The Sixth Station (49 page)

But I’ve got to find out.

I figure that if I was able to find a few drops of almost two-thousand-year-old blood on a tiny bit of sea silk in a monastery in the mountains of Italy, then finding my family should be, well, not as tough as finding that haystack needle.

As hard as it is to stay here, it also won’t be easy to leave, knowing—or more precisely
not
knowing—whether or not Pantera’s body is in the rubble.

Each day when we dug through the debris, I somehow half expected to hear his voice coming from under a pile of bricks or stones. It never happened. Still, why hasn’t his body ever been accounted for? I kind of refuse to believe that he won’t show up someday when I find myself in yet another insane situation. Foolish, I know.

So I’ve said my good-byes and am ready to go from here and all that I found here. If I have to walk back to Rome, I will.

I’ve put off leaving for too long already. It’s just that with everything that’s happened, I’ve been so light-headed and nauseated lately. At first I was terrified that I’d caught one of the superviruses, but now I think—because my period is so late from weeks of unrelieved stress—that all I’ve actually “caught” is a raging case of PMS.

But, seriously, it feels like the mother of
all
PMS.

H
ARD TO
F
ATHOM
F
ACTS

Fact:
The
Volto Santo, aka the Veil of Veronica in Manoppello, and the Shroud of Turin match up exactly.

Fact:
Father Heinrich Pfeiffer, official advisor for the Pontifical Commission for the Cultural Heritage, declared the
Volto Santo in Manoppello to be the true image of Jesus.

Fact:
Ultraviolet examinations of the Volto Santo, carried out by Professor Donato Vittore of the University of Bari, confirm there is no paint on the cloth bearing the face of Jesus. Several small reddish-brown flecks may be blood.

Fact:
The image is identical on both sides, a feat impossible to achieve by human hands in ancient times.

Fact:
Orthodox Catholic tradition maintains that John brought the Blessed Mother to live in Ephesus with him and it was there that three epistles attributed to him were written.

Fact:
Most modern popes have visited Mary’s House.

• 1896: Pope Leo XIII visits and leaves believing its authenticity.

• 1951: Pius XII comes and bestows upon it the status of “Holy Place.”

• 1961: Pope John XXIII makes the designation permanent.

• After that designation, the Catholic Church removes plenary (absolute) indulgences from the Church of the Dormition in Jerusalem (figurative death) and bestows them for all time to pilgrims to Mary’s House in Ephesus.

• July 26, 1967: Pope Paul VI unofficially confirms the authenticity of the House.

• November 30, 1979: Pope John Paul II serves mass there.

• November 29, 2006: Pope Benedict XVI visits and declares, “Muslims have more veneration of Mary—those who are believing Muslims—than most Christians today.”

Fact:
About two weeks after Pope Benedict XVI made a personal pilgrimage in 2006 to pray before the Volto Santo at the little church in Manoppello, Italy, he elevated the little church from
santuario
to a papal basilica.

R
EFERENCES AND
R
ECOMMENDED
R
EADING

The Face of God,
Paul Badde, Ignatius Press, 2010

The Monks of War,
Desmond Seward, Penguin Books, 1995

Mary Magdalene,
Lynn Picknett, Basic Books, 2003

Montségur and the Mystery of the Cathars,
Jean Markale, Inner Traditions, 1986

The Templars,
Piers Paul Read, Phoenix Press, 2001

A Most Holy War,
Mark Gregory Pegg, Oxford University Press, 2008

The Yellow Cross,
Réne Weis, Alfred A. Knopf, 2001

When Religion Becomes Evil,
Charles Kimball, HarperOne, 2008

The Gnostic Gospels,
Elaine Pagels, Vintage Books, 1979

The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA,
James D. Watson, Touchstone, 2007

Living Buddha, Living Christ,
Thich Nhat Hanh, Elane Pagels, David Steindl-Rast, Riverhead Books, 1995

And That’s the Way It Really Is,
Jack Boland, David E. Caldwell, Master Mind Publishing, 1997

Turin Shroud,
Lynn Picknett, Clive Prince, HarperCollins, 1994

Esoteric Christianity,
Ricky Alan Mayotte, Steerforth Press, 1971

Existential Jesus,
John Carroll, Counterpoint/Berkeley, 2007

A
BOUT THE
A
UTHOR

Linda Stasi is an award-winning journalist, media personality, columnist, and critic for the
New York Post
. She is a cohost of
What a Week
on NY1, Time Warner’s 24/7 news channel, and has appeared on CNN,
The O’Reilly Factor, The Today Show, The View, The Chris Matthews Show, Access Hollywood, Good Day New York,
and countless other TV shows. Stasi is also the author of five nonfiction books.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

THE SIXTH STATION

Copyright © 2013 by Linda Stasi

All rights reserved.

Cover art, detail from
Birth of the Virgin
by Getty Images

Cover design by Jamie S. Warren

A Forge Book

Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC

175 Fifth Avenue

New York, NY 10010

www.tor-forge.com

Forge
^®
is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.

The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:

Stasi, Linda.

  The sixth station / Linda Stasi.—1st ed.

         p. cm.

  “A Tom Doherty Associates book.”

  ISBN 978-0-7653-3427-5 (hardcover)

  ISBN 978-1-4668-0984-0 (e-book)

1.  Women journalists—Fiction.   2.  Terrorism investigation—Fiction.   3.  Templars—Fiction.   4.  Conspiracies—Fiction.   I.  Title.

  PS3619 T3774S59 2013

  813'.6—dc23

2012024911

First Edition: January 2013