Chapter NineteenTHE RELIC
Drake was in the small room at the Vatican in Rome to receive the Christian relic, dressed in monk's robes, dark head bowed low beneath a coarsely-woven brown hood.
“Give this to the needy for a blessing,” the Cardinal said, in his red slippers and robe. “I was commanded in a dream to give it to you. It's late, my son, it's past midnight, I slipped past my sleeping guards. Go quickly before I change my mind and alert them that you're here.”
“Yes, father,” Drake said, head low, and crossed himself. He bent to kiss the shiny ring on the Cardinal's hand.
“The relic's going to rest in the bowels of dark Africa,” Drake said. He rose on a mist and leaped to a star, cried mightily, bestrode Iraq, where drops of blood fell unnoticed amongst the broken glass and bombs,
