EPILOGUE
IGOR WAS HOLDING the clerical necklace in his hands and thinking about everything he had experienced in those days.
— Father Igor Zumerick?
He stood up and nodded.
— The queen wishes to see you now.
Igor entered the luxurious office of the monarch who greeted him.
— I would like to thank you for everything you have done for our country, Father Zumerick and as a way of repaying the beautiful services rendered, I am promoting you to bishop of our church.
Igor still holding the necklace said.
— Thank you, Your Majesty, it would be the greatest honor of my life.
She smiled.
— We know you've had difficult days, Igor, so if there's anyone who can lead our church on the right path right now, it's you.
He wasn't so sure anymore.
Suddenly, she signals to her secretary. Igor looked back and saw Yuliya and Daniel Leaks.
— I think you have a lot to talk about, Bishop Zumerick, you can use my office as long as you need and I apologize on behalf of the United Kingdom for what they did to you.
Yuliya bowed slightly in thanks.
The monarch embraced young Daniel and said:
— How about visiting the palace, Daniel?
The boy didn't know how to respond.
— My great— grandson is your age, I'm sure they'll get along very well.
YULIYA HUGGED IGOR and said:
— I'm very happy for you.
— Thanks... and... what are you going to do from here on out?—
— I won a captive chair as a professor at Oxford, I don't think we'll be too far from each other.
— You can visit me whenever you like in Westminster.
— And you in Oxford.
— I'll find a way to be a teacher there as well instead of Joel Nielsen.
— You would be an excellent teacher.
Igor came close to her and kissed her.
— And you would be an excellent Mrs. Zumerick.—
***
GREG LAY DOWN completely exhausted, it felt like he hadn't had a good night's sleep in a week. As his eyes began to close, the bedroom doorbell rang, he answered it and it was his wife accompanied by a very well— groomed man.
— I'm glad you're okay, honey, you don't know how worried I was.
— You know better than anyone that you don't need to worry, sweetheart.
Greg looked at the boy and asked:
— How can I help you?
— The queen wishes your grace to award you the Victoria Cross, the highest commendation in the United Kingdom.
— Oh! Darling, what a joy...
Greg smiled and said:
— Thank the queen for me, but I don't wish to receive anything.
His wife didn't know.
— Mr. Evans, you're representing your country, it's something that...
— Please, I reiterate, I do not wish anything from your majesty. Now, if you'll excuse me... my wife and I have more important matters to attend to.
Greg closed the door with the boy standing in front of it.
— I don't understand, dear.
'It's a long story, it would take nine days to tell it all and I don't know if that's what you want to hear.'
GREG RECEIVED a call from the President of the United States of America who asked the same question as his wife.
— If you want to receive the medal on behalf of our country, I have no objection, Mr. President, everything I saw here would be a disrespect for my history and my country.
— You've seen things no good man should see, haven't you?—
— Yes sir.
— Politics is a dirty laundry game, Gregory, men like you are here to help try to clean them.
— I understand perfectly, sir, but I'd appreciate it if you didn't make me represent America tonight.—
— Of course not, Gregory, you were the perfect man for one of the worst terrorist situations that humanity has ever witnessed, I sent your wife to have a well— deserved vacation, any country in Europe is with open arms for you.
— Thank you, Mr. President, I think we can take a tour of some countries.
— It's all paid for, it's a courtesy for your forty years of service to our country.
***
IGOR STOPPED IN FRONT OF William Blake's bust and wondered if everything that had happened there was planned by him, obviously there needed to be changes in all sectors, but he didn't know if he should pay with blood, just because for a long time that was the currency.
A priest approached him and greeted him:
— Congratulations on the ascension.
— Thanks.
These were new times, for more than 60 years that place was guarded by Father Melneck, obviously there was no longer any trace of anything out of the ordinary, he knelt before the high altar and said a silent prayer, he didn't know what speak to God, did not know how to act and guide his people.
Suddenly the Bishop of Canterbury sat down beside her and patted her thigh.
— Do not know what to do?
— Sir... I...
— Stay calm, no formalities, please...—
— I… have no idea what to do from here.
— These are the most propitious moments to be guided by God, my son.
Igor nodded.
— You will be a great bishop in this house, just don't let power corrupt you, you're too smart a man to make the same mistakes as Peter Ball and Joel Nielsen.
'Did you know about them?'
— You knew...
'And what did you do?'
— I did what every Christian, in theory, should do, forgive them seventy times seven times a day.
— But they were criminals.
— We all are, Igor, the difference is that some can't control their natural instincts, I agree that they should receive the most blazing fires of hell, as a priest it's not my job to judge them, imagine me running to justice and talk about the crimes that are revealed to us in the confessional?
Igor gripped the hem of his cassock as hard as he could in anger.
— What's your fear, Igor? To be like them?
— My fear is that I'm too smart to find a way to do the same things and get away with it.
— Then you've found the perfect balance you need, my son, if you know the way you shouldn't walk, don't walk, and if you do, you'll know that the consequence of sin is death.
Igor had already met death dozens of times in the last few weeks to want a new date with her.
***
GREG WAS SITTING in the front row of Mass with his wife, Alissa Evans, who was loving the trip. The royal family was present and they made a formal thank you for the services rendered, which Greg only reciprocated by nodding his head, nothing more, nothing less. They wanted to give him the Victoria Cross medal, but Greg was emphatic about not receiving it.
Greg opened the door of the limousine and Alissa got in, when it was Gregory's turn to enter, he realized that there was already a person inside, it was the Prince of Wales.
— I hope you can forgive me, Greg.
Greg smiled and straightened up in front of the prince.
— I know you didn't accept Victoria Cross in a formal ceremony, and I can only imagine why, but I would like you to accept it as a form of gratitude for saving my life.
The prince held out his hand with an elegantly ornate box.
— I promise no one will ever find out.
Alissa took the gift.
— We thank you, Your Majesty.
But Greg stopped her.
— Do you have any idea what you've done?—
— The problem with politics, Greg, is that the ends justify the means. We learned like that, and we live with that burden, we weren't taught to be different, I cheated on my first wife and that generated a succession of events that everyone knows the end of, because I thought it was justifiable for me to be able to do what I wanted while she couldn't, with Peter Ball the same thing, and I can say that in Ball's case, I was duped, he was an influential member of the high clergy and I rented my property to him and his brother without knowing what they were doing behind the cassock, obviously I was wrong not to research more about them, but I believe that until a certain time, priests were the most reliable people in the opinion of the people and it was no different with me, and despite saying that we were friends, I was as close to him as I am to you, and even so I consider him a friend. for your loyalty.
Greg knew how to face the truth when he was in front of it, a noble would have no reason to explain himself to him, but the gratitude he felt for having saved his life made him appear as true as possible.
— When his crimes were reported to the whole world, I was a voluntary witness in the process, I believe that Justice has to act in the most impartial way possible, and no evidence was found against me, for the simple fact that it did not exist, I just rented my house to the wrong person and I'm guilty of that to this day.
Greg held out his hand to him and he returned it.
— I'm not here to accuse you, what I saw these days was the worst side of all human beings involved, I hope you can forgive me for not accepting it formally.
— Accept it as a form of gratitude.
— On behalf of the President of the United States of America, I accept.
— Thanks, Greg.
THE PRINCE LEFT and the limousine took them to the hotel, when they left, Alissa noticed that her husband did not take the gift.
— Darling, the medal...
Greg turned to the driver and said:
— That medal is worth good money on the market, take your family to Disney, it's a gift from the Prince of Wales.
He turned to his wife and said affectionately:
— Alissa… read the reports, read the correspondence he and Peter Ball exchanged, read the file… and now I've discovered that people in power know how to lie better than they know how to tell the truth.
***
SELENE Woke up to find she was handcuffed to her hospital bed.
What the hell is going on?
Selene tried to get up, but felt a twinge in her chest.
— If I were you, I would try not to get up, your condition is still very serious.
She realized it was her family's lawyer.
— Jeremy, what are you doing here?
— I am here as your father's lawyer to carry out his last will.
She nodded.
— Could you tell me why I'm stuck?—
— For terrorism.
She stared at the ceiling.
— Because I get the feeling this isn't the only bad news?—
— Because your father took it out of his will, he donated his entire fortune to charities around the world.
— You know I can file a nullity action, don't you?—
— If you were his legitimate daughter, you could even consider that option, he did a DNA test without you knowing and it says that you are not his biological daughter.
— Does not matter.
— Of course not, your father donated his entire fortune to charities and humanitarian institutions.
— It's impossible, my mother would never do such a thing to my father.
Jeremy smiled sadly.
— She would...
Jeremy gently took her hand and said.
— Selene, I'm your biological father, your mother's dream was to have a child and Adam Stillton was barren, in a moment of mutual loneliness we conceived you.
Selene didn't know what to say.
— And what will it be like from now on?
— It will be the way it always should have been, dear.
JEREMY O'HARA watched his daughter fall asleep and left her to her own devices, he took his new passport and went to live in the United States, using more than half of all the money he managed to embezzle from Adam Stillton with shell companies and charity associations.
***
NOAH HUGHES WAS at his country house in Sicily, had changed his name and was leading a comfortable life with his two children.
Noah was fishing in his boat when a boat pulled up beside him and he saw the last person he would ever have imagined seeing in that far end of the world.
— You?
Greg grinned.
'Can we have some coffee?'
Noah looked and there was nothing suspicious and consented for him to get on his boat.
— If you came here to...
— To the outside world you are dead.
— And how is it now that you know I'm not dead?—
— I just wanted to understand why.
Noah nodded.
— I found out that my brother was in a prostitution ring and I tried to stop him, as you know, I wasn't competent enough, you even managed to save him on the London Eye, but— —
— I couldn't save him a second time.
— I don't blame you, you had already faked Benjamin Morant's death and everything in your power you did, but my political situation was delicate and I would be tried and convicted for something I didn't do.
— Then he faked his own death.—
— Actually, I found out that Selene had put explosives on the plane, when I went to talk to the pilot, there was no one, it was on autopilot, so I jumped too and the plane exploded soon after, it was more luck than desire.
— It wasn't Selene who did this.
Suddenly, Noah's face found information that surprised him.
— There is one person who has benefited from everything that has happened.
— The Albion guy.
— Yeah… that we thought it was Adam Stillton, but all the while he managed to trick him into funding this scam, forging a false DNA document claiming Selene was not Adam's daughter, and funding ad campaigns in Adam's name. Stillton in favor of Brexit.
— But Adam was clearly in favor of open borders.
— Adam Stillton was in favor of both sides, he just calculated which side would be the most profitable.
— Like he did in South America?—
— Like he did everywhere, but the cancer was too advanced to have any prospects for the future, so he decided to kill himself.
'And what do you intend to do?'
Greg smiled again.
— Enjoy my vacation fishing on a lake in Sicily.
When Noah noticed, a team surrounded his house and the lake. He saw Greg cutting the end of a cigar and as he lit it, he saw Noah Hughes being handcuffed.
***
JEREMY O'HARA was at his California mansion when the CIA and MI6 entered.
— Jeremy O'hara, you're under arrest.
But when the agents saw who was there.
— Sorry, gentlemen, who is Jeremy O'Hara?
Renan apologized and gave the order to remove all agents.
— The track was hot.
— With twenty billion dollars in gold, you can go anywhere you want. Or be whoever I want — he thought as he watched the teams leave.
A man held out a cup of coffee in her direction, it was Gregory Evans.
— I like the disguise, Jeremy, or may I call you Albion?—
Jeremy's soul felt like it would leave his body.
— Don't worry, they don't know I'm here and that I know about you.
Greg sipped his coffee, they walked two blocks and sat on a bench in the square.
— I'm not what you're thinking.
— Of course not, that's why you did what you did.
— I had my reasons.
— He lost his parents as a child, was raised in an orphanage and abused by priests, and then forced to go to war against his will.
— How do you know?
— Is that what detectives are for, Jeremy, or can I call you Chis?—
— Christian Morone is dead, as is Jeremy O'Hara and everyone I've lived with all these years.
— I could have a very comfortable life with Adam Stillton's billions.
— My comfort was knowing that all those who caused all this to me, or my friends, are dead and will burn in the fires of hell.
— How did you meet Adam Stillton?—
— Ever heard of Frank William Abagnale, Jr?—
— The embezzler who traveled by plane?
He smiled.
— I basically did what he did, cheated on an Oxford degree, passed the exam, and convinced Adam Stillton to hire me when his son— in— law died.
— Sounds like too simple a plan.
— The secret of success is simplicity, Greg, after we got the Cicada keys at MIT, everything else was reasonably simple, I knew about Adam Stillton's obsession with William Blake's work and his desire to do something great. You have the money and the motivation, the result was reasonably simple for us to achieve.
— And you donated all of Adam Stillton's money to aid institutions?—
— That was his wish.
Greg smiled and patted her thigh.
— Thank you for everything you've done for the most needy people, you didn't solve all of humanity's problems, but at least you gave them morphine.
— If we can't save everyone, at least we can help them die with more dignity.
— We're not playing anymore, Chris, you can let your guard down, I'm not even a cop anymore, I don't have the power to arrest you.
— How about you buy me lunch so we can celebrate your retirement?—
— I appreciate the invitation, but my wife made a better offer — he said while giving a wink.