Shout in the Dark by Christopher Wright Page B

These are indeed my
quarters. The others you met at the inquiry were told it would be
better for them to travel across the city, than for an old man like
me to go to them."
    Marco studied the elderly priest's face.
Assuming the secretive body was real, and he was still not
convinced about that, Father Josef was unlikely to be an
insignificant member. "Can you reassure me that the bronze head at
the studios was modern?"
    " Rest assured, Marco, it was. Once upon a time Canon Angelo
Levi had the genuine one, but it has disappeared. He was attempting
to sell a fake when he was murdered almost twenty years
ago."
    " A sting?"
    " You mean...?"
    " He switched it."
    " Yes, Marco, it appears so. Angelo was attempting to do a
deal with the neo-Nazis -- but I believe he wanted to use his
deception to raise money for the poor. Unfortunately he was killed
before he could tell anyone what he had done with the original. And
because you made a public spectacle of yourself on television last
night, I anticipate you will now be approached."
    Marco walked to the window and looked out
at the huge fifth century church filling the piazza. Life seemed to
have suddenly become a mess. Did God often make life difficult for
new priests? No wonder there was a shortage. "Approached? Who by?
You're talking as though you want me to get involved, yet according
to Cardinal Amendola I made a serious mistake."
    " Marco, from when I am, you most definitely did not make a mistake. This is a
photocopy of a crumpled note left at TV Roma last night, by what
appears to be the neo-Nazi group called the ADR."
    " I've heard of the ADR," said Marco. " Achtzehn Deutschland
Reinigung , or something
like that. It's to do with racial purity. They want to complete
Hitler's political plan for Germany."
    " You are wrong, Marco. Hitler and the Nazis had a clear and
wide ranging political blueprint for Germany. Racial purity was
only a part of it. Certainly the way they set about removing the
people they saw as impure was an appalling act of barbarity. But
most of the neo-Nazi movements today, like the ADR, have no
political agenda. They are motivated by nothing more than racial
hatred. Their sole purpose is to harass, abuse and even kill
immigrant families and workers."
    " And you want me to get involved with them?"
    " Like it or not, Marco, you are already involved. I have
here a cell phone for you to borrow. I already have the number for
it. You may use it for your personal needs, and give the number to
your friends. And certainly you must use it to keep in touch with
me whenever you consider it necessary."

Chapter 11
    MARCO SAT IN the
leather armchair in Father Josef's room and read the German
neo-Nazi's note through twice.
    The property stolen by the
Church from the German People in 1944 has now been
reclaimed .
The people deserve better than a shabby secrecy surrounding major
relics. The true image of Jesus Christ, the most significant
religious figure in the world, is now safely in the hands of the
ADR, a group pledged to set up a Shrine of Unity free from the
taint of Jewish tradition.
    " The emblem of the New Cross will be a rallying
place for the pure, a fortress for the defense of the strong, and a
bastion for denouncing the weak and inferior. The Spirit of the
Hero will draw all people of the pure race to unity in a new Power,
a new Reich.
    Father Josef interrupted his reading. "The
Spirit of the Hero was part of Hitler's Weltanschauung , Marco, his search for our Indo-Germanic
roots. These quickly became known as our Aryan-Nordic roots: a
quest for a mythical tribe in the north, having a special
relationship with God from prehistory."
    " I thought that was the Jews."
    " So it was, Marco, but the Nazis claimed the Jews were the
Aryans' enemy. The serpent's seed. We did not want to hear true
teaching in the Church in Nazi Germany. Positive Christianity we
called Hitler's ideas on religion. When I say we, I too was drawn
into believing that doctrine. I know now that it