Apocalypsis 1.01 Demons Read Online Free PDF Page B

agencies. So far to no avail. But this only strengthened Menendez’s determination to track Laurenz down and neutralize him for good. How he would do so remained to be seen.
    During the last few days, the first Cardinals had begun to arrive for the conclave. Most of them stayed in comfortable guesthouses or – befitting their social status – at the luxurious Hotel Columbus on Via della Conciliazione. Every day at noon, Menendez invited the new arrivals for a welcome lunch at the Apostolic Palace, in part to get to know them, but mainly to give them immediate and unapologetic insight into his personal views on the most pressing issues of the Church in this time of crisis. In other words, he was campaigning.
    On this particular day, he had held a reception for the Cardinals of Toronto, Seville, Vilnius, Dublin, Maputo, Detroit and Paraná. None of them was considered a favorite in the upcoming conclave, so it was even more important to win their hearts and their votes. This process included little promises as well as the subtle instilling of fear that they might make »wrong decisions« for their diocese. Menendez wanted to demonstrate his leadership skills and he had no scruples whatsoever about bringing Opus Dei into play. Founded in 1928 as an organization of laypeople by the Spaniard Josemaría Escrivá, who had been canonized in the meantime, the Work of God now had almost ninety thousand members and had developed into an intimidating power within the Catholic Church with enormous financial resources. This was due not least to the huge number of »supernumeraries« that accounted for about seventy per cent of the total membership. These laypeople, who were allowed to marry and made regularly »voluntary« financial contributions, held top positions in politics, industry, finance and the media. The Opus Dei was a network of power and Menendez was still far away from where he wanted to be.
    However, before he could get there he had to neutralize Laurenz, at all costs.
    Menendez had ordered the commander of the Swiss Guards into his luxurious office for a report. While the Cardinal himself remained seated behind his massive mahogany desk, he forced the brawny Swiss to stand the whole time.
    Bühler presented Menendez with a scanned copy of Peter’s passport. »Padre Luigi had a visitor this morning, a journalist.«
    Menendez cast a brief glance at the photo and the name and then he looked at Bühler with cold eyes. »How is it possible that a journalist who is not accredited can just stroll into the Vatican without prior notice to the Guard?«
    »My apologies, Your Eminence. We only learned that he is a journalist when we checked him out. It seemed to be a private visit.«
    »An exorcism?«
    »Possible. But the person stayed much longer than usual at Don Luigi’s and when he left, one of the Sisters accompanied him to the Petrine Gate.«
    »Is that all?«
    »No, Your Eminence. Approximately thirty minutes ago, Don Luigi went into the Secret Archives.«
    Menendez noticed that his left eye began to twitch. »What the hell is he doing there?«
    The Archivum Secretum Vaticanum was located in the Cortile della Pigna adjacent to the Vatican Library. The name was actually deceptive. The word »secret« only indicated that the archives had originally been the Pope’s private archives. The documents, manuscripts, protocols, contracts and papal judicial decisions filled almost 52 miles of shelving and covered an uninterrupted period of more than eight hundred years of history.
    The archives had two reading rooms, which were used by about one thousand five hundred scholars each year, an internal library, laboratories for preservation, restoration and digital reproduction, a data-processing center and a computer room. Hardly anything was really secret there, not any more.
    However, access to the archives was reserved for researchers from renowned universities, who had to abide by strict rules. For instance, if they needed to take