Chapter 82 Chapter 81

The TV set in the Pope's office is a large-screen Hitachi TV, which is placed in a TV cabinet built into the wall opposite the desk.The door on the TV cabinet was opened at this time, and everyone was crowded in front of the TV, and Victoria also moved forward.After pressing the switch, a young female announcer appeared on the screen.She has dark skin and big eyes. "This is an ABC news report," she said. "I'm Kelly Hawley Jones, and this is a live report from the Vatican." Behind her came the brightly lit St. Peter's Basilica. "This is not a live broadcast," Rochelle said sharply. "This is a picture from before. The cathedral has no electricity at all now."

Olivetti hissed, signaling him to be quiet. The announcer continued to report, his voice a little nervous. "Shocking events have occurred tonight in the Vatican elections. Two members of the College of Cardinals have reportedly been brutally murdered in Rome." Olivetti cursed under his breath. Just as the report was going on, a guard ran into the door and said out of breath, "Commander, the phone is about to explode. They want us to express our position..." "Ignore them," Olivetti said, never taking his eyes off the TV screen. The guard hesitated a little. "But Commander..."

"Go!" The guards ran out immediately. Victoria felt that the Pope's servant was hesitant to speak.He just stared at Olivetti for a moment with a pained expression on his face, then turned his head back to the TV. ABC footage shows Swiss guards carrying Cardinal Ebner's body down the steps of the Santa Maria del Popolo chapel to be loaded into an Alfa Romeo.The tape freezes and the camera zooms in.The moment they put the body into the suitcase, the cardinal's naked body appeared on the screen. "Who the hell took this?" cried Olivetti. The ABC announcer went on: "The body has been identified as that of Cardinal Ebner of Frankfurt, Germany. It has also been confirmed that the people who removed the body from the church were Swiss Guards." Do your best to be moderately sentimental.The camera is locked on her face, and her expression is more melancholy in the close-up. "NBC would like to remind viewers to choose their channel freely. The footage we will be showing is extremely realistic and may not be suitable for all viewers."

Victoria muttered a few words, dissatisfied with the TV station's practice of pretending to care about the audience, but actually using warnings to attract the audience.With such a guarantee, which viewer will switch channels?The announcer warned viewers again: "The footage below may shock some viewers." "What scene?" asked Olivetti. "The one that just aired..." The image on the screen locked on to two people in the crowd in St. Peter's Square.Victoria recognized the two at once as herself and Robert.In the corner of the screen was printed a line: Sincere thanks to the British Broadcasting Corporation for kindly providing.Then a bell rang from the TV.

"Oh no," cried Victoria, "oh no." The pope's chamberlain looked at Olivetti with a puzzled expression. "I remember you said you had brought the tape back!" Suddenly a child's scream came from the TV.In the picture, a little girl points to a bloody man.Judging from the man's clothes, he seemed to be a homeless person.Before long, Langdon burst into the frame, trying to help the little girl.The whole picture is extremely thrilling. Everyone in the pope's office was too scared to make a sound, staring at the screen intently.The cardinal fell face down on the pedestrians.Victoria appeared and directed and controlled the scene of chaos, blood.

brand.Failed CPR. "This shocking scene," said the announcer, "became a few minutes ago outside the Papal Palace. Sources identified the body as Cardinal Lamas of France. There is no exact explanation as to why the conclave was absent. So far, the Holy See has refused to comment on the matter." "Refused to comment?" Rochelle called. "Have you given us time?" The announcer frowned and continued: "Although NBC has not yet confirmed the purpose of the attack. However, there is news that an organization claiming to be the Illuminati planned the assassination."

Olivetti was furious. "what?" "For more details about the Illuminati, please visit our website——" "Impossible!" cried Olivetti.He changed the TV to another channel. This station is hosted by a Spanish male announcer. "A cult calling itself the Illuminati, which some historians believe...a" Olivetti flicked the remote as every station broadcast live news, mostly in English, “…Earlier tonight Swiss guards removed a body from a church. The body Proven to be a cardinal—” "...the power outage at the cathedral and museum has led to speculation..."

"... here today is Mr. Taylor Tingley, a conspiracy researcher, and we have asked him to talk about his views on this incident—" "... there are rumors of two more assassinations later tonight." "...the question now is whether the most likely successor to the Pope, Cardinal Bagel, is also missing" Victoria turned her face away.It all happened so fast.Night has fallen outside the window.The murders drew people to Vatican City like a magnet.After a while, the number of people in the square doubled sharply.Another group of journalists unloaded the camera equipment from their cars and grabbed the best camera positions in St. Peter's Square.Onlookers flocked to them asking for updates on the incident.

Olivetti put down the remote control and turned to look at the Pope's servant, "Sir, I don't know how this happened. We did confiscate the video tape from the camera." The pope's chamberlain seemed so stunned that he could not utter a word. No one dared to speak out.The Swiss guards stood there solemnly at attention. "It seems," the pope's chamberlain finally spoke, sounding too exhausted to lose his temper, "I have to believe that we didn't prevent the crisis," he said, looking out the window at the crowd gathered, "I have to make a statement .”

Olivetti shook his head. "No, sir, that's in the hands of the Illuminati—to confirm their existence, to expand their influence, and we must remain silent." "Then what about these people?" The Pope's servant pointed out the window. "Soon there will be tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands. Continuing to act deaf like this will only put them in danger. I'll have to warn them and then evacuate the College of Cardinals .” "We still have time, let Captain Rochel find the storage device first." The pope's servant turned around abruptly, "Are you ordering me?"

"No, I'm just giving you a suggestion. If you're worried about the public outside, we can declare a gas leak and evacuate the crowd. But admitting to a hostage situation is too dangerous." "Commander. Let me just say this once. I will not use this office as a pulpit to lie to the world. If I am going to announce anything, it must be the truth." "The fact? The fact that the Vatican is threatened by dangerous terrorists? That will only lower our standing in people's minds." The pope's chamberlain glared at him. "Can it be lower than our current status?" Rochelle suddenly yelled, grabbed the remote control, and turned the volume up.Everyone hurriedly turned to the TV. During the live broadcast, the female announcer of the American Broadcasting Corporation was a little restless.Above her profile is a picture of the late Pope. "...a news break. Just got the news from the BBC..." She looked aside, as if confirming whether to broadcast the news.Apparently she got a response.She turned to the camera, facing the audience firmly. "The Illuminati just declared that..." She paused, "claiming that they were responsible for the Pope's death fifteen days ago." The pope's chamberlain was shocked. The remote control in Rochelle's hand fell to the ground. It took Victoria a long time to understand the news. "The law of the Holy See," continued the female announcer, "is that no autopsy can be performed after the death of the pope, so it is impossible to prove whether the Illuminati's claim is true. However, the Illuminati claim that the cause of death of the Pope was not a stroke as announced by the Holy See, but poisoning." .” The whole room fell into a dead silence. Olivetti burst out first, "Madman! Brazen lie!" Rochelle started switching channels again.This latest news is spreading like the plague from station to station.Although the content of each TV station is the same, their news headlines are more sensational than the other. papacy murder Poisoning of the Pope Satan's claws reach out to the church The Pope's chamberlain turned his head away. "God bless." Rochelle kept tuning the station.The news from the BBC flashed by. "The shocking murders at the Church of Our Lady of Popolo..." "Wait a minute," ordered the pope's chamberlain, "back up." Rochelle immediately turned the table back.On the screen, a stern-looking male presenter sits at the desk of a BBC news broadcast.Over his shoulder was a picture of a strange-looking man with a red beard.The caption below the photo read: "Gunther Glick - Live from the Vatican". Apparently the Glick reporter was reporting from the phone because of the rustling sound coming from the connector end. "...my videographer captured footage of the Cardinal's body being removed from the Ziggy Chapel." "Let me repeat that for the audience," said the London presenter, "BBC reporter Gunther Glick was the first to break the news. Two phone calls. Gunther, you said the killer just called with an Illuminati announcement, didn't you?" "yes." "What they're trying to announce is that the Illuminati are somehow responsible for the Pope's death, right?" the host asked suspiciously. "Yes. The caller told me that the Holy See thought the Pope had died of a stroke. No, the Pope was poisoned by the Illuminati." Everyone in the pope's office was petrified. "Poisoned?" The host asked, "But... how is it possible!" "They didn't reveal the details," Glick replied, "only that they poisoned the Pope with a drug called..." There was a sound of flipping papers at the other end. "That drug is called heparin." The Pope's chamberlain, Olivetti and Rocher looked at each other in bewilderment. "Heparin?" Rochelle called, looking tense. "that is not……" The pope's chamberlain turned pale. "Pope's medicine." Victoria was taken aback. "The Pope is using heparin?" "He has thrombophlebitis," explained the pope's chamberlain, "and needs a daily injection of heparin." Rochelle was dumbfounded. "But heparin isn't poison. Why do the Illuminati say..." "Heparin can be dangerous if the dose is wrong," Victoria explained. "It's a powerful anticoagulant. Excessive use can lead to hemorrhage all over the body and in the brain." Olivetti looked at her suspiciously, "How do you know?" "To prevent blood clots in captive marine mammals due to lack of exercise, marine biologists injected them with heparin. Some of the animals died due to inappropriate doses of the drug." She paused. "If a person takes too much heparin, the resulting symptoms can easily be misdiagnosed as a stroke, especially in the absence of a formal autopsy." The Pope's chamberlain looked deeply disturbed at the moment. "Sir," Olivetti went on, "this is obviously a grandstanding ploy by the Illuminati. It is impossible for others to overdose the Pope, no one has this opportunity. Even if we are hit, their trick, trying to What can we do to refute their words? The Catholic Church expressly forbids autopsies. Even if we did, we would find nothing. We could only find his daily microheparin injections in the body.” "Indeed," the tone of the pope's servant suddenly became serious, "but there are still some things that make me wonder. People from the outside world didn't know that the pope was using this drug." There was silence all around. "If the Pope had taken an overdose of heparin," Victoria said, "there would be some signs on his body." Olivetti turned to look at her. "Ms. Wittler, maybe you didn't hear me just now, the Catholic Church forbids the autopsy of the Pope. We will not open the body of the Pope just because an enemy made a ridiculous statement. This is blasphemy against the Pope!" Victoria felt a pang of shame. "I don't mean..." She wasn't being disrespectful to the Pope, "I'm by no means suggesting that we dig the Pope's tomb..." She hesitated.What Robert had told her about Ziggy flashed through her mind like a ghost.He had mentioned that the sarcophagi of popes were placed on the ground and never sealed with cement.Because as early as the time of the pharaohs, people believed that if the coffin was sealed and buried, the soul of the deceased would be trapped in the coffin.Yet those lids often weighed hundreds of pounds, and the coffin would sink deep into the ground under the weight.It dawned on her that, technically, maybe—"What signs will there be?" asked the pope's chamberlain suddenly. Victoria was so frightened that her heart was pounding: "Overdose can cause oral mucosal bleeding." "What's in the mouth?" "The gums of the deceased will bleed, and the autopsy will find that the blood coagulates, causing the inside of the mouth to turn black." Victoria once took a photo in an aquarium in London, where two piranhas were improperly injected with excessive heparin by their trainers .The dead whale floated in the tank, its mouth wide open, its tongue black as coal. The pope's chamberlain didn't speak, but turned around and stared out the window. Rochelle's words were not so optimistic. "Sir, if the poisoning story is true..." "It's not true," Olivetti shouted decisively, "it's impossible for outsiders to get close to the Pope." "If true," Rocher repeated, "if the pope was poisoned, this would have a huge impact on the search for antimatter. The rumor of the murder itself shows that the enemy is lurking in the Vatican more than we know." It is deeper than expected, and searching public places may not be enough. If we have such a deep connection with the Illuminati, we may not be able to find the storage in time." Olivetti gave the captain a cold look and said, "Captain, let me tell you what to do next." "No," the Pope's servant suddenly turned around and shouted, "Let me tell you what to do next." He stared at Olivetti, "There are too many issues involved in this matter. Within twenty minutes, I will decide whether to cancel the secret meeting and evacuate the people in the Vatican City. My decision cannot be changed. Got it ?" Olivetti wasn't surprised by this, but didn't react either. The voice of the pope's servant was stern, as if he had ignited an extremely powerful explosive package buried in his heart. "Captain Rocher, you must complete the search of the public place and report to me directly after the search." Rochelle glanced at Olivetti uneasily and nodded. The pope's chamberlain picked out two guards. "I want to see Mr. Glick, the BBC reporter, and bring him to this office immediately. If the Illuminati have communicated with him, maybe he can help us, go quickly." The two guards turned and left. The Pope's chamberlain turned to the other guards and said, "Gentlemen, I will not allow anyone else to die tonight. Before ten o'clock, you must find out where the other two cardinals are and arrest the culprit, do you understand?" " "But, sir," argued Olivetti, "we don't know—" "Mr. Langdon is working on it, and I'm sure he'll figure it out." Before he finished speaking, the Pope's servant strode towards the door, and he made a new decision.When he walked out, he pointed to the three guards and said, "Follow me, hurry up." The guards followed closely behind. When he reached the door, he stopped, turned to Victoria and said, "Come with me as soon as Ms. Wittler invites you." Victoria hesitated. "where are we going?" The pope's chamberlain came out of the door. "To meet an old friend."