Sanctus and The Key: 2 Bestselling Thrillers - Simon Toyne

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reflection of the Citadel, a church within a mountain.

      ‘No,’ he said, in answer to Mariella’s question. ‘I hoped it would change things, but I can’t say I believed it would.’

      ‘And what about the monk? Do you believe he will?’

      He looked at her. ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘Yes, I do.’

      Mariella leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek. ‘That’s what I was praying for,’ she said. ‘And now I will pray that you are right.’

      There was a sudden disturbance at the front of the church.

      A small group of worshippers were huddled by the altar, their intense conversation whispering through the chapel like a strengthening breeze. One broke away and began walking up the aisle towards them. Oscar recognized Jean-Claude Landowski, the grandson of the French sculptor who had built the structure in which they all now prayed. He paused by each worshipper and whispered solemn words.

      Oscar watched the body language of the recipients of Jean-Claude’s news, and felt Mariella’s hand grab his. He did not need to hear the words to know what was being said.

      20

      ‘OK,’ Reis began in his best bedside manner. ‘Case number one-eight-six-nine-four slash “E”. The time is ten-seventeen. Attending are myself, Dr Bartholomew Reis of the city coroner’s office, and Inspector Davud Arkadian of the Ruin City Police. The subject is an unidentified white Caucasian male, approximately thirty years of age. Height –’ he withdrew the steel tape measure that was built into the table and extended it sharply ‘– six feet two inches. First visual assessment is commensurate with eyewitness reports, detailed in the case file, of a body that has sustained major trauma following a substantial fall from height.’

      Reis frowned. He tapped the flashing red square to pause the recording.

      ‘Hey, Arkadian,’ he called in the general direction of the coffee pot, ‘why’d they kick this in your direction? This guy threw himself off a mountain and wound up dead. Not much detecting called for, far as I can see.’

      Arkadian exhaled slowly and slam-dunked the balled-up wrapper emphatically into the waste basket. ‘Interesting question.’ He poured two mugs of coffee. ‘Unfortunately, this wasn’t one of those “sneak off and do it in private” kind of suicides.’ He grabbed the milk carton and poured most of its contents into one of the mugs. ‘And our man here didn’t just throw himself off a mountain; he threw himself off the mountain. And you know how much the people in charge hate it when anything, how shall we say, “un-family friendly” happens there. They think it might put people off coming to this beautiful city of ours, which will impact distressingly on sales of Holy Grail T-shirts and “True Cross of Christ” bumper stickers – and they don’t like that. So they have to be seen to be doing everything they can to respond to such a tragic incident.’

      He handed Reis a very white coffee in a very black mug.

      Reis nodded slowly. ‘So they throw an inspector at it.’ He took a slurp of his homemade latte.

      ‘Exactly. This way they can hold a press conference and announce that, having brought all the expertise and diligence of the police force to bear, they have discovered that a guy dressed as a monk threw himself off the top of the Citadel and died. Unless, of course, you discover otherwise …’

      Reis took another long gulp of his tepid coffee and handed the mug back to Arkadian.

      ‘Well,’ he said, hitting the red button to restart the audio file. ‘Let’s find out.’

      21

      Kathryn Mann sat in her office on the second floor of the townhouse surrounded by piles of paperwork in a variety of languages. As usual her door was open to the hallway and through it she heard the footfalls on wooden floors, phones ringing and fragments of conversation as people drifted in to start the working day.

      She’d sent someone back to the orchard to pick up the volunteers. She wanted to be alone with her thoughts and feelings for a while, and right now she just couldn’t face another earnest discussion about dead bees. She thought of the empty hives in the light of the monk’s death and it made her shudder. The ancients had been big on the omens contained in the uncharacteristic behaviour of animals. She wondered what they would have made of the supernatural events that were taking place in the world today: melting ice caps, tropical weather in formerly temperate zones, unprecedented tidal waves and hurricanes, coral reefs poisoned by acidic seas, disappearing bees. They would have thought it was the end of the world.

      On the desk in front of her lay the field report she’d rescued from the passenger seat of the minibus. It had done little to lighten her mood. She’d only read half of it and already knew that it was going to be too expensive to fund. Maybe this was just one more bit of the world they were going to have to let wither and die. She stared hard at the carefully annotated diagrams and charts outlining initial building costs and projected tree growth, but in her head she was seeing symbols etched on to fragments of slate, and the shape made by the monk before he fell.

      ‘Did you see the news?’

      Startled, Kathryn looked up into the bright, clear face of a willowy girl beaming at her from the doorway. She tried to remember her name but the turnover of people in the building was so rapid she never trusted herself to get it right. Rachel maybe – or was it Rebecca? Here on a three-month placement from an English university.

      ‘Yes,’ Kathryn replied. ‘Yes, I saw it.’

      ‘Traffic’s rammed out there. That’s why I was late getting in.’

      ‘Don’t worry about it.’ Kathryn dismissed the confession with a wave and returned to the dossier. The morning’s news, which hung so heavily around her, was clearly just an inconvenience for most people – something to be gossiped over, wondered at and then forgotten.

      ‘Hey, you want a coffee?’ the girl asked.

      Kathryn looked back up at her fresh, untroubled face and suddenly remembered her name. ‘That’d be great, Becky,’ she said.

      The girl’s face lit up. ‘Cool.’ With a whip-crack of auburn ponytail she turned and ran down to the kitchen.

      Most of the work carried out by the organization was done by volunteers like Becky; people of all ages, giving freely of their time, not because of any religious obligation or national pride, but because they loved the planet they lived on and wanted to do something to look after it. That’s what the charity did: brought water to places that had dried out; planted crops and trees in land that had been blighted by war or poisoned by industry; though this was not how Ortus had started, and it was not the work it had always done.

      Her desk phone rang.

      ‘Ortus. Can I help you?’ she said, as brightly as she could manage.

      ‘Kathryn,’ Oscar’s warm voice rumbled in her ear. Instantly she felt a little better.

      ‘Hey, Daddy,’ she said. ‘Where’ve you been?’

      ‘I was praying.’

      ‘Did you hear?’ She didn’t quite know how to frame the question. ‘Did you hear that he … that the monk …’

      ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘I heard.’

      She swallowed hard, trying to hold back the emotion.

      ‘Don’t despair,’ her father said. ‘We should not give up hope.’

      ‘But how can we not?’ She glanced up at the door and lowered her voice. ‘The prophecy can no longer be fulfilled. How can the cross rise again?’

      The crackle of the transatlantic line filled the long pause before her father spoke again.

      ‘People have come back from

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