I
I
The Vatican State Affairs Office located in Rome, commonly called "Palazzio Spada," was conspicuously beautiful.
The castle, which stood on the opposite bank of the Tiber River and across from San Pietro, was decorated with statues of ancient heroes and goddesses. The pompous stone façade was reminiscent of an ancient pagan temple. The building looked dignified enough to be the center of the Vatican's diplomatic activity. Ambassadors from every nation frequently resided there, so a strict, vigilant attitude ensured the castle's security.
"Hey, is the Duchess of Milan in?"
That afternoon, the man who appeared in the chief secretary's office was the very embodiment of something suspicious.
The man was nearly six feet tall, and a three-day beard fringed his swarthy face. He was wearing a cassock, but his collar was untidy, and his long, bushy hair obviously had not been combed. Sister Loretta didn't call the guards because his manly smile—which resembled an expression a predator reserved for its prey—also held a kind of wicked charm.
"Excuse me, but who might you be?" Loretta hurriedly closed the document she'd been reading before warily schooling her expression. Her superior, Cardinal Caterina Sforza, was out, visiting the Pope. Loretta didn't know where this stranger had wandered in from; as the secretary on duty, however, she knew she should chase off such a suspicious man. "Her Eminence doesn't see people without an appointment. Please, request an audience beforehand with the executive office. If you pass inspection, we'll contact you."
"Are you new here, miss? You're cute," the stranger said.
"Eh?" There was no time to draw back. The stranger bent his huge body forward, peeking into her face. It would be difficult to call this man a "pretty boy," but he was handsome enough that Loretta's heart danced lightly.
"What's your name?" he asked.
"Huh?
"How old are you?"
"Eh?"
"Do you currently have a boyfriend?"
"Ah?"
Loretta should have been able to say something about his extremely rude questions. Maybe she should have slapped him.
The man launched a fresh attack on the embarrassed, blushing nun: He brazenly sat on her desk and grasped her hand. "When do you get off? I know a restaurant near the Pantheon with ridiculously tasty food."
"What are you doing, Father Leon?" A woman's sharp voice saved poor Loretta's endangered chastity.
In an instant, another nun stood behind the giant priest. She was a beautiful woman with a delicate appearance, but the mole beneath her eye was twitching in irritation. She looked like she had a headache.
Through her transparent body, Leon could see the door of the chief secretary's office. "Hey, Kate." AX Agent Father Leon Garcia de Asturias looked at the nun's hologram and smiled like a child caught being mischievous. "It's been a long time. Have you been well?"
"Been well'? No! Leon, what are you doing?"
"Well, seeing as how I've been out in the world for only two months, I thought I'd get this girl to show me around the city."
"Liar! Please, come in here at once! Really, we can't take our eyes off you for a moment."
"Yes, yes."
Sister Kate ushered the reluctant man into the office as if she were chasing a feral cat. Along the way, as if she remembered something, she turned back. "Sister Loretta, I have an appointment now. Please, clear people out. And you'd better thoroughly wash your hands. Any female who gets within nine feet of Leon could get pregnant."
Leon smirked. "What am I, a spawning salmon? See you again, little Loretta."
"There'll be none of that!" Sister Kate insisted.
Grinning, Leon sauntered through the office door. Finding an unexpected guest on the sofa, he raised one eyebrow. "Oh, if it isn't the gunman? I heard he was broken; is he already fixed?"
"Affirmative. There's no problem," the young man sitting on the sofa answered, wearing a deadpan expression. This priest, in contrast to Leon, wore an immaculate cassock.
Leon sniffed in displeasure as he glared at the artificial face of Father Tres Iqus, AX Agent Gunslinger. "If you're here, why summon me from the villa? Heh heh, I smell something burning. Where's the fire, Kate?"
In answer to Leon's question, the nun raised a finger. "First of all, would you look this way?"
The lights dimmed, and a projected slide became visible on the darkened wall.
Leon's lips twisted slightly as he gazed at the slide. "Barcelona? Huh, I've heard the stories. It's terrible."
He looked at heaps of rubble and reddish-black puddles that seeped out from between piles of debris. For someone ignorant of the circumstances, it would be difficult to recognize the formerly beautiful city once called "the jewel of the Mediterranean." No, although Leon knew exactly what had happened, it still was difficult to believe.
"You already know about Barcelona having been destroyed by a low-frequency weapon, right? At the time of the incident, Agent Crusnik, who'd been there on investigation, made contact with the criminal responsible for the devastation. That terrorist gave Crusnik advance notice that he planned to destroy Rome."
Kate's expression was hard as she explained the facts. The way she held in the expression of her emotions simply broadcast the secrets of her heart more eloquently. "This time, while the two of you are protecting Caterina, you also will prevent this act of terrorism."
"Destroy Rome, eh? Isn't it a bluff?" Leon scratched his chest, his expression careless. However, his eyes, which pierced the mountain of rubble with their intense focus, were sharp. "You called it 'Silent Noise'? Didn't I hear that the Barcelona low-frequency weapon was a huge device that used all the bells of the Sagrada Familia? Where could they hide a thing like that here in Rome?"
"It's our duty to search. The possibility that this advance warning is false is extremely low," Kate said.
Gunslinger leafed through a file. "If the information is correct, the terrorist in Barcelona is the same criminal from the Venice incident. Some kind of destructive activity in Rome is highly probable."
"Oh ho." Leon looked back at Tres; he thought he'd heard a faint waver in Tres' typically flat voice.
Leon had been told about the incident in Venice. In the attack on the canal gates three months prior, Gunslinger had battled with the criminal. He'd heard that Tres had incurred serious damage, narrowly succeeding in foiling the terrorist's plans.
"Well, hadn't we better settle this matter right away? I'm certain the Duchess of Milan is in the Pope's palace."
The two priests stood, but Kate stopped them. "Ah, please wait. There's one more warning from Caterina concerning this investigation." She paused. "At present, the city police and special duty police are on emergency alert. I don't think it will come to this; however, just in case: By all means, please don't clash with the police."
"On my way here, the police were swarming like flies. What's up with that?" Leon asked.
"Archbishop Alfonso d'Este is coming to Rome. That's why they're on alert," Tres said.
"Alfonso. Now, where have I heard that name before?" Leon frowned. He turned his eyes to the ceiling, searching his memory, and then he clapped his hands. "Ah, I remember—that pitiful old man who lost to his nephew at the Conclave. Isn't he cowering somewhere out of the country?"
"Watch your language, Father Leon." Kate hurriedly rebuked the priest; he could be charged with treason for saying something like that.
Alfonso d'Este, the Archbishop of Cologne, was the younger son of the former Pope, Gregorio XXX (who'd been a lecher but an excellent politician) and the uncle of the current Pope, Alessandro XVIII. Indeed, he was remembered as the miserable old man who had lost the papal election to his nephew five years ago.
After Gregorio's sudden death, Alfonso's selection to become the next Pope was regarded as the obvious choice. His lineage was exceptional, but it was his political skill—with which he had supported his older brother for many years—that people valued highly both at home and abroad.
The recovery of Gregorio's illegitimate son, Alessandro, was the work of Alessandro's half-siblings: Francesco di Medici—the Duke of Florence—and Caterina Sforza—the Duchess of Milan.
In the initial elections, both cardinals pretended to support Alessandro's uncle, resulting in Alfonso besting the other opposing candidates. Then suddenly, they backed their younger brother, Alessandro. They turned on Alfonso and cleverly snatched up all the votes that would have gone to the losing candidates.
"So, the defeated old man also resigned as cardinal and withdrew to the countryside of Germanicus. Essentially, he's been pouting all this time?"
"He's coming back to Rome after five years. At last, the uncle and nephew can make amends. It would be awful if something were to happen to interrupt that," Sister Kate said.
"Well, we won't have any spare time for playing with the police, in any case." Despite his huge body, Leon's footsteps didn't make any noise. Like a lazy, ill-tempered stray cat, he sauntered out of the room; suddenly, he turned around. "Oh, by the way ...What happened to that bungling priest? Is he on this mission, too?"
"No, that's . . ." The nun's face clouded, her hologram flickering faintly.