The Quest: A Novel

golden cup, next to which was a black cross, surrounded by well-drawn palm trees that Gann said would be about a half kilometer tall if they were drawn to scale.
    Purcell said, “We should have started with this map, Henry.”
    Gann suggested, “Offer this monk fellow ten pounds for it.”
    Mercado was not enjoying the jokes, and he said, “Well, this may not be very detailed or accurate, but it is significant that it shows… or possibly shows what we are looking for.” He added, “Cross and cup. Monastery and Grail.”
    “We get it.”
    Gann said, “But it does show it southeast of Lake Tana… so that may actually be a clue on a real map, and on the ground.”
    The monk said something in Italian, and Mercado said, “Our hour is fini.”

Chapter 29
    T hey found Vivian sitting on a bench outside the Ethiopian College, and she informed them, “I was asked to leave the reading room.”
    Mercado seemed surprised. “Why?”
    “No explanation except that the archive materials had been out too long, and the reading room was needed by others.”
    Purcell said to Mercado, “You have been abusing your library privileges, Henry.”
    “This is not funny.”
    Purcell pointed out, “You said we were done.”
    “We were, but…” He looked at Vivian. “Where is my notebook?”
    “In my bag.” She gave it to him.
    Purcell said to Mercado, “If I were paranoid, I’d say you should not leave that notebook in your office.”
    Mercado nodded.
    It was late afternoon, the sky was overcast, and Henry said he had a bottle of Strega in his office to lift their spirits.
    On the way, Vivian asked, “How did you make out?”
    Mercado replied, “We’ve narrowed it down.”
    Gann asked Mercado, “Is it possible to get back in there?”
    “Another request is one too many.”
    Gann suggested, “If you contact the Ministry of War, they will have a complete set of army survey maps of Ethiopia.” He also informed them, “If you know Father Armano’s military unit, you should ask to see his unit logs to see where his battalion made camp on the shore of Lake Tana.”
    Mercado thought about that, then replied, “I will inquire about the maps. But we don’t know Father Armano’s army unit, and the War Ministry doesn’t know Father Armano.”
    Vivian said, “Someone in Berini may have letters from him with a return military address.”
    “Good thinking,” said Mercado.
    Gann said, “There is a possibility, however, that these unit logs never made it back to Italy.”
    Purcell pointed out, “Even if they did, the Ministry of War’s archives may not be open to us—or what we’re looking for may no longer be there.”
    No one responded to that.
    They continued their walk across the parkland of Vatican City. Purcell looked at Saint Peter’s, rarely seen from the rear, and he realized it was much bigger than it appeared from its well-known façade. The basilica and the square with its encompassing colonnades was the public face of the Vatican. But there was more to this place. There were offices and archives, and there were people whose job it was to manage the money, to support charities, to stamp out heresy, to propagate the faith, and to put out the word of God and the word of the pope and the Sacred College of Cardinals—as Henry did at
L’Osservatore Romano
.
    Purcell didn’t think there were any great conspiracies being hatched behind the closed doors of all those offices—but he did think there was two thousand years of institutional memory that defined the Vatican and the papacy; there was an unspoken and unwritten understanding regarding what needed to be done.
    Most times, he suspected, everyone was on the same page—the clergy, the hierarchy, and the bureaucracy who toiled here. But now and then there were quiet differences of opinion. And maybe that was what he was seeing now—assuming, of course, that the people here were on the same quest that he and his three companions were on.
    Gann was saying, “If we can’t get access to the military maps here, I know that the Italian Library in Addis has a collection of wartime maps.” He added, “Problem is, the Provisional Revolutionary government may have confiscated all the maps as a security measure, or to issue to their fighting units in the field.”
    Purcell interjected, “One of the first places we need to find is the village of Shoan.” He asked Gann, “Do you know how to get there?”
    “I have been there.” He continued before anyone