MADONNA RED

When the IRA Provisionals' top assassin, Juneau, arrives in Washington, D.C. her intended target is none other than Sir Alisdair Ferris-Cogan, the Catholic British Ambassador who's about to be invested with a papal order prior to his appointment as Northern Ireland's secretary of state. The scene of the holy hit is Saint Matthew's--the parish of Father John Tierney, a vigorous Vietnam veteran who's still haunted by his deadly expertise in hand-to-hand combat. You can take it from there. The ecclesiastical ambience helps (Carroll is a former Paulist priest) but don't get down on your knees.