Vatican Ambassador (29 page)

“What do you mean?” BC asks.

“They ignored the question,” Anita says. “They just stared at us. As if we hadn’t said anything at all. They waited until we spoke again, and then reengaged in the conversation.”

“Weird,” BC observes.

“It was!” Van Kilner agrees. “But we dismissed it at the time. Chalked it up to bad translation, miscommunication. Of course, everything’s being reevaluated, now.”

“Okay, so… maybe we forget about the ‘why’” BC says. “How do we cure this? Can we stop it? You said it showed up here, have you found a way to cure it? Prevent it? Anything?”

“No,” Van Kilner says, shaking his head. “As I said, people died. But we did isolate the microbe causing the plague. And we’re working on it. We did discover one thing. It’s apparently not universally fatal. Some people aren’t affected, even though they were infected. Not everyone exposed to it catches it.”

“No?” BC asks.

“No,” Van Kilner says. “As a matter of fact, you were no doubt infected yourself, BC. You just have the good fortune of being immune. You don’t have it.”

“Am I a carrier?” he asks, worried.

“We don’t know for sure,” Van Kilner says. “There’s no evidence so far that this can be spread by anyone except a sick person. Not that we’ve seen, so far. We just don’t know all that much about it yet. We should have you checked out. Do some bloodwork.”

“What are you, The Flaze?” BC jokes, getting it deliberately wrong.

“No, that was The Domo,” Anita corrects him, “But they don’t… I mean, they’re not… oh, never mind,”

she sighs. BC smiles at his little victory.

“Very clever, BC,” Van Kilner notes. “It will be painless. We’ve got the best doctors here, I promise you,” he says to BC. “Hell, they’ve kept
me
alive this long!” He laughs. “Anita, why don’t you take BC

to our infirmary? Have them draw some blood, test for the microbe, see if there’s some healing factor you have that’s unique and fun and different.” Van Kilner shifts on his chair. “Then, I’m afraid I should let you go. There isn’t much more to tell you about. I wanted to meet you, see if you were the sort of man I can work with. You are. But I’m afraid they’ll be needing you back on Earth, back on the Moon at the very least.

“This plague is bad, BC, and it’s spreading through the human population like wildfire. There are a lot of people dying,” Van Kilner says. He drops his head, rubs his face.

“And it’s all your fault,” BC realizes. “Isn’t it? Both of you! All of you in The Project… your arrogance made you blind to a serious threat, didn’t it?” He looks from Van Kilner to Anita. Neither says a word.

“You two are responsible for taking more lives, and certainly more
innocent
lives, than I ever did in my former career!”

Anita protests, “BC, really, come on…”

“Wow,” BC keeps going, “What you’ve unleashed makes my discretions pale in comparison!”

“This was not intentional,” Van Kilner says softly.

“We are responsible,” Anita says. “I’m responsible. I’ll admit it, even if you can’t, doctor. We’re killing people,” she nods at BC, “Sure as he did.”

“We are not murderers!” Van Kilner says defensively.

“Does that matter to the victims? To any of our victims?” Anita asks them. The three of them are quiet. There’s nothing else to say. A minute passes in silence.

“We should get going,” BC finally says. “Get me to the infirmary, and then back on my way to the Moon, right? Okay?”

“Sure,” Anita says, still quiet.

“Well,” Van Kilner says, “I guess this is it for now. Think about our next step. We’ll keep in touch.

“It was good to meet you, BC. Even if you did have the unbridled temerity to call me a murderer.”

He extends his hand.

BC shakes it.

“Thanks, Doctor Van Kilner. I’ll do what I can to help you, to help us all stop this thing.”

“So will we. We’ll be doing all we can here.”

“Thank you, Doctor,” Anita says. She motions to BC to precede her out. They turn, leaving Van Kilner among the trees as they make their way back to the arboretum’s door. The door shuts silently behind them, disappearing into the wall.

“It’s bad, isn’t it?” BC asks Anita as they walk down the corridor.

“What?” Anita says absentmindedly.

“The Plague?!” BC reminds her.

“I don’t know,” she tells him.

“It sounds like its bad.”

“Yeah. It does,” Anita says. She sounds defeated.

“Hey,” BC says, stopping. Anita stops.

“What?” she says, a little exasperated.

BC looks her in the eye. “Look. If anyone can find a cure to this, it’s you people, The Project. You may have unleashed this plague, but you’re the only ones who have even a chance of defeating it. The UTZ

scientists are working on it, too, but I’ll put my money on The Project.”

“You? You’re trying to cheer me up? Give me a break,” she sighs, turns, and sets off back down the corridor. BC follows her back through the long empty corridors in silence.
What I get for trying to be nice… Have it your way, bitch… jeesh.
After a quick trip to the infirmary, BC and Anita take off on a Flasher for Lunar Prime. BC is back on the Moon by dinnertime. Anita and BC disembark from the flasher in EVA suits and re-enter Lunar Prime the way they left it, through the outbuilding at the edge of the facility.

“I’ll be in touch in the next couple of days,” she tells BC as he begins to leave the outbuilding and head for home.

“How can I get in touch with you?” he asks her.

“We’ll set that up when I call. Figure out what to do next…”

“It’s a lot to digest…”

“I know. Thanks for not killing me.”

Back in his quarters in the Vatican Mission, BC turns on the news. It’s not good.

“This new sickness, this new plague, is decimating the population on Earth, in orbit, and on the Moon,”

the newscaster says. “UTZ officials assure us their finest scientific minds are applying themselves to a search for a cure.

“Most people wonder if this is the UIN’s doing. There is also talk among the scientists that this plague is not of human origin, but may spring from some interstellar source or origin. Theories abound. Some suggest the UIN uncovered the plague among artifacts on Mars and brought it to the peace conference on the Moon. But did they do it deliberately? Or was it a horrible accident? We’ll be speaking with experts on both sides in our next segment. Another theory? Cosmic infection! Maybe a stray meteor, some hunk of killer ice, carried a deadly cargo to the Moon that somehow was introduced into the environment.

“Or could it be… aliens? All we know for sure is that the plague began its wave of destruction on the Moon, let loose as representatives gathered to talk peace.

“In a related story, the sponsor of the conference, Vatican Ambassador Bernard Campion has reportedly disappeared! There’s been no sign of the Ambassador, according to our sources, for at least the last two days, although unnamed UTZ officials are saying, off the record, that Campion is working in secret with them to try to trace the source of the plague and find a cure.”

Nice… at least someone is making excuses for me. Weird to have someone handling PR for
me. I didn’t think I would BE the news!

I’m here! Just took a little trip, is all. Should I issue a public statement? What would I say?

BC checks his messages. Several of the waiting ones are from the Vatican!

Well, all it takes is a genocidal plague to get them to call, nice.
The last four are marked as “Extremely Urgent”

The Pope is dead.

His Holiness the Pontiff Linus the Second has died. And the Curia has sent BC messages asking BC to report to Vatican City.

Great. They want me down there yesterday! Guess I better go. So wait, what are these? Next
message: A new pope is chosen, Peter the Third!

BC advances to the message after that. Where the last told of the election of a new Pope, the next announces that he, too, has died.

Time passes like a freight train chugging past too fast to see.

The last message asks him to report to the Vatican, once again.

Well, I guess I should get back down to Earth. See if I can do anything at Vatican City. Don’t
know why I should. No good ever seems to come from helping.

When mass numbers of people get sick, things break down. Even as humanity advances, it still takes raw people power to keep the machines running.

BC has a hell of a time booking passage down to Earth. When he finally secures a ride, the flight itself is nearly empty.

The Rio Di Janeiro spaceport on Earth is another shock. Many of the shops and stores are shuttered. Other travelers are scarce.

BC hunts around for a connecting flight to Vatican City. It takes a few hours. He books his flight and calls the Vatican to let them know he’s on the way.

BC lands in Rome to a very different greeting. The media have somehow been alerted. Reporters surround the gate at the airport as BC disembarks. They spot BC and begin hurling questions at him.

“Ambassador! Where have you been?”

“Father Campion! What do you know about the plague?”

“Why haven’t you been infected, Father Campion?”

“How did it happen?”

“Do you think this is the work of the UIN?”

“What’s your reaction to the Pope’s death?”

BC ignores them all best he can as he walks past. He breathes a sigh of relief when he spots a waiting Vatican transport with his name on it. He hops in and rolls away from the pursuing, clamoring crowd.
Aside from the media dogs, there weren’t many other people there at the port.
How bad is it?

BC is sent to the College of Cardinals immediately upon his arrival at the Vatican, his luggage whisked away to some rooms he’s told he’ll be shown to later. Cardinals Hardwick and Terpa are waiting for BC when he arrives outside the Sistine Chapel.

“Cardinal Campion, you’re just in time!” Terpa says, greeting BC.

“What? I’m not a Cardinal…” BC demurs.

Terpa and Hardwick nod.

“You are,” Terpa says to him.

“But I was never even a Bishop… That’s a done deal?” BC asks.

“A done deal,” Hardwick says. “There aren’t many of us left,” he tells BC. “You were elevated
in
absentia
by the late Pope Peter the Third, under special circumstances. We’ll make it official while you’re here in Rome. You’ll be elevated to bishop at the same time.”

“Okay,” BC says, surprised, trying to think.

Made a Cardinal against my will! These people are desperate.

“How bad has this sickness gotten?” BC asks them.

“It’s bad,” Terpa says. “It is a plague such as the world has never seen. Billions are dying, Cardinal Campion. Not all who are exposed are infected… it seems to affect people at random. It’s very strange.”

“The UTZ Scientists have announced cures twice,” Hardwick says, “only to find their announcements have been premature, that their measures don’t measure up.”

“I’m afraid many people are sure it’s the work of the Muslims,” Terpa tells him.

“Really?” BC asks.

“We’ve seen the polls,” Hardwick says. “We hear it from our own people.”

“It’s not the Muslims,” BC tells them. They both stare at him. Terpa finally breaks the silence.

“What…” she says, and then she pauses. “How do you know?” she asks him. “Mars has been silent, closed off.”

Hardwick shakes his head.

“There’s been no traffic from Mars,” he tells BC, “and no communications, either. There’s no way to know how the UIN has been affected.”

“I know that,” BC admits, “but I also know that this ‘plague’ wasn’t caused by the UIN.”

“You
know
? Well…” Terpa says. “…what are you saying? This is natural? Or is someone else responsible?” she asks BC.

“I’ve spoken with some UTZ scientists,” BC says, stretching the truth. “They think it may be extraterrestrial.”

I don’t want to tell them about The Project… yet.

“We’ve heard that, too,” Hardwick says. “But couldn’t they have found a virus or something on Mars and somehow, I don’t know, ‘weaponized’ it? That would make it ‘extraterrestrial’, wouldn’t it?”

Now he’s a Cardinal
and
a scientist?

“Not really… They don’t have the technology to create
this
sickness,” BC explains. “
Our
scientists admit that even
they
couldn’t create this.”

“I haven’t heard any of them admit that,” Hardwick says, the question in his voice.

“They haven’t publicly,” BC tells him.

“Oh.”

A group of young priests appear from inside the chapel and approach them.

“Primus inter pares? Your eminence?” the lead priest, a young African woman wearing bright blue clerical robes addresses Cardinal Hardwick.

“Yes, Reverend Chiamaka?”

“It’s time. The other Cardinals are waiting for you and the Secretary Cardinal to begin the Papal Conclave,” Chiamaka says, nodding to Cardinal Terpa as well. “The chimney has been prepared. The chapel has been swept for any possible surveillance devices. All is in readiness, awaiting only the three of you.”

“Well, then… as the Dean of the College of Cardinals, I officially invite you to join the conclave, Cardinal Campion!” Hardwick says to BC, extending his hand.

“Right now? I accept, I guess,” BC says tentatively. He shakes Hardwick’s hand. They enter the chapel and the doors crash shut and are sealed behind them.

“Come,” Hardwick says to BC and Terpa, “We have work to do.”

The Sistine Chapel… Gets to me every time…

I didn’t know there was damage in here, too. It was never hit directly. It was one of the few
buildings they protected.

Sadly, there has been some damage. Some of the wall frescoes are now cracked, or broken, with pieces fallen off. Several of Michelangelo’s masterpieces on the ceiling have lost chunks, ugly white patches showing through some of the master’s work.

Sad to see… Huh, there’s old Jeremiah up there… some say it’s a self portrait by
Michelangelo… funny, I never read Jeremiah’s book until forced to by The Light. He puts the cur
in curmudgeon. Look at him up there, angry and puzzled. Guess we have that in common…