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Agent Thompson burst into his captain’s office. Before he even had a chance to open his mouth, the elder man inside hushed him with an abrupt movement of his hand.
“Look here agent…” his voice was as apathetic as always while he threw him the folder he was studying. “Look at her agent. I think we have a candidate for our team. It took her less than ten days to recover from massive wounds and the first thing she went to do after her recovery was to spend a ridiculous amount of time in the shooting range. Her aim is nearly perfect, and according to those reports, she can actually perform that well in real situations too. Three targets, and all dead with a single bullet through the brain. That talent mustn’t go to waste…”
“Sir, the agency has her on probation. Her own leader has reprimanded her for…”
“For what Thompson? For almost sacrificing herself for her team?”
“But she is a fanatic sir! Even I can tell that the only thing on her mind is revenge. She is unstable.”
“She is tired, yes. She isn’t yet fully healed according to the doctors. But that vermin mobster that she hates is just a nuisance agent, a nuisance that we can easily get rid off to gain her trust. But think, Thompson, he killed just one partner of hers and she turned to a machine bent on destroying him. Imagine if she knew how many innocent humans die each year in the hands of the monsters we try to hunt. Her anger IS her power agent. Anger and revenge is, after all, the sole reason you and me started this, regardless that it has now evolved to a divine command to purge the beasts…”
“Sir, can we discuss it some other time? I have urgent news too…”
~~~
Sister Maria cracked her knuckles as she rose from the chair and stretched her aching bones. “I’m getting far too old for this…” She told softly to her patient. Sure, he may have spent almost two consecutive weeks that he did nothing but scream and sleep, but all the people she knew agreed that hearing is the last sense that leaves an unconscious patient. And so, she stubbornly refused to stop talking to the man that was bound in the bed next to her.
She looked out of the window again, at the bleak world that surrounded her small clinic, and she knew that she was lying. Yes, those past days were filled with duties and worries, yes she was spending more and more time awake, treating her patient and trying in vain to ease his suffering, but she didn’t feel older. If anything, she felt invigorated, born anew. She wondered what was it about this particular patient that made her feel so eager to even lie to her nuns about his condition. For this was what she had been doing those last days. Lying…
His physical health was perfect. All tests indicated that nothing was wrong with him physically. Yet, he spent his time screaming. Maria knew that this was his own burden to bear, his own battle with Satan to win, but on the other hand, it was the first time she had seen the tortures of hell to manifest in physical form; to cause direct pain. But she couldn’t let the rest of the sisters know from where all those observations came from. And so she was forced to keep telling them that the pain was from internal damages due to the intoxication and abuse of his system. She kept telling them that he was gradually improving and thus there was no need for him to be transferred; that his condition was slowly changing for the better…
It wasn’t a complete lie, though. As the days passed, she has felt that change; in him as well as her. The screams have lowered in intensity, his sleeping time has increased. Maybe that meant that the battle inside him was closing to an end, but she had no clue at all who would win… As for her, she felt her strength gaining, as if pushed by an invisible force, always increasing, becoming more sensitive to the slight changes on people’s auras, on their health condition, even her ever-calming presence seemed to becoming stronger. She has rationalized that, she had to help that man; it was her trial, sent by God, to judge her worth. And her soul knew that, and gave everything it had to help her through this. It was the only logical answer…
Her thoughts were interrupted with the entrance of her eldest nun. Her feet careful so as not to step on the wet towels that now rested on the crack of the door; a necessary addition so as to lessen the impact of the screams on the rest of the patients.
“Excuse me Mother. There are some people to see you.”
Maria observed the slight quirks of the woman in front of her, the uneasiness that followed her moves, the restless hands, and suddenly she knew that she was hiding something from her.
‘Well, we’ll deal with this later’
“Show me Anna”
‘…and here we go’ She thought as she saw the three people that waited in her office; her eyes lingering on the one she knew. ‘So you’re here to get him aren’t you?’
She eyed the young girl curiously, her gaze halting at her pale face, the telltale signs of exhaustion apparent even to untrained eyes. “Are you ok girl? We can probably find you a bed here to see what is wrong with you.” ‘But this is not why you’re are here, right?’
It was the man directly in front of her, the one with the darkest aura of the three, that spoke. She saw him doing a quick bow, inclining his head and lowering his eyes to the ground, and to her utter amazement, her senses told her that he meant it.
“Excuse us holy mother, but we had an anonymous call that one of your patients is a person we search for.”
‘Holy mother? Ok… and why do you struggle to say the word 'person' hypocrite?’
“I wouldn’t know sir…?”
“Agent, Agent Hill” He said as he showed her his badge, his eyes still wary to meet her own.
“Well, Agent Hill, as I told you I wouldn’t know. You see, running a clinic and supervising my nuns leaves me no time to watch the news. But even if there was a man here that you would seek, I still wouldn’t know if I would have given him to you if I thought that he needed the help that I can provide him with. You see, here is a church too. I would hope that a devout man like you would honor the sanctuary of such a place. I have nothing to hide or fear from the law, but if I estimate that it’s for the best interest of a patient of mine to stay in my care, then I have the means to make this a big deal. Now, if there is another way that I could help you, maybe by checking the health of your friend here that looks clearly ill to me” ‘And it’s not her body that I’m so worried about’ She added to herself while checking the weird steel-like color and thickness of the young woman’s aura “I would be happy to provide it to you.”
Hill didn’t even flinch; he just froze for a second and continued like nothing has happened.
“Mother, if you could just allow us to look at your patient maybe we can avoid all the unpleasantries that may follow. Please help us.”
Before she could answer, a tired voice invaded their two-way dialogue.
“Now I remember. It is you. You were the nun that I saw when I was chasing him. You… you pointed to me where he went.”
Suddenly Hill’s started speaking again with renewed vigor.
“Mother, it is imperative that we see this patient of yours. Now. Many human lives may be at stake here” It was the first time she locked eyes with this man, but she saw it clear, the zeal that burned within him was a frightening thing to behold. She knew that there were no limits for such a person; he would follow his cause no matter what…
“This place is still a church sir. And I will try to honor the asylum and sanctity of this place as best as I can by denying your request. Now please either order me to show you this person or leave.”
“Mother, I’m sorry for what I’ll say now, but there is no way that I will let that slide. But if it comes to that, I have the necessary paperwork to ensue a search of this place. You are a servant of the God, and I can see that your beliefs are strong, but I’m convinced that in this argument you are wrong. Please, cooperate with us. You have to believe me that we’re doing our best to ensure the safety of our fellow humans. I would never lie to a nun; God is with us in this search...”
Maria fought hard to restrain herself. There was only one thing that really pissed her off. People claiming that their personal agendas were backed up by God; people that thought that God was endorsing killings. ‘God is with you? He came down and told you so? Maybe he was with the crusaders that spilled so much blood too? Go on… butcher some more people in the name of the god of love…’ The last part of course having nothing to do with the current situation, but nevertheless, it was part of the same conviction that, in her mind, spoiled the name of Christ. It was only the thought that her beliefs, this instant, may border on zealotry too, that helped her regain her calm again.
“Please don’t mention his name in vain. You are inside a church. And excuse me now, I have patients to take care of.”
A small voice rejoiced inside her the moment she saw how much her first sentence hurt him. She wasn’t happy that she had hurt a man, even him, but she was glad that she had found a weakness of him that she could use later on, if she needed to ensure the wellbeing of a human. He was a true zealot. And zealots had two qualities; they were really dangerous and they were easily manipulated by their distorted view of faith.
She turned her back at them and heard the words that she knew that were coming next.
“By this search warrant I demand to search this place for a wanted man”
“Fine, follow me.”
She knew when she had lost a battle, now the only thing she needed was to find a way to turn this defeat in her advantage.
~~~
“I’m not sure this is the one…”
It took less than a minute for the team to overcome the initial shock and adjust to the constant screaming that ruled inside the small room. It took Sister Maria some time too to explain why the restrains and the screaming existed in the first place. But it was taking even longer for Liz to try to understand if this was the same man.
“I can’t be sure, I had an image of a dirty, unkempt man in my head, but this one… seems different, civilized, tortured…” ‘and damn attractive’ she added in her mind.
Liz kept staring at the clean shaved man with the short brown hair, trying desperately to remember, but her gaze kept drifting to his clear blue eyes that were open wide from the pain… She closed her eyes and tried to bring forth in her memory her brief encounter with him. But what came back was something far worse. John’s kneeling body, the blood that was rapidly covering his shirt, the empty expression of his face. She felt her heartbeat slowing down. When she reopened her eyes, she wasn’t looking at an attractive wounded man anymore. Her mind started to estimate a human being’s height and weight, his physical proportions, the hue of his hair, a million little details about him that before weren’t apparent…
“It’s him.” Her voice resounded flat, sterile of any emotion.
“Very well then agents… I shall prepare the paperwork. Bring me the doctor that will supervise him so that I can start briefing him on his condition. I guess in two, three, days, if you hurry, I can give him to you.” ‘And in the meantime I’ll find out what strings I can pull to…’
“No. We will take him now Mother. I’ll take all the papers and records of medical examinations of him as well as anything he carried when you picked him up.”
Sister Maria was stunned. They did have everything it needed, half of the papers he showed her she didn’t even know they existed… They had even come here with an ambulance. It didn’t make sense. Yet here she stood looking at the flashing siren of the vehicle that carried the man that was she was starting to feel that was more important than anything she had encountered before. It was like they knew that they would take him before they even knocked her door. ‘People like them have probably never met failure…’ She said bitterly to herself…
“Sister Anna” She called her eldest nun again. “A moment if you please in my office.”
“Sure, Mother”
“No. Not mother and daughter anymore Sister Anna. In the eyes of God we are all equal, all sisters. And you are the only one except me in this place that actually has a doctor’s decree.”
“Sister… I want to tell you something.”
“It’s ok, I know. I’m actually proud of you. You called them here didn’t you? You cared so much for the patient that you thought that we couldn’t support him as needed. Of course, the slight mistake is that you, all of you, have very little confidence in your abilities, you depend too much to me and my judgment.”
“Sister…”
“Let me finish please Anna. You already know that this place belongs to me; it’s a private property of my family. But I must inform you that on my will it is you that takes this place… alongside with the responsibility to actually run it. I’m getting far too old.”
“Sister please don’t say such…”
“Death is only a natural procedure Sister. I’m not at all unhappy that it will come to me too. I fear nothing of death, because I’ve lived my life as I wished and I’m proud of what I’ve done. When everything ends, I pray that I have lived with the way Jesus intended us to. But this place must continue, and you’re the only trained doctor that I have. So… I came to a decision. You will run it for the time being. I feel that this is needed so that you can build up confidence in yourself. To make it easier for you to adapt quicker, I will leave this place.”
“But sister!”
“No buts and don’t worry. I will pass frequently from here to check up things, it’s just that I won’t be living here.”
Anna tried hard to understand what was going on here. It surely felt like punishment for her actions but it seemed… right. She couldn’t exactly comprehend what she was told, she was lost into mother Maria’s clear eyes; eyes that told her that everything is fine. She thought that she should be getting anxious for her new responsibilities, but the only thing she felt was a tranquil calmness. She wanted to do anything to prove herself worthy at those eyes.
Maria smiled as she saw Anna leaving. Eventually she would understand. Eventually she would grow; the harshness of the world that she would have to take care of would make her grow. After all, everything she has told her was true, and if she was to get the clinic, she would have to become responsible and self-confident. But now she had to do something else, she had to care for one soul that truly needed her. She opened her small pocket agenda and flipped some pages. The financial and social status of her family would help, but she was more concerned about her own acquaintances. She smiled when she saw the number she was looking for.
‘So… agents, you think that you’re the only ones that are prepared for everything?’ She thought as she hanged up the phone some minutes later.
She double checked that she was alone in the small chapel and she prayed. She felt her consciousness drift to other holy places, places that she had visited on the past, places where God ruled mighty.
When she opened her eyes she looked at a different, almost crumbled, chapel. “You have deteriorated from the last time I saw you… I will take care of it when I have time.” She told to the cold walls and exited; only to be invaded by bright sunlight. “Ahh… The sweet smell of Rome. It has been a while..."
