Shroud of the Healer

by Christopher Wright

  "It is many years since the Sisters worked here."

  The pallid figure in the bed seemed to be making a great effort to regain his concentration. "But the Sisters are close at hand?"

  "Very close, Holiness."

  "I wish to be nursed by the Sisters, Stephen."

  "But, Holiness, Dr. Kappa..."

  The voice suddenly became forceful as the Holy Father tried to pull himself upright against his pillow. "Dr. Kappa has put much pressure on the Vatican to get me here. I was led to believe that the Sisters were supportive of my treatment."

  "Dr. Kappa is a most able surgeon, Holiness."

  The Holy Father's eyes glowed with a sudden energy in spite of the sedative. The words sounded firm and formal. "We are not prepared to discuss the matter further." He gave up the struggle to sit upright and lay back exhausted. "Archbishop Valdieri, you will convey my bidding to Dr. Kappa immediately. I insist that the Sisters attend to me."

  *

  MATT DRAINED his second cup of coffee in the village bar. He fancied a beer, but drinking with Alain while he was in such a depressed mood would have been a stupid thing to do.

  "Those guards have SMGs. It means they're pros." He pushed the large cup and saucer across the table.

  "Security work is dangerous," said Zoé. "I do not like guns."

  "You don't like me doing any sort of security work."

  Zoé took hold of his arm. "Is that what you really think?"

  "Isn't it what you've been trying to tell me for the past month?"

  "I am sorry, Matt. No, I do not have a problem with your work."

  Matt took hold of he hand. "Perhaps I don't understand women. I thought you didn't like me working as a backstreet PI."

  "If I had to leave you, Matt, would you be upset?"

  He laughed. "What's this, a test?"

  "I am serious."

  She was. He could tell.

  "It is my work at the hospital that is upsetting me," she said at last. "I want to get away from there."

  Matt looked first at Alain who was staring up at the yellow umbrella, then at Zoé. The colored lights glistened in her tears. He let go of her hand in surprise. "I thought you were happy nursing."

  "I like nursing." Zoé pushed her sleeve across her eyes. "It is the hospital I do not like."

  "You never said anything."

  "You work so hard, Matt, and I did not want you to be worried. I have never been happy since I started working there." She wiped her eyes again. "You must think I am stupid."

  "You're not stupid." This wasn't a test, but he had to be careful what he said. "I don't have to work for Ken. We could move." He smiled encouragingly.

  "You mean it." It wasn't a question. Just a statement of fact.

  "We could come over to live in France if you like."

  Zoé's eyes gleamed, a mix of tears and excitement. "You would do that for me, Matt?"

  "I'd do it for us, if it keeps us together."

  *

  SISTER ANGELA stood in the darkness and peered across the beds of lavender, her attention drawn to the lights in the clinic. She tried to calm herself in the darkness; tried to fight down the frustration.

  On the way back from supper she had decided to take a walk and find someone in authority who would listen. For once, she had a bit of freedom. Reverend Mother was too busy talking, and failed to notice that she had not gone to the common room with the other Sisters.

  Perhaps she should tell the Archbishop exactly what she had heard. As she stumbled across the rough ground, the cool night air and the brilliant stars recalled memories of her childhood on this hillside. The discipline; the strict discipline. The occasional bouts of truancy, always followed by uncompromising punishment. Could the truly willful ever reform?

  She let the lavender heads run through her fingers as she walked towards the bright lights. This aroma would live with her for eternity. The scent of lavender and the discipline of the Convent were inseparable.

  Something rose from the long grass, a black figure emerging without a sound to block the path. "Sister, you must go back inside."

  She stared, her mind confused by the suddenness of the appearance. The men in the village had once been rough with her, but there was no fear in her mind now. The figure came forward to take her by the arm but quickly drew his hand back. He must be a good man if he did not touch her. She was in the presence of a holy angel, sent to give her help.

  "The Holy Father is in great danger," she said.

  The angel coughed, a deep cough. "I'm sorry, Sister, the gardens are out of bounds."

  "We have to save the Holy Father." She had to communicate her fears to this messenger from God. "You must do something."

  "I know, Sister. That's why we're here."

  "You know about the threat to his life?" She felt such a sense of relief. Someone was ready to believe her.

  "I'm here to take care of him, Sister."

  She breathed deeply. "Thank you."

  The dark figure gave her comfort. But the world must be a very wicked place if the angels needed to carry guns.

  *

  FIVE MINUTES later Marcel met Captain Boué beneath the old bell tower that had been designated as their base for the night. Patrol the grounds and report on the radio every ten minutes. It was a strict regime, but a well-proven procedure.

  "No wonder they need a special guard here. Some of those Sisters are really loopy." Marcel laughed as he recounted the meeting amongst the lavender.

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Tourvillon Village

  MATT WAS thinking over Zoé's bombshell. A move to France was not something he'd ever anticipated, but he would stand by his instant response. And he still wondered why he hadn't been more sensitive to Zoé's problems at work. Was he so wrapped up in his own job that he had no time for anyone else's happiness?

  He put some money on the table. "Do you really believe Alain saw the Pope?"

  Zoé glanced at Alain. "It is possible."

  "I know it's possible, but is it likely?"

  "Always you will be angry with yourself if you do nothing to find out what happened to Leanne."

  "I'll go as far as the wire and work my way round to the gate. Maybe I'll hear someone talking. You and Alain can wait in the car." He nodded towards the Frenchman who seemed totally spaced out. He could hardly look any worse if they'd been filling him with alcohol all evening. "I'm not going in but we might need a fast getaway. Keep the key in the ignition."

  "Be careful, Saint George."

  "I don't want to be caught with this." He passed Zoé the telephone pickup for safe keeping. "Let's hope they don't have night vision equipment."

  "You make me feel scared. What is this night vision equipment?"

  "Things like image intensifiers. They're sort of television cameras with a high-power amplifier. They work in the dark."

  "Better than the eyes of a cat?"

  "Much better. You can even have them built into binoculars. Have you seen helicopter pilots wearing them in films?"

  "I have seen the films with police helicopters chasing criminals at night."

  "That's thermal imaging. Infrared. It picks up body heat. You see a white body hiding in someone's back yard or running round the back of a factory. If the guards have either system, they'll pick me out easily."

  "Remember, you are not going inside the wire." Zoé put the phone tap in the pocket of her jacket. "And be careful not to touch it. It might be electric."

  "Unlikely. This is a hospital, not a military base."

  "I had a friend at school who touched the fence of a farmer. I dared her to do it. It was horrible."

  "Did she die?"

  "Of course not. Farmers do not want to kill their animals, only frighten them. The shock made all her muscles go tight. She hit herself in the face and broke her nose."

  "And she never spoke to you again."

  "Never, and I have been frightened of electricity ever since."

  "Does it mat
ter? I have always been afraid of electricity. It sounds like common sense to me."

  "Yes, it does matter. There is this nasty sister at work. She was showing us how to use the high voltage defibrillator."

  "To get the heart going?"

  Zoé nodded. "I did not want to touch it. Yellow button charges, black button triggers! She kept shouting it at me, but I could not bring myself to do it because I was afraid of getting an electric shock."

  Matt looked down. It was hard not to smile. "This was on a patient?"

  "We were practicing on a dummy. That sister is a right old bitch, I can tell you. Every day she is trying to find something wrong."

  He leaned over and kissed Zoé on the cheek. "Like I said, you should have told me. Anyway, you're not going back there, and that's for sure."

  "I love you," she said quietly. "You are the kindest man I have ever met. I feel better now we have talked about it." She smiled. "I will take a short walk with Alain. I wonder if the black kites are nesting in the rocks. Is there a flashlight in the car?"

  "Why?" Perhaps he should have realized the implications of Zoé's question, but in his mind he was already finding a weak spot in the wire. It would be no more than a game tonight, but in a day or two when the army had gone, he might return and get through the security fence to check the place out.

  "Alain may need it," Zoé said lightly.

  Alain didn't look as though he needed anything -- apart from a long sleep. "He ought to be home," said Matt as he retied his sneakers. If he had to make a run for it, it was vital he had reliable footwear.

  "I will drive him home," agreed Zoé reluctantly. "And you will wait until I get back. I want you to keep out of danger."

  "I'll wait thirty minutes, then I'm having a look around. Beep the horn to let me know you're back." Matt could feel the uneven cobbles of the old square under his feet. The sneakers gave excellent grip. He was fit and well-practiced at evading hostile punters. If anyone stopped him he was unarmed, an innocent holidaymaker taking a late night walk. But they would have to be good to catch him.

  Zoé gave a half-hearted wave. "I do not like it."

  *

  MAJOR LOUVIERS received the message on his radio. A possible intruder approaching the southwest corner.

  A man had been observed on the night vision system five minutes ago. His actions were suspicious simply because they were so normal. He might be a naturalist watching for animal life, but he definitely was not a journalist. A journalist after a spicy story would have been running from cover to cover. This man was walking slowly with a smoothness that was either totally innocent, or a very capable pose.

  Louviers watched the grainy shape on the green monitor as the man sat on the grass by the wire and took off a shoe, glancing round with an everyday interest in his surroundings. The image intensifier was so sensitive that even the starlight behind the cloud cover gave sufficient illumination for a useable picture.

  "Maximum zoom, Captain." The sitting figure suddenly filled the screen, the shape of the body made up from thousands of green phosphorescent dots that sparkled and flashed in a pulsating rhythm. Captain Boué adjusted the focus but was unable to add more detail to the scene.

  "Better get a man down there."

  "Already on his way, Major." Boué sounded pleased with himself.

  "Anyone else around?"

  Captain Boué shook his head. "The thermal imager on the bell tower is on full auto scan. Jacques is running it. All he's found are a couple of foxes, and some rabbits making whoopee. Lucky there are no sheep. A flock of them would cause chaos on our screens."

  Louviers continued to study the monitor. He stabbed a finger at the figure crouching beside the high security fence. "Damn the man."

  "Relax, Major. We've got this site sewn up." Then Boué laughed. "You'll love this. Marcel found one of the Sisters wandering around the garden. She reckons the Pope's life is in danger. Don't worry, he sent her back indoors. She's harmless. Nothing but une vieille bonne femme."

  "It's been reported?"

  "In the log, Major."

  "Good." Every possible piece of data had to be noted. Louviers reached out to the remote control and zoomed the lens to wide angle to reveal Boué's man less than twenty yards from the suspect. The radio on the Captain's shoulder clip bleeped quietly just the once. Boué spoke close to the mouthpiece, his voice low. He turned to Louviers. "There's a new suspect on the hill, Major. Jacques says it's all on his infrared. Someone's coming up from the lower road. On foot, near the power lines."

  "One of the villagers out for a walk," Louviers said, but he didn't believe it.

  "What would happen if they took out the power?" asked Boué.

  "The hospital battery supply is instantaneous, and the backup generators start running automatically -- within two minutes. Get a man down to the power room, just in case someone's already gained entry. We don't want the place plunged into darkness."

  Captain Boué was quickly on his feet. "Shall I warn the team?"

  Louviers panned the image intensifier camera slowly across the grounds, but the road from the village was out of sight. "Let's get up the bell tower, Captain." His words were crisp. "We won't sound the alert just yet. I want to look on Jacques' infrared system. He can see all the way down to the village from the tower. There may be more people on his screen by now."

  It took no more than a minute for the two GIGN men to run up the winding stairs of the tower, the only tall building left standing by the Nazis. Jacques turned round briefly from his bank of monitors as they entered.

  "This one's acting suspiciously." Jacques pointed to the screen. "Climbing the rock by the power cables. Doesn't show up well on the infrared, but it looks like he's got some sort of tool in his hand."

  "Sabotage?" Louviers knew he was answering his own question. "I want three men down there, Captain. Now! And, Jacques, you stay here and report immediately if any more subjects appear on the screen."

  Jacques turned down the sensitivity. The camera picked up radiated heat from the body, and the clothing now showed as a cooler, dark shade of gray, making the white shape more human. He leaned across to the adjacent monitor and set the times-ten zoom of the adjacent image intensifier camera to frame the shape standing near the top of the rocks.

  "Correction. Target is female. And she's using a flashlight."

  Louviers touched the infrared camera controls, adjusting the sensitivity to expose a faint image of the ground that was still warm from the heat of the day. It was hard to see detail where the earth and rock were at the same temperature, but anything alive glowed as a clear white outline that was unmistakable.

  Louviers pointed to the occasional white blip that flitted jerkily across the screen. "Bats," he muttered. "Ah, the woman's moving now."

  Jacques nodded. "She could be going to throw something across the power lines."

  Louviers put his radio to his mouth, but paused with his finger on the transmit button. "Our men down there won't be able to see a bloody thing." He pressed the button. "Pierre, send up a paraflare. Sixty second burn time. Fire it towards the village, elevation eighty degrees. Everyone else, don't look up. Keep your eyes on the ground and detain anyone you see."

  The silence was broken by the sound of a small rocket streaking towards the clouds. The stillness returned as quickly as it had been disturbed, while the relentless blue light from the flare threw hard, black shadows across the fields and buildings.

  The scene on the infrared monitor in the tower remained unchanged as the thermal imager continued to pick up only the emitted heat, rather than the reflected light from the flare. Something large and white moved slightly above where the woman was standing, flickered unsteadily and quickly moved off the screen.

  "A large bird," Boué said briefly.

  Louviers watched the figure on the rock sway slightly then lean backwards into the darkness. The scream followed a fraction of a second later, breaking the still night air. The electronic image on the screen had b
een overtaken by reality.

  Louviers grabbed the main communications radio. "Everyone maintain tight vigilance around the site while we recover the body."

  "It might be a trap," Boué warned, even though he had witnessed the whole event. No one was going to carry out a stunt like that. "I'll alert the duty doctor."

  The body beneath the rock continued to glow brightly on the screen as Jacques panned the infrared camera along the wire. The monitor showed the figure of the man by the wire now standing. Louviers spoke into the radio again.

  "Pick him up. Immediately."

  *

  MATT FELT proud of the way he'd managed to move up to the wire and not be detected. Zoé had returned a few minutes ago; he'd heard her beep the horn as she parked the Mini in the village of Tourvillon. The rocket made him jump and stupidly he looked up at the sky. If there were men hiding in the darkness he was less likely to see them than they were to see him.

  The loud shriek that coincided with the flare caused a chill to run down his back. It sounded like a terror-stricken animal in a trap.

  Then came the silence. That sound could have been Zoé. Zoé being attacked. Something hit him hard on his back and he fell face down onto the grass.

  "Place your hands on top of your head -- now!"

  The voice came from nowhere. Matt began to turn, searching for the figure, but the flare had dazzled him. All he could see was a series of flashing dots imprinted on his eyes.

  A foot kicked out and sent him sprawling again onto the dry grass. Then before he could even start to get up, the foot was jammed on his back. He knew that the cold metal on his neck was the tip of a gun barrel.

  "D'accord! D'accord." The voice had been in French, and Matt replied in the same language. Whoever had him underfoot was an expert. The boot was removed but the gun stayed in place.

  "Sit up slowly, monsieur, hands on your head, and do not turn round."

  Matt obeyed instantly. At that moment the flare died, plunging the hillside into darkness again.

  "Your actions are suspicious, monsieur. You will come inside and explain what you are doing here."

  Matt became aware of other voices further down the hill, by the high rock where the scream had come from. Men running, shouting. He had the misfortune to be mixed up in a situation. They'd quickly let him go when they found he had no connection with...