James Patterson Alex Cross 08 Four Blind Mice

[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

now from Headline.
PROLOGUE
THE FIND
Wearing a brown tweed suit, and his customary dark tortoiseshell sunglasses,
Dr. Alberto Mazzini pushed through the crowd of loud and agitating reporters
blocking the steps of the Musee de 1"Histoire in Blois.
"Can you tell us about the artefact? Is it real? Is that why you're here?" a
woman pressed, shoving a microphone marked CNN in his face. "Have tests been
performed on the DNA?"
Dr. Mazzini was already annoyed. How had the press jackals been alerted?
Nothing had even been confirmed about the find. He waved off the reporters and
camera operators.
"This way, Dottore," one of the museum aides instructed. "Please, come
Page 155
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
inside."
A tiny, dark-haired woman in a black trouser suit was waiting for Mazzini. She
looked to be in her mid-forties, and appeared almost to curtsy in the presence
of this prestigious guest.
"Thank you for coming. I am Rene Lacaze, the director of the museum. I tried
to control the press, but..." she shrugged, 'they smell a big story. It is as
if we've found an atom bomb."
"If the artefact you've found turns out to be authentic," Mazzini replied,
flatly, 'you will have found something far greater than a bomb."
As the national director of the Vatican Museum, Alberto Mazzini had lent the
weight of his authority to every important find of religious significance that
had been unearthed over the previous thirty years: the etched tablets presumed
to be the work of the disciple John, dug up in western Syria; the first
Vulgate Bible. Both now rested among the Vatican treasures. He had also been
involved in the investigation of every hoax, hundreds of them.
Rene Lacaze led Mazzini along the narrow fifteenth-century hall inlaid with
tiles of heraldic designs.
"You say the relic was unearthed in a grave?" Mazzini asked.
"A shopping mall..." Lacaze smiled. "Even in Blois, construction goes on night
and day... The bulldozers dug up what must have been a crypt. We would have
missed it completely had not a couple of the sarcophagi split open."
Ms Lacaze escorted her important guest into a small elevator and then up to
the third floor. The grave belonged to some long-forgotten duke who died in
1099. We did acid and photoluminescence tests immediately. Age-wise, it's
right on. At first we wondered, why would a precious relic from a thousand
years earlier and half the world away be buried in an eleventh-century grave?"
"And what did you find?" Mazzini asked.
"It seems our duke went to fight in the Crusades. We know he sought valuable
relics from the time of Christ." They finally arrived at her office. "I advise
you to take a breath. You are about to behold something truly extraordinary."
The artefact lay on a plain white sheet across an examiner's table, as humble
as such a precious thing could be.
Mazzini finally removed his sunglasses. He didn't have to hold his breath. It
was completely taken way. My God, this is an atom bomb!
"Look closely. There is an inscription."
The Vatican director bent over it. Yes, it could be. It had all the right
markings. The inscription was in Latin. He squinted close to read. "Acre,
Galilee.. He examined the artefact from end to end. The age fit; the markings.
It also corresponded to descriptions in the Bible. Yet how had it come to be
buried here? "All this, it does not really prove anything."
That's true, of course," Rene Lacaze shrugged, 'but, Dottore, I am from here.
My father is from the valley, my father's father, and his. There have been
stories here for hundreds of years, long before this grave tumbled open,
stories every schoolchild in Blois was raised on. That this holy relic was
here, in Blois, a thousand years ago."
Page 156
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
Mazzini had seen a hundred purported relics like this, but the tremendous
power of this one gripped and unnerved him. A reverent force gave him the urge
to kneel on the stone floor. Finally, that's what he did as if he was in the
presence of Jesus Christ.
"I waited until your arrival to place a call to Cardinal
Perrault in Paris," said Lacaze.
"Forget Perrault. "Mazzini looked up, moistening his dry lips. "We are going
to call the Pope."
Alberto Mazzini couldn't take his eyes off the incredible artefact on the
plain white sheet. This was more than just the crowning moment of his career.
It was a miracle.
"There's just one more thing," said Ms Lacaze.
"What?" Mazzini mumbled. "What one more thing?"
"The local lore, it always said a precious relic was here, though never that
it belonged to a duke, but to a man of far humbler origins."
"What sort of lowborn man would come into such a prize? A priest...? Perhaps a
thief...?" [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

Podstrony