burst in, and as we started to run from them, I realised that maybe it’s not too impossible,’ she said. ‘Maybe I am right.’
’OK, so where is this book kept?’ Sam asked.
‘Someplace safe,’ Gabriella replied, pulling into an underground car park.
At least this seems different. That’s something.
‘Where?’ he asked again.
‘Here.’
‘Hang back … we’ll lose them, and contact you when we’re out …’ Sam said to Lora on the phone, but he lost reception as they went down another level of the car park. Then, as Gabriella pulled up and parked in a cloud of brake and tyre dust, he saw the sign on the walls.
‘No way …’
‘Si,’ Gabriella said, already out of the car and running towards the stairwell.
Sam caught up to her. ‘The Vatican?’
‘Is there another?’ she replied blithely.
They ran up the stairs and out into an ancient courtyard.
‘As in the Pope?’ Sam said, his mind reeling.
‘There is only the one,’ Gabriella said.
They approached guards standing in front of a tall metal gate.
Sam swallowed hard. How do we break into the Vatican?
Gabriella moved forward to talk to the guards and they seemed lost in her charm.
Sam’s phone beeped with a text message from Lora.
Waiting around corner, tracking your location. Call if you need backup.
They passed through gates that were familiar to Sam from his dream.
‘How did you convince the guards to let us in?’
Gabriella smiled. ‘I can be persuasive.’