Free Vatican Assassin by Mike Luoma

time... I’m kidding, of course, Campion!
    “Laughter is the best medicine, so they say! I’ll check in again later.”
    Wonderful. Just ducky. Can’t wait...
Chapter Ten
    Time passes slowly for BC. The next two days seem to take at least a year to go by. All he can do is watch video or stare at the walls, the red and gold, the pictures of Jesus from all the world’s faiths. The Cardinal’s study is fine, but it’s not his style. Finally, after two days, an LSC comes to the Cardinal’s study with the news BC’s rooms are ready. BC is up and able to walk short distances, and walks himself back to his quarters.
    The glare from the gold on the walls of that study was beginning to hurt my eyes and give me headaches... Thank God I’m finally getting back into my own rooms. Can’t talk right, yet. But I’ve still gotta try to get through to the Vatican.
    BC opens the door to his stateroom and gasps. His Covert Communications Unit is out in plain sight, sitting on his folded-out desk. It’s sealed tight, looks like a small chest. The repair crews probably didn’t know what it was when they came across it. But seeing it just sitting out there in the open made my heart jump a beat.
    He surveys the rooms, his surroundings. They’ve done okay, though he can see several spots where panels were replaced and seals rejoined. His bedroom is entirely new construction. Would have been bad dreams if I’d been here when they hit. Good thing I got to go on that wild goose chase. Right. Sure.
    BC sweeps the room for bugs and sets a scrambler. He can’t be sure there weren’t UIN agents in the construction crew.
    Never can be too paranoid in this business.
    The room checks out clean. He opens up and switches on the CCU. The screen lights up with the waiting pattern. He opens the voice channel, turns on the visual.
    “Jove, this is Diana, are you receiving?”
    A face appears on the screen, an old black man wearing a white skullcap and robes. Pope Peter the Second.
    “Well, hello, Diana, I was walking by the receiver as you signaled in. Nice of you to finally call. You know it’s not nice of you not to call your father once in a while. Especially your holy father.”
    Holy shit! The old man himself!
    “Hello, sir. Good to see you. I haven’t been able to speak, you see...”
    “Yes, yes, heh, you sound like you’ve been drinking! Don’t worry about it. I heard all about your accident from the Cardinal. Now... what’s the real story?”
    BC tells him about Nita Bendix recording him as he called in on his CCU, his chase after her, and her escape on the UIN ship. He decides to keep the unknown ship to himself, for the time being. Peter stays silent, considering, as BC spins his tale. There’s a long silence after BC finishes. Then the pope rebukes him.
    “They know you did the hit, Campion, they must, or they wouldn’t be hitting us back.”
    “With all due respect, sir, they were already on their way to hit us, before I even did the hit. The timing is wrong. One couldn’t have triggered the other because they were already on their way to attack.”
    “Is that so? That may be true for that first attack, but, as you’ve probably heard by now, they’ve hit us again, just last night. By now there’s been certainly enough time for them to have digested the information that woman must have brought to them. You’ve brought them down on us this time!”
    “I’m... I’m sorry, sir. But it’s not my fault entirely, sir, You know this is certainly a situation that’s been brewing...”
    Pope Peter cuts him off, “Did she get anything else?”
    “Well, I’m not sure, sir. She might have.”
    “How so?”
    “Well, when I was coming up from the access tunnels after doing the hit, I hit her with a hatch door I was opening. I thought I hit her over the head and knocked her out, at the time. I thought it was just random coincidence, that she was in the wrong place at the wrong time when I kicked the hatch in. It was the