Roskov, Book 16, page 1
Ricky Roskov
Book 16
Copyright © Geoff Wolak
Written in Oct, 2022, from an idea first formed in 2006.
This book is a work of fiction, technically accurate in the detail of geographical locations, and the time period history. It is young adult romance, conspiracy and murder-mystery.
Round three, a new approach
At the Vatican, the security now much tighter, we met Cardinal Armani and his aide inside, and he led us first to the infirmary. A group of priests were now recovering and being treated in that dated infirmary, men that had been injured by the car bomb but were not critical, the critical men being treated in local hospitals.
Oddly enough, Armani’s trusted doctors had already sedated the nine wounded priests as they lay in their beds – as I had suggested to Armani as a possible idea, most of the priests displaying facial cuts or burns. And those doctors, they stood waiting, as if I was in charge of something. And as if they knew something.
‘Can the doctors be trusted?’ I asked Armani as I stared at the two doctors.
‘These two? Yes.’
Door closed, no one else in here and no cameras seen, and I attended the first man, his more serious wounds dealt with, but I tried not to cure him completely.
The next man, I killed, pulling a blanket up over his head. Turning to Armani, a glance at the doctors, I began, ‘This man raped and killed a choirboy, so … I let him go.’
Armani nodded, the doctors stood shocked. But they did not try and stop me as I moved to the next unconscious priest. I removed his burns, but I again wilfully tried to leave a scar.
The following unconscious priest displayed a bad shoulder wound, which I cured, since he felt like a good man, a very good man.
At the next bed I shot Armani a look, then gave the priest a heart attack, pulling the blanket up over his face. ‘One less scumbag out there.’ The doctors lowered their heads when I stared at them.
Next bed, and I cured the glass cuts, leaving a few scars, but I also cured the old man’s cancer. ‘His cancer is in remission,’ I told the doctors. ‘Two dead, one will live, a balancing of the scales some, eh.’
Next old priest, and I stood puzzled, then I focused on the images that had popped up. ‘This man was a spy, working for the Mafia. But … they now want him dead; he changed his mind and he defied them.’
‘Help him, please, I will talk to him when he recovers,’ Armani responded.
I did as asked, the man soon completely cured of his injuries, a surprise for when he woke. The next two priests threw up no surprises, but the final man knew of bishops visiting a special club in Rome.
I faced Armani. ‘This man knows of many bishops visiting a special child brothel in Rome.’
‘We will want to question him.’
Focused on the man’s body, hands on, I gave him a stroke down one side. I finally faced Armani. ‘He just had a stroke, very sad – never mind, but he will be able to talk.’
Armani nodded, stern instructions issued to the doctors before he led me out.
In the same room as previously used to greet priests and shake their hands we found tea and coffee, as well as cake for Bonza, Bob and his security team stood waiting, and the first priest soon walked in, hand shaken, and he was soon sent on his way.
The next six priests were innocent, but number seven was a real peach. Hand on his head, and he was soon blinking.
‘I … I need to end my life,’ he stammered.
‘You do, yes, but away from the Vatican,’ I told the man, who blinked and walked off.
Forty priests later, and six other men needed to “go kill themselves”, Bonza complaining that he never got to punch anyone.
Armani turned up after I had scanned a further thirty men, four sent off to commit suicide. When I explained what I had done, Armani was mortified.
‘Can you not just make them confess?’ he hissed.
I shrugged. ‘If you like, but then you have to keep an eye on them for decades to come, feed and clothe them.’
‘That we are used to, we’ve had processes in place for such men for hundreds of years.’
‘Waste of fucking money,’ I complained.
The next twenty men produced just the one confession, the man led away. Then a priest with glazed eyes walked in, walking oddly with a sly smile on his face. I shook his hand, and shocked upright, hitting the man in the throat hard enough to kill him.
‘He has a bomb!’ I shouted, Bob rushing towards me with Bonza as calls were made by the security staff. ‘It’s inside his stomach!’
‘It’s where?’ Bonza loudly challenged.
With the human bomb on the floor and gasping for air, now going blue and about to expire, I patted him down before I lifted his shirt. Everyone gasped at the huge fresh scars.
‘He has a fucking bomb inside him?’ Bonza shouted.
I placed a hand on the man’s stomach as he passed out, closed my eyes, and I focused on his internal organs, and on the bomb.
There it was, bomb and trigger and plastic explosives. But the trigger was linked to his heart, and I had just delivered a fatal blow, a few seconds left before his heart gave out.
‘Shit!’
‘What’s wrong?’ Bonza asked. ‘Is it ticking?
Shooting Bonza a look, I closed my eyes as I imagined the man’s windpipe opening, his heart beating, his lungs fulling with air, and the man coughed a few seconds later but never fully regained consciousness.
Opening my eyes, I turned to Bonza. ‘The bomb would have gone off if his heart stopped.’ I lifted my head to Bob. ‘Get him outside, clear the area, but quietly and discretely! Tie him up.’
Bob and his mate lifted the man and dragged him off, but they did so carefully. And whilst cursing a great deal.
With the human-bomb gone, Bonza turned to me. ‘That was very fucking clever, for a priest!’
‘That was Stanulou, the priest drugged.’
Armani rushed in a few minutes later, as I helped myself to a fresh cup of tea. ‘That man has a bomb inside him?
‘It was Stanulou, the priest is drugged.’
We heard the dull blast, Armani rushing out.
Bonza noted, ‘Be bits of him all over the yard now, will need more than just a mop and bucket.’
Gloria asked, ‘How was he able to handle the pain?’
I took in their faces. ‘Some angelic assistance I think.’
Bonza kicked a table and cursed.
Bob and his mate eventually returned to us, blood spatter on them.
‘Are you OK?’ I worried.
‘Yes, but the blood goes a long way.’
‘Anyone hurt?’
‘We place him down and move everyone back, and there was small stone walls and pillars, so the blast is not so much.’
‘Have the priests file in to me again, as many as possible, all night long if we have to!’
‘More arrive tomorrow morning, some still here.’
The Irish cardinal I had met stepped in looking shocked and harassed, explaining that Armani was busy.
‘Busy with a mop and bucket?’ Bonza asked, getting a look from the cardinal.
The far door opened, and the next priest walked in, seemingly none the wiser about what had just happened. Hand shaken, and he was sent on his way.
Ten handshakes later, and a man wanted to confess, he had a secret wife and three kids, which made me smile; his eldest daughter was seventeen.
‘Not quite a crime,’ Gloria complained as the man was led out. ‘He’s a good family man. All priests should be like that.’
Eleven more priests filed past, all innocent, but then the admin staff appeared, nudged along by Armani, more security men seen. I started shaking hands, and man number four was stealing money, but not that much. Blinking at me, he soon wanted to confess.
Four more admin staff passed, and the fifth soon wanted to confess; he dealt drugs in a small way. Bonza punched him, just for good measure.
Six additional men passed me, then a lady came in, cute and with big boobs. I shook her hand, sighed, and she was soon ready to confess, a lucrative lunchtime trade of blowjobs for sale, a few bishops being serviced regularly.
‘Better than small boys,’ Bonza noted.
A lady in her fifties then walked in, and she looked at me oddly. She stood oddly composed as she took my hand, and the images popped up; she was an Israeli spy.
My look told her that I knew. ‘Nice to meet you, have a nice day. Shalom,’ I told her with a stony expression, and she walked off.
The next lady, however, was not pleased to see me, and she looked terrified. She reluctantly shook my hand, soon blinking, and soon telling the Irish cardinal that she wanted to confess; she had been running messages for the Mafia and spying on cardinals. Bob led her out.
The next man in was the Deputy Head of Security, Bob’s old boss, and he did not look worried; he looked pleased to meet me.
I shook his hand, but then knocked him down. Bob had returned, and I faced him, my stomach turning as Bob stood shocked at what I had just done. I could hardly speak. ‘You … you had a girlfriend, Rosy?’
His brow pleated, and he glanced at his old boss on the floor before he turned back to me. ‘Yes?’
‘This man … he … raped her, killed her, and … he hid her body.’
Bob’s mates dragged the man up, blood down the man’s face. And the man had heard and understood what I had said, now staring at me wide-eyed in fear as he bled onto the floor.
As they hel
‘And Roberto, he’ll visit you from time to time to remind you about what you did.’
I turned my head to Bob, who stood in shock, barely controlling himself. ‘Report this man as … having been poisoned somehow.’
Bob wiped a tear with the back of a hand. ‘He … he was like a father to me, he … he trained me, looked after me -’
‘And was jealous of you and wanted your girlfriend. I … can tell them where the body is.’
‘She … she must have a proper burial,’ he choked out, his old boss dragged out. Bob walked after the man, a glance back at me.
Gloria closed in, close to tears herself. ‘Why?’
‘Jealousy maybe, because Bob had what he desired; youthful good looks and a beautiful girlfriend.’ My chest heaved a giant sigh. ‘At least Bob and the girl’s family get some closure now.’
We waited, another cup of tea sipped, and Bob finally returned to us. ‘He … he is in the infirmary, they check for poisons,’ he croaked out. ‘But now there are many police here.’
I nodded, but I insisted that more of the admin and security staff come in.
Ten minutes later we started again, twenty admin staff checked, a few minor crimes noted, I even checked the painters and decorators. One man was into S&M on his day off, but that just made me smile.
The night security men came on duty, it was now 10pm, so I checked them all as well, one man soon blinking as he told me how much he wanted to go home and kill himself.
Six curators and one painting restorer later, and one was also soon on his way home to kill himself. Nine archaeologists later, and one man, blinking now, told me how much he wanted to bury himself inside a cave. I bid him a happy self-burial before he walked out.
Nine telephonists were led in, hands shaken, most of the ladies delighted to meet me. But the final one, she started blinking, telling me how much she wanted to run through Rome naked.
‘What did she just say?’ Bonza queried as she left us.
‘That she wanted to run naked around Rome.’
‘Oh. Will that get her fired?’
‘From most Italian businesses, no. From here, yes.’
Gloria shot me a look. ‘You need to be more discrete.’
Five security men later, and one started blinking. He told us, ‘I will not work here any longer, I … wish to raise rabbits, in Mongolia.’ And off he went, still blinking.
I turned to Gloria, and waited.
‘Discrete, yes.’
Calling it a night, we set off back to the hotel with a massive police escort, and back up in the suite we switched on the TV news, the news showing nothing other than the Vatican issues.
Bill and Ted had remained here, and they now detailed what the news around the world was reporting; a man with a bomb inside his stomach, another man poisoned.
I issued a frustrated sigh whilst considering that I needed to calm the situation some, so we headed straight around to the main TV station. They welcomed me in, make-up done quickly, and I was rushed to a seat whilst live on air.
‘Mister Roskov, welcome,’ came in good English yet with an obvious accent. ‘What can you tell us about what has happened today?’
‘What I can tell you … is that we are winning. It may not seem like it, but we have made progress against Harry Stanulou, but we’ve also been fighting with Mafia men and other criminals.
‘I had a great many tip-offs, and we confronted people with the evidence, those people let go, many being civilian workers who were linked to the Mafia.
‘We have the disgusting situation … where the Mafia here in Italy have been stealing money from the church for decades, and those Mafia men are obviously not happy about us stopping that process.
‘The Vatican has recovered almost a hundred million Euro, a large sum, that money meant for good uses and not to line the pockets of the Mafia.
‘My people have uncovered most of those we think are linked to the Mafia or in any way breaking the rules and committing crimes. It may seem like chaos, but it’s not – we have a plan and the plan is working.
‘Every person that we uncover leads us to other people, and very soon the Vatican will be clear of outside criminal influence, an influence that has been in place for decades.
‘I know … that many people in Italy and around the world would like to think that the Vatican is free of wrong-doing, but that is not the case. That may be the case next month, but at the moment we’re in a small war, not least with Harry Stanulou making things worse for us.
‘He had his spies inside the Vatican, some found by us, possibly more to be revealed. Today, a priest walked into the Vatican with a bomb inside his stomach, plastic explosives they think. That priest was seen to act oddly and look a bit odd, and to look unwell, drugged up with painkillers probably.
‘He wanted to get close to senior people, but security was suspicious of him, and when the man fainted they obviously noticed the huge fresh scars on his stomach.’
The interview lady sat with her mouth hanging open.
‘We also had a man poisoned, causing a stroke, and you know about the car bomb aimed at priests. So what we have now is a war on three fronts.
‘We have a fight with Harry Stanulou, we have a fight with the Mafia, and we have a secret investigation into priests involved in sex crimes.
‘I cannot reveal what’s going on, for security reasons, but we are winning, and the guilty are being found and dealt with.
‘And let me make myself clear on one issue. If you see someone quit their job in the Vatican, or be sacked, and then they commit suicide, show no pity for that person.
‘That person took their own life because of the guilt they felt, knowing what they had done, and that they could not live with that guilt – and the fact that we know what they did.
‘And let’s keep this in perspective. There are four hundred thousand people working for the Vatican around the world, about fifty are involved with crimes.
‘That’s a very small percentage, and all of the hardworking priests and nuns out there should not feel the fingers of blame pointing at them, they need to go about their business with their heads held high, and to judge themselves - not let the media do that.
‘The Vatican’s Mafia link is part of Italian society and will never go away, and your society is to blame for that. Harry Stanulou is angry at the church, and he’s made contact with terrorists around the world and people like the Libyans.
‘The church is not to blame for Harry Stanulou, or the Mafia link, or a few dozen bishops and priests behaving badly. Out of four hundred thousand people you have fifty bad apples, now being dealt with, not something to cause anyone to turn away from the church.
‘This episode will pass, the Mafia link will soon be gone, those Vatican civilian staff involved in wrongdoing will soon all be gone, and the bad bishops and priests are mostly gone now, the rest running scared.
‘The faithful should have confidence in the Pope, and in what the Pope has been doing to fix the problems in the church. The only valid criticism of the Vatican is … that in past decades the criminals were not dealt with harshly, just sent to a different country, not expelled from the church.
‘The Catholic Church can be saved, and should be saved, and only an idiot would want to see it harmed because of a very small percentage of people fostering a culture of corruption.
‘That problem started hundreds of years ago, the wrong culture in the church, power at the top, and that problem has been passed on down the centuries, institutional corruption by a handful of bishops, the various Popes kept in the dark.
‘The Pope reached out to me and allowed me to aggressively investigate his people, me an atheist, for which the Pope needs the recognition and praise – his own people angry with him because of my involvement.
‘Those angry bishops and cardinals have gone, and it was shocking … and disgusting, to find out that some bishops plotted against the Pope because he wanted to stop their criminal activity.
‘Those people no longer have influence, we can move on, and I now have absolute confidence that the top fifty people around the Pope can all be trusted.
