The Messenger

lifted the receiver of the telephone and held it out to Donati.

    T WENTY MINUTES ELAPSED before Donati’s phone rang again. He listened in silence, then replaced the receiver and looked at Gabriel, who was standing in the window overlooking the square, watching the crowds streaming into the square.
    “They’re starting to pull the paperwork now.”
    “ Starting? ”
    “It required authorization from the chief. He was in a meeting. They’ll be ready for you in fifteen minutes.”
    Gabriel looked at his wristwatch. It was nearly ten-thirty.
    “Move it indoors,” he said.
    “The Holy Father won’t hear of it.” Donati joined Gabriel at the window. “Besides, it’s too late. The guests have started to arrive.”

    T HEY SETTLED HIM in a tiny cell with a sooty window overlooking the Belvedere Courtyard and gave him a boyish-looking ex-carabiniere named Luca Angelli to fetch the files. He limited his search to laypersons only. Even Gabriel, a man of boundless suspicion, could not imagine a scenario under which a Catholic priest could be recruited, knowingly or unwittingly, to the cause of al-Qaeda. He also struck from his list members of the Swiss Guard and Vigilanza. The ranks of the Vigilanza were filled largely by former officers of the Carabinieri and Polizia di Stato. As for the Swiss Guard, they were drawn exclusively from Catholic families in Switzerland and most came from the German- and French-speaking cantons in the mountainous heart of the country, hardly a stronghold of Islamic extremism.
    He started with the lay employees of the Vatican city-state itself. To limit the parameters of his search he reviewed only the files of those who had been hired in the previous five years. That alone took him nearly thirty minutes. When he was finished he set aside a half dozen files for further evaluation—a clerk in the Vatican pharmacy, a gardener, two stock boys in the Annona, a janitor in the Vatican museum, and a woman who worked in one of the Vatican gift shops—and gave the rest back to Angelli.
    The next files to arrive were for the lay employees attached to various congregations of the Roman Curia. The congregations were the approximate equivalent of government ministries and dealt with central areas of Church governance, such as doctrine, faith, the clergy, saints, and Catholic education. Each congregation was led by a cardinal, and each cardinal had several bishops and monsignori beneath him. Gabriel reviewed the files for the clerical and support staff of each of the nine congregations and, finding nothing of interest, gave them back to Angelli.
    “What’s left?”
    “The pontifical commissions and councils,” said Angelli. “And the other offices.”
    “Other offices?”
    “The Administration of the Patrimony of the Holy See, the Prefecture of the Economic Affairs of the Holy See—”
    “I get it,” Gabriel said. “How many files?”
    Angelli held up his hands to indicate that the pile was well over a foot high. Gabriel looked at his watch: 11:20 …
    “Bring them.”

    A NGELLI STARTED WITH the pontifical commissions. Gabriel pulled two more files for further review, a consultant to the Commission for Sacred Archaeology, and an Argentine scholar attached to the Pontifical Commission for Latin America. He gave the rest back to Angelli and looked at his watch: 11:45 … He’d promised Donati that he would stand guard over the Pope in the square during the general audience at noon. He had time for only a few more files.
    “Skip the financial departments,” Gabriel said. “Bring me the files for the pontifical councils.”
    Angelli returned a moment later with a six-inch stack of manila folders. Gabriel reviewed them in the order Angelli handed them over. The Pontifical Council for the Laity…The Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity…The Pontifical Council for the Family…The Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace…The Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People…The Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts…
    The Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue…
    Gabriel held up his hand. He had found what he was looking for.

    H E READ FOR a moment, then looked up sharply. “Does this man really have access to the Vatican?”
    Angelli bent his thin body at the waist and peered over Gabriel’s shoulder. “Professor Ibrahim el-Banna? He’s been here for more than a year now.”
    “Doing what?”
    “He’s a member of a special