Snakes in the grass

2:15 pm, The Vatican City

As one organization’s plans set their way into motion, another, more sinister group was in the midst of making their own plans. Deep in the heart of Rome, specifically the place known as the Vatican City, the leaders of the Holy Roman Catholic Church went about their daily duties; you know, keeping the positive integrity of their massive worldwide congregation intact, scheduling papal appearances and services, and other activities of the like. The iconic structures within the holy city were filled with the likes of cardinals, priests, and their guardians in the Corps of Gendarmerie and the well-known Swiss Guard as they went about their day to day activities amidst the crowds of tourists and the faithful.

Just another normal day at the Vatican.

“Il Camerlengo!”

'What could it be this time?’ a middle aged man, adorned in traditional black priest’s robes with red trim and a red skullcap, asked himself as he looked up from the large pile of paperwork on his desk. This man, Andrea DiNozzo, known to the Vatican and the congregation of the Catholic church as a whole as the relatively new Camerlengo, was currently busy filing the financial reports for the church, one of the major tasks that he was responsible for. Some of his other tasks included scheduling the appearances of the pope himself, organizing major church functions, and in the event of a vacancy in the papal seat, was the man who wielded much of the power of the papacy. It wasn’t exactly the easiest of jobs, but much like the Swiss Guard and the other positions of power in the Roman Catholic Church, it was known more of a calling than an occupation. Still, the job came with its fair share of stress, and Andrea didn’t exactly take kindly to any disturbances. “Come in,” Andrea said tiredly as he pressed his fingers to his temples in an attempt to relieve his headache, peeking through the gaps in his fingers to see who had the audacity to interrupt him at this time of day.

“Il Camerlengo,” the visitor, a light skinned young Vizekorporal of the Swiss Guard in his mid-twenties dressed in the traditional blue duty uniform, called as he walked into Andrea’s office. “I was sent here on orders from the Oberst to gather the documents he needed. Do you have them ready?”

Andrea gave the Vizekorporal a look of disdain before sifting through the massive pile of paperwork on his desk, withdrawing the aforementioned documents a few seconds later. “Here it is,” Andrea said, holding out the manila folder the requested documents were in so the Vizekorporal could take it from him, as he refused to stand up in his weary state. “Everything that needed to be notarized has been done. Tell Hezekiah that I said to come himself next time he wants something from me.”

“As you wish,” the Vizekorporal said as he tucked the folder under his arm, before giving Andrea a customary salute. Once Andrea returned the salute, the Vizekorporal left, shutting the door to leave Andrea in his former privacy.

'That reminds me,’ Andrea thought, his train of thought going from his earlier task to the documents the Oberst of the Swiss Guard as he swept the paperwork on his desk to the side. 'I should check up on how my ‘eyes’ are doing.’ With that, Andrea hit a near hidden button on the edge of the desk near him, which in turn caused the top of the desk to swing open, revealing a hidden storage area underneath the tabletop. This storage area held a lone laptop, which Andrea proceeded to open up. It was already turned on, so Andrea was greeted to the sight of an overflowing e-mail inbox. The Camerlengo let out a weary sigh before scrolling through the reports of what he liked to refer to as his eyes, which were the emissaries of the church, dispatched worldwide to perform the duties of the church that he himself could not due to his position. Many of the reports were identical in nature, their purpose simply to give the Camerlengo, and by extension the Vatican, an update on the state of the various dioceses around the planet.

Some, however, were of a much different nature.

As Camerlengo, Andrea’s eyes were privy to a very high percentage of information that went in and out of the Vatican. With that being said, it made the position one of protection, as the Camerlengo would be one of the first to know whenever something went amiss, and would have the first response to rectify the situation, usually without the pope ever knowing. This was a safeguard put in place to prevent the pope from having to deal with much of the politics that were involved with running the church, but it was also used to keep the pope away from certain happenings in said church. Never let it be said that the pope totally agreed with what went on in the church; there were times that even the Holy Father was clueless to certain events in his own house. As a matter of fact, if the pope had more sight when it came to the political workings of the church, then he would be appalled when he found out that some parts of his church were a hell of a lot more militant than he could have ever dreamed.

Why?

One look at Andrea’s laptop would reveal to him that Andrea, who was admittedly one of the better men to serve as Camerlengo in recent history, was also a double agent in a sense. Yes, he was devout in his faith as a Catholic, but Andrea was something of a hardliner, someone who thirsted for the former power the Catholic Church had wielded in the times of the Dark Ages and the Renaissance. It was no secret to the Church and the world of the former glory the Vatican had possessed; during the Dark Ages, the Catholic Church was all but the law for much of Europe. They had become such due to the fall of the Western Roman Empire, when the Germanic tribes raided the Roman lands, laying waste to everything in their path, specifically the numerous tomes of knowledge the empire had catalogued. The Church had been one of the few institutions that had escaped the plundering of these barbaric invaders, and as such, the tomes of knowledge that they possessed were saved from their wrath. With the possession of such knowledge, the Church became the superpower of Europe, and remained such all the way until the beginning of the American explorations.

Once the Americas were 'discovered’, the church lost a substantial part of that power, due to the rising number of people who chose another path, one that gave them freedom from the sometimes oppressive rule the church had maintained. People were tired of the Church’s philosophies of submission to their will, especially with the church being unabashed in using scripture itself to keep the populace in line. They were tired of the mass excommunications, the witch trials, and the control the church had over the knowledge they learned, but the biggest thing, was that the people were tired of the mass executions the church had willingly backed in that time, all under the code of forcing the people to fall in line to their way of thinking. Thankfully, these events had ceased... well, at least in the public view. There were still members of the church, belonging to an isolated yet powerful sect, which still believed that the church deserved its former influence and power, and would do anything to get it. This is what Andrea had done; as a member of said sect, he had used his faith as a mask to acquire the position of Camerlengo for the influence it had. Besides, who would ever think that Ut Puri’s highest leader was the Camerlengo himself?

Ut Puri; the age old society that went against the Scions themselves in their lust for power, the society that had maintained its status as arch-enemies to the Illuminati and the Sovrumano, the organization whose goal was world domination in their image and idea. Ut Puri, the Order of the Pure, was known more prominently in the Catholic Church as this group of hardliners, and was thought to be separated from the church after the end of the Renaissance. For a long time, since the fall of Rome, Ut Puri had aligned itself with the Catholic Church, under the guise of zealots who strove to do God’s work, which in their philosophy meant the eradication of the Sovrumano due to their unique powers. With this kind of cover and backing, it was tantamount to taking candy from a baby to get the populace to follow their will; from a religious standpoint, it was plausible for Ut Puri to successfully write off the Sovrumano as devils and demons.

They were successful with this ploy for hundreds of years, even during the rise of Merlin and King Arthur in the British Isles, and even when the Templar Knights themselves returned from the holy city of Jerusalem with their minds enlightened. Ut Puri even endured when the Illuminati rose up during the Renaissance, by using their church influenced power to kill and detain thousands of known Illuminati members such as the famed philosopher ad man of knowledge in Galileo. It was only when Pope Gregory XVI himself got tired of Ut Puri using the church’s religious beliefs to commit genocide that their hold diminished. Coincidentally, this is when the position of Camerlengo was delegated the power to control the flow of information that made it to the pope’s ears, but this was overlooked by the pope, as he thought that his edict, which banned Ut Puri and its members from ever gaining a position of real power in the church, would be enough to stop their goals. Andrea being Camerlengo was proof enough to show that his edict had failed, but little did he realize that every Camerlengo since this edict had been a high ranking member of Ut Puri. And if that wasn’t enough, thanks to Andrea’s efforts, Ut Puri also had a near absolute control over the very men that were tasked with his safety, those being the members of the Corps of Gendarmerie and the elite Swiss Guard.

It goes without saying that in order to pull an infiltration of that caliber off, you had to have an airtight gamelan, as well as some daring individuals to go along with the idea. Ut Puri had those in spades, from the feared Vlad the Impaler of the Renaissance, to Andrea himself, supported by varying like-minded terroristic groups under the radar. In this day and age, Ut Puri could rightfully say that they had the backing and influence of most every extremist group in existence, funneling money, arms, and manpower to supplement the equipment Andrea was able to separate from the church, all for Ut Puri’s ancient goal of purification of the races, all for a world where they were on the top of the food chain. Andrea knew all of this and more, which is why he was cautious to a near craze. If the pope, of whoever else in the church ever caught wind of Ut Puri’s continued presence in the Church, he would be swiftly dealt with, as would all within the Vatican itself.

Fortunately for Andrea, being Camerlengo came with a variety of perks, one of which was one of the few offices in the Vatican that wasn’t wiretapped or under any kind of surveillance. He didn’t have to worry too much if it was, as the Oberst of the Swiss Guard, the man directly in charge of things of that nature, was also his second in command. Still, Andrea valued caution, so he valued the perk of a truly private office. It didn’t hurt that said office was also extravagantly decorated, with a genuine Persian rug, oaken walls, a Victorian styled window overlooking the famed St. Peter’s Square, and a plethora of papal artifacts to decorate the many tables and shelves in the room. Hey, even the Vatican had its style.

Andrea was just about done with his look through of emails on his laptop when a new email suddenly came through, alerting Andrea to its arrival with the signature chime of a new message. 'Just when I thought I could take a break,’ Andrea thought, rolling his eyes once he saw who the sender was. 'Ah, so the whelp decided to finally give me an update on his end eh?’ To say Julian was not on any of Andrea’s favorites lists was an understatement; the two men had a genuine dislike for each other. Despite what most people would think, however, Andrea’s dislike for Julian wasn’t due to his Sovrumano heritage; as a matter of fact, that was one of the few things he appreciated about the man known as Ut Puri’s manslayer. Andrea didn’t like Julian because he had a tendency to not follow orders, which more often than not resulted in Andrea covering up for one of Julian’s blunders. Conversely, Julian couldn’t stand the Camerlengo because Andrea had no problem pulling rank or disciplining his subordinates, usually in a painful fashion. 'I swear if he found a way to mess this up he’s getting replaced, manslayer or not.’ Andrea thought as he clicked on the email to read its contents.

To Andrea’s shock, however, the email wasn’t one of Julian’s usual S.O.S type messages, rather, it was an actual, full-fledged report on he and his contingent’s assigned mission. As Andrea read the contents of the email, his graying eyebrows started to rise, his interest genuinely piqued. Julian had told Andrea of his encounter with Nestor, asking for direction to proceed, but unbeknownst to Julian, Andrea actually knew who Nestor was. Nestor had a claim to fame besides being the Protector of Lindos, that being his victory over Andrea’s older brother Antonio 24 years prior in a fight to the death. Ever since then Andrea had kept a murderous vendetta against the man, hoping for a chance to right what was in his mind a wrong; he could care less that Nestor only killed Antonio out of self-defense in the end.

'So Nestor,’ Andrea thought as he propped his elbows on the top of the desk to rest his head in his hands. 'Seems fate has felt it necessary for our paths to cross yet again. And this time, you hold the last line of defense to something I aim for.’ Making up his mind, Andrea reached for the phone to the right of him on the desk, picking it up and dialing a few numbers before waiting for someone to pick up. Once he heard the familiar click of an answer, Andrea immediately took the lead in the conversation, not waiting for the operator on the other line to speak. “Connect me with Hezekiah Shane, right now.”

It was time for Ut Puri’s finest to make his move.