"Who doesn't?" He wiped his mouth with the cloth napkin. "As your Messiah said, he who is without sin he who is without sin . . . Not even the saints that the Holy Mother Church canonizes are without stains. No one pa.s.ses through life without sin . . . even if only in thought. It's not evil. It's intrinsic to being human." . . . Not even the saints that the Holy Mother Church canonizes are without stains. No one pa.s.ses through life without sin . . . even if only in thought. It's not evil. It's intrinsic to being human."

"That scares me," Elizabeth confessed.

"There's a Brazilian writer, whose name I don't remember, who said something about this. If we could look through the doors of our neighbors, no one would shake hands with anyone. That's more or less so."

"Nelson Rodrigues," Raul added.

"That's right," JC confirmed, remembering the name of the author.

"Do you have any news of my daughter?" Raul asked a question that hadn't crossed Elizabeth's lips for a long time.

"Not yet."

"Is that really true? You're not trying to avoid telling us bad news in any way?" Her worry as a mother loosened her tongue.

"Look me in the eye." He waited for her to do it. "Do you believe I'd have any problem telling you that the worst has happened to your daughter, if that were the case? After all that you've heard?"

Elizabeth lowered her eyes. Bad news travels fast; good news at a snail's pace.

"It doesn't matter to you?"

"It does," he answered without emotion. "You need to know that the negotiations I'm about to begin can affect her fate . . . for better or worse."

"Please, don't let them hurt her," Elizabeth implored.

JC sipped a little more visne suyu visne suyu and expressed no sign of commitment. Elizabeth tried to speak reason to her motherly heart, but it was useless. JC wouldn't let anything affect his plans. In the end nothing would go beyond business with human lives at stake. and expressed no sign of commitment. Elizabeth tried to speak reason to her motherly heart, but it was useless. JC wouldn't let anything affect his plans. In the end nothing would go beyond business with human lives at stake.

The cripple returned to the table with a tall, impeccably dressed man. He was barely middle-aged, and his muscular body indicated hours a day in the gym, his tan regular hours in a tanning salon. He was a man who cultivated his body, and therefore his health.

"What's the hurry?" he asked impolitely. He hadn't come of his own free will. Some customers looked over at the table.

"Please, sit down," JC invited him, cheerful and serene. Att.i.tude was important.

The man wanted to show his indignation a little more, but the old man's look made him think twice. He sat down in the cripple's chair.

"I'm all ears," he said rudely.

"Ah, you Americans . . . always so arrogant," JC sighed.

The man got up immediately.

"I didn't come here to be insulted. Are you listening to me?"

A firm hand on his shoulder obliged him to sit. The cripple didn't like this kind of behavior in front of the old man.

"Calm down, Oliver."

"How do you know my name?" he asked, surprised.

"I know a lot about you, my friend. Oliver Cromwell Delaney, born in 1966, Dover, Delaware, father of two lovely daughters-"

"Who are you? What do you want from me?" His nervousness was apparent. Things get complicated when strangers start mentioning your daughters. He took out his cell phone.

"I'm going to call my security-"

"You're not going to call anyone," the cripple warned, grabbing the phone from his hand. "Stay in your chair and be quiet."

"Excuse my faithful a.s.sistant's bad manners," JC excused him sardonically.

Raul and Elizabeth looked on, intimidated.

"Where was I? Oh, father of two beautiful twin daughters, Joanne and Kathleen, eleven years old. Consul in Istanbul. I could enumerate your biography in detail, but we don't have time."

"What do you want?"

"I need you to put me in contact urgently with George. I could do it through my own channels, but it'd take time to authenticate the call."

"Who's George?"

"Your superior."

"I don't have any superior named George."

"No?" JC asked with a sarcastic smile on his lips.

Oliver looked thoughtful. "I'm not . . . Ah . . . You're talking about George . . ."

"The same."

67.

With every step the body weighed more. The sweat that a short time ago was only scattered drops on their faces had become streams that dripped off their chins onto the floor. The two men dragged the mound of inert flesh, bent over in the shared effort.

"Do they think we're pack mules?" Staughton protested.

"Apparently," Thompson said. Talking only wasted energy necessary for carrying out the task.

"Do you think he opened his mouth?"

"No. If he had, we'd be carrying a corpse."

"Barnes kicked the s.h.i.t out of him," Staughton said.

"True. He gave it to him good. Old-school."

He was alluding to the fact they hadn't used the most modern methods of extracting information. Electric shock was still idolized within this community. Sleep deprivation was extremely efficient, when you had time, which was not the case here. A battery of drugs and injections might or might not work, depending on the mental and physical condition of the individual. None of these techniques had been used on Rafael. They'd thrown unexpected punches or slapped him and kicked him down below, which is what had left him in the sorry condition we witness here. Barnes, Herbert, and Phelps himself hadn't had to ask or stand on ceremony to use Rafael as a punching bag. There was a close relationship between the degree of pain a person could support and death. It was the fine line that marked the difference between good and bad work. So we see the two men from the agency carrying Rafael's inert but still living body. It only meant he hadn't said anything to his interrogators, or, if he had, it wasn't satisfactory. Still, there was time to drag that information out by the same method, or others.

Thus the discouraged faces of Barnes, Herbert, Phelps, and the others, spread around the Center of Operations for the agency in Rome.

"The guy is tough," Littel said, seated, smoking a cigar, where he'd been during the whole interrogation. He hadn't stained his expensive suit or carefully manicured hands. That was work for others. They didn't pay him to get dirty.

"He's a son of a b.i.t.c.h," Barnes contradicted him. He turned to Phelps with a critical expression. "I told you you wouldn't get anything out of him."

"Calm down, Dr. Barnes. In five minutes bring the woman in. You'll see how we find things out," he declared confidently.

"I hope so," Littel said. "Today is the last round of the U.S. Open, and I don't want to miss it."

"I missed Wimbledon, and I'm here," Barnes answered.

"You hate tennis," Littel argued back.

There were more people in the room than usual, maintaining a sepulchral silence, the better to ignore what was to come. We refer to Wally Johnson, always at Littel's side as his bodyguard, Colonel Stuart Garrison, whose efficiency stood out in the capture of the fugitives, Priscilla Thomason, the devoted secretary. She'd asked permission to leave during the interrogation, but couldn't avoid seeing the victim's condition when he left the room, aided by Staughton and Thompson, not to say dragged, carried, transported. Sebastian Ford rounded out the group, upset because a drop of blood had stained the collar of his shirt. He hadn't even been close to the gang pounding the man as if there were no tomorrow. He tried to clean it with a handkerchief monogrammed with the initials SF, but the blood became an untamed smear.

"h.e.l.l," he complained, a little more loudly than he wanted.

All of them looked disapprovingly at him with his handkerchief wet with saliva rubbing the white collar.

"I'll be right back," Sebastian Ford stammered, leaving the room.

"Politicians," Phelps remarked scornfully as soon as Ford left.

"I know from experience he'd let the woman die if he thought she could reveal the location of the Muslim and the file," Barnes said worriedly.

"Well then, let them all die," they heard a voice suggest from the door.

"Marius. My good Marius," Phelps greeted the white-haired man with an embrace.

"James. Things have not gone as well as we would wish," Marius Ferris alerted him.

"They could be worse."

Marius Ferris looked around the room. "Gentlemen, good afternoon to you all."

Barnes remembered him from other operations.

"Where's your lord?"

"The Lord is in heaven," Ferris answered a little arrogantly.

"No one is what he appears," Barnes finally said. Nothing surprised him after so many years of service to the republic.

"He hasn't talked, Marius," Phelps informed him.

"I knew it. Sebastiani has betrayed us, also," he said, closing his fists in anger. "Do they have family we could use to put pressure on them?"

"Nothing. The journalist has a mother who knows nothing. We didn't get anywhere pressuring him on that. If he knew something, he'd have confessed it with the beating we gave him. The parents of the woman have disappeared," Littel declared. "They haven't been seen anywhere."

Phelps put his hand on Marius Ferris's shoulder.

"This is the work of the old man."

"I think so, too," he confirmed. "It's the old fox. We should have known he'd make a move."

"That means he's been helping them from the beginning," Phelps reflected.

"He must have thrown more wood on the fire, without doubt."

"Herbert, go get the woman."

"With pleasure," the s.a.d.i.s.tic aide answered.

"Let's get this over with," James Phelps decided.

68.

Rafael was thrown into the cell against the bare wall, followed by a dry "Welcome to Rome" from Thompson.

Sarah cried out when she saw him in that condition.

"Oh, my G.o.d. Rafael," she cried.

But he didn't answer. He looked unconscious, but was probably in too much pain to say anything.

Simon watched Sarah's distress, unable to do anything. Rafael had endured more blows than he had. He hoped he wouldn't see Sarah come back in the same way.

The cell had four concrete walls and a concrete floor, without windows, mattresses, or toilet . . . nothing. Sarah put Rafael's head on her lap and stroked it tenderly.

"Good G.o.d, what've they done to you," she whispered, stroking his hair and face.

"They're not playing games," Simon said.

"They're barbarians." She looked at Rafael sadly. She'd never seen him like this. "I see they didn't leave you in peace, either," she said to Simon, without stopping the caresses.

"They left me for a time. The editor told me not to leave the house for any reason."

"Roger?"