It was time.
    Silas felt strong as he stepped from the black Audi， the nighttime breeze rustling his loose- fitting robe. The winds of change are in the air. He knew the task before him would require more finesse than force， and he left his handgun in the car. The thirteen-round Heckler Koch USP 40 had been provided by the Teacher.
    A weapon of death has no place in a house of God.
    The plaza before the great church was deserted at this hour， the only visible souls on the far side of Place Saint-Sulpice a couple of teenage hookers showing their wares to the late night tourist traffic. Their nubile bodies sent a familiar longing to Silas's loins. His thigh flexed instinctively， causing the barbed cilice belt to cut painfully into his flesh.
    The lust evaporated instantly. For ten years now， Silas had faithfully denied himself all sexual indulgence， even self-administered. It was The Way. He knew he had sacrificed much to follow Opus Dei， but he had received much more in return. A vow of celibacy and the relinquishment of all personal assets hardly seemed a sacrifice. Considering the poverty from which he had come and the sexual horrors he had endured in p............