After more than ten minutes of tense silence, Mea's aggravation grew exponentially worse. She'd have a talk with Yousef about being respectful of the team's time. She stood, grasping her hands behind her back, but before she could start pacing...or...something! the papist shook his head, setting his glass down on the tray "I won't keep you.  Have a seat, Major Vanni, and I'll brief you."  He opened a drawer in his desk and withdrew a paper folder, and pushed it towards her. She opened it, surprised to find herself looking down into a familiar face. "Prefect Strazzi? Wha-" The priest held up his hand. "Dejame explicarte. Approximately seven months ago, Senor Strazzi vanished, along with several rather invaluable items from the Vatican vault. At first, we thought perhaps he had been kidnapped, but after several days without word of a ransom, we began an internal investigation into the matter. We believed that Strazzi was a spy. An<em>Illuminati </em>spy."<br/><br/>Her teeth bared in anger. She flipped through the text documents until she got to another set of photos, pictures of ancient-looking manuscripts and...the spear head. She looked up, speechless, at the priest.  "The Holy Lance?"  The man's face twisted in angry regret. "Si. We believe that the Illuminati had inserted Strazzi into our ranks just to acquire the Lance. And the way to find the rest."  She nodded, closing the folder and setting it on the desk.  "We sent Christoph's team into Milan to try and find out if there was any recent suspicious activity at the Illuminati headquarters, but we lost their signal two hours ago."  Mea nodded again, and began to stand up to leave, but the priest stopped her by urgently grabbing onto her wrist.  "Major Vanni, please, I have not told you of the worst."<br/><br/>Mea sat down hesitantly, brows furrowing in worry at the pale, anguished expression on the priest's face.  "The Lance...it...It gives people power. Unimaginable power. If he joins the spear shaft to the spear head, he will become like God. I deeply regret being forced to send your team into such grave danger...but unless we stop Strazzi, stop the Illuminati, we will all be answering to new masters soon."  Mea swallowed tensely. "Well. We'll have to kill him, then."  The papist shook his head "No, Mea," she started, jarred by the personal use of her first name. "You, as you are now, cannot kill him. No one can. However, there is information there," he motioned to the paperwork "that will give your team a chance."<br/><br/>They stood simultaneously, and shook hands.  "Godspeed Major Vanni."<br/><br/>Shaken, Mea left the office.