He was sitting inside a cave on a beautiful Afghan rug. His few trusted followers sat around him drinking tea. He was talking to them. ‘As for the World Trade Center attack, the people who were attacked and who perished in it were those controlling some of the most important positions in business and government. It wasn’t a school! It wasn’t someone’s home. And the accepted view would be that most of the people inside were responsible for backing a terrible financial power that excels in spreading worldwide mischief!’

‘Praise be to Allah!’ said one of the followers excitedly.

‘We treat others merely like they treat us. Those who kill our women and our innocent, we kill their women and innocent until they desist.’

‘But Sheikh, we have already achieved a sensational victory. What else is left to achieve?’ asked one of his followers.

‘We started out by draining their wealth through costly wars in Afghanistan. We then destroyed their security through attacks on their soil. We shall now attackthe only thing that is left-their faith.’

‘How?’ wondered the followers.

‘Ah! I have a secret weapon,’ said the Sheikh in his usual hushed voice.

Popes had ruled most of the Italian peninsula, Rome included, for over a millennium, until 1870. Disputes between the Pope and Italy had been settled by Mussolini in 1929 through three Lateran Treaties, which had established the Stato della Città del Vaticano, more commonly known as Vatican City. It instantly became the world’s smallest state, with an area of just 0.44 square kilometres.

His Eminence Alberto Cardinal Valerio was just one among 921 other national citizens of the Holy See but was extremely important among the 183 cardinals.

He now sat in his office wearing his black simar with scarlet piping and scarlet sash around his waist. The bright scarlet symbolised the cardinal’s willingness to die for his faith. To die or to kill, thought His Eminence.