Shroud of the Healer

by Christopher Wright

  There were not many friendly voices from strangers in Tourvillon. The Lady in blue had been so gentle, so dependable. Tried and tested, found truthful in all she said. First the destruction by the Germans, then the construction of the hospital. But had the surgeon meant to say such a dreadful thing? Pray God there was a mistake.

  She should have told the Archbishop more about the surgeon. The beads of the rosary brought no comfort now. She looked across at her small table. It had never occurred to her before, but it was light enough to move to the window, yet strong enough to take her weight.

  "Holy Jesus, please give me strength."

  She grasped the front of the table that held her books and pulled it away from the wall. One of the books slid down the back and landed on the floor tiles with a sharp sound. Something had fallen with it. A crucifix? She dropped to her knees and groped under the table in the semi darkness. The floor felt rough, and small pieces of grit stuck to her fingers. Reverend Mother would not like to know there was dirt under the table.

  Sister Angela stared at the object in surprise. All these years living in this room and never once had she seen such a strange thing. The small black box fascinated her. It was modern. It was unusual. It was....

  "Sister Angela!"

  "Oh, Reverend Mother." As she struggled to get up she caught her feet in her long white habit and rolled backwards, probably looking like a large sheep rolling down the hillside below the Convent.

  "Are you unwell, Sister Angela?"

  It took her a few seconds to regain her bearings, and slightly longer to sit upright on the floor. "Oh no, Reverend Mother, I dropped a book. I was picking it up when I found this." She held up the strange article.

  The Mother Superior took hold of her hand and pulled hard. As Sister Angela came to her feet the Mother Superior began to brush the dust from her clothing. "Sometimes you behave like a little child, Sister, rolling around on the floor. Let me see what you have found."

  Almost guiltily she handed over the miniature black box. "It is not mine, Reverend Mother."

  "And you have never seen it before?"

  "Never, Reverend Mother. I swear before God and all the saints..."

  "Your word will suffice, Sister. I will take this to Dr. Kappa. It may be part of the clinic's medical equipment. Perhaps Nurse Leanne left it."

  "Thank you, Reverend Mother."

  "I came to tell you a secret, Sister Angela. We are preparing for a most important visitor. I cannot say any more, but for his safety this building will be occupied by men who have come to protect him."

  Now she knew the reason for the voices in the garden. "There will be men in my room?"

  "Of course not, Sister Angela. You and the other Sisters will share the guest room by the garden. I do not wish to spell it out, but I cannot allow the Sisters to remain in this building with men. It would be most improper."

  "Improper, Reverend Mother?" Suddenly Sister Angela felt terror filling her body. "Oh, Reverend Mother, I am so afraid. Tell me about the important visitor."

  The Mother Superior made soothing noises with her lips. "You are safe from men now, Sister Angela."

  "No, I am not afraid of the men, Reverend Mother. I beg you, tell me who is coming. It must not be the Holy Father."

  "What nonsense you talk, Sister Angela."

  "I heard the surgeon speaking about him. No, Mother, it must not be the Holy Father."

  She flung herself at the figure of authority whose presence she always welcomed but had never touched. Her arms were now around the tall body. In her desperation she pulled herself closer to the warm, soft front. "They are going to kill the Holy Father -- I know they are!"

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Tourvillon Village

  "I AM ONLY thinking of you, Alain."

  Matt held his beer glass and looked up at the Clinic of the Little Sisters of Tourvillon. The large building stood stark white in the summer sun, dominating the landscape visible between the shuttered houses on the street out of the village. Even the black kites must have found it too hot to soar over the huge rock.

  "You ought to be home."

  "Matt is right," agreed Zoé. "You have had a shock to your system."

  Alain was in no mood for advice. "I think we should get back inside the clinic." His glass had been empty for some time. Matt thought it unwise to offer a refill. The Frenchman raised his head slowly. "Why are we wasting time drinking? Zoé can have another look at Leanne's records."

  "Okay, okay." Matt held up his hands. "But we're not doing anything today. I need a good look at their security."

  "I will help if I can," offered Alain.

  Matt had an idea. "Can you borrow one of your brother's cassocks? I could dress as a priest and go in with you tomorrow morning."

  "You? A priest?" Zoé began to laugh.

  "I've done stranger things," retorted Matt.

  Zoé turned in surprise. "You never told me. Anyway, how do I get in? Dressed as a nun?"

  "You're not coming." Matt could see trouble ahead. "We need you on the outside to get help if things go wrong." He finished his beer and looked at the hospital through the bottom of the glass. A future, recovering paintings for Ken Habgood's clients for peanuts seemed preferable -- even with the occasional scaffold pole coming through the back window.

  He spoke quietly to Zoé. Alain seemed too wrapped up in his own thoughts to be paying attention. "We'll come back when it's dark. But only for a look from outside the fence. The security exercise should be over by then."

  "And I can look for the nest of the black kites in the rocks," added Zoé. "I will bring a flashlight."

  Matt put out his hand. "No flashlights," he said sharply.

  *

  MAXWELL WILCOX turned the black bug over in disbelief. "We'll have to tell the GIGN."

  "I'm not sure we should even be talking." Kappa pulled his security chief out into the garden. "The whole clinic might be bugged, as well as the Convent. They always say it's safer to talk outdoors."

  Major Louviers of the GIGN was appalled to be shown the listening device in Maxwell Wilcox's hand. "You found this in a Sister's room in the Convent? How many more are there?" He spoke perfect English and probably knew most European languages as part of his profession

  Wilcox shook his head. "There may not be any more."

  "When did you last carry out a sweep?" demanded Louviers.

  Wilcox shrugged. "Dr. Kappa has never given instructions for a sweep in the Convent."

  Kappa stood back. "I leave all aspects of security to you, Wilcox."

  Detecting the distancing by his boss, the head of security fought off his anxiety. If someone had bugged the clinic, the patients would never forgive them. Adverse publicity could close the place. "I'll see to it."

  "No!" Louviers turned to Kappa. "I have fourteen men in my command. They will do it. I am more worried about the clinic than the nuns, so they will start their search here in the clinic."

  Jim Kappa nodded.

  "Let's be careful what we say," warned Louviers, tapping the black bug.

  "Hell!" Kappa began to understand just how far-reaching the effects could be.

  Louviers examined the bug carefully. "If it's any consolation, this device is not from an expert surveillance team. Most likely it's someone local. A cleaner perhaps. I need the names of everyone with access to the Sister's rooms." He turned to Maxwell Wilcox. "And keep your team of clowns out of my way."

  *

  "SO NOW we know that there are at least two bugs." Major Louviers smashed his fist onto the table when his men found the one in the plant pot in Clarkson's office. "Just what sort of security set-up have you been running here, Wilcox?"

  The small American in the navy blazer could only look down at his hands. "My security has always been regarded as adequate by Dr. Kappa."

  "Adequate?" demanded Louviers. "How do you judge that to be so?"

  Maxwell Wilcox held onto the second device. "How can these bugs threaten the Pope
? There are only the two, and the one from the Convent has a flat battery."

  "And you think they were concealed like that?" Louviers muttered something Wilcox was unable to hear, then called to one of his men. "Get the rest of our anti-surveillance kit from Istres, Jacques. Within the hour. I'm putting a hold on all movements in and out of this site until we've done a full sweep."

  "They're only here to make a fuss, Jim." Wilcox made sure his voice was just loud enough to be heard by the GIGN Major.

  "It seems you know nothing about electronic surveillance, Monsieur Wilcox," retorted Louviers. "These cheap bugs could be a blind, to stop amateurs like you looking further. You're a fool."

  "Yes, you're a fool, Wilcox," repeated Kappa. "You'd better listen to what the Major wants you to do."

  "Then I'm not off the job?" asked Wilcox, wondering if he was to be allowed to assist, and thereby retain some credibility.

  "You can do some groundwork on these batteries," said Louviers shortly. "Find the current drain on them and work out their life in days and hours. There's still some life left in them, and I want to know when they were planted. You have one hour to tell me exactly how long those bugs have been running."

  "Assuming the batteries were new." Wilcox felt his position being abused. He was not here to run errands for the GIGN. Yet Jim Kappa seemed to be enjoying his discomfort.

  Louviers shook his head. "Monsieur Wilcox, what sort of person would start a surveillance job with a flat battery?"

  *

  BERNETTI SHARED Kappa's unease as soon as he was informed of the discovery. The thought that someone was monitoring the site appalled him. There were discussions about patients that would cause severe embarrassment if they were recorded. Not only the names of VIPs would be heard, but the intimate consultations on their medical conditions.

  "The Vatican, they do it," Bernetti announced when Louviers had gone. "We all know they want to end K7."

  "Archbishop Valdieri?" Kappa nodded. "That man was in Sister Angela's room this morning."

  "Maybe the Holy Father he not coming. Maybe it only a pretence to get the Archbishop here with his bugs."

  "That's nonsense. The bugs were there long enough for the batteries to go flat. The Vatican is bringing the visit forward to this evening. Unfortunately both of the Holy Father's personal physicians have gone down sick."

  "So who put the bug in the room of Sister Angela?"

  "Perhaps there's one in every room."

  "Oh, my God!" Bernetti put his hands to his head and desperately tried to recall every conversation, every private phone call. The Vatican had the place under surveillance. Archbishop Valdieri was a viper. But Valdieri had only just arrived. Could it have been the nurse? Had Nurse Corbin placed those bugs in the clinic?

  Bernetti hurried through the beds of lavender, his hands pressing on his cheeks. Nurse Corbin had been asking questions about the Knights. He'd even caught her in his room. God, it was all so frightening. Jim Kappa, as Knight Commander, had the most to lose by an investigation. Jim must take the blame. Unless, of course, Archbishop Valdieri also knew about...

  He felt the blood drain from his face.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Avignon

  "I COULD see it coming." Zoé used her professional nurse's voice. "Everyone thinks they are immune to shock. It is why Alain was so bright."

  "He did seem a bit peculiar," agreed Matt. "Anyway, he'll be better off at home. Not that I'd want to mope around all by myself if anything happened to you."

  "You would, I think, be out enjoying yourself."

  Matt put his hand on Zoé's arm. The death of Leanne made him realize just how much Zoé meant to him. "I doubt it."

  The bar in the Place De l'Horloge facing the old roundabout had become their favorite site in town. Not so much for the coffee as for the atmosphere and the view. As the staff got to know them the speed of service improved, but only slightly. Matt found an inside table away from other customers where they could talk freely.

  "When I worked for the police I was part of a team," he said at last. "We could back each other up." He watched two Americans debating whether to come inside to eat. Unable to understand the menu the woman complained loudly to her male companion about the lack of respect shown to tourists, with all these foreign words. He looked at Zoé. "Women can be a real pain at times," he added with a grin.

  She pushed her chair back. "You stay here, Saint George. I will go to a telephone and find out if Ken has the lab report yet."

  "Those disgusting samples?"

  The American couple moved on and started to argue with each other outside the smart restaurant next door.

  Zoé produced her phone card from her purse. "And I am also going to ask him if he has looked at the CDs."

  "I can't think they're important," said Matt. "If Kappa is pirating music or computer software he's hardly going to kill anyone who finds out."

  "Do not rush me, Matt. I am, I think, putting all the pieces together slowly. While I phone Ken, you can get me another café crème." She winked at him. "S'il vous plaît."

  Matt guessed that the restaurant next door had a menu in English because the two Americans were now making their way inside. Alone, he leaned forward and flicked at a wasp that had been licking something sticky off the table. The late afternoon breeze just about made the heat bearable out of the sun. The town center had filled with tourists, apparently with no more on their minds than getting into the Papal Palace before making their way to the river for a walk on the famous Pont D'Avignon, the bridge of Saint Benezet to nowhere.

  The wasp returned and continued cleaning the table. Matt reflected on what he and Zoé had done. They had attempted to carry out illegal surveillance on a world famous center of healing -- with useless kit -- because of a chance remark in this bar by a nurse with a virus eating away at her brain. Even the husband had been willing them on, until bursting into tears on the way back from Tourvillon this afternoon.

  Life was a bitch.

  He was almost asleep, his head leaning against the wall, when Zoé kicked at his legs. "It is serious, Matt."

  "What's serious?"

  "Ken, he has the preliminary results. Four of the six biopsy samples have come out clear."

  "Lucky patients." The wasp was now on his arm. He hit it and it dropped to the floor where he squashed it with his foot. "Oh boy, Leanne really screwed things up. How are the patients going to find out they're okay?"

  "Chief Inspector Rider, you are too slow to be a policeman. Those samples, they were probably duplicates. The others, I think, were sent to the lab by the clinic."

  "So?"

  "So they belonged to six different people. And only two have the cancer cells."

  "Then it's good news for the other four."

  "I cannot explain things while you are in such a silly mood. And where is mon café?"

  "I forgot," confessed Matt.

  "You were sleeping."

  "I didn't know how long you'd be." Matt signaled to the waiter who responded immediately when he noticed Zoé.

  Zoé was clearly on a roll. "You must help me find a way to get us into the computer records."

  "Sit down, Florence Nightingale. Tell me what Ken said."

  "He says he did not bother to open les micros to check the batteries. He thought you would buy the new ones here. That man is radin, stingy. But there is, I think, one good thing about it." She looked up and smiled as the waiter put two coffees on the table. "If the bugs have the flat batteries, the men at the clinic will not be able to find them. So they will not have the suspicions. Am I right or am I right?"

  "I think we're both wrong."

  "Just get me into the main office. I will, what do you say, blow that place apart and be famous."

  Matt put his hand round his cup. "I can't think of a sensible way to get us in there to make you famous."

  "Keep working on it, mon cher. Leanne was right, they are doing something bad on the hill at Tourvillon."

&nb
sp; *

  "THERE IS nothing you can do to stop the flight, Major Louviers. The Holy Father is already airborne." Archbishop Valdieri paused. He'd not intended to throw his authority at the GIGN man. Louviers was exceptional, the perfect choice for guarding this site.

  Louviers shook his head. "You are wrong, Your Excellency. While I am in command here I take orders from no one, not even the President of France. You will stop the flight. Is that clear?"

  Valdieri ran his eyes over the leader of the anti-terrorist unit. The man was physically powerful, with a build made to look even harder by the massive .44 Magnum he wore in a body holster over a bulletproof jacket. Valdieri looked down at his cassock of thin black cotton. The power of the world, and the power of the Church. But did either of them have any real power when it came to controlling the Papal visit?

  "Listen, Your Excellency, I need two clear days. My team members have to familiarize themselves with the layout of the site and the surroundings. We have to check for explosives and bugs. Do I make my position clear?"

  "Major Louviers, the Holy Father will die if we delay his arrival. Even if the whole site has been bugged it may have no connection with his visit. I say we stop worrying."

  Louviers took the radio from his belt and set the control to scrambler mode. "Your Excellency, if you refuse to order the helicopter to return to Rome, I cannot guarantee the Pope's safety."

  Valdieri looked has his watch. "ETA is twenty-five minutes."

  "Then turn the flight around. Now."

  "And have the Holy Father die on the return journey? Where lies the greater risk, Major? In the air, or here on the ground? You have already carried out two anti-surveillance sweeps and found nothing more."

  "I hope to God we're right." Louviers spoke into the radio. "Lieutenant, are the new perimeter sensors in place?"

  The voice on the radio reported that they were.

  "And the security lodge looks normal?"

  It did.

  "Good. Now listen well, lieutenant. In just over twenty minutes our guest is arriving by helicopter. It didn't get my vote, but it's happening. I want no radio communication except through the scrambler circuits. Is that clear? And no one, absolutely no one, is to mention the name of our guest on the air. Got it?"

  The lieutenant responded that he had got it all.

  Louviers flicked the radio to standby. "Good man that. Will there be an armed escort with the Pope?"