Free the Third Secret (2005) by Steve Berry Page B

loudspeakers.
    “I know you may find this hard to believe,” she said, “but actual revolt isn’t donning makeup for a camera, or posting provocative words on the Internet, or even bedding a woman. Revolution means bloodshed.”
    “Times have changed, Katerina.”
    “You won’t change the Church so easily.”
    “Did you see all that media there today? That hearing will be reported around the world. People will take issue with what happens to me.”
    “What if no one cares?”
    “We receive more than twenty thousand hits a day on the website. That’s a lot of attention. Words can have a powerful effect.”
    “So can bullets. I was there, those few days before Christmas, when Romanians died so that a dictator and his bitch of a wife could be shot dead.”
    “You would have pulled the trigger, if asked to, wouldn’t you?”
    “In a heartbeat. They ruined my homeland. Passion, Tom. That’s what moves revolt. Deep, unabiding passion.”
    “So what do you plan to do with Valendrea?”
    She sighed. “I have no choice. I have to do it.”
    He chuckled. “There are always choices. Let me guess, this opportunity might allow you another chance with Colin Michener?”
    She’d come to realize that she’d told Tom Kealy far too much about herself. He’d assured her that he would never reveal anything, but she was concerned. Granted, Michener’s lapse occurred long ago, but any revelation, whether true or false, would cost him his career. She’d never publicly acknowledge anything, no matter how much she hated the choice Michener had made.
    She sat still for a few moments and stared up at the ceiling. Valendrea had said that a problem was developing that could harm Michener’s career. So if she could help Michener, while at the same time helping herself, then why not?
    “I’m going.”
    “You’re entangling yourself with serpents,” Kealy said in his good-humored tone. “But I think you’re well qualified to wrestle with this devil. And Valendrea is that, let me tell you. He is one ambitious bastard.”
    “Which you are well qualified to identify.” She couldn’t resist.
    His hand eased over to her bare leg. “Perhaps. Along with my abilities for other things.”
    His arrogance was amazing. Nothing seemed to faze him. Not the hearing this morning before solemn-faced prelates, and not the prospect of losing his collar. Perhaps it was his boldness that had initially attracted her? Regardless, Kealy was growing tiresome. She wondered if he’d ever cared about being a priest. One thing about Michener—his religious devotion was admirable. Tom Kealy’s loyalty was only to the moment. Yet who was she to judge? She’d latched onto him for selfish reasons, ones he surely recognized and exploited. But all that could now change. She’d just talked with the Holy See’s secretary of state. A man who’d sought her out for a task that could lead to so much more. And, yes, just as Valendrea said, it might just be enough to get her back to work with all those publishers who’d let her go.
    A strange tingle surged through her.
    The evening’s unexpected events were working on her like an aphrodisiac. Delicious possibilities about her future swirled through her mind. And those possibilities made the sex she’d just enjoyed seem far more satisfying than the act warranted—and the attention she wanted now that much more enticing.

TEN
    TURIN, ITALY
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 9
10:30 A.M.
    Michener peered down through the helicopter’s window at the city below. Turin lay wrapped in a wispy blanket as a bright morning sun fought to rid the air of fog. Beyond was the Piedmont, that region of Italy snuggled close to France and Switzerland, an abundant lowland plain walled in by Alpine summits, glaciers, and the sea.
    Clement sat next to him, two security men opposite them. The pope had come north to bless the Holy Shroud of Turin before the relic was once again sealed away. This particular viewing had begun just after Easter