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skeletonpunching · 7 years ago

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Vatican Miracle Examiner book 6 recap - Laplace’s Demon

I recently read the sixth Vatican Miracle Examiner novel, Laplace's Demon, and it was a wild ride, even by VME standards. I wrote up a (rather messy) summary/recap, because I wanted to share how gloriously bizarre it was.

A lot happens in this novel, both in terms of the standalone plot and things that affect the overarching storyline of the series. Below the cut are many spoilers for things not covered in the anime. Also some of my personal reactions to said things. And translations of scenes that I couldn’t bear to summarise.

As is usual with VME plots, the actual case they’re investigating is rather confusing and riddled with weird twists; I feel like I’d have to do a reread to properly understand and explain what actually happened, so I don’t go into that much detail about it. I mostly focus on the character moments instead, because those were a lot of fun. Name spellings are my best guess.

The publisher’s official summary for this novel:

Volume 6: Laplace's Demon

A young congressman, who is candidate for the next president of the United States, is struck by a dazzling light while in church and dies mysteriously. Rumours circulate that the congressman was possessed by a spirit of the dead; the government, viewing this as a serious matter, requests the Vatican to investigate. Hiraga and Roberto, together with their old acquaintance FBI agent Bill Suskins, infiltrate a haunted house that is said to contain evil spirits. It turns out that this is a place where prominent financiers hold exclusive seances, and further shocking events occur!

This does not really indicate just how weird the novel gets.

The book opens with Edmond Marini - the Republican Senator of Colorado, and a presidential candidate - giving a speech in a church. An ominous grey cloud appears overhead, there’s a flash of dazzling white light, and when the light fades, the senator is found dead.

Our old friend, FBI agent Bill Suskins, wakes up at home with a hangover. He realises that he’s naked, and that he can hear a woman humming and the shower running. He panics, because he’s single and lives alone and can’t remember what happened the previous night. He eventually recalls that he was out at a sports bar, and the Denver Broncos won, and he was celebrating with a woman he met, who was a fellow Broncos fan. They drank a lot at the bar, and then went back to his place to drink more scotch. He remembers that this woman’s name was Catherine, but has no real impression of what she looked like other than that she had brown hair and was pretty. He decides that if he slept with her, he has to propose marriage, as a good Catholic boy. (He’s also distressed that he doesn’t remember losing his virginity.)

When Catherine gets out of the shower, he proposes marriage, with great lines like “I'm a single man with no history of divorce. I work as a public servant and have a stable income, so I think I'm not too bad as a spouse…” She laughs at him, and eventually tells him that he just took off all his clothes, asked her if she could sleep on the couch, and went to his own bed. Bill apologises for not having taken the couch himself. She laughs at him more and leaves.

Bill then gets notified of Senator Marini’s death and is put on the case. A few days before the senator died, he attended a seance at a haunted house in the Rocky Mountains; this house was apparently built by a former US president for summoning useful spirits. Bill is assigned to investigate this, and is told that he’ll be working with priests from the Vatican.

Over in the Vatican, Saul tells Roberto and Hiraga about their new mission to investigate the haunted house. Bill’s reaction to hearing about the haunted house was basically “first I’ve heard of this”, and Saul mentioned “I’m not familiar with the details” when he brought it up, but the instant Roberto hears about the case, he knows the exact house being referred to. (Of course.) Apparently it was built by a weapons manufacturer, the Raytheon Company, presumably commissioned by the US president.

Roberto invites Hiraga home for dinner. The novel spends over 2 pages describing the fine dinner he cooks, and half a page talking about how Roberto has adjusted his cooking to suit Hiraga’s palate, by using less olive oil and less fatty meat, and incorporating more ingredients like tofu. (I appreciate this important information.) Then there are over 10 pages of exposition on history and science, during which Roberto points out twice that Hiraga has gotten so distracted he stopped eating. Hiraga is apologetic.

Bill gets an autopsy report from Dr. Maggie Walker, an eccentric genius scientist working at Rising Bell Laboratories. Apparently she was a radical socialist in her schooldays. Her personal life is a mystery; there are rumours that she’s a lesbian, and there are rumours that she hates people.

(picture by the novel’s official illustrator)

This is her first interaction with Bill:

"It's been a while, Dr. Walker."

"28 days, 3 hours, and 40 minutes, Agent Suskins. Your face has a high degree of symmetry, which fortunately makes it easy to remember. Among animals, females observe the symmetry in male features to judge that they carry high-quality genes, and have a statistical tendency to be attracted to them."

"Do you mean that as a compliment... Thank you."

Dr. Walker tells Bill that there were holes in the palms of the dead senator’s hands. Bill compares this to Christ’s stigmata, and Dr. Walker says "You're the type to worry about omens and put stock in divination, aren't you? Things like that are only drugs, clouding people's eyes and causing errors of judgement." Bill feels called-out, because he does indeed check the newspaper column every day to find out his lucky colour, and chooses his socks accordingly; he’s not the only one to do it in this dangerous line of work, okay. :(

Roberto and Hiraga arrive in the USA. Roberto is excited by the sight of the gargoyles at the Denver airport. Bill is all dressed up in a nice suit when he meets them; Roberto is mildly surprised and comments on the change in Bill’s style of clothing. Bill gets embarrassed and explains that it’s just that he’s going undercover for this - he’s posing as Tom Barry, a high-ranking official from the Department of Justice.

They go to the haunted house, which has spiders on the wallpaper and is generally spooky, and is really labyrinthine to keep guests from navigating it on their own. Our heroes seem pretty terrible at being undercover - they discuss the investigation in a crowded room, and people turn to look suspiciously at them multiple times. Hiraga stares intently at a mirror, and Roberto worries because he feels like Hiraga is being drawn into the mirror by a magical power. Roberto maybe needs to chill a little, but he doesn’t get the chance to, because then the seance starts.

The masked person leading the seance begins chanting, and Roberto is startled, because he recognises it as an ancient incantation that he thought was only recorded in the Vatican’s library.

Hiraga, meanwhile, is really excited at the prospect of seeing spirits summoned. But he’s also wondering why all the lights are on for a seance, and thinks "Aren't we going to hold hands?" (He speaks my mind.) Then he hears voices - first it’s the voice of his late grandmother singing to him in Japanese, and then it’s a male voice telling him to go to a specific doctor in Colorado if he wants Ryouta to get better. Hmm.

“Roberto, did you hear anything?”

“Yes, I did. I heard many voices talking. What surprised me was that mixed among them, I could hear voices speaking in ancient Greek and Aramaic. Honestly, I’m a bit confused.”

Roberto whispered this; his face was slightly pale. Perhaps he had heard something unpleasant.

And then, his gaze dark, Roberto turned towards the wall as though something was visible there.

“Evildoer, begone.”

Hiraga heard Roberto mutter in Latin, in a low voice.

Then a humanoid spirit appears, and Hiraga starts hypothesising about how it could be a holographic projection. The spirit knocks over candles, and passes by Hiraga and tells him “Hurry, do what you must”. Hiraga concludes that it can’t just be an image. He reacts by nervously trying to drink the tea in front of him, but it’s cold (and possibly frozen). This does not help with his distress. The seance ends, and our heroes discuss it.

“I heard the voice of my late grandmother, and a Japanese song that she liked to sing to me. And then, I heard advice concerning my relative’s illness.”

When Hiraga said this, Roberto’s brow twitched.

“What is it?”

“Ah, no… At the start, I heard mingled voices speaking in several languages, and then it was my late relative’s… that is, I heard my late father’s voice. He gave me a message that only I would understand. And I saw him with my own eyes.”

Roberto replied in a deliberately cheerful voice.

But from the pallor of his face, it was easy to guess that this had been a dreadful experience for him. His hand, resting on the table, clenched tightly, the knuckles whitening.

Hiraga wanted to take away this pain, even if just a little. He gently squeezed Roberto’s hand for a moment.

Roberto’s fist loosened slightly.

...so we get handholding after all!

What Bill heard at the seance was... a Superbowl announcer. He seems embarrassed about this. Roberto can’t help but laugh.

Hiraga has a nightmare about everything turning into spiders (he really does seem prone to nightmares, especially on missions). Bill investigates the haunted house, looking for forensic evidence of what happened to the senator, and has visions of blood splattering and hears creepy noises. He goes to Hiraga and requests that Hiraga purify him; fortunately Hiraga has actual holy water with him this time. Then it’s time for another seance, where Roberto has a vision of his father staring hatefully at him with bloodstained hands.

"You are a child of sin. Your mother had an affair and hid it from me. You know, don't you? Don't act innocent. Her partner was my colleague Wyatt. When I wasn't around, they often met with each other. Roberto, you know, don't you? That's why I killed her. Me, and your mother - we're both sinners. So you're a sinner too."

Brono's voice seeped into his ears like poison.

Roberto desperately shut out this voice.

And then an elderly man at the seance vanishes into thin air, like water draining out of a plughole. It turns out that this was the Colorado police chief, Danton Meyer. The people running the seance explain that he’s been taken to the spirit world. Everyone kind of panics.

Our heroes decide to leave the haunted house and investigate elsewhere for a while. Bill calls his boss, who basically says that this isn’t going as planned, but since Denver is Bill’s hometown, if Bill feels like taking some vacation time, his boss can’t control what he does on his own time. I guess this calls for a sleepover at Bill’s family home!

Roberto and Hiraga meet Bill’s family - his father Jack, his mother Emily, his younger brother Tom, and Tom’s (pregnant) wife June. (They also have two golden retrievers, sadly unnamed.) Bill’s family is really warm and welcoming; they ask the priests to bless Tom and June’s unborn child, which they do. Then they settle down for a meal. Bill is really excited at getting to eat his mother’s cooking, especially since he usually just has cereal for breakfast.

But to the gourmet Roberto, American cuisine was an object of horror.

Roberto is suffering because he hates American food. It’s too rich and has too much cream. He can’t handle mac and cheese. But he knows his hosts prepared this with a lot of effort and sincerity, and he can’t slight that. (He does like the wine. Bill’s dad goes on about how great Colorado wine is.)

Hiraga’s not doing well either - he’s gone all pale. He’s not used to eating this much. Roberto swoops in with an excuse about how as priests, they typically eat plain and simple meals, and aren’t accustomed to so much deliciousness. This seems to work.

Back to the investigation! They review footage of the senator’s death in the church, etc etc. This culminates in a truly beautiful exchange:

Roberto: "Surely you aren’t saying that Senator Marini was killed by aliens?"

Hiraga: "There's no proof to the contrary, is there?"

~*~VME~*~

They’ve been watching videos of the senator’s death for ages. Hiraga, who’s on a roll, asks Bill to show him the recordings of the seances as well. Roberto mercifully cuts in and suggests they all take a break before that. Bill has a momentary expression of “I’M SAVED”. Hiraga firmly replies that he’s not tired and will be fine. Roberto and Bill decide to investigate other stuff, and leave him to it.

Hiraga also confirms that the Colorado doctor that the voice mentioned actually does exist, and has done some groundbreaking research into curing bone cancer. He’s really excited about this, of course.

Lauren emails Hiraga: “How are things over there? Now that we've had to postpone the game, the boredom is endless.” Hiraga sends him the data so he can take a look.

The next day, our heroes go to Senator Marini’s funeral service, which is at the same church where he died. (First, Roberto and Hiraga politely consume some extremely sweet doughnuts and coffee provided by Bill’s mother.) They meet Father Nick Ezekiel, a priest at the church and an old friend of Senator Marini.

Investigation stuff is happening (we learn that Roberto can lip-read, because of course he can), and then as Roberto’s talking to Nick Ezekiel, we get blindsided by SUDDEN ROBERTO ANGST:

He was the type of person who wouldn't let his guard down around others. Roberto understood this well, because he himself was like that.

Roberto carefully observed the priest’s appearance.

There was a smile on his face, but it was a professional, manufactured smile. It did not reach his eyes. His eyes were cold, like a snake’s.

This man bore darkness in his heart. Roberto sensed this intuitively.

Hiraga, meanwhile, is doing some pretty smooth questioning: "Father Nick, why did you become a clergyman? I'd like to understand this resolve, so I can become a fine priest." This really throws Nick off; he escapes to work on the funeral arrangements, and Bill remarks that he’s behaving oddly. During the funeral, Nick is giving a speech when there’s a blinding flash of light and he collapses dead, the same way Senator Marini did.

Meanwhile, eccentric genius scientist Dr. Maggie Walker is up to something. Bill calls her and tells her about the new death (and the way the police chief vanished into thin air at the seance). Dr. Walker then takes some time off, disguises herself as someone else, and goes to a secret hideout where she reads a children’s book she inherited from her mother. She also builds bombs in the secret hideout, and thinks about how she wants to bring about the world her mother dreamt of.

Bill has to go back to Washington DC for a bit, to sort out some administrative stuff and report to his boss. He tells Roberto and Hiraga to think of his home as their own while he’s away.

He received an email from Father Hiraga that was as short as a telegram - "Thank you for your kindness" - and a polite email from Father Roberto.

Father Roberto's message was as follows.

"Since receiving your message, 'I hope you will make yourself at home', Father Hiraga is truly spending his time as comfortably as if he were at home. That is to say, he's shut himself in his room and is rooted to his computer. He'll probably be in this state for quite a while. Everyone in the Suskins family is undoubtedly surprised, but there's no need for concern. I would be glad if you could put in a word as well. Of course, I will also give an explanation to your family. With affection,"

Bill calls home and finds his mother worrying about Hiraga and how he hasn’t come down to meals. Bill explains that it’s fine, seriously, Hiraga is just busy, they can talk to Roberto if there’s an issue.

Hiraga, meanwhile, is going over the recordings of the seances. He does not like what he finds.

(Not just me, but the voices that other people heard - they should be in here too, shouldn’t they?)

With this question in mind, Hiraga checked the voice recordings many times.

However, there were too many voices; he simply could not distinguish between all of them, to identify which were or were not present.

While repeatedly listening, Hiraga’s attention happened to be caught by one line.

“You are the child of sinners. You are not fit to stand before the gates of heaven.”

He was certain he heard these words spoken in Italian.

Could this be… If these were the words that had fallen on Roberto’s ears…

Just how badly had they hurt him?

These were not words that should be said to Roberto.

If someone said such things to him, Hiraga would strike down those words and refute the opponent.

Hiraga remembered that when they were in the mansion, Roberto had behaved bravely, but his gaze had been dark.

Father Roberto Nicolas was an upstanding priest with a kind heart.

To hurl such words at him - that assuredly could not be the work of a divine spirit.

From this moment, Hiraga bent every nerve towards figuring out just what deception was at work in the seance.

(ง •̀_•́)ง Hiraga will fight ghosts with science for talking shit about Roberto! He’ll prove the seance is fake because he has to defend Roberto’s honour! HIRAGA…

Oh, right, there’s a case going on. Anyway, the investigation progresses. Roberto interviews Senator Marini’s widow and finds out that she saw a suspicious person (who looked like an evil spirit) in the days leading up to her husband’s death. Bill does a lot of legwork and finds out that Senator Marini and Father Nick Ezekiel were terrible people who, when they were younger, engaged in crime and Satanic rituals, and brutally murdered a family in Miami. The only survivor of the crime was the son, Harrison Onsager, who was five years old at the time, but his testimony was rejected. Danton Meyer (the Colorado police chief) was a detective working the case at the time, and botched it somehow.

Harrison Onsager has been missing for years, and is known to be a mathematical savant. Basically, Harrison Onsager killed these people to take revenge for his family. But how? Through SCIENCE, of course.

At this point, Hiraga (talking to Roberto) just starts dropping pages and pages of SCIENCE exposition about… Nikola Tesla. And the amazing properties of electromagnetism, and how it can create optical illusions (e.g. the alleged Philadelphia Experiment). And how the US military is testing plasma weapons at Area 51. It turns out that Lauren has been helping to find out this stuff by hacking US military secrets. Roberto expresses concern.

"Did Lauren discover this too? Isn't this sort of hacking dangerous?"

"If you ask Lauren, he says there's no problem."

"Well, fair enough."

Speaking of Lauren, Hiraga gets an email from him.

“More information from Lauren?”

“Ah, no. The sender is Lauren, but it’s not a message about the case. It’s the next move in the ‘Game of Angels and Demons’.”

“What, you two are playing the game even at a time like this?”

Roberto shrugged his shoulders.

“Yes. But somehow, Lauren has been strange lately. For some reason, when I make a move, there’s no resounding response… And the moves that come in aren’t like him.”

Hiraga doubtfully closed the window. Roberto watched him intently.

“What’s the matter?”

“No, it’s nothing. I was just thinking that when you’re messaging Lauren, you’re really serious.”

“Is that so. Am I strange?”

“No, I’m not saying that. That aside, how about going out for a bit? It’s been a while since we went out to eat.”

They go out to eat. Roberto wraps vegetables in tortillas and puts it on Hiraga’s plate while they’re talking.

There’s... another 25 pages of really dense exposition, including Hiraga explaining the concept of Laplace’s demon. Bill returns at some point, and Hiraga and Roberto casually mention to him that former US presidents have been members of the Illuminati. Bill is confused and distressed. “Something like this - that’s just the plot of movies or TV shows.” He believes in the USA!

Hiraga and Roberto show him photos from the haunted house, and how it was decorated with the ancient Greek words for “light”, “control”, and “universal illumination”; Roberto points out that this is very evocative of the Illuminati. Was the haunted house built as an Illuminati setup in the first place? Maybe? Like Bill, I am very confused about this.

Bill gets a call about having found Harrison Onsager’s hideout, and they go there. The walls are covered in equations, like on all the crime shows. Even Hiraga doesn’t understand all of them, and is really excited about this. Roberto, with his unerring homing instinct for OLD BOOKS, finds an old manuscript. It’s a children’s story - the same one Dr. Maggie Walker was reading. Roberto identifies it as being in Albert Einstein’s handwriting. There’s a letter with it, in a child’s handwriting - it’s signed “Charlotte Walker”.

Hiraga says he can now explain all the mysteries of the haunted house. Roberto says he now knows how not to get lost in its labyrinth. Bill is suitably impressed by all this beautiful genius. They also figure out that Harrison Onsager is probably hiding in the haunted house.

First, though, they return to Bill’s home for a bit, where the family is having a birthday party for Bill’s sister-in-law June. Bill’s dad also brags about how Bill was a college football champion back in the day. Bill gets terribly embarrassed and blushes, and is like “dad, of course I remember, you really don't have to tell them about it". Then the three of them retreat to discuss their plan for returning to the haunted house.

Hiraga has sent Harrison Onsager’s wall equations to Lauren, who replies “I’ll consider it, but I think it will probably take several years to reach a solution”. Roberto has drawn a map of the house, based on clues in the children’s story.

Bill is kind of worried that returning to the house might be too dangerous for the priests.

Hiraga: “It is the duty of the priest to protect the lamb.”

Bill: “By 'the lamb'... do you mean... me?”

Roberto: “Not just you - all the faithful are the lambs of God.”

Bill asks what they’ll do if they run into the culprit; Roberto and Hiraga look at each other and answer simultaneously “Persuade him to turn himself in.”

Full of bad ideas, they return to the haunted house, where they witness another seance. This verifies Hiraga’s theory, and he drops 5 pages of SCIENCE exposition about how the seance was faked by inducing hallucinations through electromagnetism, etc etc. He then takes the time to pause and carefully explain that there is nothing wrong with Roberto.

“In other words, people who have strong visual memory, or are sensitive to such memories. And that’s why… Roberto.”

As Hiraga said this, he gazed squarely at Roberto.

“The reason why you saw your father is not because you are cursed or anything of the sort. That was simply a hallucination caused by the electromagnetic field. You do more visual work than we do, and so you have a more highly attuned visual memory. Other people instead testified that they heard voices - but you come into contact every day with symbolism, iconography, and classical art, and you work to decipher these. And so it’s easy for your lingering traces of memory to be perceived as visions.”

[…]

Roberto smiled as though relieved.

There’s more SCIENCE exposition about Bose-Einstein condensates, etc etc. The conclusion of all this is that the culprit created a tiny black hole and used it as a murder weapon to make Police Chief Meyer vanish from existence at the seance.

I was honestly convinced that I was just misreading it and hadn’t been following the science exposition closely enough, but then Bill straight-up says “But to have created a black hole - what a frightful criminal” and Hiraga seriously responds “Yes, that’s right. The misuse of his intelligence has led to something outrageous.”

To reiterate, the genius scientist criminal created a black hole and used it to murder someone at a seance.

~*~VME~*~

(The other two victims were, apparently, killed by sending a highly targeted surge of electricity directly at their hearts. So it wasn’t aliens, but at this point, aliens might make as much sense as anything.)

Having concluded that there is a murderer who can CREATE BLACK HOLES lurking in the haunted house, our heroes naturally split up to explore this house, like beautiful idiots who have never seen a horror movie in their lives.

Bill finds the room where Harrison Onsager tortured Senator Marini and presumably drilled holes in his hands.

Roberto gets hit on the back of the head and passes out. WHO COULD HAVE SEEN THAT COMING.

He wakes up and finds himself facing the masked person who ran the seances. They’ve taken away Roberto’s map of the house. Guess who’s under the mask!

Long platinum blond hair cascaded down. Deep emerald green eyes appeared. Pale skin as smooth as white porcelain. Pink lips. An oval face with beautiful features as delicate as a woman’s.

A beautiful devil...

[crosses off the “suddenly, Julia” square on my VME bingo card]

“Just what is your goal?”

Julia handed the map he was holding to the man in the black cloak. He drew close to Roberto and gazed into his face.

“Ah, yes. Perhaps my goal is to torment you...”

“Enough with the bad jokes. There’s no way that’s what you’re after.”

“Heh. After I captured Harrison in the room of ‘Those that Dwell in Deserts’, who do you think I was hoping would show up? If the one pursuing Harrison had been Agent Suskins, he has combat experience, so it would have been a bit troublesome. If it had been Father Hiraga, there probably wouldn’t be enough time to seize his heart, and even if I tormented him, I wouldn’t be able to enjoy his reaction. But you are different. If it's you, I can play an enjoyable game. Each and every one of your anguished expressions is extremely interesting. The things that you’re thinking, the dark emotions which churn under that mask of hypocrisy - I understand them perfectly.”

“I wish you’d stop your half-baked rambling. What do you know about me?”

Roberto glared at Julia.

“I do know. Because you and I are very similar.”

“What?”

“Because you’re a real liar, aren’t you?”

“…”

A laugh once again rang out from Julia’s throat.

“You’re silent, I see. I hit the mark after all. I still have some way to go before getting what I want - including you and Father Hiraga - but this time I’ll make do with these results. After all, I have no time.”

Julia let out a dejected sigh.

“No time?”

“Yes. My subordinates discovered a large number of time bombs set up in the power room and foundations of this mansion. It seems that someone plans to blow up this mansion. They’re rigged to explode if someone tampers with them, so there’s no way to disarm them. The time limit is 5 o’clock, at dawn. That should be exactly an hour from now. I have to escape quickly.

But perhaps this could become a bit of a challenging game for you. Your map has been taken away, and while you were unconscious, I had the rooms moved around a little. I’ve also injected you with a drug, so you won’t be able to walk for 30 minutes. This is a game of whether or not you can survive. Don’t you think that’s interesting?”

Julia bore the bold smile of a devil, as he swiftly stepped back from Roberto.

“Au revoir, Monsieur Roberto. Or should that be ‘adieu'? If it’s ‘au revoir’, you will have passed the test. Galdoune awaits you.”

(picture by the novel’s official illustrator for all your “Julia murderously flirting with Roberto” needs)

Looks like it’s time for the obligatory Roberto-in-peril scene! [crosses off the “Roberto whump” square on my VME bingo card]

Roberto decides that he has to warn Hiraga and Bill about the bombs. He does this by taking off his cassock and “underwear” (this caused me INTENSE CONFUSION for a moment, but I figure it's referring to his undershirt and he isn't actually taking off all his clothes), and then he bites his finger until it bleeds, and writes a warning on his shirt in his own blood. (Roberto, don’t you have a Sharpie or something.)

His logic is that there must be some way to monitor all the rooms from the central control room, so when Hiraga and Bill meet up there they'll see the warning on the cameras. (I think the deeper logic going on here is that the author really wanted Roberto to be shirtless while in peril, but I’m not complaining.)

Hiraga makes it to the control room, sees Roberto on the monitors, and freaks out. (His voice shakes!) Bill arrives too, and more unexpectedly, Dr. Maggie Walker shows up. It turns out she’s destroying the facility so that its powers can’t be misused. She didn’t expect to find them there, but calmly informs them that she’s set up 200 bombs which will be going off in 20 minutes, and if they take the elevator they can get to the building entrance and escape the blast radius. Hiraga cries out that his friend is trapped and has lost his map, so he can’t get out. Dr. Walker looks at where Roberto is, and tells Hiraga that they’ll never make it to him in time and will all die if they try.

“Somehow… There must be some way to save Roberto…”

Hiraga muttered this with his eyes squeezed shut, and grabbed Dr. Walker’s hand.

Hiraga comes up with the idea of saving Roberto by programming electromagnetic transmissions. (Dr. Walker is impressed with his SCIENCE skills.)

Bill is concerned and asks if Roberto will really be alright. Hiraga’s response is sweet, but also seems worryingly like him using denial as a coping mechanism again.

“Father Roberto is an intelligent person. He will definitely realise.”

There was not the slightest trace of doubt or unease on his face.

Roberto looked at his watch ticking onwards.

It was exactly 4.50.

He’d regained movement in his legs, but even now, moving quickly was a struggle.

Finding the exit was impossible.

As long as Hiraga and Bill had escaped safely, it was fine…

Roberto, absentmindedly recalling the times he had spent with Hiraga, smiled a little.

(We’ll never meet again, huh… Goodbye, Hiraga.)

As he softly whispered, he heard footsteps and a voice.

---Roberto. Over here.

It was Hiraga’s voice. Roberto sprang to his feet, shocked.

“Hiraga? Is that you? It’s dangerous - run away!”

He headed towards the room where the voice had come from. Before one of the doors stood Hiraga.

It was only for an instant, but it was definitely Hiraga.

When he approached, Hiraga swiftly vanished beyond the door.

Roberto didn’t really understand what was going on.

This was an illusion he was seeing before he died, wasn't it?

But, Roberto thought, if it was an illusion of Hiraga, he wanted to be together with him.

Roberto, in the grip of something that was neither logical nor rational, rushed into the room where Hiraga had disappeared.

---Over here. Roberto.

Once again, he heard Hiraga’s voice, and saw his figure vanish into another room.

Roberto, in a trance, chased after him.

And so, while pursuing the vision of Hiraga, he passed through an unknown number of rooms, and the elevator appeared before him.

The doors were open, as though awaiting him.

Bewildered, Roberto boarded the elevator, which stopped at the fourth floor of its own accord.

And again, as the doors were opening, he caught sight of Hiraga’s phantom.

The phantom disappeared into the right-hand door, and there was the echo of a voice calling him. “Roberto!”

Desperately pursuing this, Roberto exited three rooms, and suddenly saw a window before him.

(It’s a window…)

He looked at his watch.

It was 2 minutes and 15 seconds before 5 o’clock. Maybe, just barely, something could be done.

At this moment, he heard voices from outside the window.

“Roberto! Are you there, Roberto!”

“Father Roberto, if you’re there, please respond!”

The frantic shouts - those were Hiraga and Bill’s voices.

Roberto wrenched open the window and looked out.

Under the window was a car. An unfamiliar woman, Hiraga, and Bill stood there.

“Jump out! I’ll catch you!”

Bill dashed forward.

Roberto crossed himself, and leapt out of the window.

With characteristic excellent athletic ability, and with the soul of an investigator, Bill Suskins firmly caught him.

The FBI motto he had pledged to uphold was “fidelity, bravery, integrity”.

BILL FOR MVP.

(Also, I’m crossing off the “TRUE LOVE SAVES THE DAY” square on the VME bingo card.)

Dr. Walker drives them all away in her car, and is pleased with herself for how well her building-demolition calculations worked. Bill reflects that it’s the first time he’s seen her smile. She explains that her mother - Charlotte Walker, who met and corresponded with Einstein - was her predecessor as the head of Rising Bell Laboratories, and helped to develop the technology in the haunted house. She tells Bill that his simplicity is a virtue which may backfire on him someday, and also asks him to keep secret the fact that he saw her here, or she’ll have to kill him.

Meanwhile, Roberto and Hiraga are talking about all the drama that just happened.

Next to them, Roberto was asking Hiraga a question.

“So, well. I believe it was you who saved me, but how on earth did you do it?”

Almond-shaped jet-black eyes gazed at Roberto, and then blinked. Long eyelashes fluttered in the breeze.

“I used a method of communication that couldn’t be used outside of that mansion.”

“Method of communication?”

[Hiraga explains about using the electromagnetic fields to induce visions]

“I see… So those were illusory sounds and sights produced by the electromagnetic field…”

[Roberto reflects on how the Hiraga he saw in the mansion was a hallucination, because he was thinking of Hiraga, and so his past memories and present reality combined to produce an image of Hiraga]

“Did you see a hallucination? …I’m sorry. If I made you see an unpleasant vision again, I apologise.”

Hiraga spoke dejectedly, as though contrite.

Perhaps he was worried that Roberto had seen a spectre of his father again.

“No, no, far from it. I saw a wonderful vision. Thank you.”

Roberto smiled.

“Really? If so, I’m glad. Then, what kind of illusion did you see? I'd like to know the details for the sake of future research…”

“That’s a secret. All I’ll say is that I saw the figure of the Saviour.”

“That’s…"

Roberto, please.

Roberto tells Hiraga about Julia beating him up and taking his lunch money map, but unsurprisingly, he doesn’t mention the bit where Julia called him a liar and said they were just alike. Roberto, PLEASE.

Hiraga concludes that all the voices in the seance were fabricated by Galdoune, but Roberto thinks Hiraga should still go talk to the Colorado doctor that the voice mentioned.

“But, Father Julia…”

“He’s not a mere liar - he’s a great liar. And so, to you, he should say something true.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m saying it, so it's certain."

I’m pretty confused too. I think Roberto has bought into Julia’s suggestion that their lies are similar, and therefore feels like he has special insight into Julia’s weird, weird thought processes, which… uh.

They then discuss how Julia even managed to navigate the house to find Harrison and Roberto in the first place. Roberto says that no map of the house existed before he drew one, and the only place it could have been copied is… Bill’s home. UHHHH.

Bill calls his boss, who tells him that the mission was a washout and instructs him to take some non-optional time off, and wants to just sweep all this under the rug. Bill heatedly objects that there’s more to it, and gets upset that his boss might have just been manipulating him all along. Roberto pats him on the shoulder to get him to calm down.

Bill goes home distraught and hugs his mother, and tells her he’ll be returning to Washington DC soon. Then his father sees him looking upset and invites him for a chat.

“Actually, I’m thinking of quitting the FBI…”

As Bill spoke, he looked up at his father.

His father was leaning against the cupboard, and in the mirrored section of it, Bill saw the reflection of something unbelievable.

On the door of the study hung some antique brass decorations. Bill knew that these had been there for a long time, and he’d always thought that they were just some meaningless patterns.

But reflected in the mirror, they became decorative words - ancient Greek for “light”, “universal illumination”, and “control”.

Of course, without Father Roberto having taught him, Bill would not have understood the meaning of the Greek words.

Bill’s grip tightened on the glass.

“What is it, Bill. What about the FBI?”

Jack, smiling, made his enquiry.

“Ah… nothing… it’s nothing.”

Bill downed his brandy in a single gulp, as though oblivious to how his hand was trembling.

“Is that so? That’s good, then. Don’t say anything about wanting to quit the FBI, Bill. You don’t want to make your father sad, do you? Our family has always loved and supported each other, and we must fulfil our responsibilities to each other. If one of us starts saying selfish things, our family harmony will be destroyed all at once. That’s right, isn’t it?”

Jack’s words were oddly laden with meaning.

Cold sweat ran down Bill’s brow.

“That’s right. I think so… I was feeling a bit tired just now."

VME’S EVIL DAD QUOTA: ACHIEVED. And I think that’s a bingo.

Bill leaves to find his brother Tom, tells him that their father is part of an evil cult, and asks Tom to get their mother and Tom’s wife away to safety. This doesn’t go great.

“Brother, what are you saying after all this time?”

“Eh…?”

“The fact that Jack is a frightening person whose real identity is unknown - I realised that long ago. Brother, you were Jack’s favourite and he was fond of you, so you never suspected him. But why do you think that, unlike our friends’ houses, our home doesn’t have a single picture from when we were babies? Didn’t you think that was strange?

[…]

I’ve always thought - why did I feel like our family wasn’t normal? And then when I was in high school, I eavesdropped outside Jack’s study, and I found out. He isn’t our father - he’s a stranger who’s been posing as Jack Suskins since I was three years old.

It’s strange, isn’t it? Our mother calls that man Jack. ‘He’s your father,’ she says. Even Mom doesn’t know what kind of person he really is.

When I learnt this truth, it was like I went mad. But after I thought about it properly, I realised that with our home under that man’s protection, it's actually the safest place in America.

So, brother. If you’re thinking of going against Jack - no, Dad - please stop. If you do nothing, we’re safe and happy. But if you lash out clumsily, I don’t know what will happen. So it’s better not to know anything. I’m begging you - June is going to give birth to our child soon. Please don’t bring misfortune to that child.”

As Tom appealed to him, Bill, stunned, fell to his knees on the ground.

SO. That’s a thing.

(I like how this novel successfully got me invested in Bill just so it could HURT ME. Well played, VME.)

This isn’t even the novel’s final form. Still 5 more pages to go! Meaning it’s time for another curveball!

Roberto is back home in the Vatican, when Hiraga shows up on his doorstep.

“May I come in, Father Roberto?”

Hiraga looked at Roberto, his gaze pensive.

“Of course. Please do.”

Hiraga nodded jerkily, and took his usual seat at the table.

Roberto placed a steaming espresso in front of him. But Hiraga did not stir; he sat still, his face ashen.

Roberto suddenly had a feeling of foreboding.

“Something’s happened, hasn’t it. Is it about Ryouta?”

“No, Ryouta is fine. The problem is… it’s about Lauren.”

“Lauren? He didn’t get caught while doing some reckless hacking, did he?”

In response to Roberto’s words, Hiraga silently shook his head. And then, a few moments later, he lifted his head as though setting his resolve.

“Roberto, I must apologise to you.”

“What’s this, all of a sudden?”

“The truth is, I’ve been keeping a secret from you all this time.”

Roberto laughed lightly and patted Hiraga’s shoulder.

“That’s nothing. There’s no need to apologise for having a secret or two. So, this secret has to do with Lauren?”

“Yes… but if I talk about this, it will bring you tremendous trouble and many difficulties. Even so, will you listen to what I have to say?”

Hiraga spoke in a miserable voice, as though wringing out the words from the depths of his throat.

“Whatever trouble and difficulties there might be, if something is bothering you, I’ll listen. The option of not listening never existed in the first place. If right now, you’re about to jump into a tricky and dangerous situation and need my help, that’s all the more reason for it.”

As Roberto said this, his gaze turned serious, and he sat down next to Hiraga.

“Roberto, you really are…”

Hiraga trailed off in the middle of saying something, and his expression clouded with worry. Then he took a deep breath.

“The fact is, Lauren has left the Vatican.”

“You’re saying he resigned from the intelligence division? Well, that must be quite a shock to you, but he’s free to lead his life…”

“That’s not it,” Hiraga said, interrupting Roberto mid-sentence.

“When I say Lauren left the Vatican, I don’t mean that he resigned from his job, I mean that he broke out.”

“Broke out? What, then that makes it sound like Lauren is a convict who’s been imprisoned by the Vatican or something, doesn’t it?”

Hiraga carefully nodded at this.

“Yes. That’s exactly it, Roberto.”

[Hiraga explains the Lauren situation, about Lauren being a teenage criminal mastermind in Vatican IT jail, none of which Roberto knew]

“And so, he must have broken out because he was tired of such a restricted life - the Rome police and ICPO officers, and even the psychiatrists, unanimously say so. I explained that Lauren wouldn’t run away for such a reason. There must be a deeper cause behind it, and so we should carefully protect him and listen to his words. But no one believes what I say. And now, the Rome police and the ICPO have classified Lauren as a dangerous terrorist, and adopted the position that they want him dead or alive, and they've started moving... There's nothing else I can do on my own…”

Hiraga’s voice rose, trembling.

“Wanted dead or alive - those are rather extreme words. Hearing Lauren’s charges is probably going to make me a little uneasy. But well, I won’t ask. In any case, Hiraga, what you want is for the police to not kill Lauren or hurt him. If possible, you want to go behind the backs of the police and find Lauren on your own, and you want to protect him… Is that it?”

Hiraga abruptly nodded in response to Roberto’s words.

“Please lend me your strength, Roberto. You are the only one I can rely on.”

“All right. But first I’d like to hear this. You’re the one who knows Lauren best. What kind of move do you think he’ll make next?”

“I… This may seem surprising, but I think he might contact me once. Is this naive of me?”

Hiraga asked this uneasily.

Roberto nodded as though satisfied with this answer.

“No, in fact, I agree. He’ll certainly make contact with you. When, or how, I don’t have the slightest clue. Until then, all we can do is track the police activity and search the items he left behind, to pick up some hint of the trail.”

“Yes… That’s right. Since it’s Lauren, I’m sure he’ll be safe.”

Hiraga murmured as though in prayer.

And that’s it. It ends right there, because I guess the author decided this was enough plot twists for now.

In conclusion, everything happened SO MUCH.

(One last note: in the books, Sinfonia takes place after this.)

#vatican miracle examiner #translation

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