The Omega scroll Read online

  The Omega scroll

  Adrian D'hage

  The Omega scroll

  Adrian D’H age

  BOOK ONE

  January 2005

  CHAPTER ONE

  Roma

  T he Cardinal Secretary of State to the Vatican stood at his second-floor window in the Apostolic Palace and stared out over the Piazza San Pietro. Cardinal Lorenzo Petroni had two things on his mind. Of the two, the Pope’s failing health was perhaps the more urgent but the woman was now by far the more dangerous.

  The most powerful cardinal in the Catholic Church was tall and thin and cut an elegant but formidable figure. His soutane, edged in scarlet, was immaculate. A pale angular face with features at once delicate and steely; eyes blue and piercing. His fine black hair streaked with distinguished grey.

  Below him the early dusk of winter had already enveloped the great square of St Peter’s, and although the rain had stopped the cobblestones were still wet, glistening in the soft reflected light from the Vatican buildings. A lone scrap of paper bowled across the now deserted piazza, disappearing into the surrounds of Bernini’s Colonnade, the wind growling around the columns as it had for over three hundred years.

  Slowly and deliberately, Lorenzo Petroni paced the spacious office afforded the Secretary of State, the deep pile of the royal blue carpet soft under the Italian leather of his shoes. At one end of the room were three crimson couches; at the opposite end, two large French-polished desks. One was almost obscured by piles of dispatches. The other, his working desk, was clear save for a black marble cross. On the wall behind, Perugino’s Saint Benedict kept watch. As he often did, Petroni reflected on how close he was to absolute power, yet that power had become frustratingly elusive. Next month would mark his fifteenth year as Cardinal Secretary of State, a position which was second only to the Pope. Petroni had regained control of the Vatican Bank and the Church’s vast international financial holdings, but for a long time the Keys to Peter had seemed unattainable. The Pope’s reign seemed endless. Now the Pope’s ill health provided a rare opening. A quiet, persistent buzzing on his private line interrupted the Cardinal’s thoughts.

  ‘Petroni.’

  ‘One moment, Eminence, Father Jean-Pierre La Franci is calling.’ Petroni’s lips tightened. The Director of L’Ecole Biblique in Jerusalem had been instructed never to contact him at the Vatican unless it was a matter of the utmost urgency. The phone crackled and the Director came on the line.

  ‘ Buonasera, Eminence.’

  ‘ Buonasera, Jean-Pierre. How can I help?’ Long years of diplomatic training kept Petroni’s irritation in check.

  ‘I am sorry to trouble you, Eminence, but there has been a development that I think you should be aware of.’

  ‘And that is?’

  ‘The information has not been confirmed, but I have a contact in one of the Hebrew University laboratories here and we suspect that a substantial number of Dead Sea Scroll fragments have been subjected to DNA and carbon dating analysis.’

  ‘Where did these fragments come from?’ Petroni’s voice was suddenly sharp.

  ‘That’s the puzzling part, Eminence. None of our fragments are missing. It is presumably a new find, but my sources are very good.’

  ‘And?’ Petroni demanded.

  ‘We suspect that the DNA analysis may enable the fragments to be separated and pieced together into separate scrolls. One of them may be either the original or another copy of the Omega Scroll.’

  Petroni felt the blood drain from his face.

  The Omega Scroll. Petroni knew only too well that there were just three in existence; the original and two copies. In 1978 one of the copies had surfaced on the black market and for the exorbitant sum of US ten million dollars, Lorenzo Petroni, then a powerful Archbishop in the Vatican in control of the Vatican Bank, had arranged for its purchase. Pope John Paul I had seen a report on it, but he was now dead and that copy of the Omega Scroll was buried deep within the Vatican’s Secret Archives.

  This had to be the original, Petroni thought. The second copy had come to light only a few months ago when a Turkish dealer on the black market had offered it to Monsignor Lonergan, Petroni’s man in Jerusalem. Petroni had made sure of its purchase, this time for fifty million dollars. It was also safe and secure in the Secret Archives.

  ‘Do we know who commissioned this analysis?’ Petroni already had strong suspicions but he needed positive verification.

  ‘Dr Allegra Bassetti, Eminence.’

  At the confirmation of the woman’s name Lorenzo Petroni’s anger was palpable and his grip tightened on the receiver.

  ‘I want a full report in the black bag tomorrow.’

  ‘Yes, of course, Eminence.’ Father La Franci was wasting his breath. The line was dead.

  The Cardinal Secretary of State stared out over the Piazza San Pietro for a long time. The Keys to Peter were dangling tantalisingly within his grasp and Petroni needed to maintain his control. Desperation was never far from the surface of his calm and powerful demeanour. At the moment two other issues were swirling around him and either one could bring him down. Cardinal Giovanni Donelli, the Patriarch of Venice, had started an investigation into the activities of the Vatican Bank in his diocese of the Veneto. Petroni knew that any investigation into the Vatican Bank would finish him and although he had been told it would be difficult, the ‘Italian Solution’ had been arranged. Cardinal Donelli would be meeting with an unfortunate accident. Petroni had also discovered that a journalist from CCN, Tom Schweiker, was investigating his past. If he got too close to the truth Schweiker would also be dealt with. Now there was an even more threatening issue: the woman and the Omega Scroll.

  The Omega Scroll contained three coded messages that had the power to change the world. Petroni allowed himself a rare feeling of satisfaction. An American scholar had unravelled the first of them and although the coded numbers posed a critical threat to the Vatican, so far no one had taken much notice.

  The second message had almost surfaced by accident. In 1973, Francis Crick, the discoverer of the molecular structure of DNA, published his extraordinary findings on where DNA had originated. In doing so, the Nobel Laureate had come perilously close to revealing the second of the crucial secrets of the scroll. It hadn’t been easy to dismiss the brilliant biologist as a fruitcake, but Petroni had personally directed the campaign to discredit him and a sceptical media had done the rest. In the 1980s the threat had reappeared. Professor Antonio Rosselli at Milano’s Ca’ Granda University had revitalised the investigation into Crick’s theory surrounding the source of DNA. Petroni had placed the Professor under surveillance.

  The final message, and Petroni believed he alone knew the exact contents of the scroll, contained a crucial warning of an apocalyptic disaster that was about to befall mankind. Petroni knew that the pointers in the Middle East were already in place, but for Cardinal Petroni, the countdown to the annihilation of civilisation was secondary. He was far more concerned with the Omega Scroll’s first two messages. Messages that directly threatened his own power and that of the Holy Church. Petroni had been startled when an Israeli mathematician, Professor Yossi Kaufmann, revealed that he had discovered hidden codes in the Dead Sea Scrolls. As he had done with Professor Rosselli, Petroni had immediately placed Professor Kaufmann under surveillance. Like the ill-fated discoveries of the pyramids, it seemed that the ancient scroll was cursed. Everyone who came in contact with it was in danger.

  Events in the Middle East were coming together. Should the Omega Scroll ever become public there would be no doubting its authenticity and the consequences were unthinkable, but a simple purchase of the final, original, copy of the Omega Scroll might no longer be an option. Cardinal Petroni knew that Allegra Ba
ssetti could not be bought. His mind went back to the night in Milano when she had been impertinent enough to raise her interest in the Omega Scroll over dinner. When she had gone to the Middle East, Petroni had her placed under surveillance, just in case. Now Allegra Bassetti would have to be eliminated and the Dead Sea Scroll recovered. Time was running out. The countdown had begun.

  Cardinal Petroni turned his attention to the more immediate matter of the Pope’s health. At the press of a button the dark panelled doors of the TV cabinet hidden in the far wall slid silently aside. The CCN six o’clock news bulletin was mandatory viewing for the Vatican hierarchy but the two lead items would surprise many of the cardinals and others in the corridors of power in Rome. Petroni was not surprised by either of them. He was irritated by the speculation about to be aired over the Omega Scroll, but not surprised. Daniel P. Kirkpatrick III, CCN’s News Director in New York, was a Knight of Malta, and like the other Knights of Malta around the world, he kept the Cardinal Secretary of State informed on what might be about to affect the Vatican well before it made the news. In return, Knights of Malta had direct access to the Apostolic Palace.

  ‘Ten seconds, Tom.’ The journalist was the tall and charismatic Tom Schweiker, CCN’s veteran Pulitzer Prize winning Middle East correspondent and occasional reporter on the Holy See. Dressed in a dark blue, open-necked shirt, Tom Schweiker was broad across the shoulders and his face was weathered and lined from countless hours spent in the desert sun. He had a square jaw, a long and aristocratic nose, and his well-groomed greying hair matched his inquisitive grey eyes. The cue sounding in his earpiece came from CCN’s studios in New York as Tom Schweiker composed himself for his piece to camera. Michelangelo’s dome of St Peter’s provided a stately backdrop.

  ‘Speculation is mounting,’ he began, in a deep, cultured voice, ‘that one of the longest serving Popes of the modern age may be about to retire on the grounds of ill health.’ Schweiker paused to allow his opening to have the desired effect. He had the ability to make each of the millions of CCN’s viewers feel that he was talking to them personally.

  ‘CCN has obtained the latest medical report on the Pope and it casts significant doubt on his ability to continue.’

  ‘Does it make any recommendations, Tom?’ asked CCN’s New York anchor, Geraldine Rushmore.

  ‘No, it doesn’t, Geraldine, but as we all know, the Pope has been suffering from Parkinson’s for many years now. This is a progressively degenerative neurological disorder, and although there is some promising research being done with adult stem cells, modern medicine still doesn’t have a cure. It affects the control of body movements and that, unfortunately, is all too evident in the Pope’s public appearances.’

  ‘Have other Popes resigned before this, Tom?’

  ‘Not recently, Geraldine, although Church Law doesn’t prevent it. In the entire history of the Papacy only six have done so, the last being Gregory XII way back in 1415.’

  ‘Who will make the final decision, Tom?’

  ‘That’s the difficulty. While the Pope still has his faculties it will be up to him and he’s not known as someone who readily gives up. In fact, it’s his stubbornness that has been the most criticised aspect of his Papacy. Although, interestingly enough, I understand that an undated resignation document has been prepared. So perhaps the Pope is allowing for that eventuality.’

  ‘He’s still astute?’

  ‘My sources tell me that the Pope’s mind is still very sharp, but none of us can go on for ever.’

  ‘No indeed, Tom, and on another front there is speculation that a copy of the Omega Scroll may have surfaced.

  ‘It’s only speculation. Rumours about this scroll have been around for decades, but no one has ever claimed to have seen it.’

  ‘Do we know what’s in it, Tom?’

  ‘Not exactly, but the Israeli archaeologist and mathematician Professor Yossi Kaufmann has discovered that this particular Dead Sea Scroll contains a secret code. He’s suggesting there may be a link between the Omega Scroll and the outcome of the War on Terror.’

  ‘The “Clash of Civilisations”?’

  Tom nodded. ‘Kaufmann has suggested that the destruction of Western civilisation has begun, and in a reverse of the Crusades of the Middle Ages Islam will triumph over Christianity and the West. No doubt that is music to the ears of al-Qaeda and the followers of Osama bin Laden.’

  Kaufmann, a respected Israeli scholar and member of the Knesset, had gone out on a limb and had been roundly criticised for his pronouncements. Hardbitten journalists had scoffed at his ideas, but now Tom Schweiker was less sceptical. The continuing US-backed Israeli attacks against the Palestinians and the US, British and Australian attack on Iraq had fanned widespread resentment in the Arab world and it was getting worse. Tom’s links to the CIA were impeccable and he had seen the reports that had been kept hidden from the wider public, reports that al-Qaeda now possessed at least seven of the nuclear suitcase bombs that had gone missing when the Soviet Union collapsed.

  ‘Thanks, Tom. We’ll leave it there and I look forward to speaking to you when you return to the Middle East.’

  ‘Pleasure, Geraldine.’

  ‘That was Tom Schweiker reporting for CCN News from the Vatican in Rome. Difficult times for the Papacy and a sobering prediction from Israel. Now to the day in Congress…’

  Cardinal Petroni dismissed any thought of Islam triumphing over Christianity. Tonight he was more focused on the report on the Pope’s health and a gleam of satisfaction crept into his steely blue eyes. The arcane art of leaking; it was one of Petroni’s many skills. He had recognised the power of the media at an early stage in his career, and had learned the rules well.

  Rule 1: Establish a trust with a reputable media outlet and make sure the information you feed is accurate. Journalists hated nothing more than to get it wrong. In the dog-eat-dog world of journalism criticism from colleagues was often worse than that of irate editors.

  Rule 2: Feed the media just enough to suit your purpose, but not enough to have the leak sourced back to you. Or if there was any danger of that, have the journalist disguise the source – ‘Well-placed government officials, sources close to the Vatican…’ And always refer to sources in the plural. It confused those who might be looking for the leak.

  Cardinal Petroni buzzed Monsignor Servini, the Head of the Vatican Press Office.

  ‘Yes, Eminence?’

  ‘Why is it, Monsignor, that I have just seen that journalist from CCN purporting to have a report on the Holy Father’s medical condition?’

  ‘I’ve only just viewed the broadcast myself, Eminence, but I have ordered an immediate investigation.’

  ‘I want a report on my desk within twenty-four hours.’

  ‘Of course, Eminence.’

  Cardinal Petroni snapped off the intercom.

  Rule 3: Be at the forefront of denouncing and demanding the identification of the leak.

  Petroni pushed the red button on the remote and absentmindedly watched the television retreat into its panelled alcove. Well-connected Knights of Malta like Kirkpatrick had their uses, he mused. Petroni had always been attracted to the Knights’ history of savaging Islam and he had often imagined himself participating in their fierce attacks on Muslim pirates in the Mediterranean, launched from the island of Malta that was granted to the Knights by Charles V in 1530 and from which they took their name. The fight against Islam, he reflected, had been going on for centuries but he had no doubt that like the earlier Knights of Malta, the one true Faith of Christianity would prevail. The item on the Omega Scroll had been annoying, but for Cardinal Petroni information meant power and Kirkpatrick’s early warning had given him time to calmly consider the implications. Petroni concluded that the speculation on the Omega Scroll would die. It always had in the past and the media always moved on.

  The Vatican’s Cardinal Secretary of State would not have been so confident had he realised the broadcast had also been seen by Jerry Buffett, th
e leading televangelist in the United States.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Atlanta, Georgia

  T he Buffett Evangelical Centre for Christ could seat fifteen thousand people and tonight it was packed. The choirmaster was warming up the audience with a booming rendition of ‘How Great Thou Art’, while backstage Jerry Buffett was making his final preparations.

  Buffett appeared younger than his sixty years. Ruggedly good looking with a tanned face, blue eyes and a square, determined jaw, his personal hairdresser had been tasked with ensuring his dark hair held no hint of grey. His no-nonsense ‘all-American’ approach held wide appeal across the country, especially in the southern Bible belt. September 11 had seen the rise of the religious right in America and over five million Americans, including the President, tuned in to his weekly broadcasts.

  The knock on the door of the well-appointed Dressing-room One was soft and respectful.

  ‘Five minutes, Reverend Buffett.’

  ‘Thank you.’ Jerry Buffett poured himself a bourbon. The CCN broadcast had unhinged him, momentarily. A triumph of Islam over Christianity would be a disaster for humankind and he would call the President in the morning. In the 2004 election hundreds of pastors from the Buffett Ministry had been instrumental in signing up hundreds of thousands of voters across the country, especially in the swing states of Florida, Ohio and West Virginia. That effort had kept the presidency in Christian hands and, to use the President’s own words, the capital was there to be spent. If the Omega Scroll existed it would be important to quietly retrieve it before the other side used it to their advantage. Jerry Buffett drained his glass and made some hasty amendments to his opening lines.

  ‘I have just seen a broadcast on CCN this evening,’ he began, in his deep southern drawl, ‘which has predicted the triumph of Islam over Christianity.’ The crowd fell silent, some shifting nervously in their seats. The events of September 11 had frightened many Americans.