The Second Messiah

“Because I knew my secret would tarnish the church. My own destiny didn’t matter, but the church mattered deeply to me. So I kept my silence.”

“Did you kill my parents?”

The pope’s mouth tightened as he said grimly, “I played my part in a conspiracy of lies, Jack.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Jack felt anger rise up in him like bile. He wanted to lash out, to strike Becket, but the man suddenly let out an anguished sigh and buried his face in his hands.

For a long time he remained like that. Then he looked at Jack again. “It means that I lied. That I was a party to a crime by remaining silent. But in the end, every one of our sins demands a price.”

“Who killed my parents? Who stole my father’s scroll? It was stolen, wasn’t it?”

Becket nodded. “Yes, it was stolen.”

“Why?”

“Because certain people believed its theft was for the good of the church.”

“How can you say that? How can you condone theft and murder?”

“I’m not, Jack. I’m merely stating fact.”

“Who killed my parents?”

The pope stared out at the fountain, then back again. “When your father discovered his scroll, he was baffled because part of the wording he read didn’t make sense. So he permitted Father Kubel to see it, who realized immediately that it was a coded text. Such scrolls contained a certain marker.”

“I know about the marker. Go on.”

The pope said, “Kubel was aware of what the marker meant. As the Vatican’s coordinator on the dig, his superiors had already made him aware that any coded scrolls could prove to be controversial. And that several had turned up at Dead Sea sites over the years and had been kept secret, with Israel’s consent.”

“Why?”

“For what seemed like perfectly good reasons. Neither the Vatican nor Israel wanted any controversy to rock the foundations of their religions.”

“Some of the scrolls contained controversial material?”

“Yes. Revelations, mysterious predictions, references to Jesus’ beliefs and the early church. Some of it with the potential to muddy the waters of religious dogma.”

“Tell me what Kubel did.”

The pope said, “Your father was incredibly excited by his find. He told Kubel that on his way to Jerusalem he intended to visit an old friend of his, a journalist with the Post, to show him the scroll. In Kubel’s mind, alarm bells went off as soon as he heard that statement.”

“Why?”

“He feared that by involving the newspapers there was a danger that the scroll’s content would be revealed.”

“What did Kubel do?”

The pope sighed. “He decided he had to gain possession of the scroll, no matter what the cost. It was all utter madness, of course, and went beyond all reason. But Kubel was always a hothead. There was no stopping him.”

“Go on.”

“He deliberately tried to loosen the pickup’s brake fluid line. To cause a slow leak, hoping the brakes would fail on the way to Jerusalem and that your father would crash. Kubel intended to follow the pickup. In his urgency to get his hands on the scroll he truly didn’t care if you all died. That was how reckless he was, a true religious fanatic.”

“So when Kubel arrived at the accident scene he’d already been following us. But you turned up also.”

The pope met Jack’s stare. “I saw Kubel follow your pickup. He had a deranged look on his face, a look I knew spelled trouble. So I drove after him and later heard the explosion and came across him at the accident scene. I saw the army truck had exploded. Whether it was a genuine accident or not, I’m afraid we will never know.”

“How did you learn about Kubel’s part in all of this?”

“Weeks later he asked me to be his confessor. Only when I listened to his admission of guilt did I learn the real story. But as a priest, I was duty-bound by my vows not to divulge Kubel’s confession, even to the police.”

“Even if it involved murder?”

“It was unclear that Kubel had committed murder. He didn’t know it himself. Theft, yes. But murder, it was uncertain. The police determined that the crash had been caused by the army truck.”

“Except Kubel intended to kill us all if he had to.”

“I believed that. So I sought clarity from my superiors. I was told that Kubel had committed no provable crime in the eyes of the law. His action had evil intent, certainly. But the results of his action were unclear.”

“That all sounds very convenient.”

“You’re right, of course.”

“What did your heart tell you?”

The pope sighed deeply. “Kubel had handed over the scroll to the Vatican and his superiors wanted to cover up his actions. All of which was wrong. I made a written statement condemning their stance. My statement was suppressed.”

“Why didn’t you follow your heart and tell that to the police? Why help cover up Kubel’s wrongdoing?”

The pope put the tips of his fingers to his lips as if in silent prayer. “I have wrestled with that question for the last twenty years, Jack. The answer I came to was that I should remain a priest. Only in that way could I one day try to change any wrongdoing from within the church.”

“That sounds like a very convenient answer.”