Shout in the Dark by Christopher Wright Page A

the
shredder?"
    Father Josef looked surprised. "You really
have it in for poor Amendola. I doubt that such a photograph
exists. When the war ended, Canon Angelo Levi failed to persuade
the Vatican experts to take his relic seriously. I would dearly
love to look at the features on that face. Photographs of the
modern head that was destroyed yesterday would be of no
interest."
    " So what happened to the real one?"
    " Marco, evil is like a circle. It passes by, but it comes
round again. I believe history is repeating itself. We have to
break that circle." Father Josef glanced up at the painted faces in
their frames high on the walls. "This room makes me uncomfortable,
which is doubtless why the Cardinal chose it for the panel. Come,
we will go to my apartment and I will tell you what I want you to
do for me."
    The old priest carefully gathered up some
papers, and rose slowly. He led the way down the staircase and
along a corridor until they came to a worn, highly polished door to
a small apartment. The rooms and the sparse furnishings could have
been found in the senior lecturer's quarters of any ancient
university -- at the turn of the nineteenth century. The apartment
seemed to be located directly below the meeting room, since the
view was of the same part of the piazza. At this level the traffic
made the window vibrate.
    " Marco, we believe a group of neo-Nazis is involved in a
plan to divide and destabilize the Church."
    Marco settled into the vast leather
armchair. "We? You make it sound like the secret security
services."
    " You have already been sworn to silence about today's
events. That oath still applies."
    He looked around the room. This old priest
was either totally mad or he was offering some interesting work.
"Of course."
    " There are several bodies in the Church concerned with
security. Their duties run from the personal protection of His
Holiness to the defense of our faith from heresy. You
understand?"
    He'd learned enough about bodies like the
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to feel uneasy. No one
went before them with a
disrespectful attitude.
    " Countless crimes were committed in Italy during the fascist
years. The occupying Nazi forces committed some, our own people
committed others. Popular belief is that the Vatican glossed over
many of these crimes. It was a time of great evil. Slowly the
Church is asking for forgiveness for her support of an evil right
wing. We saw Communism as the greater enemy." Father Reinhardt
shook his head. "Many priests risked their lives to rescue Jews.
But others did nothing. Rightly or wrongly, they saw it as their
priority to protect their villages and congregations from Nazi
reprisals. Very few Catholic priests come out of this without some
share of blame. But you and I were not involved, so we are not in a
position to judge."
    " I wasn't even born," said Marco. "What about
you?"
    " I was sixteen years old in Germany at the start of the war.
And now I am part of a special body within the Church. My duty is
to protect our people from the evils that remain from the war. We
are, as you correctly call us, a secret security service. We serve
the interests of the Church, and our existence is certainly secret.
We are not, however, violent. In that way we differ substantially
from national security organizations around the world
today."
    Marco looked carefully at Father Josef
Reinhardt, deciding to defer judgment on the old man's sanity until
later. "So how did the bronze head get to the Vatican during the
war?"
    " It is a complex family situation, Marco, and one I do not
wish to go into at present. Over the coming days you will stay in
contact with me here on the Piazza di Santa Maria Maggiore. This is
where I work as well as live."
    " Now just a minute," Marco protested. "I was summoned here
to meet the panel of inquiry, but they came across from the
Vatican. It's almost as though the main point of my being here was
to see you ."
    Father Josef laughed. "What can I say?