Shroud of the Healer by Christopher Wright

Author:Christopher Wright
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: france, healing, convent, clinic, avignon, detective thrillers, detective adventure

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Clinic of the Little Sisters of Tourvillon

THE ELECTRONIC pager let out a series of high-pitched pulses, stabbing into Mario Bernetti's mind. His thoughts had been far away.

Without a doubt Jim Kappa was using the Pope's visit to further his own ends. If K7 got their way, there would be no stopping the power of the Knight Commanders. Jim had one plan for the Holy Father. He had another.

The small receiver on his belt continued its urgent summons. He reached down and pressed the red button to produce an immediate silence. The small display screen gave the number of the emergency operating room. He picked up his desk phone and dialed.

"Dr. Bernetti," said an anxious voice, "Dr. Kappa needs you in Operating Room Two. Cardiac arrest."

Bernetti grunted a hasty acknowledgement and slammed the phone back in place. Jim had been planning a quick radio nucleotide scan on a British politician's heart. No surgery involved; not yet. He began to run, anxious to be at hand immediately. Seconds counted when a heart had stopped. The brain could suffer irreversible damage. The doors of the operating room were open. There was no time for scrubbing up and a full change of clothing. What had caused the man's heart to stop under an opaque injection for radiography?

The nurse held out a green gown. "Dr. Kappa was preparing to do an optical inspection," she explained. "The anesthetist had only just begun. ECG's gone wild, temperature's one hundred and seven, and there's no pulse."

Kappa stood pale-faced beside an inert figure which was naked apart from black trunks. The patient's chest had been shaved, painted bright orange, his face now hidden by the oxygen mask. The full emergency team was in action, rubbing packs of ice over the sweating body. Quickly a nurse applied two large pads of the high voltage defibrillator to the chest. Kappa glanced up, gave the signal, and the patient jerked violently as a massive charge of electricity smashed through his body.

"We're losing him." Kappa turned to the anesthetist. "What the hell are you pumping into him?"

Mario Bernetti studied the readings. "The defibrillator again. Now!"

The body arched under the high voltage.

The flat trace of the ECG rose in a series of erratic pulses. The patient's heart was back in action but the beats were too rapid. Suddenly the frantic tone of the electrocardiograph slowed to a series of irregular pulses, then recorded a steady heartbeat.

"We've got him back," said Kappa quietly.

"It's a miracle," said the senior operating room nurse, crossing herself with a quick movement. "Thank God for another miracle."

"Thanks, Mario." Kappa wiped his forehead with a large tissue. "Malignant hypothermia. Now we have to get his temperature down." He looked in no condition to continue. "A close thing, Mario. We must change the anesthetic. The sooner I get the endoscope inside his chest the sooner we can have the answer. I was looking for myocardial necrosis. Hell of a time to lose a patient, with the Pope coming."

"It sound like it turning into a major," said Bernetti.

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