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

caught the touch of amusement that laced Ambrosi’s voice. “She met Michener in Munich when they were both students. They had a love affair that lasted a couple of years.”
    “How do you know all this?”
    “Michener and the pope have had other conversations.”
    Valendrea knew that while he perused only the most important tapes, Ambrosi savored everything. “You’ve never mentioned this before?”
    “It seemed unimportant until the Holy Father showed interest in the tribunal.”
    “I might have underestimated Father Michener. He appears human, after all. A man with a past. Faults, too. I actually like this side of him. Tell me more.”
    “Katerina Lew has worked for a variety of European publications. She calls herself a journalist, but she’s more of a freelance writer. She’s had stints with
Der Spiegel, Herald Tribune,
and London
Times.
Doesn’t stay long. Her slant is leftist politics and radical religion. Her articles are not flattering to organized worship. She’s co-authored three books, two on the German Green party, one on the Catholic Church in France. None was a big seller. She’s highly intelligent, but undisciplined.”
    Valendrea sensed what he really wanted to know. “Ambitious, too, I’d guess.”
    “She was married twice, after she and Michener split. Both brief. Her connection to Father Kealy was more her idea than his. She’s been in America the past couple of years working. She appeared at his office one day and they’ve been together ever since.”
    Valendrea’s interest was piqued. “Are they lovers?”
    Ambrosi shrugged. “Hard to say. But she seems to like priests, so I would assume so.”
    Valendrea snapped the headphones back over his ears and switched on the recorder. Clement XV’s voice filled his ears.
I’ll have my letter to Father Tibor ready shortly. It will call for a written response, but if he desires to speak, listen to him, ask what you will, and tell me.
He slipped off the earphones. “What is that old fool up to? Sending Michener to find an eighty-year-old priest. What could possibly be served by that?”
    “He’s the only other person left alive, besides Clement, who has actually seen what is contained within the Riserva regarding the Fatima secrets. Father Tibor was given Sister Lucia’s original text by John XXIII himself.”
    His stomach went hollow at the mention of Fatima. “Have you located Tibor?”
    “I have an address in Romania.”
    “This requires close monitoring.”
    “I can see that. I’m wondering why.”
    He wasn’t about to explain. Not until there was no choice. “I think some assistance in monitoring Michener could prove valuable.”
    Ambrosi grinned. “You believe Katerina Lew will help?”
    He rolled the question over again in his mind, gauging his response to what he knew about Colin Michener, and what he now suspected about Katerina Lew. “We shall see, Paolo.”

SEVEN
    8:30 P.M.
    Michener stood before the high altar in St. Peter’s Basilica. The church was closed for the day, the silence disturbed only by maintenance crews polishing the acres of mosaic floor. He leaned against a thick balustrade and watched while workmen ran mops up and down marble stairs, whisking away the day’s debris. The theological and artistic focal point of all Christendom lay just beneath him in St. Peter’s grave. He turned and cocked his head upward toward Bernini’s curlicued
baldacchino,
then stared skyward into Michelangelo’s dome, which sheltered the altar, as one observer had noted,
like the cupped hands of God.
    He thought of the Vatican II council, imagining the nave surrounding him lined with tiered benches holding three thousand cardinals, priests, bishops, and theologians from nearly every religious denomination. In 1962 he was between his first Holy Communion and confirmation, a young boy attending Catholic school on the banks of the Savannah River in southeast Georgia. What was happening three thousand miles away in Rome meant