The Absolver- Vienna
The Absolver: Vienna
By Gavin Reese
“Hums like a live wire with action, authenticity, and suspense to spare.” – NYT & USA Today Bestseller Michael Lister
Download THREE stories featuring Detective Alex Landon.
Also by Gavin Reese
The Enemies Series
Enemies Domestic
Enemies Foreign
Alex Landon Case Files
Alex Landon Starter Library
The Glass Cook
Room #3
The Debt Collectors
The Misery Merchant
Alex Landon Case Files Vol. 1 (3 Book Box Set)
Saint Michael Thriller Series
The Absolver: Rome
The Absolver: Vienna
The Absolver: Paris
Copyright © 2019 by Gavin Reese Publications LLC.
Published by Cyanide Publishing 2018
www.cyanidepublishing.com
All rights reserved. Copyright promotes and rewards creativity, encourages diverse points of view, protects free speech, and helps create and foster a vibrant, artistic culture. By purchasing an authorized copy of this publication, and complying with copyright laws that protect intellectual property by not reproducing, digitizing, or redistributing any part of this text in any form without permission, you support authors, their original stories, and make creative fiction possible. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
Although based on some portions of true events, this is a work of creative fiction. The characters and their names, along with the events, plots, and motives are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictionally. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Gavin Reese Publications LLC donates a portion of all our sales to non-profit organizations that benefit law enforcement professionals and veterans, their families, and the heirs, survivors, and memories of our Fallen Heroes. A portion of the proceeds from The Debt Collectors helps fund law enforcement organizations that specifically counter narcoterrorism. A portion of proceeds from The Misery Merchant is contributed to organizations that work to improve the rescue, rehab, and recovery of sex trafficking victims.
More information is at www.gavinreese.com
Contents
Acknowledgements
Foreword
Cast of Characters
Relevant Realities
Oath of The Absolver
Prologue
ONE
TWO
THREE
FOUR
FIVE
SIX
SEVEN
EIGHT
NINE
TEN
ELEVEN
TWELVE
THIRTEEN
FOURTEEN
FIFTEEN
SIXTEEN
SEVENTEEN
EIGHTEEN
NINETEEN
TWENTY
TWENTY-ONE
TWENTY-TWO
TWENTY-THREE
TWENTY-FOUR
TWENTY-FIVE
TWENTY-SIX
TWENTY-SEVEN
TWENTY-EIGHT
TWENTY-NINE
THIRTY
THIRTY-ONE
THIRTY-TWO
THIRTY-THREE
THIRTY-FOUR
THIRTY-FIVE
THIRTY-SIX
THIRTY-SEVEN
THIRTY-EIGHT
THIRTY-NINE
FORTY
FORTY-ONE
FORTY-TWO
FORTY-THREE
FORTY-FOUR
FORTY-FIVE
FORTY-SIX
FORTY-SEVEN
FORTY-EIGHT
FORTY-NINE
FIFTY
FIFTY-ONE
FIFTY-TWO
FIFTY-THREE
FIFTY-FOUR
FIFTY-FIVE
FIFTY-SIX
FIFTY-SEVEN
FIFTY-EIGHT
FIFTY-NINE
SIXTY
SIXTY-ONE
SIXTY-TWO
SIXTY-THREE
SIXTY-FOUR
SIXTY-FIVE
SIXTY-SIX
Epilogue
Author’s Note
The Absolver: Paris Teaser
PROLOGUE
ONE
TWO
Gavin Reese
Acknowledgements
I want to first thank Mrs. Reese. Her unconditional and endless confidence, support, and encouragement make this possible. The time I’ve had to work on this side project was a gift, and I’m further and forever indebted to you for it. It’s about time I finally came through on that faraway beach vacation with the little huts on the water. Mo Anam Cara.
Tim Flanagan and his staff at Cyanide Publishing are a blessing. Their incredible cover designs, promotional efforts, and attention to detail have made all the difference.
L&T, thanks for the endless encouragement, marketing savvy, and business advice. Thank you for bravely being honest with me.
My technical advisor, BL, helped steer me right through the potential storm this series could create. Thank you, sir, for stepping outside your lane and throwing flags whenever you saw fit.
John D. Patten, William Miller, and Paul Carr provided substantial assistance that helped wrap up this project. Thanks for helping me boil it down, boys!
My beta readers significantly reduced the tiepos, oversights, and helped ensure the plot holes were filled, smoothed, and road-ready well in advance of the publication deadline. You’re all rock stars and I owe you all more beer than I can ever buy. Next round’s on me.
And, the best for last: my readers. I sincerely appreciate that you’re willing to trade your rare free time and hard-earned treasure to follow my characters on their adventures through my headspace. I cannot thank you enough! If you see me out and about, I’ve got a beer for you, as well. Thanks for playing along!
Be safe out there.
—*Gavin
Foreword
The Absolver: Vienna is the second book in my Saint Michael Thriller Series. Set in the same universe and timeline as the Alex Landon Thriller Series, readers will eventually find some common ground between them. Common themes. Common struggles. Common characters.
As with all my published works, this book is written to be read and understood as a stand-alone fiction. While readers will certainly pick up on details shared between my publications, it is not absolutely necessary to start reading from Book One, which is The Absolver: Rome. This series uses fictional characters and events to explore questions that have plagued mankind since Cain and Abel: Does moral violence exist? To what limits? Who is entitled to vengeance, and when does God use man as an instrument to exact His own? When is it moral to take a human life, and when is our entitlement to dignity eclipsed by our detraction to the dignity of others?
More simply asked, what constitutes a murder, and what’s a just and deserved killing?
Although this is a work of fiction, I used extensive research and real-life facts to make this story as possible as I could. I hope the following chapters effectively blur the lines between fiction, the possible, and the probable.
Cast of Characters
Absolvers
Michael Thomas: Priest, AKA “Andrew”
Sergio Guzman: Priest, AKA “J
ude”
John: Supervisor and Trainer
Alpha: Priest
Church Officials
His Holiness Cornelius II: Current, Sitting Pope
Cardinal Paul Dylan: Under-Secretariat of the Economy, Vatican City
Harold Hoffaburr: Assistant to Cardinal Dylan
Eduardo Hernandez: Monsignor, San Miguel Chapel, Santa Fe
Dietrich Burg: Priest, Saint Francis Seraphicus, Vienna
The Rest of God’s Children
Shawn Moore: Fallen Priest, AKA “Thomas”
Frank Thomas: Michael’s Father
Mary Thomas: Michael’s Mother
Stefanie Schatz-König: Austrian Fashion Designer
Alfred König: Wealthy International Mogul
Rogelio Salvador: Santa Lena cartel leadership
Tramo: Santa Lena cartel leadership
Dedos: Low-level MS13 gang member
Retaco: Low-level MS13 gang member
Fuerza: MS13 enforcer
Negro: MS13 enforcer
El Trece: MS13 shot caller in Lower Austria
Gerhardt Nowak: Commander, Austrian National Police
Brandon Berry: Patrol Sergeant, Silver City (NM) Police Department
Berhardt Brünner: Captain, König der Meere cargo ship
Tomas Steiner: Executive Officer, König der Meere cargo ship
Relevant Realities
“If I am ever required to be a refugee, I hope to make it to Austria.” — James Michener, The Bridge at Andau
“The Balkan [drug trafficking] route traverses the Islamic Republic of Iran, Turkey, Greece and Bulgaria across South-East Europe to the Western European market [through Austria], with an annual market value of some $20 billion.” — United Nations Office on Drugs & Crime
"The recent refugee crisis in Europe has resurrected many specters the continent thought it had banished. Calls for increased national sovereignty and a limitation on or dismantling of the EU, for an abandonment of multicultural policies and for strict immigration controls, have grown louder and more insistent. It may also revitalize the global drug control regime. Vienna’s efforts to stamp out the drug trade in the 1920s-30s helped birth the global war on drugs. The city’s efforts today may help save it.” — David Petruccelli, Postdoctoral Fellow at the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna
“[The] problem is Latin-American gangs. In the past 10 years, there have been attacks, robberies and rapes linked to MS-13 and rival gangs. But until now, the serious violence has been internecine. However, police and community leaders could see that it was only a matter of time before members of the public became the victims.” — Michael Day, journalist
“The use of drugs inflicts very grave damage on human health and life. Their use, except on strictly therapeutic grounds, is a grave offense. Clandestine production of and trafficking in drugs are scandalous practices. They constitute direct co-operation in evil, since they encourage people to practices gravely contrary to the moral law.” — 2291, Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd Edition
“It is lawful to kill an evildoer in so far as it is directed to the welfare of the whole community, so that it belongs to him alone who has charge of the community’s welfare. Thus it belongs to a physician to cut off a decaying limb, when he has been entrusted with the care of the health of the whole body. Now the care of common good is entrusted to persons of rank having public authority: wherefore they alone, and not private individuals, can lawfully put evildoers to death.” — Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica [II-II, Q-64, Art 3]
Oath of The Absolver
I, Michael Andrew Thomas, swear my allegiance to Almighty God with eternal faith in His Church and Holy Scriptures.
I affirm my obligation to equally care for the eternal welfare of all God’s children.
I affirm that men infected with certain evils are bound for Hell without Final Absolution, which I willingly offer them as an act of eternal mercy.
I vow to never offer Final Absolution to a soul that may be rehabilitated by other means and other men, or without irrefutable knowledge of their grave mortal sins.
I vow to only offer Final Absolution to souls God has identified through His faithful servants placed over me, and to offer each identified soul Confession, Absolution, and Anointment.
I vow to endeavor to send God only souls fully absolved of their sins, prepared for His judgement and eternal entry into the Kingdom of Heaven.
I vow to willingly forfeit my mortal life or earthly freedom to vigorously protect the identity, actions, and purpose of myself and my fellow Absolvers.
I vow never, under any circumstance or duress, to betray this oath, my fellow Absolvers, or those God has appointed over me.
I acknowledge that my betrayal would scandalously support and defend the very evils I’ve vowed to defeat. I swear these vows to Almighty God of my own free will, upon my mortal body, and with my eternal soul. So, help me, God.
Prologue
Hours after midnight, Michael hurried over the wet Roman cobblestones and onto the narrow residential side street. His quick footfalls echoed harshly off the tightly constructed buildings and provided the only sound. I’ve gotta get to the body first! As he rushed back to the scene, a nearby radio replayed Pope Cornelius’ familiar homily in English. Michael couldn’t place the source.
“...in context, Jesus conveyed the righteousness that all must exhibit if they are to repent and ultimately enter His Kingdom. And so...”
The radio program faded out as Michael reached the target building and confirmed the address above the exterior doorway. 17 Via del Cardello. Four quick presses on the keypad unlocked the door. Michael ran up a nearby metal spiral staircase, but it looked different from what he remembered. They were concrete last time. The radio program played again, and it loudly echoed through the apartment building’s interior.
“...the Beatitudes tell us the character of the virtuous people of God, those who have a place in His kingdom. They alone can expect the full blessings of His love...”
Michael reached the second-floor landing just as a doorway opened ahead of him on the right. A familiar elderly woman pushed her walker out from the apartment again, her white hair still pinned up in rollers. The woman’s eyes remained comically massive, but she didn’t wear glasses this time.
“Father Michael Andrew Thomas,” the woman assertively called out, and strangely addressed Michael by his clerical title and full birth name. “Is Pietro dead?”
Michael grimaced but didn’t respond to her unwelcome question. He sprinted toward Pietro Isadore’s apartment, where that man’s body should await him. When he realized the apartment door was open, Michael’s fear escalated into panic. People will find out, and they’ll try to intervene!
Rushing into the small apartment, Michael saw Isadore, a serial rapist, remained down on the tile floor just where Michael had left him. The radio broadcast returned, but boomed as though coming from somewhere inside Isadore’s home.
“WHEN JESUS TELLS US, ‘BLESSED ARE THEY,’ HE DESCRIBES THE INNER PEACE OF ALIGNMENT WITH GOD, AND PLEDGES DIVINE REWARDS FOR HIS LOYAL FOLLOWERS.”
Michael rushed to the body, but Isadore was already cold and stiff, a little mummified even. Without explanation, Michael suddenly held a large, oversized syringe in his hands that he somehow knew contained the antidote necessary to revive the man. He raised it up above his head and prepared to plunge it through the dead rapist’s sternum to bring him back. You can’t die like this until I’m ready to kill you the right way! Before he could administer its contents, the syringe melted from his hands and dripped onto the floor, the antidote now useless to save the man’s immortal soul.
“Father,” the elderly woman calmly inquired from the doorway behind him, “is Pietro dead?”
“Yes,” Michael answered, “and I killed him.” Why did I say that? I can’t ever admit anything!
Overwhelming terror rose up inside Michael as Is
adore’s mummy opened its eyes to gaze into his own. Wait, you’re dead, he wanted to say, you can’t do this! The serial rapist’s pupils glowed bright, fiery red, and Michael desperately struggled to stand up and get away. My legs are too heavy, they’re locked down to the floor!
All of Isadore’s pain, fear, and misery, his real, genuine suffering suddenly became visible in his expression. The man’s voice began as a harsh whisper. “hmmph...you…you sent me, TO HELL!”
Michael snapped awake and fearfully shot up in his darkened motel room. Sweat dripped down his face and soaked through his t-shirt, pillowcase, and bedsheets. “God, dammit,” he softly uttered to the otherwise empty room. Against his better judgment, Michael wiped his face on the comforter. My shirt sleeves are already too wet. He threw back the damp bedding, stepped over to the adjacent double bed, and laid on his back atop its dry covers.
Michael sighed heavily and considered the recurring nightmare. It had haunted him every few weeks since Pietro Isadore forced his hand almost four months ago. The paradox of killing monsters to save their souls only works when I can first reconcile their sins. Nothing I’ve done before or since bothers me, not in the least, but Pietro Isadore’s ghost refuses to let me go, or my paranoid psyche refuses to forget him. No idea if it’s God telling me I messed up, or just my innate Catholic guilt eating away at me. I keep hearing that alcoholics don’t dream. There’s some real benefit to that. No wonder so many of us priests end up at the bottom of the bottle.
Michael comforted himself by recalling some of Saint Thomas Aquinas’ philosophy. If God can use demons for good, and to further His plans, then He can absolutely use good people for what seems like evil results. All that really matters to me is that the girl Isadore drugged and brought home outlived him. I couldn’t save them both, and she survived, untouched by that monster. He was a serial rapist, after all, so I shouldn’t bother getting hung up on what his eternity looks like. I wanna believe Isadore is solely responsible for the choices that probably damned him to Hell. I couldn’t reconcile his sins and prepare him to meet God, despite that being the very reason for my entry into his life.