Part 23 (1/2)

Mike was coming closer, his expression one of purest astonishment. ”Don't look now, but here comes Dad.”

He came rus.h.i.+ng up to them, followed closely by the tall form of Father Goodwin, flapping like a huge old buzzard, his face gleaming with perspiration and excited tears. ”Sometimes it happens at the exposure of the Blessed Sacrament! Is that when it happened?”

Mary answered. ”That's when it happened. Just a few minutes ago.”

Patricia recalled that the Blessed Sacrament was carried out in procession morning and evening. All the singing must have signified the morning exposure. But the miracle had happened during the night. ”Mary-”

Mary's hand squeezed hers.

She saw a small, very old man watching them from the fringe of the mob.

In the crowd there were at least as many of those strangely attentive faces as she had seen on the Bernadette tour. More, in fact. Practically everybody.

When she looked directly at the old man, it was as if the light went out of the sun and the warmth left the air. He turned quickly away and was lost in the crowd.

Mr. Apple is dead, isn't he?

Mike Banion's muscular arms came around her, and she let him hug her against his damp s.h.i.+rt. ”Glory be!”

”Thank you, Mike, and thank the Holy Namers.” She was playing a part, and she knew it, but that somehow did not stop her.

”Thanks be to G.o.d,” Mary added.

Father Goodwin bowed his head. The great copper doors opened and the crowd began filing into the basilica, eager to touch their wounds and agonies to the waters.

Patricia rested her head against Mike's shoulder. Jonathan joined the embrace and the three of them stood together- three common, ordinary people against the dark, the un-known, the mysteries of the night.

She wished that she could shake the feeling of dread that had been with her all these weeks. But she could not. In fact, day by day and hour by hour it was increasing.

For heaven's sake, she had been cured! cured! Shouldn't she rejoice? Shouldn't she rejoice?

8 AUGUST 1983.

MOST PRIVATE.

To: The Prefect of the Sacred Congregation for the Defense of the Faith From: The Chancellor for the Inquiry in North Amer-ica Your Eminence: It is with deepest regret that I inform you that Sister Marie-Louise has refused her commission.

When the death of Terence Quist was added to that of Brother Alexander and I could not even guarantee the loyalty of the parish priest, Sister concluded that the risk of penetrating this congregation was too high.

Theoretically, Sister is correct, but the importance of the present mission is so great that I must ask you to use your good offices with the worldwide body, and find me a warrior-priest of the old school, who will brave anything for love of Him.

If you wish to reach Sister, she will be at the Esalen Inst.i.tute in California for the next two weeks,”getting her head back together,” as she so aptly put it.

In addition, Sister demanded that we turn over our files on the disease vector to the secular authorities for proper action. I do not yet wish to do this. Until we are utterly and completely defeated, we must not risk the damage to Holy Faith that revelation of our existence would cause.

Your Grace, our one and only alternative remains to neutralize the bearers of the blood.

Please send me a good man! May G.o.d have mercy on us all.

Yours in Christ & for the Defense of the Faith, Brian Conlon (Msgr.) Doc.u.ment Cla.s.s: Urgent A, most private, Swiss Guards courier Destination: Paolo Cardinal Impelliteri, the Hidden Collegium, Prefecturate for the Defense of the Faith, Vatican City.

12 AUGUSTUS 1983.

FURTIVISSIMUS.

Ad: Cancellarius Inquisitionis in Septentrionalis Americanensis Cancellarius Inquisitionis in Septentrionalis Americanensis Ex: Ex: Prefectus Congregationis Defensioni Fidei Prefectus Congregationis Defensioni Fidei We are vexed, Monsignor. If you cannot command the loyalty of your own religious, I fail to perceive any reason for you to continue in your post. Cells de-stroyed, martyrdoms, Inquisitors going to the Esalen Inst.i.tute? What can be the matter over there?

You impress upon me in the same letter both your own personal helplessness and the urgency of the situation. I should remove you, but I cannot afford to spend time training a new man at such a tense mo-ment.

Monsignor, I order you to go in yourself. Work Work on that parish priest, Goodwin. Enlist his help if you can. on that parish priest, Goodwin. Enlist his help if you can.

At all costs, the monstrum monstrum and his mate must be rendered impotent. We simply cannot afford to face the chance of their birthing the so-called anti-man. Do what is needed in this regard, bearing our previous correspondence in mind. It has taken two thousand years of breeding to produce those two. and his mate must be rendered impotent. We simply cannot afford to face the chance of their birthing the so-called anti-man. Do what is needed in this regard, bearing our previous correspondence in mind. It has taken two thousand years of breeding to produce those two.

In two brave seconds the threat can be removed.

So I charge you: For Christ and Holy Faith, find your courage. You have done brave things in the past, Brian. You always knew that your work might expose you to the threat of martyrdom.

Accept the cup Our Lord gives into your hand. Remember His pa.s.sion in the Garden of Gethsemane. Brian, I cannot compel you. But I offer my prayers for you in this difficult hour.

Bless you, my son. You yourself must be our Op-pugnatio. Op-pugnatio.

Mea Auctoritate, Paolo Cardinalis Impelliteri Doc.u.ment Cla.s.s: Urgent A, destroy in presence of courier Destination: Monsignor Brian Conlon, Chancellor for the Inquiry, North America, 1217 Fuller Brush Build-ing, 221 E. 57th Street, New York, N.Y., 10022

Chapter Fifteen.

THE LIGHT OF evening lifted from hot Queens streets. Far below the windows of the apartment a bus roared, accelerat-ing away down Metropolitan Avenue. Jonathan wished he and Patricia were on it.

They had spent time very carefully comparing the dreams they had experienced on the night of the cure.

They were complementary in every detail, so much so that Jonathan was forced to conclude they had not notdreamed, but in fact had undergone some sort of actual experience.

The two of them were at the edge of the unknown. Jonathan wanted to get everything out in the open, unlock the secrets and d.a.m.n the consequences. But how do you confront something you do not understand, which seems like a nightmare but has stunning consequences in real life?

The cure.

”Farfetched,” Mike had said when Jonathan had told him about the complementary dreams. ”Coincidence.

And if the cult were big enough to include Lourdes there'd be a lot of people involved. There'd be leaks, and there aren't any. I'm looking for a group that starts and stops right here in Queens. Big enough to be mean as h.e.l.l, which they obvi-ously are, but small enough to stay well hidden. And as for the cure, just accept it.Thank the good Lord it happened.”

Nightmares. Cleansing rivers: Cures. Jonathan accepted nothing, not even the way they had been scrutinized in the streets of Lourdes. That Mike brushed off. ”The place is full of Frenchmen,” seemed to him to be enough of an explana-tion.

But after listening to Jonathan's story on the way home in the plane, Mike had fallen silent, had stared a long time into the distance, had finally given them both rea.s.suring pats and told them to relax.