The Moses Virus Read Online Free Page A

collecting Eric’s. Doc’s are still up in his room here.”
    “Doc was a good friend. I’d be happy to help with that,” Tom said.
    “Thanks. I expect there isn’t too much.”
    “It’s been long day.” Tom stood. “I think I’ll head back to my apartment.”
    “Just ask Norm to call you a taxi,” Caroline said. “You’re sure you’re okay?”
    “I’m fine. Just a little shaken. See you tomorrow. ”
    The taxi pulled up to the front door of his apartment building on Via Gregoriana. As Tom let himself in the front door of the building, he was too tired to notice a man standing in the shadows across the street. When the outside door closed and Tom was inside, the man spoke quietly into his cell phone and then walked down the street, disappearing into the night.

3
    A fter showering the next morning, Tom dressed, then let himself out onto the terrace, the best feature of his apartment. From the terrace, covered with planters filled with red geraniums blooming like crazy, he could see all of Rome stretch out before him. The thought struck him—the ghastly events of yesterday—they changed everything. The news would be in the papers, too. He walked down the nine flights and into the street. It was a three-minute walk to the Hotel de la Ville, where he knew he could buy the morning’s International Herald Tribune and have breakfast.
    The Hotel de la Ville was full of tourists, but he had no problem getting a table. After ordering, he glanced at the main headlines on the first page. Good, he thought, no mention of the incident. Then, below the fold, in the lower right-hand side of the front page, there was a photograph of him in the Roman Forum shaking hands with Doc. The headline read: mysterious deaths at the roman forum. The opening paragraph said:
    Two archaeologists from the American Academy in Rome were killed yesterday while exploring an underground passageway on the Palatine Hill. The Roman Superintendent of Cultural Affairs stated that the roof of the passageway collapsed, and the cave-in resulted in the deaths of the two men. One of the archaeologists killed, Dr. Robert Brown of Bryn Mawr College in the city of Philadelphia in the United States of America, was heading the excavation sponsored by the American Academy in Rome. There had been hopes that the passageway might lead to new finds in the vast, mostly still buried, Golden House of Emperor Nero. The number two archaeologist, who also died, was Eric Bowen, a graduate student at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.
    Professor Thomas Stewart, a trustee of the American Academy in Rome and a professor of forensic archaeology at New York University, was the senior Academy official present and was questioned by the Carabinieri. Dr. Stewart is pictured with Dr. Brown just before the latter dropped down into the passageway and perished. A spokesperson for the American Academy in Rome said there would be an official statement once the investigation was finished. The underground passageway and the American Academy’s excavation itself have been officially closed until further notice.
    The article went on but had no further information of consequence.
    Cave-in? Tom thought. There was no evidence of a cave-in. Tom felt troubled. What could the reason be for covering up the truth of what had happened yesterday in the Forum?
    More important, Tom was disturbed by the fact that the article had included his name and, even more, his photograph. He knew that if the Italian authorities were intent on hiding the truth of the cave-in, any reporter investigating the matter would be calling him to get more information simply because he had been identified in the article as having been there. He hoped that Caroline would handle the aftermath of this tragic event. After he’d finished breakfast, he hailed a cab in front of the Hassler Hotel and was back at the Academy in time for Gabrielli’s phone call.
    Lucia, Caroline’s assistant, showed Tom into