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can take action. The
electrical shock causes Simon’s entire body to spastically tighten
into one big cramp. He stiffens upright onto his tippy toes before
losing balance and falling face first onto the floor. Simon lets
out a loud grunt, his body still showing signs of involuntary
motion.
    Baculo coolly backs away, putting on a false
front of shock and awe. The two dark-suits restrain Simon with
cinch-ties around his wrist, then pull him to his feet and drag him
toward the train station exit.
    Baculo pretends to be shaken and offended,
and then strolls away, melding into the crowded train station.
     
     
    * * *

 
     
     
    20
    Deep Undercover

     
    The train station doors burst open with Simon
violently resisting. There’s a dark-suit on each side of him,
controlling him as best they can, but Simon’s strength and wits are
back. He yanks and pulls on the dark-suits like rag dolls.
    “You don’t understand!” Simon yells as he
flings one dark-suit off his arm.
    “Stop resisting,” commands the remaining
agent.
    “Look here! I'm a Special Agent…in charge of
Vatican security.”
    The suits are unresponsive to Simon’s pleas
and they wrestle him around the corner. With his hands tied behind
his back, Simon launches his shoulder into the jaw of one of them.
The targeted blow knocks the agent to the ground. Simon tries to
launch a second attack but the agent prevents it with another
taser-shock. The painful body cramp makes Simon’s muscles feel like
they are vibrating and it overwhelms him. Simon falls to the ground
and the agent covers his head with a black hood.
    While travelers in the background shout in
confusion, the dark-suits drag Simon to his feet and force him into
the back of a waiting Hummer. The first agent tries to wave off the
agitated crowd and shouts something about it being “police
business” as he jumps into the driver's seat. The other agent
skirts the side of the Hummer, wanting to address a third man
sitting in the front seat. It’s Genovi, and he is furious.
    “I told you to stick with Baculo!” Genovi
angrily yells.
    The agent is frozen by Genovi’s lambasting;
his bug-eyes buzz Genovi’s face. The agent failed to follow
Genovi’s clear orders: he was to keep eyes on Baculo no matter
what. But the agent let himself get completely consumed with Simon,
and now Baculo is nowhere to be seen. The agent turns and darts
back into the train station in a desperate and futile search for
Baculo.
    In the back seat of the Hummer Simon screams
from under his hood, “Get this off my head!”
    Genovi immediately turns his attention to
Simon and demands, “Where is Grace?”
    “Genovi?” Simon bellows in a tone of
confusion.
    “Drive!” Genovi shouts, directing the
remaining agent.
    Genovi is extremely frustrated with the
debacle. This is the exact outcome he came to prevent. Genovi
reaches into the back seat and rips the hood off Simon’s head.
    “Answer me! Where is she?” Genovi demands
again.
    Simon, still baffled, stares at Genovi with
wide eyes. Finally he mutters a response. “In the car. Across the
bridge.”
    “Turn left!” Genovi barks to the agent
driving.
    The Hummer squeals left across two lanes of
traffic and flies across the river’s bridge. The Hummer’s engine
roars as it accelerates down the remote road of Paseo Nuevo,
heading toward the parked VW Pollo.
    “What are you doing here?” Simon asks in
frustration and confusion.
    Genovi is unresponsive while his head swivels
back and forth, searching the side of the road as it whizzes by too
fast to comprehend.
    “Where! Where is her car?” Genovi asks in
desperation.
    Simon hastily nods to go farther down the
road, and the Hummer roars even louder.
    “There!” Simon shouts, nodding with his chin
at the VW Pollo just ahead. “That’s the car…now get these wrist
ties off me.”
     
     
    * * *

 
     
     
    21
    The Appointed
Time

     
    Baculo walks briskly across the grass of the
Gipuskoa Gardens. This quaint and