Day Of Confession

'What you did had to be done. I had not the courage… He was, as he said, a street urchin, a scugnizzo… nothing more.'

'No, Dottor Farel,' Marsciano said. 'He was a man and a cardinal of the Church.'

159

10:58 a.m.

Eaton stood near the back corner of the railroad station, breathless and sweating, trying to stifle a coughing fit from the inhaling of smoke. The scant breeze that had come helped some but not enough, except that it had cleared the air just a little, enough for him to see what he saw now – Harry Addison coming down the grassy slope to his right, carrying the dwarf he'd left the apartment on Via Nicolo V with in his arms. He was half walking, half ru

Fifty feet in front of him, Eaton saw the green engine inch toward an old and rusting freight car, which, he was certain, had to be the escape wagon. Glancing back he saw the rusty tracks leading out through the open gates in the Vatican wall. Now he looked back, searching for Father Daniel. If he could find him, that opening was the way he would take him, one way or another, even if he had to carry him.

Crossing behind the station, Eaton came onto the tracks with his back to the open gate. In front of him he saw the gray-haired, white-shirted stationmaster standing on the platform watching the work engine near the freight car. The man was a problem, as was the two-man crew he'd seen on the engine. But none of them were half the problem he saw now. Adria

He watched Harry stop when he saw her. Then Harry yelled something, as if to tell her to go away. But it made no difference. She kept coming, and now she had reached them and was moving alongside, looking at the dwarf in Harry's arms then back to Harry himself. Whatever she said or was saying, Harry Addison kept going, heading downhill, toward the tracks.

'Dammit,' Eaton swore under his breath, his eyes moving off again, searching for Father Daniel.

'Adria

'I'm going with you, that's what the fuck I'm doing.'

They were almost at the bottom of the hill. Almost to the tracks. Harry could see the green work engine nose to nose with the freight car, its engineer and brakeman with their backs to them, working at the couplings.

'Your brother's in the freight car, isn't he? The trainmen don't know it, but that's where he is.'

Harry ignored her. Kept walking, praying the trainmen wouldn't look up and see them. Hercules grunted and Harry looked down at him. The dwarf smiled feebly.

'The Gypsies are going to meet the train when it stops… Don't let the police have me, Mr Harry… The Gypsies will bury me…'

'Nobody's going to bury you.'

Suddenly the trainmen were walking away from the coupling, moving toward the engine.

'They're getting ready to leave!' Immediately Harry was pulling Hercules tight to his chest. Starting to run the short distance to the tracks. Adria

Ten seconds later they were there. Crossing the tracks behind the freight car, ru

Harry's eyes watered, his lungs on fire from the smoke and exertion of carrying Hercules. Where the hell were Da

'Da

No reply.

Suddenly the train whistle sounded. They heard the engine's diesel rev up. A puff of brown-black exhaust rising from its smokestack.

'Da

Again the train whistle. Harry glanced at his watch.

11:00 A.M. exactly.

No time, they had to get into the car and do it now.

'Get in.' Harry looked quickly to Adria

'All right-'

Putting both hands on the freight car's floor, Adria

The dwarf coughed, grimacing as she strained to lift him. Then she had him up, and Harry was coming into the dimly lit car behind her. Suddenly she froze.

Thomas Kind stood directly in front of him. Elena was with him, eyes wide with fright, an ugly machine pistol to her head.

160

11:04 a.m.

Scala leaned on the hood of Roscani's blue Alfa, a set of binoculars trained on the distant gates. All he could see was the slight bend of the tracks as they curved inside the wall and a small part of the station but that was all. Behind it everything, despite the new breeze, was still thick smoke. Castelletti stood halfway down the tracks in front of him, staring at the same gape in the wall. Despite the wail of sirens, they had heard the gunshots, and as much as they knew their job was to wait for the train to come out and follow it to where it stopped, both had to work with all they had not to rush in after Roscani. But they couldn't, and they knew it. All they could do was watch and wait.

'You have a gun, Mr Addison. Please give it to me.'

Harry hesitated; Kind pushed the machine pistol up under Elena's ear.

'You know who I am, Mr Addison… And what I will do…' Thomas Kind's voice was calm, a slight smile crossing his lips.

Slowly Harry reached into his belt and lifted out the Calico.

'Put it on the floor.'

Harry did, then stood back.

'Where is your brother?'

'I wish I knew…' Harry's eyes went to Elena.

'She doesn't know either,' Thomas Kind said with the same calm. Elena had been alone, ru

It was at that moment, when he had Elena by the arm and saw both the dread and the fiery resolve in her, that Thomas Kind felt the sudden savage rush of his addiction come back. He could taste it in his mouth and feel the arousal it gave him. In that instant he knew his retreat from it had ended.

'We are going to find your brother, Mr Addison,' Thomas Kind said thinly, his calmness turned to ice.

Harry barely heard, his attention on Elena; he was staring at her, trying somehow to comfort her while at the same time find a way to get her out of Kind's grasp. Then, out of nowhere, a man appeared in the freight car's open doorway.

It was Eaton. 'Vigili del fuoco!' Fire department, he said quickly and with authority.

'What are you doing here?' Eaton demanded in Italian. He was playing it very carefully, not looking at Thomas Kind at all, but addressing them as a group, as if the machine pistol in Kind's hand didn't exist.

'Taking a journey.' Kind smiled easily.

Eaton's Colt automatic appeared from nowhere. The move was professional, calculated, and controlled, going for a single shot between the terrorist's eyes.

Thomas Kind barely blinked. A short burst from the machine pistol took Eaton just under his nose, blowing him out of the freight car doorway backward and across the tracks in a wash of blood and bone, and sending the Colt flying out of sight.

Elena stiffened in horror. Kind tightened his hand over her mouth.

Adria