The Blue Ring (41 page)

Satta
surveyed the faces around the table and then came back to linger on the face of
Creasy. He said quietly, "I learned last night from General Emilio
Gandolfo something which caused me grief, humiliation, embarrassment and pain.
As a man who has dedicated many years of his life attempting to find crime in
my country, it will not be difficult to understand the shock I felt when I
learned that Benito Massaro has not only retained his power in my sick country,
but has continued to build on it." He looked up again at Creasy and slowly
at the others. His voice took on a shred of emotion. "This may sound
dramatic...it is certainly ironic that the instruments to smash that power are
sitting with me in this room. It is also ironic that only two of you, Guido and
young Pietro, are Italian."

No
audience had ever been more rapt.

"There
had been rumours," Satta continued, 'that during the investigation of the
Lodge P2, a list of over fifteen hundred names had been mysteriously lost.
Those that had not been lost were frightening enough. The known names included
nine hundred and sixty-two leading Italian figures. Among them four cabinet
ministers, no less than thirty-eight parliamentary deputies and one hundred and
ninety senior military and intelligence officers. Included were Michele
Sindona, a leading banker connected to the Mafia, who was later mysteriously
poisoned in prison. Roberto Calvi, head of the Banco Ambrosiano, known as God's
Banker because he advised and was deeply involved with the Vatican bank. He was
found hanging by the neck under Blackfriars Bridge in London in 1982 after his
bank had somehow lost one and a half billion dollars." Colonel Mario Satta
sighed and said, "What I discovered last night was that Benito Massaro has
been able to form a new Lodge, which we may as well call P3...It threatens the
very fabric of my country."

The men
around the table glanced at each other and Creasy asked the question in all of
their minds. "Mario. We understand about Benito Massaro. What does he have
to do with us?"

Satta's
abrupt laugh was chilling. He pointed at Creasy.

"What
you and your son stumbled into represents a very slim chance for me to finally
break and destroy Benito Massaro and his threat to my screwed-up country."

The rain had stopped and a watery sun lit up the sky. The others had returned to
bed, but Guido and Creasy walked out onto the terrace, perhaps in an effort to
clear their minds. Guido said, "If I had not known Satta these past six
years and had come to appreciate his brain and integrity, I would have thought
he was a lunatic."

Creasy
smiled.

"We
have both lived long enough, and seen enough to know that he was telling the
truth. Not just about Gandolfo or the rest of them, but also about his thesis
that even as a senior officer in the carabinieri he's powerless to do anything
about what he's learned." Guido grunted in exasperation.

"It's
true," he said. "Who the hell can he trust? He has learned of four
other generals senior to him in the carabinieri who are part of P3. He has
learned that two cabinet ministers, not on the original P2 list, are members of
P3..." He smiled wryly. "He has also learned of a cardinal, two archbishops
and five top judges. So who would he report to? How could he start an
investigation? Without doubt Gandolfo told him the truth. A man who knows for
certain that he is about to die, always tells the truth...But such things are
compartmentalised. Gandolfo knew only a part...perhaps a small part."

"That
has to be true," Creasy agreed. "Let's examine the information in the
light of our own operation and in the light of exactly what Gandolfo told
Satta. First of all, Gandolfo had been blackmailed these past three decades by
'The Blue Ring'. Blackmailed on youthful, sexual and financial sins. He also
knew that many powerful men had similarly been blackmailed. He made the
connection between Massaro and 'The Blue Ring', although Massaro perhaps used
'The Blue Ring' more than they used him. Gandolfo was certain that within 'The
Blue Ring' they have somewhere the missing list of P2 members that alone would
be worth millions." He turned to look at Guido, gave him a tired smile and
said, "But let's simplify all this. Thank God, Satta has his own
connections, both through his work and, strangely, through his mother. He
cannot act unless presented with a fait accompli. Our smashing of 'The Blue
Ring' on Sunday night at their black mass will give him that fait accompli. His
plan is good. He will have a team of junior carabinieri officers nearby;
ostensibly about to raid the home of a suspected, corrupt industrialist. When
we start the war against 'The Blue Ring' on Sunday night, he will be the
nearest senior law officer. He will be alerted. He will be the first on the
scene with his team. We will be gone. He has the names of at least two honest
judges who will have been vaguely pre-warned. They will be on the scene shortly
afterwards. Nobody, not even the Prime Minister or the head of intelligence or
the head of anything else will be able to stop Satta and those judges."

Guido
shook his head and laughed. "What a country!" he said. "I can
hear a whirring sound...It must be Garibaldi spinning in his grave."

Creasy
also laughed.

"The
biggest shock Garibaldi would have had was to learn that the De Muros were part
of that whole sick scene. Didn't that aristocratic family help finance him in
his crusade to unite Italy?"

"They
did," Guido agreed. "And for the past hundred years they have been a
pillar of Italian society. Now we learn that their progeny are under the
influence of Massaro and, what's worse, 'The Blue Ring'. When Satta told us
that the black mass on Sunday would take place in the De Muros' private chapel,
presided over by a genuine Catholic bishop, I worried not for Satta's sanity,
but for my own. Then I remembered that the De Muros are an offshoot of the
Medici family...They had their own Pope some centuries ago and of course they
poisoned opponents to pass the time."

"It
has to be true," Creasy said grimly.

"It
has to be," Guido agreed. "No one...not even a doomed general, could
invent that."

"We
know the location," Creasy said. "We know the time. We know who will
be there. What we do not know yet is whether Satta can convince his mother to
plant that weapon for Michael in the De Muros' palazzo."

Tom
Sawyer stretched his cramped limbs and watched the sun rise away to his left;
it bathed the Comino channel red. He heard the hoot of an owl. He pulled up the
binoculars and focused them on a clump of carob trees behind him and to the
right.

He saw
no owl, just the dark figure of a crouching man moving away from the trees. A
few seconds later another dark figure replaced the first. Sawyer glanced at his
watch in satisfaction. His men, as usual, were awake and on time. For him it
was time to sleep. He stood up on the flat roof of the farmhouse, the
binoculars dangling from his neck. Laura would be getting up ready to prepare
breakfast. As he came down the stone outer stairs, a battered old Ford
clattered down the dusty track. It pulled up in the courtyard and a plump
priest emerged.

He
greeted Sawyer and asked, "Has the bird-watcher spotted anything?"

Sawyer
smiled and nodded.

"A
couple of early kestrels looking for worms...or maybe mice." The priest
smiled knowingly and asked, "Is Laura about?"

"She
will be," Sawyer answered. "This house rises with the sun."

Laura
was up and in the kitchen. She greeted the priest warmly and introduced him to
Sawyer as Father Manuel Zerafa. The priest's face had turned grim. He took
Laura by the arm and led her away, talking urgently to her in Maltese. Sawyer
heard the word Uomo mentioned. He helped himself to a mug of coffee.

Creasy
took the call a few minutes later. Laura simply told him that Father Zefara had
to talk to him urgently.

Creasy
listened to Father Zerafa, interrupting only to ask, "Is she sure?"

Five
minutes later, Creasy was back on the terrace of the Pensione Splendide talking
to Guido. His words dripped like acid in their anger.

"I
know now who is the head of 'The Blue Ring'. He is an Arab. It seems that he is
more than likely Michael's natural father."

In his
entire life Colonel Mario Satta had never really confronted his mother. She was
a lady who combined position, wealth, intelligence and pride, making a
formidable character.

For the
confrontation, he had summoned his elder brother, Professor Giovanni Satta,
from his surgical duties at the Cardarelli Hospital in Naples to back him up at
the family villa in Rome. It had taken an hour to brief Giovanni; but at the
end of that hour his brother had been convinced, and together they went into
the drawing room to talk to their mother.

Signora
Sophia Satta was seventy-four years of age and had a mind that would have
turned Machiavelli dark green with envy. It had been rumoured that just before
the war Mussolini had made a pass at her during a state reception. She was a
tall woman. She had patted his bald head and then reached down and, through his
immaculately tailored uniform trousers, had felt his genitals, smiled and said,
"You are presumptuous both above and below the waist."

The
result was that the Satta family had spent the war in their country estate,
rarely venturing to Rome.

She
looked at her two sons as they sat opposite her. She tried to keep the
affection and pride from her eyes. She had always castigated them for their
choice of professions; but to her intimates she had always confided her
pleasure.

Of
course they knew this. But Colonel Mario Satta was worried that she would not
believe or react to what he was about to tell her.

In
dealing with other people of the world he was seldom wrong, but in dealing with
his mother he often made misjudgements.

She
listened in total silence, glancing occasionally at her elder son, Giovanni.
Mario's briefing took more than half an hour. At the end of it she merely
nodded and said, "I have to tell you that it is no secret to me that
Emilio Gandolfo had been a puppet of everybody since the day he emerged from
his mother's womb. I have to tell you that many of the people you mentioned
were also born to be puppets. Your father died young, but the reason he
attracted me and persuaded me to marry him was that he could never had been
anybody's puppet." She smiled fondly. "Not even mine."

Her
sons smiled.

Giovanni
said, "Mama, I only vaguely remember our father. But one thing I do
remember is that he never raised his voice to you."

"He
had other and better ways," she said briskly. "Now tell me, in all
this terrible mess, what this old woman can do."

Mario
leaned forward and said, "On Sunday night there is to be a black mass in
the private chapel of the De Muros' villa. The black mass is to initiate Pino
Calveccio into the ways of the devil. The mass is to be conducted by Bishop
Caprese. Let me explain."

His
mother raised a hand.

"You
do not have to explain. Pino Calveccio inherited a vast fortune from his
corrupt father three years ago. During those three years he has tried
everything from under-aged girls to drugs. Surely the bottom of his personal
pit must be Satanism...Biship Caprese has been a degenerate since long before
he took the cloth. His father was also a degenerate. You cannot surprise me
with such information. What do you want me to do?"

"It
is simple," Mario said, "but a little dangerous."

She
lifted her head and laughed.

"My
boy, at my age, danger is almost as exciting as a perfect aphrodisiac...What do
you want of me?"

Mario
glanced at his brother, who was looking slightly shocked. He looked back at his
mother and said, "I learned from Gandolfo the procedures at such events.
The congregation will meet in the De Muro villa at approximately eleven p.m.
Drinks and canapes will be served. At about half past eleven they will change
into their robes. They will then proceed the three hundred metres to the
private chapel in the grounds for the black mass. 'The Blue Ring' will have a
guard circling the grounds." He paused for thought and then said,
"You have heard me talk before of my friend Creasy?"

She
nodded. "I have indeed...He is a man I would like to meet. He is a man I
would like to have met thirty years ago."

Both
sons smiled. Their father had died thirty-one years earlier.

Mario
went on, "You understand why I cannot possibly mount a carabinieri
operation against that mass or those involved."

"I
understand perfectly," she said. "I assume your friend Creasy is
going to do just that."

Mario
nodded. "He has a very powerful team. What's more, his adopted son Michael
has infiltrated 'The Blue Ring' and will be attending the mass. Naturally,
anyone entering the De Muro villa that night will be carefully searched. It is
vital that when Michael moves from the villa to the chapel, he should be armed
and carrying a tiny radio transmitter. Now let me tell you..."

His
mother held up a hand.

"No,
Mario, let me tell you. You want me to plant that weapon and a transmitter in
the De Muro villa...No problem." Giovanni laughed.

"Mama,
it's dangerous. Listen to Mario's plan."

She
smiled and shook her head.

"If
I'm going to do it I will follow my own plan. There is no difficulty in my
entering the De Muro villa. I will pass by tomorrow afternoon. Although they
have a name, and a faded reputation, they will be honoured at my calling by. I
will be welcomed for a coffee and a drink. I will bring some gossip to
titillate their tiny minds. In spite of their family history they have become
very provincial in the last hundred years or so." She smiled again and
winked. "A visit from Sophia Satta would be far more important in their
social calendar than a mere black mass." She closed her eyes in thought.
"I'm trying to remember the layout of the villa. It has been some years
since I was there. I recall that there is a dressing-room to the right of the
main entrance. I presume that the congregation will change their clothes
there."