Assem Akram - The '1492' Conspiracy

It took some negotiating skills and Metaxas’ personal intervention to make the encounter possible. At first, the Vatican invoked its habitual – almost obsessive-compulsive – preference for absolute discretion to reject any request for a meeting. Then, perhaps weighing what its non-cooperation could cost in terms of human lives, as well as bad press if it came to be known that it knew something but didn’t share it with others, the Holy See agreed. The Nuncio’s name was Father Emilio Ungari.

At first, we were told to go to Rome and visit him in the Vatican’s Curia. But once there, we were told that Father Ungari had left for Florence due to a family emergency. Fortunately for us, he had left a note telling us that if we really wanted to see him, we should travel to Florence and meet up with him there. Did he think that we negotiated laboriously for days to get the ‘benediction’ and then traveled across the Atlantic to say: “Oh, well; if he is not in Rome then we are going back home.” He probably was our only chance to get some real information on what Necromonti knew but didn’t find the time to tell us. So, we would follow Father Ungari to Heaven or Hell.