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In St. Peter’s Square, the crisis turns into a media spectacle and public vigil. News trucks seize positions around the piazza, crews erect large flat-screen displays, and crowds gather to watch live coverage as anticipation and fear build outside the Vatican.

Inside St. Peter’s Basilica, Lieutenant Chartrand and three other Swiss Guards continue searching public-access areas for the hidden antimatter canister. They remove their infrared goggles near the brightly lit Niche of the Palliums, where ninety-nine oil lamps burn continuously as part of Vatican tradition.

Chartrand scans the niche and finds nothing. He notices a grate leading down to a lower stairway but does not investigate because Rocher’s orders limit the search to public areas and exclude the white zones. The guards discuss the lamps’ sweet-smelling fuel mixture, which includes butane and would burn fiercely if spilled.

The guards then receive a radio update: because of alarming new developments, the camerlegno has decided to break tradition and enter conclave to address the cardinals. Chartrand is reassured by this, seeing the camerlegno as a decisive and devout leader willing to confront the Vatican’s enemies.

Chartrand reflects on the camerlegno’s past trauma, including the bombing that killed his mother, and remembers a conversation in which the camerlegno explained suffering through the analogy of a father allowing a child to fall while learning. The memory deepens Chartrand’s admiration for the camerlegno and frames the current attack as another test of faith and resolve.