As Marianna and Adam slept the sleep of the satiated and contented, the forces of darkness were having a meeting. VM had called together all interested parties, including the De Montfort boy, and various aides and policemen that were in the know regarding their human trafficking activities.
He started off by welcoming all to his humble abode in the Vatican, as they all seemed to be crammed into the small space of his underground office.
VM cleared his throat, “It is possible that this woman, Marianna, and her partner Adam, are going to pose us a problem. So far, we have had little surveillance and some fairly inept interaction with her. They are beginning to join forces with others and they could present us with a serious problem.
The time for faffing about is frankly, over. I require them to be taken out, the sooner the better, as we cannot allow her access to any of our information here. It would expose our very lucrative business to the world, not to mention the information I have held here on a certain subject. It is highly sensitive. It will affect humanity greatly, and the last thing we want, is people becoming aware of who and what they are and why they are here, never mind taking their power back”.
I have absolute agreement on this from many senior members of governments and unseen groups around the world. Therefore, what may seem like a minor irritation has the undoubted power to disrupt us greatly. Who is doing what about it all”? VM turned and looked directly at Sebastian De Montfort.
Looking greatly uncomfortable, Sebastian spoke, “well, we have them under surveillance. I have to say that I didn’t rate them quite as highly as you VM, as a security risk however, I totally accept that they need to be eliminated before they attempt any further disruption of our business”.
There were coughs and shifting about in chairs as the obvious was stated and it was clear more was expected than this.
Sebastian continued, “As you know we store our records here amongst many other more highly sensitive things. Interpol have been trying to move in on us for years. However, we have failsafe methods of testing ‘new friends’ who appear to be offering their help and devotion. That is always treated with great distrust and scepticism. So gentlemen, it is not easy to get through our defences”.
VM didn’t look overly impressed with this assertion as he was well aware of the fiasco at Bugarach, and had Sebastian down as a good talker, but short on coming up with the goods, unlike his father who had been a stalwart for decades. But now, unfortunately, he had lost his bottle, and VM knew that in the fullness of time, De Montfort senior would go the way of many who had served and been retired in a very final way.
VM asked that they all increased their vigilance until the immediate isolation and elimination of the young couple was achieved. He was going to increase security within the walls of the Vatican and he warned Sebastian that he had better vet anyone and everyone who came to him with proposals even more thoroughly than the usual. VM was thanking them all for coming, said he would let them all know when the imminent threat had been eliminated, and they all drifted away to their various departments, offices, police stations etc.
The moment VM talked about unusual proposals, Sebastian immediately thought of the couple who had appeared the other day with their obscure and very different request. He could feel his stomach going dull with a peculiar feeling. He suddenly knew that he had divulged a lot of details to these people and he knew little or nothing about them. They now knew a lot about his operation, and were making plans to take delivery of living bodies shortly for scientific tests.
Sebastian had to get out of the room and quickly, in order to fix this error. If VM got the slightest hint that there had been a leak, then he was in the shit.
As soon as the meeting was over he was out of the Vatican like a bat out of hell, on his mobile to his centre in Paris. It was too late. His aide told him that there had been a raid only one hour earlier on their warehouse . He had escaped but most of the gang had been arrested and a lot of ‘cargo’ seized and taken to police safe houses. There was an open search for him, Sebastian De Montfort, and not only were the Surete on the case, but Interpol too.
His aide suggested that he should lie low and find somewhere in Rome to stay without surfacing until further notice. He would keep him posted as to what was going down through moles in the police. They were not sure if the police knew of De Montfort Senior’s involvement. It depended on how well the guys held off the questioning. As long as none of them caved in, they were safe. His father had left the country and their home was being closed up as they spoke.
It seemed that there had been information given to Inspector Germaine of the Surete by two pillars of society. It had exposed the whole set up, at least their part of it, and there was nothing any of his paid police could do to stop it.
Sebastian was distraught. How the hell was he going to fix this? What would he say to VM? He slammed his fist into a wall gathering stares from a few tourists as they walked past. He was pacing up and down when one of VM’s men came up and asked him if he was OK.
“You OK, sir? VM would like just a further quick chat before you go”. The heavy turned and put an arm through Sebastian’s and propelled him back into the Vatican and down into the bowels of it.
He opened VM’s door, and without ceremony, deposited Sebastian on the floor with a shove. Sebastian was outraged and shouting profanities at the guys back when he turned to look at VM, who was quietly seething.
Through gritted teeth VM said, “I hear that we are just a tad late with closing the stable door Sebastian. The horse has well and truly bolted, and you are responsible. Bodies for pharmaceutical tests, I believe was the scam used. You didn’t bother to check. You didn’t bother to vet them in any way whatsoever”!
He walked to the front of his desk, he perched on it and with head bowed he said, “We will all pay the price, and none more so than you and your father”. He leaned over pressed a button on the desk and the thug came in, grabbed a stunned Sebastian De Montfort and escorted him down a stairway even further into the depths of the building. When they arrived at the bottom of a spiral stairway, there was a passageway with cells directly in front and he was thrown into one, the locks and bolts well and truly thrown into place.
Sebastian didn’t bother to shout. There was no point. He knew that his number was up. He sat down on the pallet in the room and started to review all that had gone down and how he could perhaps have done it all differently. The heavy went back upstairs to report to VM for further instructions. He checked his handgun on the way up the stairs just to make sure he was ready for anything.
He wasn’t ready for the arm that shot out and got him right across his throat. He doubled over, lost his balance and fell on the ground. Meantime, two hooded and dark clothed guys pounced on their prey and tied him up, gagged him with tape across the mouth and got him out of the place sharpish. He was bundled into a black car at the back of the Vatican and driven away at high speed.
One of the thugs entered back into VM’s room. “Did Evo dispose of him appropriately?”
“Si, bene, Monsignor”, the thug slowly slurred and then he nodded from behind dark glasses.
“That will be all, I haven’t seen you before are you with Alfredo”? VM enquired.
“Si, Monsignor, I am Enrico, I started a few months ago. This is my first time on protection duty for you personally”.
VM was satisfied and bent his head to his papers, waiving the protector away.
Enrico went outside and took off his glasses. Adam/Enrico could barely see what was going on in the dark with them on. He was sure his ruse had worked. Amelia’s brother had got him through Vatican security and it was now up to him to suss out the scene and find the vault.
They had moved swiftly. Elijah had instructed all actions had to be brought forward, as time was of the essence. Their elaborate preparation had to go by the wayside as this gang were gathering all their informants in key areas such as the police forces all over the world and governments, to put a stop to their plans. No more time for nice meetings. Adam knew that he really was in this situation not just to protect Marianna but also to take co-lead and responsibility on every other level so that they could get this all under control and get to the vault.
It was like a movie. He had watched the Da Vinci Code and had laughed at the antics, thinking how far-fetched it all was and yet here he was, this time for real, and he was having to use all the training in Aikido that he knew and the firearms training he had received in the Marines. Thank God he had learned all that. He had a gun, which he fervently hoped he would not have to use.
He was looking around now. He took a roughly drawn map out of his pocket to see where he was going next, towards the vault and the truth, the Magdalene Key.