City-Ship Ascension

Geostationary orbit

It was quite a somber and quiet group that returned to the Ascension. Everyone was thinking about the incredible story they’ve heard; it explained so much and answered a few of the questions they have been asking for a long time. For all that—it created many more.

They all gathered in a conference room after Al and Pete made a slight detour to the food court and picked up a case of cold beer.

“One thing that still troubles me,” Michael said. “I understand that we are talking about an extremely long period of time since the demons’ attack and destruction of Atlantis, but we should still have found at least some evidence of these past events. The archeology is constantly unearthing evidence of Earth’s past, and we have fossils and data on cultures that go even beyond thirteen millennia, so why didn’t we ever find anything about such a momentous event?”

Max, whose hologram was sitting next to him, and was nursing a digital representation of a beer bottle himself, answered, “Maybe we did.”

“Then why did we never hear anything about it? It would have been too big of a discovery not to make the news,” Elizabeth asked.

Max smirked. “It has been a long-established practice within the archaeological circles to disregard any discoveries that go against the conventional facts. Those who try to change the accepted history by far-fetched theories, or even by their findings, are often discredited and ridiculed. Not to mention that there are plenty of people in the world who believe that Earth is less than 10,000 years old.”

Michael looked at the AI. “Max, search for any evidence on the net, and all databases you have access to, about things that could collaborate Ision’s story.”

“Don’t you believe what he told us?” Ben questioned.

“Oh, I believe. But I still want corroborating evidence; it’s that trust but verify mentality of mine,” Michael said. “Max, what is your take on Ision?”

“Everything he told us checks out, and his main driving force is a need to help Atlantean and angel children on Mars. Michael, one of those children is his own son, and it is the main reason he managed to keep himself together after learning that everything he once knew is gone.

“Additionally, he did give me the full access to the Knowledge Vault after you agreed to his terms. It is absolutely incredible, there is so much data inside that is going to take years to classify it all, even for an AI. There is no search engine, or logical file system; it is an ocean of information. Thousands of years of history, poetry, literature, and extensive scientific research that even exiled angels were not aware of.” Max replied.

“How the hell were they not aware of their own data?” Ben asked.

“It is simply too much information; an ordinary being could spend a lifetime cataloging it all, and not make a serious dent. My theory is that the entire Knowledge Vault was a rush job before their nuclear war started, a thousand years before Mikell’s ship came to our solar system. Someone knew what was coming and tried to save as much as they could in a very limited amount of time. I guess they succeeded, in a fashion. Imagine all human knowledge placed in one single folder, without any reference where what was located. That scenario would give you a general, if understated, grasp of the problem. On the plus side, it is a job made for an AI,” Max said with a smile and lifted his beer bottle in Ben’s direction.

“Were you able to get something useful out of it so far?” Michael asked.

“Oh, I got plenty of things that are going to be more than useful. Techniques to build some pretty exotic and advanced alloys that have even better properties than Resistanium. Technical concepts that we have not even imagined so far, and a ton of proven mathematical and scientific theories that will make some of Ben’s scientists think they died and entered Nirvana. The entire job of ferreting secrets out of the Knowledge Vault gives the occupation of data miner a whole new meaning.”

“If the Atlanteans and angels made an AI sooner, would’ve they had the means to defend themselves from the demons?” Michael softly asked.

Max was quiet for a few moments and then nodded, “Yes, but that would have clashed with the entire outlook they had on life. Remember, they were completely non-militant, and peaceful. Still, I can envision a scenario in which they used the knowledge from the vault to recreate weapons that led to the great angel’s war, not that I found that particular data, only a few references to it—so far. The culture Mikell grew up in was far more advanced than humanity currently is, but not something we would not have achieved within the next century, even without you finding the Excalibur. Yet, it is a pale shadow of technological heights their angel ancestors reached… before the fall.”

“Oh man, that was a bad pun even for me,” Al said and smirked.

“I couldn’t help myself,” The AI smiled.

“What about the children on Mars?” Elizabeth asked.

“I am already making a few exploration probes to send as soon as possible. The problem is that we do not really know where the MI responsible for the stasis chamber had hidden it. And yes, it was a stupid decision on their part to entrust the hiding location to a MI. They were in a rush, so they gave it a set of parameters that the hiding place had to satisfy, and hoped it would do its job. It should respond to a prearranged signal, but it needs to be sent close to its location, which will make the mission of finding it more difficult. I understand Ision’s desire to get to them as quickly as possible, but if they safely arrived on Mars, they have been there, undisturbed in stasis, for almost 13,000 years. There is no need to rush things at this point.” Max replied.

“How did they plan to retrieve the Knowledge-Vault and Ision’s AI-core if the Excalibur couldn’t dive to those depths?” Ben asked.

“The MI on Mars has been given design plans for a deep dive submersible, so after they brought the children back, the plan was to build it and to send a retrieval mission. That was conditional on Ision and his group finding the Excalibur and the location of the Mariana Trench installation, plus on Mikell’s plan of destroying the demons succeeding. Who could have thought that some demons would remain alive or that they would kill off most of the survivors?”

“It was not a well thought out plan,” Ben voiced what everyone was thinking.

“They had just a few weeks to do it all and a panicked population to relocate all over the planet. Besides, it did work… thirteen millennia later.” The AI replied.

Michael looked at the people around the table. “We should start making plans for those children. We need to do the same thing old Atlanteans did, integrate them into existing families, so they could have some semblance of a normal life. Which means that we will soon need to inform our people about what happened, so they could get used to the idea,” Michael mused aloud.

“That is going to make some serious waves,” Emma said. “Are you going to inform people on Earth about this?”

Michael almost choked on his beer. “Not bloody likely,” he answered. “Can you imagine the number of crazies that would crawl out of the woodwork if they knew the entire story? I am even worried about how our people are going to react, let alone the Earthers. This whole thing goes against so many of their deep-rooted preconceptions, it could easily start full-blown chaos. No, we will do everything ourselves and deal with the consequences.”

Ben finished his beer and took another bottle from a nearby cooler. “I don’t think you realize the full scope of the chaos that would cause. As Ision mentioned, if you look at it from a religious standpoint and draw correlations, you have so many things that challenge established dogmas. The fall of angels, the war in heaven, Atlantis as a Garden of Eden and consequential banishment from it; and do not forget that surviving Atlanteans, with the help of angels' DNA manipulation, were much more long-lived than ordinary humans of that time were. Want to take a bet that Methuselah was an Atlantean who survived the calamity? This whole thing undermines some of the basic pillars on which several religions stand, and it will not be a pretty sight when some of those pillars are proven to be… wrong?”

Emma nodded, “Religions, supposed truths people believe in, and disputes over some small points in ancient texts, were the cause of so many conflicts and wars throughout history. A revelation of this magnitude will have volatile consequences. I don’t dare to predict everything that can come out of it.” Emma said quietly.

“So… are we all in agreement? We keep this to ourselves… as long as we can?” Michael asked.

The others silently nodded.

“I still can’t believe that even fragments of their story survived to this day, no matter how distorted. It has been almost thirteen thousand years,” Elizabeth said, breaking the silence.

“Not that surprising,” Max answered. “If you look at it from the information dissemination standpoint, they had a lot going on for them. Remember that before the attack on Atlantis, almost all of the Atlanteans and angels were relocated all over the world. The demons hunted down most of them, but not all. Over and above, they had to intermix with native populations close to their locations, just to survive harsh conditions on Earth at that time. I have no doubt that many of them became chiefs or shamans as their knowledge of basic medicine was a thousand times more advanced than the norm. So many people retelling the same story allowed it to be passed on through the ages.”

“Well, I wouldn’t want to be the one who had to tell all the world’s publishers that the most printed book in history needs a major edit,” Al said with a smirking expression on his face and received a few nasty looks in return.

“Shut up Al,” Tyron said from the other side of the table.

The group stayed there for a long time, discussing their future plans, and the story of Earth’s and Gaina’s past.

***

City-Ship Ascension

Geostationary orbit

Michael was sitting in his office and reading Earth-news on his tablet.

The planet was still reeling with the aftershocks of the recent terrorist attacks, and the consequential death toll. What would have happened, if that last bomb in the UN exploded, was somehow leaked to the public. To say that the world was not amused, would be an understatement of epic proportions. Russia was getting the brunt of the negative press as the creator of such devastating bioweapons, and the news was packed with detailed backgrounds of the captured terrorists, who were facing long and arduous trials in the near future.

Iraq and the surrounding countries lodged a strong protest on account of the nuclear detonation in Al Anbar Desert that destroyed the secret terrorist laboratory. In view of what was eradicated there, they were not receiving much sympathy from the rest of the world. Nobody else saw that decision as wrong, despite some peace-loving demonstrators that were objecting to the use of nuclear weapons, no matter the reasons. On the other hand, those same people protested when Philip Cain launched the nuke while the Ascension was leaving Earth, so Michael had to give them some points for consistency.

An hour ago, he got a call from President Garner, who informed him that he managed to pull some strings to organize an emergency special session of the great assembly of the United Nations, which will be held in two weeks. It was the only time window in which he could arrange for all the representatives to be there. Michael would have liked to have some additional time for things on Earth to settle a bit more, but as his grandmother used to say, ‘When life gives you lemons, make a lemonade,’ so he would work with what he had.

Earth was coming to grips with the new reality, where nuclear weapons were not the biggest scarecrows anymore. The biological weapons had proudly taken first place. Fear of them was even more pronounced than what their predecessors managed to inspire during the Cold War. What's more, thousands of companies all over the world were trying to make a profit out of it. They started producing personal masks, bio-filters for people’s homes, and hundreds of other things that would give everyone a false sense of security.

A pleasant chime signaled the opening of his office doors, so Michael looked in that direction and saw Max entering as any normal person would. It was a new trend he had adopted after he got some complaints about his annoying habit of appearing out of the thin air.

“Hey, Leader Michael Freeman, I have several things I’d like to discuss with you,” the AI said and sat himself in the chair on the other side of Michael’s desk.

“You do realize there is no need for you to be so formal, as you are in my head most of the time anyway,” Michael replied and placed his tablet on the desk.

“Yeah, but this feels more natural, and I’m trying to make people more at ease with my presence, so shut up, since you’re in the control group.”

“From the leader of the Solarian Union to a lab rat in a few seconds,” Michael grumbled and rolled his eyes. “What did you want to talk about?”

“Two things; first is an idea of mine about the future accommodation of the Atlantean children. I have substantial data about the Atlantean oasis layout before the attack and detailed architectural plans of the entire city of Atlantis. And so, I was thinking to recreate it all on one of the upper levels of the space station; it’s one of those left for the future residential expansion, and there are still no plans for its use. My thinking is that the children would far easier acclimate to the familiar surroundings,” the AI said.

Michael was speechless for a moment, trying to envision the scope of such a project while remembering the images of the futuristic city the Atlanteans and Angels built on Antarctica. “Jesus, you don’t think small, do you? How long do you think it will take for you to finish it?”

“Well, I have all the needed material for it, so the city itself and terrain will not be that hard to do. Of course, there will need to be some changes to the height of a few buildings; they had the tendency to build high in Atlantis and they would go way past the ceiling. Also, the level is much smaller than the area of the Atlantean oasis, so there will not be as much space, but all the important things can be crammed inside with room to spare.”

On top of Michael’s desk, a hologram of the future level appeared, with the city in the center, cleverly incorporating the central pillar with the surrounding buildings leaning on it, one could hardly see it anymore. There were lakes and forests around the city, with many rivers and parks incorporated into the design, it looked so natural. The model was a perfect blend of nature and architecture, so unlike the modern cities on Earth. And he could see the angel influence through the entire place, in the curvy lines and buildings that looked like seashells with wavy spires. This new Atlantis looked as if it has spontaneously grown from the ground, not something artificial and built by mortal beings.

“Do you like it? I did make some changes to the original,” Max asked and looked expectantly at Michael.

“I love it… Max… it’s incredible!” Michael exclaimed, seeing thousands of minuscule details that composed this work of architectural art.

Max smiled and continued. “The biggest problem will be the same thing we have on the main residential level of the Space station, bringing enough good soil from the planet, and transporting enough plants and trees to make the place look alive. We have no native flora from Atlantis itself so most of it would have to be approximated and substituted with similar plant life. The demons did a number on that place, destroying the unique flora and fauna that evolved there over time.” The AI finished with a sour expression.

“Well I am all for it, and I think there will be plenty of people willing to relocate so they can live in the recreation of the earth’s oldest city. The children will surely appreciate the familiar environment. As a matter of fact, I'm calling dibs on a nice apartment in one of the towers.” Michael said, imagining the view from up above.

“No problemo, I’ll even make it a penthouse,” The AI grinned.

“And the second thing?” Michael asked after the hologram of the new Atlantis disappeared.

Max leaned in his chair and placed his crossed hands on Michael’s desk.

“I have been going through every single piece of digitized archaeological data going back as far as written records existed. You would not believe how many papers and publications there are on the subject. In any case, after I went through most of it, a pattern began to appear… a very suspicious one.

“It would seem that there were some unexplained discoveries going back for hundreds of years; things that had no connections to the established history. The most clues I found in a few old handwritten journals that were recently scanned in a worldwide campaign to preserve the world’s heritage from deteriorating further, since the paper they were written on is beginning to disintegrate. Thousands of libraries all over the world are scanning their collections and uploading them online, and some of them tell interesting stories of strange excavations and weird skeletons that were found. There are also numerous mentions of unidentifiable pieces of metal, that were obviously processed, and yet impossible when carbon dating results were received.”

“You think someone is deliberately suppressing all the findings?” Michael asked.

“Oh yes, even in recent times, there have been a few discoveries by some much-respected individuals; however, they were all discredited and their discoveries allegedly proved a hoax. There is a common denominator to all of them, and it is quite surprising. It seems that the old saying is true, and all roads do lead to Rome. Or to be precise, to the Vatican; in all those cases, the Church was somehow involved,” Max stated.

“Now, that is quite interesting, did you find anything in their files?”

“All I could access was the part of their network available to the public, but there is a separate one that is physically isolated and surprisingly well secured. There are several big countries out there that do not have such strong and sophisticated cybersecurity as the Vatican does. I could try breaking in, by sending a few nanites drones to establish a connection.” Max proposed.

Michael stayed silent, thinking to himself. “You can do that, but I think we should go and ask them about it—in person,” he said finally.

The AI looked at him inquisitively. “You realize they will never give that sort of information freely? Pound for pound, they are the most secretive organization on Earth. We will have to go through miles of red tape only for them to tell us, ‘sorry, better luck next time’.”

Michael gave the kind of smile Max recognized from looking in the mirror, usually when he was up to no good. “I know, that’s why we will start from the top; tomorrow morning we are going to visit the Vatican, and the man in charge,” Michael said to the surprised AI.

***

Apostolic Palace

The Vatican

Pope John Paul III poured himself a glass of wine and sat down in his favorite chair, to rest, after a long day.

The last meeting was the most excruciating one; he had to reprimand one jovial bishop about his conduct. The man could not seem to understand that drinking himself silly every day and doing so with the sacramental wine, did not bring him closer to God, or showed his piousness to the world. The last sermon he performed, under the influence, had already been seen more than five million times on the Internet. The irony that he was currently drinking wine to relax did not escape his quirky sense of humor.

“Excuse me, Your Holiness, for barging in, but I need to ask you some questions… if you wouldn’t mind.” The unfamiliar voice said behind him.

He turned toward the voice and saw someone standing beside his open window. It was a man dressed all in black, with the face he instantly recognized. Not so surprising; for the last couple of months he saw the same face on the television almost every day.

“Leader Freeman, what a pleasant surprise; would you care for some wine?” The Pope asked and lifted his glass as a welcome gesture to the young man.

***

Michael was confused by the calm demeanor of the man before him. He expected him at least to be startled at his sudden appearance beside his window, yet he did not even blink. Some people may call his ingress into the Papal apartment a sacrilege, but it was the most convenient and expedient way to get the answers about the enigmatic archaeological findings.

“Yes, thank you, a glass would be just fine. I am sorry for showing up like this, but going through the regular channels would have taken ages.”

“Think nothing of it; I am always available for those that need me. At the end of the day, that is in my job description.” Pope John smiled.

Michael took the glass his host poured and sat in the indicated chair. He lifted the glass of wine into the air, “To your health, your Holiness.”

“To peace on Earth, my son, and please call me John,” the old man replied.

“Then I am Michael.”

He took a sip of wine and was surprised by its taste. He wasn't a wine drinker, never liked the sour taste of the wines that were available when he was trying to be more sophisticated, for some girl. Regardless, this one was sweet, tasty, reminding him of spring and fresh fruits.

Seeing Michael’s expression, the Pope showed another wide smile. “It’s from the Papal wine cellar; I go there sometimes and pick a random bottle, and the taste is a surprise to me every single time. But I suspect you didn’t come here to talk about wine, so tell me Michael, why this unexpected visit?”

Michael pulled out his tablet, pressed play on a video file, and offered the device to the old man. “Do you know anything about them?”

The video was the one Max created last night, just for this occasion. It started with a short summary of the conflict between angels and demons. Then it showed disturbing images of demons attacking the population of Gaina, the colony ship’s flight, and arrival in the Solar System. It ended with the few clips made by Atlantean automated solar drones, about demon hunts, and consequential monstrous feasts.

Pope John Paul III looked at the tablet, and sat there quietly, not saying a word until the entire sequence was over. Then he shuddered and closed his eyes. His lips moved while he was saying a silent prayer. After a minute, he opened his eyes, took his glass, and finished the remaining wine.

“A part of me wants to believe this is all a trick. A computer-generated film, like all those new movies…” The man said and looked directly at Michael.

“Tell me, Michael, do you believe in God?”

The question caught Michael off guard, and he took a few moments before answering it.

“I always saw myself as an agnostic. Well, if you disregard a few situations in the foxholes when I prayed with all my soul.”

The Pope smiled sadly. “I always believed that he loves all his children equally, no matter in whose image they chose to worship him. And for the likes of you, the undecided, I think he has enough room in his heart to love you all as well.”

He grew quiet after saying that and looked through the window at the bright full moon in the night sky. Michael did not want to rush the man, so he sat there quietly for a few minutes, until he could see that the Pope had come to a decision. The old man stood from his chair and said to Michael, “come with me, I have something to show you.”

As they were exiting the Papal apartment, members of the Pontifical Swiss Guard in front of it went for their weapons, after seeing Michael walking by their protectee. He certainly did not come in through the doors they were guarding, and any intruder in this place was a potential assassin.

One movement of the Pope’s hand returned them to their previous position, silent and unmoving. Michael thought that it was quite impressive, even if he was a moment away from using his augmented speed, to disable them.

The Pope told them a few words in Italian and they immediately whispered into the microphones at their wrists, and then followed a few steps behind Michael and his Holiness.

“When your spaceship lifted from that island, I suspected some things,” the Pope said as they were walking. “I thought you had found something left behind, which enabled you such accelerated technological growth. Even so, I wasn’t sure, and some questions are better not asked.” The old man said.

They took an elevator down the subterranean level, and Michael was surprised to see a mini subway train waiting for them.

“The subway track was bored through, a few decades ago. It is the smallest subway in the world, primarily used for mail, but I get to use it for quick transportation. Before that, you had to walk the entire way, and Popes are not usually young men so we tire easily.” John explained as they entered the small train, and took their seats.

“You have been hiding the archaeological evidence of the past? That is what pointed us to the Vatican connection.” Michael asked as the train entered the tunnel.

John nodded. “Regrettably so… to our shame. I want you to see something before I tell you why,” he replied with a pained look in his eyes that Michael could not refuse.

The subway ride was not that long, a little more than two minutes later, the train stopped at a beautifully decorated small station. After another elevator ride downward, Michael was trying to calculate how deep underground they were.

“This is all a part of an old system that was heavily renovated and upgraded in recent years. As there is not enough room to build anything new on the surface, the decision was made to build underground,” the Pope explained their strange route.

The elevator stopped after a surprisingly long time, and they entered a large hallway that ended with massive vault doors. They were something one would expect to see in a bank, and not beneath the Holy City.

“We are about to enter into one of the most secret places in the Vatican. It’s a good thing I run this place, or I could get fired for bringing someone unauthorized inside.” He smiled and placed his hand on a palm reader beside the metal doors. After a few loud clicks, they automatically opened.

“Follow me,” he said to Michael and entered. Michael was a few steps behind the Pope, while two guards that followed them from the papal apartment, remained at the door.

They entered into an enormous room with hundreds of closed climate controlled shelves. Books that to Michael looked ancient were inside, and many artifacts made out of precious metals.

“People always say that the Vatican is full of treasures, but here is the true treasure,” the Pope pointed at the shelves. “So many memories and writings by our ancestors; shaping more than two thousand years of our history, which we are trying to preserve for future generations.”

The Pope did not stop but continued through the aisles until they came to the opposite wall and the small unremarkable shelf, leaning on it. He looked at Michael once again and nodded to himself. Taking a golden cross key from his pocket, he inserted it into a barely visible keyhole, on the side of the shelf, and turned it a couple of times. The entire shelf moved to the side, revealing a staircase that went down.

“I have been down there only twice,” the old man said. “First was when I became the Pope, and the second time was to convince myself that the things I saw inside were real, and not a bad dream I had.”

They went down the steps, one more level, before arriving at the ancient-looking doors. The Pope took out another key and unlocked the surprisingly smooth lock. When he opened the door and turned on the lights, Michael was rendered speechless by the sight in front of him.

The room was far smaller than the one upstairs, but its contents couldn’t be more dissimilar. There were dozens of pedestals holding pieces that he recognized as fallen parts of the destroyed Mikell’s and the demon’s ships. However, what drew his attention were six skeletons that stood prominently in the middle of the room. The most astonishing thing about them was that they were—not human.

“They have been here for a long time,” the Pope said quietly, standing beside Michael.

Five skeletons were of demonic origin, the bones gray in color as if they were made of metal. They were held together, anatomically correct, by pieces of wire. Michael approached the first one and felt the shiver go down his spine. It was one thing to see them on the holo-screen, or even as holograms, and quite another to stand before the remains of the terrifying monsters.

This thing was enormous, at least seven feet tall and much wider than he was. The skull had a menacing row of shark teeth that still looked razor-sharp, and the tips of the bone fingers ended with dangerous-looking claws. He walked down the line, noticing that there were some incomplete ones, with a few bones missing here and there. At the end of the row, he came before the last item in this macabre exhibit. It was a skeleton of an adult angel, delicate and white; beneath its shoulder blades, two bones protruded and spread into skeletal wings. There were hundreds of bones there, painstakingly reassembled with the thin gold wire.

Michael looked closer and saw one unsettling feature on the bones, there were numerous distinct tooth-marks on their surface, and he realized that they were made by gnawing demon teeth while stripping the meat.

He turned toward the Pope. “John, why has the church kept this hidden?”

The old man could not meet his gaze. “It was a decision of my predecessors to do so, made more than a thousand years ago. It was deemed that having tangible evidence of their existence would be damaging to the entire church. Here is the proof that angels were mortal, and that the demons roamed the Earth. I am glad they were never misused, even when the church was led by people of questionable ethics. Can you imagine the chaos this revelation would make, the despair it would cause?”

He walked over the angel skeleton. “It doesn’t take much imagination to realize how he died, and what killed him.” He placed one hand on the angel bones. “We would have to rewrite a big part of our Holy book, which could be quite problematic. So we collected the evidence and kept it here in case there was a time when it was needed.”

“John, you do realize these are alien skeletons, not divine?” Michael hesitantly asked, looking at the Pope.

The older man smiled. “Young man, I happened to have a bachelor’s degree in astrophysics, along with my Ph.D. in theology. Hence, it was not so hard to come to that conclusion. In truth, that was why I followed my predecessors’ example and kept the secret. People would start looking at the heavens with fear of what was there, not in wonder and awe anymore. You, doing what you did, reaching for those endless frontiers was the right thing to do,” the Pope said. “Going where no man has gone before, as Captain Kirk used to say; I still love that show.”

They stayed there for a while, and Michael even got permission to take samples from the skeletons and some of the metals. Using his monomolecular knife, he collected a few shavings of bone for analysis.

An hour later, they were again in the Papal apartment, having another glass of wine.

“So, what will you do with this information, Michael?” The Pope asked him.

“Nothing… I agree with you, showing this to the world now would cause widespread unrest. In time, this may change, but there is no need to open this particular can of worms.”

“Good, eases my mind. Now, if you don't mind satisfying an old man’s curiosity, would you tell me what it was that you found? I have been thinking about it a lot lately.”

Michael thought for a while, judging the security implications, but was moved by the trust the man showed him, and so he answered, “A fully functioning spaceship, built by the joint efforts of angels and humans from Atlantis.”

He was glad that the man had a strong heart; if judging by the size of his eyes, his heartbeat must have gone through the roof. He spent the next hour telling the leader of the Catholic Church most of what happened since he fell into that hole. By the end, the once full bottle of wine was now empty.

The last thing Pope John Paul III said to him was, “you know you can talk to me if you need anything, the church is there to help the people.”

Michael said his goodbyes and left through the same window from which he entered the apartment. After putting on his helmet that was left on the ledge, he activated the camouflage and got a hold of the thin graphene rope that was hanging from the transporter that had brought him here. He sent a message to Tyron and was pulled upwards into the dark night.

Looking down, he saw Pope John leaning out of the window, trying to figure out how Michael managed to disappear.