Executive Times

 

 

 

 

 

2006 Book Reviews

 

The Messenger by Daniel Silva

Rating:

***

 

(Recommended)

 

 

 

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Infidels

 

Daniel Silva reprises protagonist Gabriel Allon in his latest novel, The Messenger. Fans will be familiar with many other characters we’ve come to know from Silva’s earlier novels, although The Messenger stands well on its own. Silva pulls stories from the news, and puts his characters in place to carry out the action: Al-Qaeda terrorist attacks; Saudi financing of terrorism; U.S. covert and possibly illegal acts. From Jerusalem to Rome to London, the action in The Messenger moves quickly, and Allon does what he has to do. Here’s an excerpt, all of Chapter 4, “Vatican City,” pp. 26-33:

 

It was a rather ordinary office for so powerful a man. The Oriental carpet was faded and timeworn, and the curtains were heavy and drab.

As Gabriel and Donati entered the room, the small figure in white seated behind the large austere desk was gazing intently at the screen of a televi­sion. A scene of violence played there: fire and smoke, bloodstained sur­vivors pulling at their hair and weeping over the tattered bodies of the dead Pope Paul VII, Bishop of Rome, Pontifex Maximus, successor to St. Peter, pressed the Power button on his remote control, and the image turned to black. “Gabriel,” he said. “It’s so good to see you again.”

The Pope rose slowly to his feet and extended a small hand—not with the fisherman’s ring facing upward, the way he did toward most people, but with the palm sideways. The grip was still strong, and the eyes that gazed fondly up at Gabriel were still vibrant and clear. Gabriel had forgotten how diminutive Pietro Lucchesi really was. He thought of the afternoon Lucchesi had emerged from the conclave, an elfin figure, swimming in the hastily pre­pared cassock and barely visible over the balustrade of the Basilica’s great loggia. A commentator for Italian television had proclaimed him Pietro the Improbable. Cardinal Marco Brindisi, the reactionary secretary of state who had assumed he would be the one to emerge from the conclave dressed in white, had acidly referred to Lucchesi as “Pope Accidental I.”

For Gabriel, though, it was another image of Pietro Lucchesi that he would always think of first, the sight of him standing on the bimah of the Great Synagogue of Rome, speaking words no pope had ever spoken before. “For these sins, and others soon to be revealed, we offer our confession, and we beg your forgiveness. There are no words to describe the depth of our grief. In your hour of greatest need, when the forces of Nazi Germany pulled you from your houses in the very streets surrounding this synagogue, you cried out for help, but your pleas were met by silence. And so today, as I plead for forgiveness, I will do it in the same manner. In silence. . . .”  

The Pope retook his seat and looked at the television screen, as if the images of distant mayhem could still be seen there. “I warned him not to do it, but he didn’t listen to me. Now he intends to come to Europe to mend fences with his former allies. I wish him well, but I think his chances for suc­cess are slim.”

Gabriel looked to Donati for an explanation.

“The White House informed us last night that the president will be coming here early next year for a tour of European capitals. The president’s men are hoping to project a warmer, less confrontational image and repair some of the damage over the decision to go to war in Iraq.”

“A war I steadfastly opposed,” the Pope said.

“Is he coming to the Vatican?” Gabriel asked.

“He’s coming to Rome—that much we know. The White House hasn’t told us yet whether the president would like an audience with the Holy Father. We fully expect that a request will be arriving soon.”

“He wouldn’t dream of coming to Rome without dropping by the Vatican,” the Pope said. “Conservative Catholics are an important part of his constituency He’ll want a nice photo opportunity and some kind words from me. He’ll get his photo. As for the kind words    The Pope’s voice trailed off. “I’m afraid he’ll have to look elsewhere for those.”

Donati motioned for Gabriel to sit, then settled himself in the chair next to him. “The president is a man who appreciates straight talk, as our American friends like to say. He’ll listen to what you have to say, Holiness.”

“He should have listened to me the first time. I made it very clear to him when he came to the Vatican before the war that I believed he was em­barking on a disastrous path. I told him that war was not justified because there was no true imminent threat to America and her allies. I told him that he had not exhausted every last avenue to avert conflict and that the United Nations, not the United States, was the proper authority for dealing with this problem. But I reserved most of my passion for my final argument against the war. I told the president that America would win a quick bat­tlefield victory. ‘You are powerful,’ I said, ‘and your enemy is weak.’ But I also predicted that for years after the war America would face a violent insur­gency I warned him that in trying to solve one crisis with violence, he would only create another more dangerous crisis. That war would be seen by the Muslim world as a new Crusade by white Christians. That terrorism could not be defeated by more terrorism but only through social and eco­nomic justice.”

The Pope, having finished his homily, looked at his small audience for reaction His eyes moved back and forth several times before settling on Gabriel’s face. “Something tells me you wish to take issue with something I’ve said.”

“You are a man of great eloquence, Holiness.”

“You are among family, Gabriel. Speak your mind.”

“The forces of radical Islam have declared war on us—America, the West, Christianity, Israel. Under God’s law and the laws of man, we have the right, indeed the moral duty, to resist.”

“Resist the terrorists with justice and opportunity rather than violence and bloodshed. When statesmen resort to violence, it is humanity that suffers.”

“You seem to believe that the problem of terrorism and radical Islam can be swept away if they were more like us—that if poverty, illiteracy, and tyranny weren’t so prevalent in the Muslim world, there would be no young men willing to sacrifice their lives in order to maim and kill others. But they’ve seen the way we live, and they want nothing of it. They’ve seen our democracy, and they reject it. They view democracy as a religion that runs counter to the central tenets of Islam, and therefore they will resist it with a sacred rage. How do we deliver justice and prosperity to these men of Islam who believe only in death?”

“It certainly cannot be imposed on them by the barrel of a white man’s gun.”

“I agree, Holiness. Only when Islam reforms itself will there be social jus­tice and true prosperity within the Arab world. But in the meantime we can­not sit idly by and do nothing while the jihadists plot our destruction. That, Holiness, is immoral, too.”

The Pope rose from his desk and pushed open the large window overlooking St. Peter’s Square. Night had fallen. Rome stirred beneath his feet.

“I was right about the war, Gabriel, and I’m right about the future that awaits us all—Muslim, Christian, and Jew—if we do not choose another path. But who’s going to listen to me? I’m just an old man in a cassock who lives in a gilded cage. Even my own parishioners don’t listen to me any­more. In Europe we are living as if God does not exist. Anti-Americanism is our only religion now.” He turned and looked at Gabriel. “And anti-Semitism.”

Gabriel was silent. The Pope said, “Luigi tells me you’ve uncovered ev­idence of a plot against my life. Another plot,” he added with a sad smile.

“I’m afraid so, Holiness.”

“Isn’t it ironic? I’m the one who tried to prevent the war in Iraq. I’m the one who has tried to build a bridge between Christians and Muslims, and yet I’m the one they want to kill.” The Pope looked out his window. “Perhaps I was mistaken. Perhaps they don’t want a bridge after all.”

 

 

Most evenings Pope Paul VII and Monsignor Donati dined alone in the private papal apartments with one or two invited guests for company. Donati tended to keep the mood deliberately light and relaxed, and talk of work was generally restricted to the sort of Curial gossip that the Pope se­cretly loved. On that evening, however, the atmosphere in the papal din­ing room was decidedly different. The hastily assembled guest list consisted not of old friends but of men responsible for protecting the pontiff’s life: Colonel Karl Brunner, commandant of the Pontifical Swiss Guard, General Carlo Marchese of the Carabinieri, and Martino Bellano, deputy chief of the Italian security service.

Gabriel passed around the photographs and briefed them in his Venetian-accented Italian. His presentation was more sanitized than the one he had given Donati in Jerusalem that morning, and the name Au Massoudi was not spoken. Still, his tone left little doubt that Israeli intelligence re­garded the threat as credible and that steps needed to be taken to safeguard the pontiff and the territory of the Holy See. When he finished speaking, the faces of the security men were somber, but there was no visible sense of panic. They had been through this many times, and together they had put in place automatic procedures for elevating the security around the Vatican and the Holy Father when it was deemed necessary. Gabriel listened while the three men reviewed those procedures now. During a pause in their conversation, he carefully cleared his throat.

“You wish to suggest something?” Donati asked.

“Perhaps it might be wise to move tomorrow’s ceremony indoors-­to the Papal Audience Chamber.”

“The Holy Father is announcing the beatification of a Portuguese nun tomorrow,” Donati said. “We’re expecting several thousand Portuguese pil­grims, along with the usual crowds. If we move the audience into the cham­ber, many of those will have to be turned away.”

“Better to turn away a few pilgrims than expose the Holy Father un­necessarily.”

The Pope looked at Gabriel. “Do you have specific credible evidence that the terrorists intend to strike tomorrow?”

“No, Holiness. Operational intelligence of that nature is very difficult to come by.”

“If we move the audience into the chamber, and turn away good people, then the terrorists have won, have they not?”

“Sometimes it is better to give an opponent a small victory than suffer a devastating defeat yourself.”

“Your people are famous for living their lives normally in the face of ter­rorist threats.”

“We still take sensible precautions,” Gabriel said. “For example, one can­not enter most public places in my country without being searched.”

“So search the pilgrims and take other sensible precautions,” the Pope replied, “but I’ll be in St. Peter’s Square tomorrow afternoon, where I belong. And it’s your job to make certain nothing happens.”

 

It was just after ten o’clock when Donati escorted Gabriel down the flight of steps that led from the Apostolic Palace to the Via Belvedere. A light mist was falling; Gabriel zipped his jacket and hitched his overnight bag over his shoulder. Donati, coatless, seemed not to notice the weather. His eyes remained on the paving stones as they walked past the Vatican central post office toward St. Anne’s Gate.

“Are you sure I can’t offer you a lift?”

“Until this morning, I thought I might never be allowed to set foot here again. I think I’ll use the opportunity to take a walk.”

“If the Italian police arrest you before you reach your flat, tell them to give me a call. His Holiness will vouch for your fine character.” They walked in silence for a moment. “Why don’t you come back for good?”

“To Italy? I’m afraid Shamron has other plans for me.”

“We miss you,” Donati said. “So does Tiepolo.”

Francesco Tiepolo, a friend of the Pope and Donati, owned the most suc­cessful restoration firm in the Veneto. Gabriel had restored two of Bellini’s greatest altarpieces for him. Nearly two, he thought. Tiepolo had had to fin­ish Bellini’s San Giovanni Crisostomo altarpiece after Gabriel’s flight from Venice.

“Something tells me Tiepolo will survive without me.”

“And Chiara?”

Gabriel, with his moody silence, made it clear he had no desire to dis­cuss with the Pope’s private secretary the state of his tangled love life. Donati adroitly changed the subject.

“I’m sorry if you felt the Holy Father was putting you on the spot. I’m afraid he’s lost much of his old forbearance. It happens to all of them a few years into their papacy. When one is regarded as the Vicar of Christ, it’s dif­ficult not to become the slightest bit overbearing.”

“He’s still the gentle soul I met three years ago, Luigi. Just a bit older.”

“He wasn’t a young man when he got the job. The cardinals wanted a caretaker Pope, someone to keep the throne of St. Peter warm while the re­formers and the reactionaries sorted out their differences. My master never had any intention of being a mere caretaker, as you well know. He has much work to do before he dies—things that aren’t necessarily going to make the reactionaries happy. Obviously, I don’t want his papacy cut short.”

“Nor do I.”

Which is why you’re the perfect man to be at his side tomorrow dur­ing the general audience.

“The Swiss Guard and their helpers from the Carabinieri are more than capable of looking after your master.”

“They’re very good, but they’ve never experienced an actual terrorist attack.”

Few people have,” Gabriel said. “And usually they don’t live to tell about it.”

Donati looked at Gabriel. “You have,” he said. “You’ve seen the terrorists up close. And you’ve seen the look in a man’s eyes as he was about to press the button on his detonator.”

They stopped a few yards from St. Anne’s Gate. On the left was the round, butter-colored Church of St. Anne, parish church of Vatican City; to their right the entrance to the Swiss Guards barracks. One of the guards stood watch just inside the gate, dressed in his simple blue night uniform.

“What do you want me to do, Luigi?”

“I leave that in your capable hands. Make a general nuisance of yourself. If you see a problem, address it.”

“On whose authority?”

“Mine,” Donati said resolutely. He reached into the pocket of his cassock and produced a laminated card, which he handed to Gabriel. It was a Vatican ID badge with Security Office markings. “It will get you anywhere in the Vatican—except for the Secret Archives, of course. I’m afraid we can’t have you rummaging around in there.”

“I already have,” said Gabriel, then he dropped the badge into his coat pocket and slipped into the street. Donati waited at St. Anne’s Gate until Gabriel had disappeared into the darkness, then he turned and headed back to the palace. And though he would not realize it until later, he was mur­muring the words of the Hail Mary.

 

 

Gabriel crossed the Tiber over the Ponte Umberto. On the opposite em­bankment he turned left and made his way to the Piazza di Spagna. The square was deserted, and the Spanish Steps shone in the lamplight like pol­ished wood. On the twenty-eighth step sat a girl. Her hair was similar to Chiara’s, and for a moment Gabriel thought it might actually be her. But as he climbed higher he saw it was only Nurit, a surly courier from Rome Station. She gave him a key to the safe flat and, in Hebrew, told him that behind the tins of soup in the pantry he would find a loaded Beretta and a spare clip of ammunition.

He hiked up the rest of the steps to the Church of the Trinitadci Monti. The apartment house was not fifty yards from the church, on the Via Gregoriana. It had two bedrooms and a small terrace. Gabriel retrieved the Beretta from the pantry, then went into the larger of the two bedrooms. The telephone, like all safe-flat telephones, had no ringer, only a red light to in­dicate incoming calls. Gabriel, lying in bed in the clothes he’d donned to meet the prime minister, picked up the receiver and dialed a number in Venice. A woman’s voice answered. “What is it?” she asked in Italian. Then, receiving no answer, she muttered a curse and slammed down the phone-­hard enough so that Gabriel jerked the receiver away from his ear before replacing it gently in the cradle.

He removed his clothing and pillowed his head, but as he was sliding toward sleep the room was suddenly illuminated by a flash of lightning. Instinctively he began to count to calculate the proximity of the strike. He saw a skinny black-haired boy with eyes as green as emeralds chasing light­ning in the hills above Nazareth. The thunderclap exploded before he reached the count of four. It shook the building.

More strikes followed in quick succession, and rain hammered against the bedroom window. Gabriel tried to sleep but could not. He switched on the bedside lamp, opened the file containing the photographs taken from Alt Massoudi’s computer, and worked his way through them slowly, com­mitting each image to memory. An hour later he switched off the light and, in his mind, flipped through the images once more. Lightning flashed over the bell towers of the church. Gabriel closed his eyes and counted.

 

Silva is a master thriller-maker, and The Messenger fits well into his growing shelf of entertaining novels.

 

Steve Hopkins, October 25, 2006

 

 

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The recommendation rating for this book appeared

 in the November 2006 issue of Executive Times

 

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