"You stay here Decker; we're not done yet and you're only going to speak the truth from now on!"
He said sharply. Chloe tried to stand up but her legs refused service. It was as if she was glued to the bench. Desperate, as a last resort she wanted to grab her gun but that too appeared to have disappeared.
"Were you looking for this little thing perhaps?"
Alex asked in an amused tone while holding her gun in his hand. He balled that hand into a fist and the gun was reduced to a pile of unusable scrap and clattered to the ground in small pieces. With his typical smile around his mouth that did not bode well, he took a quick glance at his Breitling Navitimer watch. Something that was completely unnecessary because he knew exactly what time it was. It was a routine he had that allowed him to tell apart the things that were happening in a controlled manner. Accordingly, he said:
"But you know what Decker, maybe I was too strict with you and Kinley. Maybe the Church does indeed know of a standing order to send Lucifer back to Hell. That could then absolve you since what you did was by order of the Church and therefore the Pope. At least could have acquitted you if you were a member of that Church but that is technical drivel. I'm sure you still have the contact number in the Vatican since you were still planning to kill Lucifer. Let's find out together how badly the Church wants Lucifer in Hell. Just grab your cell phone and call the Vatican, do put it on speaker because everyone will want to hear this."
Chloe did as she was asked even though she wanted to dial another number to raise the alarm but her fingers refused service. All she could do was look up the correct number and connect. After only a few seconds there was an answer:
"Office of Cardinal Minotti."
"My name is Chloe Decker but I thought this was Bishop Anderson's number."
There was silence on the other end for a few seconds:
"It is but for now all his calls are being transferred to the Cardinal's office for a while. May I ask what this is about?"
"I am calling in reference to Father Kinley. We have been back in the U.S. for some time but everything has gone wrong."
The priest in Rome said briefly:
"I am putting you through to the Cardinal."
Without waiting for an answer from Chloe, she was put on hold. A few seconds later, a heavy no-nonsense voice with a soft Italian accent sounded:
"Minotti!"
"Eminence, my name is Chloe Decker I was collaborating with Father Kinley on a delicate mission in the US and everything went very wrong."
Immediately everyone heard a series of Italian words that sounded very much like curses and then a growl followed by:
"For fuck's sake what happened this time?"
One heard the Cardinal take a deep breath in an attempt to regain himself:
"Miss Decker, you are the American detective seen here in the company of Kinley. Let me briefly introduce myself so that there is no misunderstanding. I am Cardinal Pietro Minotti. I am the only cardinal in the Vatican without an official office or title. I am here and also not here. I report to a single person and no one else! Can you follow me that far?"
"Yes Eminence, you are a kind of spook as we would call it here."
The Cardinal laughed amused for a moment:
"No child, we have a whole department of those running around. I am what you there in the U.S. would call a fixer. I simply make some things disappear. Some here call me God's fixer, but God doesn't need a fixer. The Vatican, on the other hand, keeps me more than busy enough!"
Alexander imperceptibly made eye contact with Gabriel who mentally noted the unspoken order. Once the worst of the shitshow would be behind him, he would send one of his Angels to Earth to work with Alexander's human organization to flush out this cardinal's life from A to Z. Alexander was particularly good at judging people but one cannot be too careful. If he was right, this cardinal could be invaluable. Especially if this one would get a boost at the next conclave. Gabriel nodded back equally unnoticed.
"Miss Decker, you may feel free to omit that father before Kinley's name in the future. Are you Catholic?"
"No Eminence."
"Too bad, because then I can't get off the easy way by giving you some Catholic drivel that you could decipher later in your own time. Then just on a layman's level. Kinley has been excommunicated, an expensive word to say fired. Not just out of his position but put at the door of the Church altogether never to enter it again. As far as we and the world are concerned, he is now an ordinary citizen. Anderson, I cannot with the best will in the world get the word bishop in front of his name out of my mouth! He has gone on retreat. That's a nice political term that can be interpreted in different ways. For example, on retreat to pray and get closer to God. In his case, it is more like being dumped in a distant abbey for the rest of his life. There he can reflect on his deeds and sins and pray for forgiveness, anything he wants as long as he stays in that abbey, stays away from the Vatican and keeps his trap shut."
At the bar, Gabriel said softly:
"Hell is going to freeze over before that jerk gets forgiveness from Father. Hup another bishop for Hell..."
"But why?"
Asked Chloe who saw her last chance for any help melt like snow in the sun. Minotti growled:
"If it would have depended on me I would have had the whole bunch hanged in the Sistine Chapel or had them at least excommunicated. Unfortunately, I could only manage that for Kinley. The monks involved were sent back to their order because in principle the Vatican cannot take disciplinary action that can actually only be done by the superior of their order but they pretty much without exception follow the recommendations of the Vatican, especially if it is through the Pope. So I have no doubt that they were put on ice, so to speak, and they sent them as far away as possible, to the dark side of the moon, for all I care. For a bishop with an official title and an office in the Vatican, this problem is more difficult because this is a political problem. To answer your question clearly, there had been an investigation into their exorcism practices for quite some time. An office here in the Vatican with a very long name, but which is nothing but the continuation is of the Inquisition but this time in a modern guise, had them in their sights for some time. Unfortunately everything in the Vatican, when done through official channels, goes at a snail's pace. When they noticed that this had to be resolved very quickly they went to the Holy Father. And the boss dumped it on my desk. We have a whole laundry list of victims here in Italy alone. People who needed mental health care have become a lot sicker because of their ridiculous practices. These practices were banned by the Vatican decades ago unfortunately from time to time priests and monks rear their heads thinking they can trample on this ban. And that is absolutely true when they are seemingly far away from Rome. They think they escape the all-seeing eye of the Vatican and can do whatever they want. Yes, exorcism is still part of the academic curriculum offered by the Vatican but should never be used without the intervention of at least one psychiatrist. Contrary to what the crowd thinks exorcism is also not literal possession by a Demon but rather deals with people who are either extremely religious or extremely spiritual. Think of it like this: someone steals a gum-ball, feels guilty, and thinks evil is responsible for making him stealing it. That guilt sometimes takes on such extreme forms that to a layman there does indeed appears to be a possession. That's where the exorcist comes in, a lot of Catholic abracadabra, the victim feels forgiven and freed from sin and the Demon is send back to Hell. In other words, it's a fucking placebo!"
After this explanation, they heard the cardinal drink something:
"Miss Decker, Kinley has been off our radar for some time. His mental state is really not stable and he needs to go to an institution for his own safety and that of society. Do you happen to know where he is?"
"Kinley is dead Eminence, a side effect of the mission."
The cardinal sighed deeply:
"Although I regret the needless loss of every life I think this may be for the best. Who knows how much more damage he could have done. May his soul find peace wherever it ended up. Please tell me, even though your so-called mission failed that there were no further casualties?"
Chloe thought quickly of Lucifer's words that Demons could only take over a human body if that person had already died. So the dozens of dead in the nightclub had not been killed by Demons. She therefore replied:
"No Eminence just Kinley. But the person he was here for, why we were working together, is really the Devil. Not someone possessed by the Devil but the literal Devil. I myself have seen his true face!"
For a moment they seemed to hear the cardinal's brain cracking. They also heard him pull something from a drawer of what was presumably his desk and the rustling of paper.
"I don't know what Kinley told you. The Church has known since St. Peter that Lucifer is on Earth from time to time. We naturally keep an eye on him when we get him on our radar. To put it in modern language, we have never been able to catch him at anything except what might be called, Hmmm, partying."
"But he really is the Devil Eminence! He belongs in Hell!"
"Miss Decker why do you think this would be a task for the Church or for you? Have you received a command from God Himself? If God wants him in Hell he would have been back there a long time ago. And if God wanted someone to do it for him he would either send St. Michael or St. Gabriel to do it or to give us a message."
Chloe who was at the end of her rope spoke without thinking:
"Gabriel and Lucifer are both here Eminence."
"Are they now? Am I on speaker miss Decker?"
Chloe started to go completely blank:
"yes."
An amused chuckle could be heard from the cardinal:
"Mister Morningstar we knew that you have been staying in Los Angeles for a few years and run a nightclub there. First of all I apologize for any trouble Kinley might have caused."
Lucifer clearly confused as to why a cardinal was speaking to him and even then in a friendly tone:
"Well that would be the first time of your little club then."
"Understandable Mister Morningstar I wish I could turn back time a few millennia to put that misery out of the world. I would like to apologize in the name of the Church and the whole world but unfortunately I don't have that power."
Lucifer's brain was heading for a meltdown after these words from Rome:
"Cardinal I am the devil, people are scared of me so..."
"Mister Morningstar, we have known for two thousand years that you take some vacation on earth from time to time, never have you done one act of evil, the opposite is rather true. According to a letter The Magdala wrote to Saint Philip, you once helped a still-young Jesus develop his healing powers. If the son of God did not immediately send you back to Hell and even accepted your help then that tells me all I need to know about your soul. Allow me to give you a little example. About ninety years ago you spent a week or two in Florence after a long time. For the first time since your last visit to Lorenzo de' Medici before he died, I think. So I assume for the works of Botticelli, specifically The Birth of Venus? During my studies, let's say, I stumbled across a note, from Sandro himself, that a handsome tall dark-haired stranger who strangely enough perfectly mastered the dialect of Florence whispered to him the composition for the future masterpiece. Along with the names of Simonetta Vespucci and Lucretia Donati. Both ladies were familiar to you I suspect."
Suspiciously, Lucifer replied:
"Indeed yes cardinal."
Lucifer squeezed his eyes to slits, he expected something to follow that would be shoved on him once again.
"You will no doubt remember a young woman who cleaned at the Uffizi and had to get up in the middle of the night to spend hours scrubbing on her knees until they were sometimes bleeding so that the rich could parade on shiny floors. Who got a trifle for doing so. Her husband who slaved in a slaughterhouse, who hated his job but also began to hate himself for killing animals all day. He too received a wage for that on which one could barely live. You struck up some kind of friendship. A rich important and powerful man took the time and had the patience to listen to two poor people who were invisible to the rest of the elite. Remember those two?"
"Yes, Cardinal but I didn't do anything to that couple so why bring them up?"
"I did not say that you would have done them harm Mister Morningstar. Whatever that keeping each other company may have entailed is something between the three of you. I do not, I repeat I do not want to know a single detail! No one is to judge that. Certainly not the Church and especially not when an Archangel is involved. And I bring them up because I know a few people who are grateful to you for what you have done for them."
Doubting because he didn't understand any of it, Lucifer asked:
"Grateful for what and who would be grateful to me then?"
"Why? Because you introduced the couple to someone with a great deal of influence and power, someone who owed you a service and that person changed their life, a better job, better housing, better life. Who? Well, I am thinking of my mother and her sisters, my cousins and so of course myself and my siblings."
This last struck Lucifer like a bomb. Warm smiles appeared on the faces of everyone in the room except Amenadiel and Chloe, of course.
"That couple were my grandparents, you never claimed that reciprocation from my grandparents Mister Morningstar. Feel free to consider me as the one who owes you a return favor. It was pleasant to make your acquaintance Mister Morningstar. Saint Gabriel, I heard you were also in the room?"
"True Cardinal I am here as well, just a pleasant get-together, you know old friends, Angels and Demons together at an open bar."
Said Gabriel laughing after which the Cardinal burst into a roaring laugh and said:
"Well then I wish your little group lots of fun and hope to meet you in the future, the distant future let's say, and have a little chat."
"Count on it Pietro, I will keep an eye out for you."
"I would appreciate that, good evening Gabriel, Mister Morningstar."
After these last words, the line was disconnected. Alexander let the cardinal's words sink in for a moment for everyone present.