Shrouded In Silence

47





Michelle pushed their apartment door open with her foot. Backing in, she laid the large shopping bag on the couch. After removing her coat, she kicked off her shoes.

"Is that you?" Jack called from the bedroom.

"I'm home," Michelle said. "I think I got everything we need."

"Great." Jack strolled in. "You found two black overcoats in our sizes?"

"I did. Found them in a used clothing store over on Via della Navicella. Both look worn and on the dirty side. I think that's what Guido would go for." She dumped the plastic bag on the table. "What do you think?"

Jack held up the shabby overcoat. "Looks straight out of the costume department for The Grapes of Wrath. Yeah, they'll work."

"Shadows are beginning to fall," Michelle said. "I think we need to get ready to move as soon as it is dark."

Jack looked at his watch. "The afternoon is gone. Our evening rendezvous with Guido will come up quickly."

"He wanted me to put on pants and pull my hair up so we'd look like two guys walking down the street. I'll get ready."

Jack followed her into the bedroom. "Do you think the police followed you?"

"No question about it. These cops are about as clever as a truckload of snails. I spotted the first cop immediately after I left the front door. The second one hopped on the subway, and I saw him hiding behind a column as well as tailing me in the department store. I know they were trying to offer protection, but any crook chasing me would have seen the surveillance if he had half an eye."

"Those are the people we have to shake tonight," Jack said. "Guido's instructions surprised me, but I see the wisdom in his idea. They won't be looking for two men." Jack shrugged. "I still struggle to believe Guido's real name is Jonas De Lateran. After all this time of research and investigation, our answer was sitting right here waiting to fall in our lap."

Michelle shook her head. "Truly amazing. And the fact is that Jonas is such a good person. I am left with nothing but astonishment. My prayer is that tonight we'll make the big breakthrough." She paused. "Getting a little stuffy in here? I'm feeling warm. Could you open the window and let a little fresh air in?"

"Sure." Jack swung the bedroom window wide open and gentle coolness drifted in. "It's a little brisk. After all, November in the United States would be quite cold today."

"Could be here," Michelle said. "But remember a nice wind from the Mediterranean Sea keeps Rome much warmer."

"Sure can."

She nodded. "Once I get my hair pulled up on top of my head, I'll be ready to start the transformation into looking like a guy. Thankfully it's only wearing a pair of pants under the overcoat."

Jack sat down on the bed. "This entire scenario from the moment Father Raffello was found dead in the grass has been as bad as it gets. We've been running down tunnels and through church crypts ever since. I am tired of the nonsense."

"Exactly," Michelle said. "If we didn't have such a significant project, I'd be packing it up and moving back to the USA." She slipped on a pair of black slacks and put her feet into a pair of Nike walking shoes. "OK. What's our plan of attack tonight?"

"We'll go out the back door of our apartment building wearing these overcoats and men's hats. Guido suggested we walk toward the opposite end of the alley as we never go that way. Often there's not even one cop at the front end of the alley. If we walk in the shadows, we should be able to get out the opposite end without the police noticing."

Michelle pulled her hair up behind her head and began pinning it in place. "I suppose Guido will wait for us if we run into any delays."

"Sure. But if something happens that we get separated, don't stop and wait for me. Keep moving and get on the subway. We're heading for Piazza di San Giovanni station and the church outside. Understand?"

Michelle shrugged. "Certainly, but I'm not worried about separation. We'll both walk into that metro station together."

"I trust so." Jack put on the black topcoat. "Doesn't smell too great, does it?"

"Hey, this is used bargain-basement stuff. It doesn't come with any guarantees." She reached into the sack and took out a narrow-brimmed men's hat. "Do I look like Kid Rock? Same kind of hat, you know."

Jack snickered. "Doesn't exactly propel you into a men's dress review, but it will do."

"Should we put the shoulder hostlers on? I'm not crazy about wearing a gun, but of course, it saved my life when we were attacked in the church. I keep on struggling with ambivalence."

"I think we better," Jack said. "Father Blake's big on weapons. If a man of the cloth keeps encouraging us, I think we should."

"Doesn't make sense that a clergyman would be urging us to be armed," Michelle said. "Usually they oppose all forms of violence."

Jack shrugged. "The Catholic Church encouraged the Crusades, which were about as brutal as you get. Blake might be from that school of thought."

Michelle picked up the shoulder holster. "OK, I'll put it on just in case." She slipped her arms through the straps. "OK, I'm ready."

Jack took her hand. "Out the back door will do just fine." He led her across the living room toward the kitchen. "We're on our way." Jack pulled her closer. " If there was anything I could do to change this situation, I'd do it. I know you're afraid to walk down that dark alley. Fear always remains a highly personal matter for you."

Michelle took a deep breath. "You're right about how personal the journey is. I suppose one of the values of this entire frightening experience has been the growth it has instilled in me. I never thought of myself as being weak, but struggle has made me much stronger. I'm grateful for the progress."

"Score one for our team," Jack said.

"Sometimes I wonder why we're jumping through all these flaming hoops that could devour us when we only want to translate old Bible manuscripts. Got to be a better way to earn a living. Why are we on such a difficult path?"

"It all started back at Tübingen when we were in graduate school. Remember? We dedicated ourselves to help sort out the confusion that permeated the lives of so many students. We wanted to be part of a work that made a permanent difference in the world. We committed ourselves to pursuing the highest purposes that God had for the world. That's what started us down a path that has ended up with this hunt for the authentic ending to Mark's Gospel."

"I guess so," Michelle said.

Jack squeezed her hand. "But it's always that way, my dear. In this world, we have nothing but turmoil. The mere fact that we are doing something worthwhile makes us a target for evil."

"How is it that working on a project that was nothing but good would have lent itself to so much bad? The harder we work at accomplishing a positive result, the more of a struggle we encounter."

Jack kissed her. "But it's always that way, my dear. In this world, we have nothing but tribulation. Remember that little verse in John 16, promising struggle. The mere fact that we are doing something worthwhile makes us a target for evil. When the job is monumental, like biblical work always is, we're only a larger target to shoot at. I think so many terrible things have happened because we're pursuing a goal of supreme value. The bill has been terribly costly because evil repays the value of the good deed with an equal amount of pain."

"The cost has exceeded anything that I could have ever imagined," Michelle said. "Never would I have anticipated such a price. You're sneaking out for artichokes at Dar Poeta without telling me turns out to be absolutely and totally nothing."

"You know that I love watching people walk by because it reminds me that we are all in the same boat. Occasionally I imagine what the strollers must be confronting because none of us is exempt from strife. Often the struggle is registered on the person's face walking by. You can see conflict in the lines around their eyes, their drooping mouths, or foreheads creased with deep wrinkles. I watch them emotionally limp by and know that there are splinters driven into their feet. They've all been stung and have to keep on trudging, not unlike Dov and his family once did. We're all in the same war together. Some of us are trying to climb the mountain; others attempt to push the climbers off the mountain. The truth is that being righteous doesn't exempt us from battles with detractors. In our case, the adversaries are deadly."

Michelle sighed. "Deadly indeed."

Jack kissed his wife again. "We have each other. That's enough. We'll make it."

"I pray so." Michelle squeezed his hand tightly and glanced at her watch. "The hands on the clock are flying, Jack.

"Time to go."



Across the street, Klaus Burchel rolled over on the roof and quickly wound up the wire on his microphone listening device. The open bedroom window had provided perfect contact. His surveillance device had picked up every word, and Stein would be ecstatic with this information.

It was time to move quickly, and he needed to change clothes. Stein would need to be positioned properly when the Townsends emerged from the subway train at the Piazza de San Giovanni. Both he and Stein now knew what this Guido character looked like, and contact should come easy. The Townsends would be easy to recognize with the information he had just picked up.

Tonight would be the night! Old Stein should be able to cash in his chips and take home the jackpot. Before this evening was over, Klaus could fulfill his own agenda. He would turn Jack Townsend into a corpse, just as his grandfather had done with so many in Auschwitz.