The Tower by Valerio Massimo Manfredi Page B

I need your help.’
    Father Hogan leaned back against the wall and watched.
    The man slowly opened his eyes and Father Boni continued in a low voice. ‘Father Antonelli, we know how much you are suffering and I would never have dared to disturb you at such a time were it not out of desperate necessity. Father Antonelli . . . can you understand what I’m saying?’
    The man nodded with great difficulty.
    ‘Listen to me, please. Ten years ago you were in charge of the cryptographic holdings of the Vatican Library, and you received a man named Desmond Garrett.’
    The old man gave a violent start, his chest heaving with a painful intake of breath. He nodded his head again with a moan.
    ‘I read . . . your diary, in the safe.’
    The old man clenched his teeth and turned his head towards Father Boni, astonishment in his eyes.
    ‘I found it . . . by chance, you must believe me,’ continued Father Boni. ‘I was looking for some documents and I found it by chance. Why? Why did you show Desmond Garrett the Stone of the Constellations and “The Book of Amon”?’
    The old priest seemed on the verge of drifting into unconsciousness but Father Boni gripped his shoulder and shook him. ‘Why, Father Antonelli? Why? I must know!’
    Father Hogan felt paralysed, stunned at that brutal violation of the old man’s pain. Father Boni seemed not even to notice him and continued to torment the dying man with pitiless insistence. Father Antonelli finally turned towards his interrogator with an immense effort and Father Boni lowered his ear to the old man’s mouth so as not to miss a word.
    ‘Garrett could read “The Book of Amon”.’
    Father Boni shook his head in disbelief. ‘That’s impossible!’
    ‘You’re wrong,’ rasped the old man. ‘Garrett had found a bilingual fragment . . .’
    ‘But viewing of that text has always been absolutely banned! How could you lift such a prohibition and let an outsider see that text? Why did you do it?’
    Two tears fell from Father Antonelli’s nearly lifeless eyes and his voice sounded like a wail. ‘The desire . . . desire for knowledge . . . ungodly presumption . . . I too wanted to read that forbidden book, to penetrate the meaning buried within it. I agreed to show him the Stone of the Constellations and “The Book of Amon” if he would teach me the key for deciphering them. Absolve me, Father, I beg you . . . Absolve me!’
    ‘What did you learn? Did Garrett manage to read all of the text or just a part of it?’
    The old man’s fleshless cheeks were lined with tears. His eyes were staring and haunted by pain. His voice became hollow, hoarse, full of uncontrolled terror. ‘A Bible . . . a different Bible, the story of a fierce, alienated race, maddened by their own arrogance and intelligence . . . They had reached the oasis of Amon from an ancient ceremonial site buried in the southern desert . . . from the city . . . the city of . . .’
    ‘What city?’ demanded Father Boni relentlessly.
    ‘The city of . . . Tubalcain. In the name of God, absolve me.’
    His hand reached out towards the man who was questioning him, who might have lifted his own in the sign of the cross, but they never met. His last strength abandoned him and the old man collapsed onto his pillow.
    Father Boni got even closer. ‘The city of Tubalcain . . . what does that mean? What is it? The translation, where is the translation? Answer me. Where is it, in the name of God!’
    Father Hogan moved away from the wall then and confronted him. ‘Can’t you see he’s dead?’ he said in a steady voice. ‘Leave him. There’s nothing more he can tell you.’
    He drew close to the bed and closed the dead man’s eyes with a light gesture, nearly a caress. He raised his hand in the sign of the cross. ‘ Ego te absolvo, ’ he murmured with shining eyes and a trembling voice, ‘ a peccatis tuis, in nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti et ab omni vinculo excommunicationis et interdicti . . . ’

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