Plan B
“Thank you, brother. Because of you, I’m still alive.”
“...Please, sit down first. It seems your leg is troubling you as well....”
He was limping because, after the accident, he had never received proper treatment, and now he leaned on a cane as he walked. The many wounds scored across his face made it easy to imagine how much hardship he had endured.
“Thank you, brother. I was just about to collapse, hahaha.”
“....”
James took his hand and helped him to a chair.
“Phew. I can breathe again.”
“You’ve been through a great deal, Cardinal.”
“....”
At the word great deal, Cardinal Augustino’s face twisted.
“Are you unwell?”
“...At my age, bodily pain is an ever-present companion. ...But because of me, the Vatican Museum guards and the Lord’s priest... ngh.”
“....”
It wasn’t his body that troubled him, but the sins he had confessed under torture by the criminal syndicate—the Vatican’s internal affairs that had spilled from his lips. Because of him, the Vatican had suffered an unprecedented crisis, and in the chaos, the priest in charge of the Vatican Museum had been injured.
In truth, if not for his mouth, the security of the Vatican Museum would never have been breached. Even the information about the Pope’s secret vault had reached the criminals through him, so the theft of the Holy Grail, too, had to be laid at his feet.
But James spoke, trying to ease the burden on his heart. Stefano had already been completely healed yesterday by the power of holy water, so it was all in the past.
“As for Father Stefano....”
“I heard news of the boy yesterday as well. Secretary Yosef told me.”
“....”
This was the part where he truly wanted to say thank you.
“Thank you, brother. Truly, thank you.”
“There’s no need to thank me for that.”
He had not used his own power; it had been the power of the sacred relic they believed in.
“The secretary told me everything. He said that while he himself had not been able to believe in the Lord or the Holy Grail, you, as an outsider, believed in the Grail without the slightest doubt.”
“Ah....”
“Thanks to you, Brother James, I believe I’ll be able to see Cardinal Andrea.”
Cardinal Andrea had also gone with the Pope and the secretary when the incident broke out, saying that he needed to meet with Cardinal Augustino. But as a result, Father Stefano had remained at the museum, and what followed left Cardinal Andrea with a wound of guilt that would not heal. Now that the priest who had been the source of that guilt had been healed yesterday, he said he would be able to meet him.
“I’ll be taking my leave now. I should apologize to Cardinal Andrea for what I’ve done. After that, I must go see the Pope.”
He had been the one to oversee the Vatican Museum in Andrea’s place. Yet because of the internal information Cardinal Augustino had handed over to the criminal organization, many priceless relics had been stolen. The theft of those relics and works of art was a separate matter from Stefano’s healing. In particular, the loss of both the Holy Grail and the Holy Paten weighed heavily on Augustino’s heart.
“...Please take care, Cardinal.”
Leaning on his cane, Cardinal Augustino left James’s room with visible effort.
“....”
Left alone, James scratched his head and gave a wry smile.
Should I go find them and return them?
It was not a question to answer lightly.
Then I’d have to use magic again....
After spending the day at the Vatican guest quarters, James finished packing and prepared to leave. He bought a flight back to Korea for the afternoon and even sent a text to Park Jin-tae. With the flight so rushed, it seemed as if James had decided not to return the stolen artworks to the Vatican Museum.
But after scanning the room, James went to a corner and spoke.
“If you’re listening, please let me see Secretary Yosef.”
-....
No answer came, but someone was listening. It was part of the internal security system that had resumed after the Holy Grail theft.
“I’ll wait.”
-....
Secretary Yosef soon knocked on James’s door and took the seat Cardinal Augustino had occupied the day before.
“You asked for me, Brother James.”
He had a different look on his face than he had yesterday.
“Have you made up your mind?”
“...I am always nothing more than the Lord’s foolish servant.”
“Do you have nothing more to ask of me?”
The secretary answered briefly and firmly.
“No. Nothing, Brother James.”
“....”
He was speaking as if he knew nothing of the mysterious power in James’s magic.
“That may be a blessing for me, but shouldn’t we at least recover what was lost?”
“The things they took from the Vatican Museum are works of art worth hundreds of millions of dollars, even if they were put up for auction today.”
The secretary therefore believed they could be caught without James’s help.
“...I’ve sent photographs and a list of the stolen works to every country and to Interpol. Even if the stolen pieces are traded, it will only lead us to the criminals’ trail.”
“But recovering everything won’t be easy.”
“...No, it won’t. We may recover some, but as for the pieces that have already sunk underground....”
Most of the stolen artworks would not resurface until a long time had passed. By then, ownership would already have changed hands several times, and to recover them for the Vatican, the final owner would have to be paid for them again.
“Shall I look for them?”
“....”
Yosef could see faith in magic rising again within his own heart. If it was James’s magic, then perhaps he really could recover every last stolen piece.
“Hah. Why do you keep putting me to the test?”
“I’ve already heard an accident happened, and I can’t in good conscience leave without even trying.”
James had already decided to find and return the Vatican’s artworks.
“I won’t be expecting anything. The Vatican won’t provide any separate support either.”
“It won’t help much anyway.”
Yosef could see a small glimmer of hope in James’s confident manner.
“...Is there any chance of recovering the Holy Grail?”
Losing the artworks could be endured, but the Holy Grail had to be recovered at all costs.
“That depends. It comes down to how many traces they left behind. I don’t need anything else—just let me see the scene.”
“The police in Italy are already investigating the traces they left.”
The traces a magician sees won’t be the same as the traces the police see.
James could read the traces of mana that no one else could perceive.
“I don’t intend to stay here long. I’ll go to the crime scene, examine the traces, and leave right away.”
“Very well, Brother.”
Afterward, James was able to enter the Vatican Museum with Yosef, where a notice at the entrance said the museum would be closed for a time due to major renovations.
“It’s true that construction is underway inside.”
“Is that so?”
As James stepped inside, he drew mana with his hands clasped behind his back.
Water mana. Reveal your memory....
In James’s vision, as he looked through the mana, faint figures began to appear. They were the experts who had been moving through the museum recently, inspecting the damaged areas.
A little farther back....
He traced the memory of the mana back toward the moment when the theft had occurred. And when he reached that exact point, someone was spraying the interior with gunfire.
“....”
Only after seeing that scene did he understand why construction had become necessary here. The same was true of the sight before his eyes, not just the memory carried by mana.
“So they shot up all over the place?”
“Yes. They moved without the slightest hesitation, firing their guns as they went. It will take quite a long time to restore everything.”
The Vatican Museum was not only the artworks and relics displayed in its cases. The paintings on the walls and even the small sculptures were all works of art. And now there were grotesque bullet holes scattered across those walls.
“Crazy bastards....”
The expressions on James’s and Yosef’s faces were identical as they stared at the marks left in murals by Michelangelo and Raphael.
“That’s how they were able to break into the Vatican and point guns at priests.”
“....”
Following Yosef deeper into the museum, James also glimpsed the blurred figures of the intruders. Then, in the memory of mana, someone appeared who had stood in their way.
He had spread his hands and blocked them, and the bastards had pulled the trigger without hesitation.
...Father Stefano.
Even from that blurred shape alone, James could tell it was Stefano. He approached the place where the priest had fallen after being shot and asked,
“This spot... is it here?”
The place still held the dark stain of blood.
“Yes. This is where Stefano was found.”
The memory of mana showed Stefano to the very end, reaching out in a desperate attempt to stop them.
“Hmm. Good. Have you determined where they escaped from? The security cameras must have caught it, right?”
“...At the time, all the security cameras were turned off.”
“!”
That meant the memory of mana was all there was.
“They had an accomplice inside. They even cut the lines connected to the emergency power supply. Since it was a dark night, the guards’ response was even slower.”
“Then you don’t even know where they fled?”
“...The police investigation later established the direction of escape. This way.”
The place Yosef led him to had a very small door.
“Through here....”
“The employee in charge of this section was one of their pawns as well.”
As he said, the person who opened the small door seemed to be a Vatican Museum employee. His blurred silhouette guided them outside, while the men who had already taken items from inside were busy loading the goods into vehicles.
“...The people they planted were lurking all over the museum.”
“They’re gone now. They all disappeared together that day.”
“The Vatican should have their identities, right? They’re museum employees.”
If they could identify them, finding them would only be a matter of time. James assumed that, unless they had undergone plastic surgery like in the case involving Cardinal Augustino, they could still be tracked down.
“Of course. But the police found their bodies.”
“...They killed them all?”
“It seems they intended to cut off all loose ends from the very beginning. It’s clear they had been targeting the Vatican Museum for a long time.”
Yosef, too, knew from the investigation so far and from the surviving Cardinal Augustino that the group had been planning this for a long time.
“...This is troublesome.”
“Only a tiny amount of footage remains outside Vatican property.”
James had thought the criminals’ faces would have been caught by government security cameras, but even that had not been the case.
“...The street cameras along the route they used were all dead.”
“Then the footage was taken separately by someone?”
“No. Only the license plates could be confirmed from the black boxes left in some of the vehicles.”
How long had they been preparing Plan B?
They had finished preparing every move necessary to strike the Vatican, and only then had they leaked the information that Cardinal Augustino was alive.