The Source - Michael Cordy [45]
'What nun?'
'A Sister Chantal. She visited Dr Kelly and convinced him that Falcon's garden wasn't a fantasy and might contain a cure for his wife. She gave him Father Orlando's notebook.'
'How did she get hold of it? Who is this Sister Chantal?'
Torino reached into his box file. He took out a letter and a small carved box. 'A few days ago my office received this request from one of our Aids hospices in Uganda. They want the Institute of Miracles to investigate an apparent intervention. Two of their terminal patients, twin boys, have been cured simultaneously and spontaneously. On the same day, one of the nuns disappeared from the hospice. When questioned, the boys claimed that she had made them tea, using something from this box.' He handed it to the pope. 'Look at the carving.'
'I see flowers.'
'They're not ordinary flowers. You'll see flowers like that in only one place: the Voynich Cipher Manuscript.'
Silence.
'According to our research, the sister who disappeared had been with the hospice for twelve years, and two other hospices before that, but her order has no record of her earlier life. None. Her name? Sister Chantal.' The two men remained silent but Torino had their complete attention. 'All we know with certainty is that she's linked to Father Orlando and the Voynich. Whoever this mysterious rebel nun is, Dr Ross Kelly now has the notebook containing the directions, and is already searching for the garden to find a cure for his wife.'
He powered up his laptop, turned the screen towards them and played scenes of Ross Kelly in his comatose wife's hospital room: explaining that the garden revealed in Lauren's translation of the Voynich might hold a cure for her; telling her that they were going to find the garden; kissing her goodbye and asking for her blessing.
'How did you get this?' demanded Vasari.
'I have an ally, a servant of the Church, who keeps me informed.'
The Holy Father frowned. 'You have someone spying on Dr Kelly?'
'I prefer to see it as watching and listening. He wants only to serve the Church, as we all do.'
'Take care you do nothing to shame Rome, Father General,' said the pope.
'I'd never do anything to harm the Holy Mother Church, but if Kelly finds this garden and tells the world of its existence, he could destroy Rome.'
Vasari leant forward. 'You really think the geologist will find a miracle cure for his wife?'
'I fear he'll find a great deal more than that.'
'Like what?'
Torino narrowed his eyes. 'The miracle of creation. The scientific answer to the Book of Genesis.' He turned again to the pope. 'Holy Father, six months ago you announced the Holy Mother Church's revised position on evolution. You rejected Darwin's theory and embraced intelligent design. You enshrined in doctrine the Roman Catholic Church's belief that God, not evolution, is behind the creation and development of life.'
'Yes.'
'In the Inquisition Archives, Father Orlando spoke of something he called the radix, the source. In the garden its brilliance attracted the gold-hunting conquistadors and got them killed. Falcon was vague about what exactly it was, but he claimed it was the power behind the miraculous garden.'
'Your point is?'
'On the video, Kelly mentioned a theory – a hypothesis – to explain scientifically how Father Orlando's miraculous garden could exist,' Torino said. 'Kelly's theory is even bolder than the one Father Orlando dared in his blasphemous testimony: that this Garden of God and its source might be the origin of all life on earth. Forget Darwin and evolution. If Kelly finds this garden, he won't just be able to save his wife, demonstrating that miracles are independent of any church, he might also be able to show where, when