Chapter 50

The unmarked Fiat¹ sedan departing Castel Gandolfo snaked downward through the Alban Hillsinto the valley below. In the back seat, Bishop² Aringarosa smiled, feeling the weight of the bearerbonds in the briefcase³ on his lap and wondering how long it would be before he and the Teachercould make the exchange.

　　Twenty million euro.

　　The sum would buy Aringarosa power far more valuable than that.

　　As his car sped back toward Rome, Aringarosa again found himself wondering why the Teacherhad not yet contacted him. Pulling his cell phone from his cassock pocket, he checked the carriersignal. Extremely faint.

　　"Cell service is intermittent⁴ up here," the driver said, glancing at him in the rearview mirror. "Inabout five minutes, we'll be out of the mountains, and service improves.""Thank you." Aringarosa felt a sudden surge of concern. No service in the mountains? Maybe theTeacher had been trying to reach him all this time. Maybe something had gone terribly wrong.

　　Quickly, Aringarosa checked the phone's voice mail. Nothing. Then again, he realized, the Teachernever would have left a recorded message; he was a man who took enormous care with hiscommunications. Nobody understood better than the Teacher the perils⁵ of speaking openly in thismodern world. Electronic eavesdropping⁶ had played a major role in how he had gathered hisastonishing array of secret knowledge.

　　For this reason, he takes extra precautions.

　　Unfortunately, the Teacher's protocols⁷ for caution included a refusal to give Aringarosa any kind ofcontact number. I alone will initiate⁸ contact, the Teacher had informed him. So keep your phoneclose. Now that Aringarosa realized his phone might not have been working properly, he fearedwhat the Teacher might think if he had been repeatedly phoning with no answer.

　　He'll think something is wrong.

　　Or that I failed to get the bonds.

　　The bishop broke a light sweat.

　　Or worse... that I took the money and ran!

没有牌照的菲亚特轿车启程离开了岗道尔夫堡，沿着奥尔本山蜿蜒的盘山公路向山下行驶，进入了山谷。车后座上，阿林加洛沙主教面带微笑，琢磨着还要等多久才能和导师交易，他的膝盖可以感受到公文包里无记名支票的分量。

两千万欧元。

这笔钱能够为阿林加洛沙带来远比其本身更重要的权力。

在飞奔向罗马的车上，阿林加洛沙再次琢磨着为什么导师到现在还没有和他联络。于是他拿出手机来看，发现信号非常微弱。

"在这里，手机的信号总是断断续续的。"司机从后视镜里瞥了他一眼说。"再过五分钟，出了山区，信号就会好了。""谢谢。"阿林加洛沙突然担忧起来：山区没有信号？也许导师一直在试图联系他，也许出什么大乱子了。

阿林加洛沙迅速地检查了语音信箱，结果一无所获。他这才想起导师根本就不可能给他留下什么信息记录。导师是一个对通讯交流极为谨慎的人，他深谙在现代化社会中口无遮拦的危险性。他之所以能收集到令人惊讶的秘密信息，电子窃听功不可没。

因此，他总是格外警惕。

不幸的是，不留联系电话给阿林加洛沙正是导师的防范措施之一。我会主动联系你的，导师曾经告诉过他。所以把你的手机带在身边。当阿林加洛沙发现他的手机可能无法接通时，他真担心导师会误以为他一直不接听电话。

他可能会以为出了什么事。

也许会以为我没有弄到支票。

主教出了一身冷汗。

或许更糟……他可能认为我卷了钱跑了！

1 fiat   

n.命令，法令，批准；vt.批准，颁布

参考例句：

• The opening of a market stall is governed by municipal fiat.开设市场摊位受市政法令管制。
• He has tried to impose solutions to the country's problems by fiat.他试图下令强行解决该国的问题。

2 bishop   

n.主教，（国际象棋）象

参考例句：

• He was a bishop who was held in reverence by all.他是一位被大家都尊敬的主教。
• Two years after his death the bishop was canonised.主教逝世两年后被正式封为圣者。

3 briefcase   

n.手提箱，公事皮包

参考例句：

• He packed a briefcase with what might be required.他把所有可能需要的东西都装进公文包。
• He requested the old man to look after the briefcase.他请求那位老人照看这个公事包。

4 intermittent   

adj.间歇的，断断续续的

参考例句：

• Did you hear the intermittent sound outside?你听见外面时断时续的声音了吗？
• In the daytime intermittent rains freshened all the earth.白天里，时断时续地下着雨，使整个大地都生气勃勃了。

5 perils   

极大危险( peril的名词复数 )； 危险的事（或环境）

参考例句：

• The commander bade his men be undaunted in the face of perils. 指挥员命令他的战士要临危不惧。
• With how many more perils and disasters would he load himself? 他还要再冒多少风险和遭受多少灾难？

6 eavesdropping   

n. 偷听

参考例句：

• We caught him eavesdropping outside the window. 我们撞见他正在窗外偷听。
• Suddenly the kids,who had been eavesdropping,flew into the room. 突然间，一直在偷听的孩子们飞进屋来。

7 protocols   

n.礼仪( protocol的名词复数 )；（外交条约的）草案；（数据传递的）协议；科学实验报告（或计划）

参考例句：

• There are also protocols on the testing of nuclear weapons. 也有关于核武器试验的协议。 来自辞典例句
• Hardware components and software design of network transport protocols are separately introduced. 介绍系统硬件组成及网络传输协议的软件设计。 来自互联网

8 initiate   

vt.开始，创始，发动；启蒙，使入门；引入

参考例句：

• A language teacher should initiate pupils into the elements of grammar.语言老师应该把基本语法教给学生。
• They wanted to initiate a discussion on economics.他们想启动一次经济学讨论。