Donald Tarman

Heresy Donald Tarman

Searching for work in northern Mexico, Cian Kerensky is approached by an American woman who offers him a simple, two- or three-day job. Just pick up a package in a town an hour south and bring it to her at the border. Five hundred a day. Suspicious but needing the money, Cian makes the pickup. The package turns out to be Federico Arduino, a wizened priest in a ratty cassock. When they are hit by bullets and run off the road on their way north, Cian begins to realize the woman, in describing the task, had not been faithful to the truth. Federico, a disillusioned priest, has stolen an ancient papyrus, dangerous to the Church, from classified church archives in Rome and the Vatican has reacted by sending brutal security contractors after the priest with orders to recover a papyrus and return him to Rome. Federico wants the secrets embedded in the papyrus revealed to the world and he needs Cian's help to achieve his goal. A group of like-minded supporters maintains a mountain retreat in Colorado where the papyrus can be authenticated, converted to a readable narrative and printed for distribution. The problem is to get the papyrus to Colorado with the Vatican's resources and vast influence-including the gun-wielding security men-standing in the way.