An Aegean Prophecy - Jeffrey Siger [72]
‘Yes,’ said Tassos.
‘Bastard. Okay, see what you can do and let’s talk later.’
They hung up.
‘What do you think of our chances?’ asked Yianni.
‘About the same as Andreas does. But at least it’ll keep you out of that sort of trouble for a night.’ Tassos pointed toward the bedroom and grinned.
‘Like the Chief said, “bastard.”’ He picked up his coffee.
Tassos patted him on the shoulder. ‘It’s a really good idea, Yianni. But I think we’re all concerned about the same thing.’
‘Losing our jobs?’
‘No, setting something in motion over which we have absolutely no control.’
‘Like pouring gasoline on a campfire in the middle of a tinderbox forest?’
‘Something like that, but let’s not forget who we’re playing with. If these guys get pissed they don’t need gasoline. They’re Russians, they have nukes.’
Kouros swallowed. ‘Maybe I’ll go to church.’
‘Good idea. I think I’ll join you.’
17
Zacharias’ monastery was in full mourning mode, readying itself for the funeral of Christ. At Good Friday morning services, the body of Christ was brought down from the cross and the symbolic shroud of his earthly form placed upon his bier, the epitaphios. Across Greece this was the day of Christ’s wake, a time for paying respects, practising traditions like passing three times beneath the epitaphios for good luck and blessings, and prayer.
Zacharias remembered other funerals and other bodies. Mainly bodies: the unburied, the buried together. The times had demanded it. One must do what must be done on earth as it is in heaven, he thought. There was no choice then, and there was less choice now. Time was running out. The Ecumenical Patriarch would not live forever.
I must make sure that the new Ecumenical Patriarch’s home is here, he thought. The Russians would isolate him from outside influences more than did the Turks. My plans need his ear. The Russians must be vilified. And not just by petty, bribed journalists whose reach rarely exceeded Greece’s borders and few believed anyway. He must validate their words with an unequivocal act of proof.
That would come Sunday, after the three men returned. The tragic passing of the abbot of the Russian monastery would be mourned deeply. But once the new abbot publicly denounced his predecessor’s death as a brutal assassination - from the same source and uncommon poison as the victim’s native Russia stood accused before the world of using in a botched, but horribly disfiguring, attempt to silence the Ukraine’s president - all that was written before would become fact. The Russians would never recover from the impact of those words coming from its own abbot. Only one more death, and the world shall be on a better path to life.
‘So how long do you think we’ll have to stay at your parents?’ Andreas had been standing in the doorway to Lila’s dressing room for ten minutes, talking to her as she sat at her vanity table putting on makeup.
Lila put down the mascara brush and swung around on her chair. ‘Enough already. You’re like a little kid dancing around something he’s afraid to talk about with his mother. What’s on your mind?’
He shrugged. ‘Guilty as charged.’
‘You’d make a lousy crook, I can read you like a book.’
‘You better be the only one who can. Otherwise, I’ll be in a hell of a mess by morning.’
Her eyes narrowed. ‘Why do I think you’re about to tell me you’re taking off again?’
‘Well, only if you say it’s okay. That’s what I told Yianni and Tassos.’
Lila shook her head. ‘As if I have a choice. If I don’t agree, you’d never forgive me.’
Andreas pulled up a chair and sat next to her. ‘That’s not true at all. What they have in mind is crazy anyway. And it’s not worth jeopardizing us.’
Lila smiled. ‘That’s nice to hear.’ She looked at her watch and sighed. ‘We’re late anyway. So, what’s going on?’ She pointed at her belly.