He certainly seemed happy when I saw him standing with Luna in the car park at the end of Via Sant’Anna in Vatican City.
“I hope you don’t mind,” he said as we all stepped out of the SUV.
“Sorry, Mr. Morgan,” Luna added as we approached. “He likes grand gestures.”
“What is wrong with a grand gesture to the people who saved our lives?” he asked. “Come. There’s someone I want you to meet.”
He led us through the brick archway onto Via Sant’Anna and we walked along the ancient road to the Papal Palace near the Vatican Bank.
“We’re going to meet the Pope, aren’t we?” Mo-bot remarked.
She wasn’t Catholic, but for some reason the prospect clearly excited her. I wasn’t so eager to be confronted by God’s representative on earth. My own feelings about my faith were unclear and hadn’t been helped by the discovery that an institution like the Church had been used by evil men to spread their poison.
Thankfully, once we passed through security we were shown into the vast and opulent office of Cardinal Sala, the Pope’s personal representative. Unlike Cardinal Peralta, Cardinal Sala wore the customary royal purple, but with no air of vanity or pomp. When his assistant showed us in, the cardinal rose from his desk and greeted us warmly.
“Mr. Morgan, Ms. Smith, Ms. Roth, Mr. Kloppenberg, the Church owes you a great debt. His Eminence the Holy Father has asked me to convey his gratitude.”
I nodded. “You’re welcome.”
“The Church will of course honor your engagement and pay any bills you present in relation to this investigation.”
“Thank you,” I replied.
I had thought the arrest of our original client would result in this being a pro bono case, so was relieved to know the Vatican would make good.
The cardinal offered us tea, which we took on a grand balcony overlooking the Fontana dei Delfini, decorated with statues of dolphins and set in a beautiful ornamental garden. We discussed the most superficial and polite aspects of the case.
After twenty minutes, we took our leave and returned to the parking lot to find the Range Rover waiting where we had left it.
“Thank you, Mr. Morgan,” Antonelli said, embracing me. “I owe you much.”
He smiled at Luna. When I’d started this investigation, I could never have imagined it would end with me putting our client behind bars and being hugged and thanked by one of the biggest criminals in Rome.
“I’m going to convince him to retire,” Luna said in my ear as she embraced me. “Thank you for keeping us alive.”
“You’re welcome,” I replied. “I hope you succeed in getting him to spend more time farming olives and baking bread.”
She grinned. “I’ll try my best.”
The two of them said farewell to Justine, Sci and Mo-bot, and we all climbed back into the climate-controlled luxury SUV.
“Ready?” the driver asked.
I looked at Mo-bot, Sci and Justine in turn, and each of them smiled and nodded.
“Ready,” I replied. “Let’s go home.”
Acknowledgments
We’d like to thank Nicole Witmer, Emily Griffin and the team at Penguin for their excellent work on this book. We’d also like to thank you, the reader, for joining Jack Morgan and the Private team on another adventure, and hope you’ll return for the next one.
Adam would like to thank James Patterson for his continued guidance. Thanks too to Adam’s wife, Amy, and their children, Maya, Elliot and Thomas, for their love and support. He’d also like to express his gratitude to his agent, Nicola Barr, and to Malcolm Carter, whose donation to a local school charity gave him the right to name a character after his daughter, Emily Carter.