Chapter 22

Early morning sweetness

Adam and Marianna had had a leisurely start to the day. After making delicious love, they called room service and ordered a light breakfast. Croissants and coffee were delivered soon after, and a note addressed to Adam was alongside the roses adorning the tray. Adam ate his breakfast first then opened the envelope, eyeing it with wariness, wondering what the heck this could be.

When he read the contents, he took a deep breath and smiled, as he didn’t want to alarm Marianna in any way. However, it was clear that he would need to leave fairly sharply and have a meeting with Elijah about the malevolent group who were gathering their forces.

He got up, bent over and kissed, a still drowsy Marianna on the nose. He then showered and got dressed in his dark jeans and polo neck. Marianna laughed, “If I didn’t know better, I would say you were in the Mafioso”. She smiled over at him. He took a mock shot at her from an invisible gun, and then sitting on the edge of the bed, he said, “I am going out for a while. May be away for the morning, will you be OK?”

“Don’t I get told where you are going, or have you really joined the KKK or something”? She threw a napkin at him. Although she was being playful, he could sense the anxiety beneath the jesting.

“I am summoned to a meeting with Elijah and there may be work to do - and not your kind of work, so let me do this. I will get back soonest and we will have lunch. You can rest and get some ‘you’ time. There will be plenty for you to do when we have the Key, then you can bring all your gifts and talents to bear as you put the word out. In the meantime, we mere mortals have other things to do that will make that happen. OK”?

“OK, I am not entirely sure you are telling me the whole truth, but I’ll let you off. Phone me if you get held up. If I don’t hear by 2.00 p.m. then I will phone you OK? I just need to know that you are all right”.

“That’s fine, my love,” Adam rose and bent over her to give her a kiss. She tried to pull him back down, but he was having none of it as his male goal orientation system had been activated. He grabbed his jacket and put his gun in the back of his trouser band. He was off.

He went down in the lift very quickly. All 6ft 6” of Elijah was un-missable standing in the foyer beside the reception area. He smiled at Adam and together they left the hotel. They sat down at a small café nearby. Elijah didn’t mess about. He updated Adam about VM and what had been going on. He updated him on all the intel that Patrick and Wilma had gathered, and the raid that would take place that day. He shared the facts that he had at his fingertips with Adam, and gave him instructions as to how to enter the Vatican and who he could rely on to pass him through security etc. If he could get inside and remain after it closed then, as many that could, would join with further instructions to open the vault.

Adam told Elijah that Marianna would be awaiting his call. Elijah agreed to make the call for him. There was now a tremendous urgency about the whole thing, Adam thought. ‘People think that they have months in which to receive and digest the contents of the Magdalene Key. But that isn’t the case. We must get this information to the public as soon as is possible. If not, then it could mean the end of human existence and the termination of the Earth. We need to move quickly. We have no choice.’

Adam realised the gravity of the situation and promised Elijah he would do his utmost to retrieve the Magdalene Key and get it to Marianna ASAP.