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Waldron was unable to resist the temptation to look in the briefcase.

“Jesus!” he said, shaking his head and sighing. “You realize, I hope, that you have just forced the United States to declare war on the Catholic Church, the Vatican?”

“Not necessarily,” Serov said.

“We . . . The government has to respond to this,” Waldron insisted.

“What Cronley and I are hoping to do is enlist the Vatican in our noble cause.”

“What?”

“Think about it, Colonel,” Serov said. “The reason they’ve been hiding Odessa’s money is because they see themselves as allies of Odessa—the Nazis—in a holy war against godless communism. The enemy of my enemy, so to speak.”

“That’s probably true, but so what?”

“We hope to convince the Vatican first that we have no intention yet of broadcasting their connivance with Odessa to the world—” He glanced at Janice Johansen. “Key word ‘yet.’ Then we tell them what we have learned about the religion Saint Heinrich the Divine has started . . .”

“What makes you sure they don’t already know?”

“I don’t know that, but I am convinced that if they did, they would have considered the Church of Saint Heinrich the Divine a far greater threat to them than even godless communism and would have really gone after them.”

There was a pause, and then Waldron said, “I hate to admit this, but maybe you’re onto something. Big question: What makes you think they’ll even listen to you?”

“We turned the archbishop and the bishop loose with the message that we’re willing to discuss the two million and change with the cardinal. And only the cardinal. We gave him the telephone number of the safe house so we can arrange to meet.”

“And you know what happened at the safe house,” Cronley said.

“You think he’ll call?”

“If only about the two million alone,” Cronley said. “Why don’t we go there and see if he has?”

“Ordinarily, that would be a no-brainer,” Waldron said, “but . . .”

“But what?”

“But that brings us back to the real—perhaps I should say original—reason for this meeting.”

“Which is?” Serov said.

Waldron looked at Cronley. “There is considerable concern on the part of several people about your mental health.”

“Oh, bullshit!” Cronley blurted.

“Not only do you have a well-deserved reputation for being a legendary loose cannon, you also have a dangerous friend in Colonel Serov.”

“I repeat: Oh, bullshit!”

“This concern is shared by General Clay, Mr. Justice Jackson, and, perhaps most important, by Colonel Frade, who knows you better than anyone else.”

“What . . .” Cronley began.

“You agreed to Cletus’s message, so remain silent until I’m finished,” Waldron said. “Say ‘Yes, sir.’”

After a pause, Cronley was about to reply but instead said, “Yes, sir.”

“Various solutions to the problem were suggested even before this potential war with the Catholic Church came up and the risk of your involvement for the President and the DCI. These ranged from placing you in a psychiatric institution to sending you to stack snowballs in the Aleutian Islands—”

“How the hell can I defend myself from this He’s bonkers charge?”