the Third Secret (2005) by Steve Berry Read Free Book Online

you might have mellowed. But I see that hasn’t occurred.”
    “How wonderful to know you might actually care. You never considered my feelings when you told me it was over.”
    “Do we have to go through all that again?”
    “No, Colin. There’s no need.” She retreated. “No need at all. Like you said, it’s been good seeing you again.”
    For an instant he registered hurt, but she seemed to quickly conquer whatever weakness may have swelled inside her.
    He stared back toward the palace. Many more were now calling out and waving. Clement was still waving back. Several of the television crews were filming the moment.
    “It’s
him,
Colin,” Katerina said. “
He’s
your problem. You just don’t know it.”
    And before he could reply, she was gone.

SIX
    3:00 P.M.
    Valendrea clamped the headphones over his ears, pushed PLAY on the reel-to-reel recorder, and listened to the conversation between Colin Michener and Clement XV. The eavesdropping devices installed in the papal apartments had again performed flawlessly. There were many such receivers throughout the Apostolic Palace. He’d seen to that just after Clement’s election, which had been easy since, as secretary of state, he was charged with ensuring the security of the Vatican.
    Clement had been right earlier. Valendrea wanted the current pontificate to run a little longer, time enough for him to secure the few remaining stragglers he’d need in the conclave. The current Sacred College was holding at 160, only 47 members over the age of eighty and ineligible to vote if a conclave happened within the next thirty days. At last count he felt reasonably confident of forty-five votes. A good start, but a long way from election. Last time he’d ignored the adage,
He who goes into the conclave as pope comes out a cardinal.
No chances would be taken this time. The listening devices were just one aspect of his strategy to assure that the Italian cardinals did not repeat their prior defection. Amazing the indiscretions princes of the Church engaged in on a daily basis. Sin was no stranger to them, their souls in need of cleansing like everyone else. But Valendrea well knew that, sometimes, penance had to be forced upon the penitent.
    It’s all right to care, Colin. She’s a part of your past. A part you should not forget.
    Valendrea removed the earphones and glanced up at the man sitting beside him. Father Paolo Ambrosi had stood at his side for over a decade. He was a short, slender man with straw-thin gray hair. The crook of his nose and the cut of his jaw reminded Valendrea of a hawk, an analogy that also amply described the priest’s personality. A smile was rare, a laugh even more so. A grave air constantly sheathed him, but that never bothered Valendrea because this priest was a man possessed of passion and ambition, two traits Valendrea greatly admired.
    “It’s amusing, Paolo, how they speak German as if they’re the only ones who might understand.” Valendrea switched off the recorder. “Our pope seems concerned about this woman Father Michener is apparently familiar with. Tell me about her.”
    They were sitting in a windowless salon on the third floor of the Apostolic Palace, part of the enormous square footage allocated to the Secretariat of State. The tape recorders and radio receiver were stored there inside a locked cabinet. Valendrea was not concerned about anyone finding the hardware. With more than ten thousand chambers, audience halls, and passages, most of which were secured behind locked doors, little danger existed of this hundred or so square feet being disturbed.
    “Her name is Katerina Lew. Born to Romanian parents who fled the country when she was a teenager. Her father was a professor of law. She’s highly educated with a degree from the University of Munich, and another from the Belgian National College. She returned to Romania in the late 1980s and was there when Ceau¸sescu was deposed. She’s a proud revolutionary.” He