The Eternity Project

55

ST PATRICK’S CATHEDRAL, MANHATTAN



The cathedral glowed with a galaxy of candleflames as Ethan hurried between the pews toward the altar. Lopez followed behind him, with Joanna shepherding Tom Ross along at the rear.

Monsignor Thomas was waiting for them, his expression etched with deep concern.

‘Where is Karina? he asked.

‘Acting as a diversion,’ Ethan replied sharply. ‘We don’t have much time.’

The monsignor looked at Tom Ross, taking in his darkened eyes and haggard appearance, and then he appeared to take a step back in fear.

‘This,’ he uttered, ‘this is the one?’

Ethan nodded, and looked back at Tom. The young man he had once been was swiftly vanishing, as though he were physically being drained of life by every passing moment. His shoulders were slumped, his skin pale and sheened with a clammy sweat and his head hung low as though too heavy for him to bear.

As Ethan watched, Joanna levered Tom carefully into a pew and the young man slumped there, his eyes drooping. Joanna lifted his chin and slapped a hand across his cheek, the slap echoing up into the vaulted ceiling above.

‘Stay awake, you hear me?’ she snapped.

Tom Ross blinked and managed to keep his head up as Ethan turned back to the monsignor.

‘I want you to go to the fuse box and shut off all the power,’ he said.

‘The power? What for?’

‘A precaution,’ Ethan replied. ‘I think you know what for.’

The monsignor nodded fearfully, his gaze switching between Ethan and Tom Ross. ‘Yes, everything will be off. The candles will be enough illumination.’

‘Is there anybody else in the building?’ Ethan demanded.

‘No,’ the monsignor replied. ‘I have sent everybody home.’

‘Good,’ Ethan said. ‘Then you had best leave, too, before anything happens.’

The monsignor looked at Tom and frowned. ‘But I do not know this man. Why would his wraith attack me?’

Ethan looked down at the monsignor. ‘Man of the cloth or not, can you stand there and tell me that you’ve never done anything wrong in your life? Never lied, stolen, cheated or deceived?’

The monsignor swallowed indignantly. ‘I am a man of God.’

‘Like that means anything,’ Lopez uttered with brittle humor.

‘Have you ever lied, stolen, cheated or deceived?’ Ethan repeated. ‘Because if you have, then this wraith might decide that it doesn’t like you.’

The monsignor’s defiance crumbled and he handed Ethan a set of heavy, archaic iron keys. ‘To the main doors,’ he said. ‘Lock them after me.’

With that, Monsignor Thomas hurried away through the cathedral. He walked behind one of the huge columns, and Ethan heard a metallic-sounding door or panel being opened. Moments later, all of the main lights in the cathedral shut down and the muted hum of extraction fans faded away, to be replaced by a deep silence. The entire cathedral was filled with an ominous combination of flickering candlelight and deep shadows rising up into the huge vaulted roof above.

Ethan turned to Joanna, who gestured at Tom Ross.

‘He’s not going to be hanging around much longer, not in this state,’ she said. ‘He’s no good to me dead.’

‘He’s going to be a bigger problem than that if he passes out,’ Lopez shot back at her. ‘This is about more than your damned revenge.’

Joanna raised an unconcerned eyebrow at her. ‘Is it?’

Ethan was about to interject when he heard the cathedral door slam with a boom that echoed through the cathedral. To his surprise, he saw the monsignor reappear with his hands in the air. Behind him walked Donovan, one arm holding Karina Thorne as the other pressed a pistol into her side.

‘Too late,’ Ethan said.

Donovan prodded the monsignor toward the altar, keeping Karina close as he reached them and looked at each of them in turn.

‘Well, isn’t this cozy?’

‘You’re through, Donovan!’ Lopez snapped. ‘Whatever you do from here on in, you’re going to spend the next few decades behind bars.’


‘Is that so?’ Donovan said. ‘Then where are the cops? Why haven’t they arrested me, especially when I’m driving about in my pool car with my police radio. Strange, I haven’t heard anybody calling for my arrest.’

Ethan frowned. ‘Good question. Want to reveal?’

Donovan sneered at him.

‘None of your goddamned business, Warner. Now, this is how it’s going to go. You’re going to hand Tom Ross over to me. In return, I won’t put a bullet in Karina’s skull. Simple enough for you all?’

Lopez stood protectively in front of Tom Ross.

‘He’s not going anywhere,’ she snarled. ‘I don’t know what you’ve pulled but you won’t get away with it.’

‘I’ve already gotten away with it!’ Donovan shouted, his voice echoing back and forth through the cathedral. ‘We’re done here.’

Ethan raised his hands in placation, keenly aware that he wasn’t armed. ‘This isn’t the way, Donovan. Killing Tom isn’t going to stop this. You think that if he’s dead his wraith isn’t just going to hunt you down anyway?’

Donovan shook his head.

‘It’ll damned well hunt me down if he stays alive, so I’m willing to take the chance.’

Lopez shook her head.

‘This thing hunts down injustice,’ she said, ‘and punishes it violently. The only way for you to end this is to come clean, Donovan. You go to the police, confess, reveal everything and it might just let you live.’

Donovan looked at her for several long seconds and then suddenly he burst out laughing.

‘You two kill me, really,’ he uttered. ‘Sure, maybe I’ll avoid death, only to be sent into a prison where I’ll be the biggest walking target they’ve ever seen. A former detective now incarcerated on the block. I won’t last more than a week, genius, so I’m not losing much by standing here telling you to either hand Ross over now or I’ll start putting holes in Karina.’

Ethan was out of ideas and about to consider charging Donovan when the cathedral door clattered open. He saw Doug Jarvis appear at the rear of the cathedral with a pistol aimed toward them.

Ethan stared in silence as Jarvis edged his way toward them.

‘Don’t move,’ Jarvis said firmly, ‘any of you.’

Ethan glanced at Donovan, who had turned slightly to confront the new arrival.

‘You’re done, Jarvis!’ Donovan snapped. ‘Drop the gun.’

Jarvis continued moving and shook his head. ‘You’re not giving the orders here, Donovan. You’re already up to your neck, don’t make it any worse.’

Donovan sneered a grin at Jarvis. ‘I’ve got myself nicely covered.’

‘And I,’ Jarvis said smoothly, ‘have you nicely surrounded.’

Ethan heard a small scratching sound behind him. Donovan shifted position again in surprise as he looked past Ethan to see a tall, sepulchral figure stalking toward them from behind the fluted columns, a pistol held firmly in his grip.

Joanna took a pace backward and gasped, and Ethan guessed that she recognized the man from her incarceration in Gaza. Ethan recognized him from years before, a de-brief after his chaotic first investigation for the DIA.

‘Wilson,’ he uttered.