CHAPTER 75

CHAPTER 75

JOSEPH MESSINA LOOKED AT THEM curiously. Their private secretary had received a request for an urgent hearing, and had nearly denied them their extemporaneous request. He was ready to hang up the phone, and he didn't just do it at the last moment because the lady on the phone identified herself as Victoria Hulmann.

— Have you come to make me an offer? asked the Cardinal again, as if he wanted to guess what was going on in the minds of the trio in front of him.

— Yes — replied the woman.

— Well then — Messina said, leaning back in the luxurious high-backed chair — I'm ready to listen to you.

Nicole took the floor.

— You said on another occasion when we were here that you suspected we had found the Golden Book...

— Yes, this is true. It is also true that I offered to keep the book in custody here at the Vatican.

— We would like you to help us decipher it...

Joseph Messina's face was transformed, an intense glow appeared in his eyes at the same time that his features acquired a special hue.

— Are you asking me to help you decipher the Golden Book? So they admit they found it... I knew it, I knew it from the beginning, no one could talk about the Brotherhood of the Serpent with the same ease shown by you, if they weren't involved with this great mystery. Now, I'm glad they made the right decision. Here, in the Vatican, is the only place where the Brotherhood of the Serpent cannot reach him...

— Your Eminence — said Green — you don't understand.

— We came here to propose a deal and ask for your help in decoding the book, not delivering it to the Vatican.

— This is crazy! You are committing a madness! The Golden Book is a terrible object! You are making a huge mistake in thinking you can keep it safe. I beg you, give me the book! Only I will be able to protect him...

— Your Eminence — Nicole interrupted — we didn't say we wouldn't give you the Golden Book. What was said by Father Green is that we didn't come here to hand him over, at least not at this time.

— We need to be sure — added Roman Green — that by handing over the book we are not giving it away to the Brotherhood of the Serpent.

— But I'm not a member of the Serpent Brotherhood! exclaimed Joseph Messina, in bewilderment.

— We believe it to be true — he said to Victoria — we believe you are truly upright and not involved with this evil sect. Now, as it involves an extremely coveted object, whose repercussions for the world we still cannot assess, we need you to prove it to us. We need proof that you really aren't part of the Serpent Brotherhood.

— Proof that I'm not part of the Serpent Brotherhood? You must be kidding... How can I prove that I don't belong to the Brotherhood of the Serpent? How can I prove this?

— It's simple — Nicole replied — we'll be happy to give you the book if you show us good faith.

— Show good faith with you? And how can I do that?

— It's simple! All you have to do is help us decipher this map — Nicole said as she took a xerographic copy of the last page of the Golden Book from her purse.

— Where was this copied from?

— This map, Eminence, was copied from the last page of the Book of Gold. Of course we didn't bring it with us for security reasons — Green replied.

— I did not know of the existence of this map — continued the Cardinal — by reading the second part of the parchment that is in our possession, we knew of the existence of a great and fabulous treasure revealed by the book, but we did not imagine that there was a map to be unveiled.

— Yes, there is a map — Green confirmed — and we're here to try to understand it.

Victoria interfered:

— Your words, Eminence, remind me exactly what my father said in the letter I found in his library: that the golden book would reveal a sublime treasure, something that would be the most terrible and desirable treasure ever dreamed of by the human mind. But my father did not reveal the nature of this treasure to us, because according to him, the parchment he had in his possession was incomplete. Now that you have just confirmed that the Vatican has this second part of the parchment, we want you to tell us what a fabulous treasure this would be.

Joseph Messina was overjoyed at the gift that fate had placed at his door.

— The life tree! he exclaimed. — The great treasure that the Golden Book conceals is the secret of where the Tree of Life is hidden!

— What did you say?... the Tree of Life? — Green asked.

— Yes, exactly this... the Tree of Life... After Victoria left here in that audience in which we first met, I asked the Vatican Library for the second roll of parchment brought by Julius Caesar from Alexandria.

— And did this second roll point to the Tree of Life, the same one that was in the Garden of Eden, whose fruit would give whoever ate of it the possibility of living eternally, as the treasure whose map is now here in front of us? — asked Green, looking down in disbelief at the open map on the Cardinal's desk.

— Incredible as this may sound, this is the reality we are now faced with! confirmed Joseph Messina.

— The life tree? It's impossible! — Now it was Victoria who was stunned — this is complete nonsense!

— Why? — asked Joseph Messina — why does this seem to you to be completely absurd? Life itself is a great mystery, just as death has an obscure and disquieting nature in the crudity of its reality. Why are we born and why do we die? These are questions that humanity has been asking itself for millennia, and this has always been the pattern: to be born and to die. The possibility of escaping this pattern would be completely absurd. Could it be that the hypothesis of living eternally, just because it is not part of the reality of experience, would be something completely absurd in itself, or could it be that his behavior is just a reaction of fear and perplexity in the face of the imponderable mystery of the unknown?

— Perhaps you are right, Eminence — replied Victoria — it is possible that I really am frightened at the revelation of this terrible possibility. How would humanity be if this hypothesis were confirmed? What would become of the human species if individuals were not limited by death?

— There is an interesting issue to be resolved — said Roman Green, interrupting the dialogue between the two.

— And what question would that be? — Victoria asked, turning to the priest.

Roman Green waited a while for everyone's attention to turn to him.

— It is an interesting question and one that may raise a doubt as to whether the great secret of the Golden Book really is the Tree of Life...

— Go on — said Joseph Messina.

— If in fact this is the great secret of the book, why did Pharaoh Akhenaton not find it?

— Don't be so sure about that — Victoria said. — How can we say he didn't find the Tree of Life?

— Why Victoria — concluded Green — if he had found the Tree of Life, his father and grandfather would not have found the Golden Book on his tomb that time...

— Father Green is right, Mother — Nicole said — if Pharaoh had found the Tree of Life, his tomb would not exist. Now regarding your question, Father, I think I know the answer.

— And what is the answer? — Messina asked.

— The simple fact that Akhenaten did not discover the place where the Tree of Life was hidden does not mean that it is a legend, and another, who can guarantee that it is he himself there inside the sarcophagus?

— It is very likely that the place where God hid the Tree of Life was a completely inaccessible place, so it was impossible for Pharaoh to take it.

— But how then was the map made? asked the Cardinal.

Victoria turned to him.

— Don't you know?

— No, answered Messina, are you forgetting that the first part of the parchment was stolen from the Vatican?

— I beg your pardon, Your Eminence, but then, even if you are horrified, I will have to tell you. According to my father, the Golden Book that contains the secret map, was not written by human hands, but by a spiritual being: Nimrod!

— Nimrod, the general of Lucifer's armies?! — The Cardinal was startled.

— Yes, exactly him! — Victoria said.

— And that is exactly why I believe that Pharaoh did not find the Tree of Life — Nicole continued — it must have been hidden by God in a completely inaccessible place. At least for the resources and means available at that time.

— This then caused Pharaoh Akhenaten to take the golden book, literally to the tomb — concluded Green.

— It is quite possible then that the Tree of Life is still hidden in some part of the globe.

— This is true — concluded Cardinal Joseph Messina —, we all know from history books that long before Vasco da Gama made his circumnavigation trip, under the orders of the pharaoh of the XXVI dynasty, Nekao II, the Phoenicians did the same journey, but in the opposite direction. It is quite possible that this trip was sponsored by the Egyptian pharaoh to find the Tree of Life.

— The big question is where? — Said Roman Green turning to the book. How can we find the Tree of Life if we can't even understand this map?

Nicole remained silent as if she were far away.

— What are you thinking, daughter?

The young woman then looked at her returning from deep thought.

— I think I have an idea of how to interpret this map!