47

Camerlegno Carlo Ventresca walks slowly through the Vatican's Northern Wing before opening prayer, needing solitude to compose himself. He reflects on the fifteen days since the Pope's death, during which he confirmed the death, sealed the papal rooms, destroyed the papal ring and seal die, arranged the funeral, and prepared for conclave.

Ventresca considers conclave not merely an election but a sacred transfer of power. As he approaches the Sistine Chapel, he thinks of Cardinal Mortati, who must already have noticed that the four preferiti are missing, and hopes Mortati can guide the cardinals through the crisis.

The chapter shifts into Ventresca's memories. As a child, Carlo was deeply devoted to the Church through his mother, Maria, who took him to Mass daily and taught him never to break a promise to God. Carlo, fatherless from birth, accepted the idea that God was his father and believed God had special plans for him.

Carlo's faith was violently tested when a terrorist bombing destroyed a chapel near Palermo while Carlo and Maria were attending Mass. Carlo survived only because he had stepped into a protected alcove moments before the blast, while Maria and many others were killed. A bishop later took Carlo in, and Carlo grew up in a monastery attached to the bishop's cathedral.

At sixteen, Carlo chose military service before seminary because he wanted to understand evil before fighting it through the Church. He hated the army's noise and violence, refused to fire a gun, learned to fly a medical helicopter, and discovered a sense of divine closeness through parachuting. After returning, Carlo entered the seminary.

Back in the present, Ventresca descends the Royal Staircase and tells himself to surrender the night to God. Swiss Guards open the Sistine Chapel doors, the cardinals turn toward him, and Ventresca enters believing the fate of the Church has been placed in his hands.