THE WOMAN IN THE HABIT
They escaped through a narrow passage behind the archive room.
Marcus could hear men searching the corridor behind them.
They ran until they reached another door.
Gabriel opened it.
They entered a small underground chapel.
Candles were burning.
Marcus stopped.
Someone was sitting in the front row.
A woman.
Wearing a black habit.
Daniel whispered:
“Sister Mary?”
The woman slowly stood.
Marcus stared.
It was her.
The same face.
The same habit.
The same woman who had been lying dead on his morgue table.
She walked toward them.
“Doctor Bennett.”
Marcus couldn’t move.
“You’re alive.”
Mary smiled faintly.
“Yes.”
Daniel looked confused.
“But we saw your body.”
Mary nodded.
“I know.”
Marcus stared at her.
“What happened?”
Mary explained that she had been given a powerful sedative designed to make her vital signs appear almost nonexistent.
She knew the plan was dangerous.
But she had no other way to get the evidence out of the convent.
The message on her back had been written before she took the medication.
The envelope had contained a key.
And the two-hour delay was meant to give her allies enough time to remove her from the morgue.
But something had gone wrong.
“The men who took me weren’t my allies,” she said.
Marcus looked at Gabriel.
“Then who were they?”
Mary’s expression hardened.
“The people I was trying to expose.”
She opened her hand.
Inside was a tiny metal key.
“This unlocks the final archive.”
Marcus stared.
“What’s inside?”
“Proof.”
“Proof of what?”
Mary looked at him.
“Enough to destroy the entire convent.”
Daniel whispered:
“And the people behind it?”
Mary nodded.
“Not just them.”
She looked toward Father Gabriel.
“There are names in those records that will shock you.”
Marcus suddenly understood.
The secret wasn’t just about the convent.
It reached far beyond it.
Mary placed the key in Marcus’s hand.
“You brought me here.”
Marcus shook his head.
“You brought yourself here.”
She smiled.
“Then perhaps I chose the right doctor.”
A loud crash echoed from the corridor.
They had found them.
Mary looked toward the door.
“We have minutes.”
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