Summary: Bishop Aringarosa leaves Castel Gandolfo, once more dreaming of the vast power that the Vatican Bank’s twenty million euro will buy him. Concerned that he has not yet heard from the Teacher, he checks his voice mail—there is no message. His driver tells him that cell phone service in the area of Castel Gandolfo is limited at best. Aringarosa fears what the Teacher will think of him if he has been trying to reach him and could not.
Analysis: This brief chapter reveals that, for all his pride and his ambition, Aringarosa can still be struck fearful at the thought of recriminations from his enigmatic “Teacher.” The scene moves swiftly, but it reinforces the perils inherent in any overly ambitious quest for unlimited power. In literature, as in life, that goal often proves illusory.
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