As soon as they were out of sight, Devantier rushed to the fence and crossed it. He heard someone moaning and switched on his cellphone's flashlight to better see what was going on. To his surprise he saw a young man lying beside one of the buttresses and a large backpack was placed next to his head. The man was mumbling something in a foreign language that Devantier recognized as Moroccan. Devantier could hear a ticking sound that originated from the backpack and could smell odorous smoke. He quickly put two and two together, grabbed the backpack by its shoulder straps and tossed it over the fence to the open square, and quickly ducked for cover.
The sound of the explosion woke up the neighborhood. Car alarms were set off by the shockwave, windows in nearby buildings were shattered by the blast and the din was ear-splitting. Devantier threw off his own backpack and helped the young man to his feet. They crossed the fence and headed south, away from the river and in the opposite direction that the limping man and his two comrades took. By the time police, ambulances and fire-fighters arrived on the scene, Devantier and the young man were far from the cathedral.
Chapter 1
Lara left the apartment she had rented in the heart of the university area of Bologna. She sauntered under the colonnaded arcades along Via Zamboni, watching the groups of students, who had probably skipped the classroom to spend quality time with their friends in the sunny streets and piazzas. Although it was close to noon, the coffee shops were crowded with young people having their morning espresso before going to class, or instead of doing so. Lara knew that their tranquility would soon be shattered, and that Bologna wouldn't be the same in the evening.
She sat down at one of the vacant tables and ordered a croissant with her espresso. She stretched lazily and became aware of the attention of male passers-by who ogled her pert breasts. She wasn't worried that they'd recognize her, or remember her, because large sunglasses covered her face and the hat she was wearing covered her hair and forehead. She was waiting for her contact, Fatima, who was due to arrive from London.
Le Docteur, Lara's lover and partner in crime, had told her about Fatima and her spectacular contributions to the cause of NEMESIS. Fatima was responsible for planting the bomb that destroyed the famous 13th Century glass windows in La Chappelle in Paris. She was also the chief perpetrator of the terrorist acts that damaged the historic Royal Library and Royal Chapel in Coimbra, Portugal. Although these acts could not rival those of Lara herself, they still were a demonstration of courage, skill and cold-blooded dedication to Le Docteur and Islam. Fatima was now travelling with an Irish passport that identified her as a woman named Fiona. This was supposed to remove any hint of her Muslim origin, although the attractive pigmentation of her skin was far from being typically Irish.
The two women were sent on a sanctified mission of revenge — to wipe out the abomination that was displayed on the wall of San Petronio Basilica (called San Petronius by the English-speaking tourists). The fresco displayed an artist's concept of heaven and hell. The top part depicted heaven and the rewards due to the righteous, the middle section showed people seated in rows of benches waiting for judgment, and the bottom part illustrated hell.
A graphic depiction of a man being devoured by Satan was in the center of the bottom part of the fresco, two men hanging head down were at the top of the same section, and several men and women being tortured in various inventive ways covered the rest of the lower section depicting the artist's concept of hell. A detail of another man, lying on a rock just left of the center, being devoured by a scary creature, was what enraged Muslims. The name Mohammad was drawn below the man. It was considered by Muslims as an insult, sacrilege and defamation of the prophet.
There had been attempts in 2002 and 2006 by groups with ties to Al Qaeda to destroy the basilica, and obliterate the offensive fresco, preferably together with the entire building. In both cases the terrorists failed. However, the new waves of Islamic terror attacks in Western Europe led the Italian authorities to increase security at the main tourist attractions in Rome, Milan, Florence and Bologna. At the basilica of San Petronio, the enhanced security measures consisted of two police officers screening the people entering the basilica with metal detector wands and peeking into backpacks and bags. In addition, two soldiers armed with automatic guns were standing guard with a military-looking jeep outside the building. These measures were hardly a deterrent for dedicated Jihadists who were willing to die for the cause but gave the residents and tourists a false sense of security.
Lara and Fatima had no intention of dying for the cause. They had devised a much more sophisticated plan. Create a double diversion, and when attention of the basilica's guards was drawn to the devastating incidents outside, they would cover the offending fresco with a coat of black paint and glue that would make restoration impossible.
The site for the first diversion was less than a hundred meters from the basilica's main doors, and perhaps even more famous — the anatomical theater at the old university, inside the Palazzo dell Archiginnasio. The Palazzo was the building in which the oldest university in Europe was established in 1108 and therefore considered as one of the main cultural treasures of the Western world. A marble table was in the center of the anatomical theater and it was surrounded by wooden benches for the students. A raised podium, covered by a canopy, served as the seat for the distinguished professor who oversaw the medical students performing (sometimes unauthorized and illegal) autopsies. Wood panels covered the walls and several statues of famous medical doctors and researchers were displayed. Among them was Galenius holding his book that was used to teach generations of physicians, and on the opposite wall stood a statue of the church's envoy, in charge of overseeing the proceedings. The study objects, the cadavers, were all men who died of natural or unnatural causes, and in some cases were executed by the authorities. Naturally, they were poor, with no one of influence to prevent their dissection by the keen doctors and students.
The second diversion was the site of the very symbol of Bologna — due tori, or the two towers. Around the city, there were a few other towers that remained from the days when Bologna's richest families built such towers to display their wealth and strength and used them also for offensive or defensive purposes. A wooden model of the city in the Palazzo d'Accursio, the seat of the city council, showed about 180 towers that must have created an impressive skyline in the 12th or 13th century. Due tori were unique — when construction started, Garisenda Tower developed a tilt at an angle of about 4 degrees (more than the leaning tower in Pisa) and its construction was stopped at a height of 48 meters. A new one, Asinelli Tower, was built and stands at its full height of 97 meters, although it too is slightly tilted. The two towers are depicted in many photographs of Bologna and serve as a reminder of the great city it used to be.