Silas awoke with a start.
He had no idea what had awoken him or how long he had been asleep. Was I
dreaming? Sitting up now on his straw mat, he listened to the quiet breathing of the Opus
Dei residence hall, the stillness textured only by the soft murmurs of someone praying
aloud in a room below him. These were familiar sounds and should have comforted him.
And yet he felt a sudden and unexpected wariness.
Standing, wearing only his undergarments, Silas walked to the window. Was I
followed? The courtyard below was deserted, exactly as he had seen it when he entered.
He listened. Silence. So why am I uneasy? Long ago Silas had learned to trust his
intuition. Intuition had kept him alive as a child on the streets of Marseilles long before
prison . . . long before he was born again by the hand of Bishop Aringarosa. Peering out
the window, he now saw the faint outline of a car through the hedge. On the car's roof
was a police siren. A floorboard creaked in the hallway. A door latch moved.
Silas reacted on instinct, surging across the room and sliding to a stop just behind the
door as it crashed open. The first police officer stormed through, swinging his gun left
then right at what appeared an empty room. Before he realized where Silas was, Silas had
thrown his shoulder into the door, crushing a second officer as he came through. As the
first officer wheeled to shoot, Silas dove for his legs. The gun went off, the bullet sailing
above Silas's head, just as he connected with the officer's shins, driving his legs out from
under him, and sending the man down, his head hitting the floor. The second officer
staggered to his feet in the doorway, and Silas drove a knee into his groin, then went
clambering over the writhing body into the hall.
Almost naked, Silas hurled his pale body down the staircase. He knew he had been
betrayed, but by whom? When he reached the foyer, more officers were surging through
the front door. Silas turned the other way and dashed deeper into the residence hall. The
women's entrance. Every Opus Dei building has one. Winding down narrow hallways,
Silas snaked through a kitchen, past terrified workers, who left to avoid the naked albino
as he knocked over bowls and silverware, bursting into a dark hallway near the boiler
room. He now saw the door he sought, an exit light gleaming at the end.
Running full speed through the door out into the rain, Silas leapt off the low landing,
not seeing the officer coming the other way until it was too late. The two men collided,
Silas's broad, naked shoulder grinding into the man's sternum with crushing force. He
drove the officer backward onto the pavement, landing hard on top of him. The officer's
gun clattered away. Silas could hear men running down the hall shouting. Rolling, he
grabbed the loose gun just as the officers emerged. A shot rang out on the stairs, and
Silas felt a searing pain below his ribs. Filled with rage, he opened fire at all three
officers, their blood spraying.
A dark shadow loomed behind, coming out of nowhere. The angry hands that grabbed
at his bare shoulders felt as if they were infused with the power of the devil himself. The
man roared in his ear. SILAS, NO!
Silas spun and fired. Their eyes met. Silas was already screaming in horror as Bishop
Aringarosa fell.
