| |
“FATHER RENZI?”
“Yes,” Dominic said, clearly flustered. “I’m Dominic Renzi.”
“Come with us.”
Tonita and Dominic glanced quickly at one another.
“Move forward,” one of the soldiers urged, then added, “Please.”
There was the clicking sound of metal on metal as the two soldiers swung the MP5 automatic weapons onto their shoulders and took up position behind Tonita and Dominic. “Proceed straight ahead,” the same soldier ordered.
“This gets better all the time,” Tonita smirked as she spoke.
“Tonita?” Dominic raised an eyebrow. “Hush up!”
Tonita and Dominic, with the two soldiers closely behind them, continued on course following the unpainted cement walls and floor of the hallway. Dominic noted that the hall remained quite straight with only an occasional bend or curve, no sharp corners. Instead of the hard edged ninety degree corners found in most corridors, this had none.
“No one can hide in here,” Dominic said.
“Why would they?”
“No corners.” Dominic kept his voice to a whisper, and ignored her question as he continued. “Nowhere to hide.”
“Where are they taking us?”
“I’m not sure. I’ve never been down this far. The couple of times that I’ve been here, I exited through the first door and then up the stairs. Just where we met our friends here.”
“Why were you even here?”
“Vatican Diplomat. I told you.”
“Yeah, you did. But I didn’t believe you.”
“Should have.” Dominic winked at her. “I’ve never had a problem with the Secret Service before. There’s never been anyone inside the hall.”
“And you know that they’re Secret Service because...?” Tonita glanced at Dominic.
“Because they’re carrying MP5’s and they’re letting us talk.”
“MP5’s?”
“The weapon over their shoulders. You know...that big gun!”
“I would have called it a rifle.”
“But then you didn’t serve in the military.”
“And you did?” Tonita kept step with Dominic, edging a bit closer. Her arm brushed his.
“I did.”
Tonita stopped. One of the soldiers almost smacked right into the back of her.
“Keep walking,” he grumbled.
She turned to the soldier, “Sorry,” and then back to Dominic, “My, my, the secrets you have.”
“It’s not a secret. It just never came up.”
“If we weren’t being escorted down this hall to...I don’t know where, and we were alone, we’d be having a long discussion right now. You should be thankful we’re under arrest.” She turned forward, refusing to look at him.
Dominic turned his head and shouted over his shoulder, “Thanks, guys.”
Having walked past the usual doors that he and other Vatican officials used to expedite their travel by circumventing security and customs and now in a section of the hallway that he was completely unfamiliar with, his attempts at remaining calm were only succeeding on the exterior. Internally his stomach was churning.
The foursome turned round a bend in the hallway that extended for another fifty feet, then ended abruptly, coming to a dead end with no exit in sight.
Tonita must have sensed Dominic’s uneasiness and let her hand brush his. She glanced at him. “No door.”
“I see that,” he said, whispering back.
Their pace slowed as the end of the hall grew closer.
Dominic expected an order to stop them at any moment. Yet none came. And having received no orders from the Secret Service agents behind them to stop, they continued.
Now, ten yards from the end of the hallway, they kept walking.
Five yards. Still no order.
Tonita couldn’t take it any longer. “Guys? There’s a wall here.” She stopped and turned around facing the soldiers. “We can’t exactly walk through walls.”
“Tonita?” Dominic pulled on her shoulder.
“Well, what? She pulled away from Dominic staring into at the agents. “What are they going to do? Shoot us?”
“No,” Dominic said.
Tonita turned back to Dominic. “Then are you going to walk through that wall...” She didn’t need to finish.
The wall had slid open.