never seen him like this. Sure, I know that he's getting on in years, but he's always been so strong. I just wasn't prepared to see him so pale and short of breath. I wish you could have been with me.'
'Well, look, if it'll make you feel any better we can drop by the hospital on the way home.' Decker immediately realized he was making an assumption. 'You are planning to stay at the apartment?'
'Sure, if that's okay with you.'
'Of course it's okay. Your room's just the way you left it.'
At the hospital Decker and Christopher headed for Milner's room. They were in the elevator when suddenly a look of concern swept over Christopher's face. 'What is it?' Decker asked.
Christopher shook his head as if he were trying to shake off a dizzy spell. 'It's that feeling – the one I told you about where a battle is raging somewhere nearby. Maybe it's because I was just telling you about it, but suddenly I had it again.' The conversation ended abruptly as the elevator reached their floor and the door opened, revealing something unusual was happening. There was a steady stream of people, mostly elderly but a few younger ones as well, moving as quickly as their feet or wheelchairs would carry them, which in the case of some was not very fast at all. There was no apparent panic. They were not running from something. Rather they seemed to be going toward something.
'Have you seen him?' one nurse asked another at the nurse's station as people walked, rolled, or shuffled past. 'Only a peek,' the other answered. 'There are too many people around the door to get a look at him.'
As they walked down the hall with the flow of people, Decker and Christopher couldn't help but notice the excitement as they made their way around the more slowly advancing patients. 'I wonder what's up,' Christopher said.
'Looks like somebody's giving away free money and these people want to get there before it's all gone,' Decker suggested.
When they rounded the corner, it became clear that the excitement was centered around a room at the end of the hall. Outside the door stood about forty people, most in hospital clothes and slippers, some dressed in the garb of orderlies or nurses, each trying to get closer to the door.
'That's Secretary Milner's room,' Christopher said. They immediately picked up their pace, intending to press headlong through the crowd, but were quickly engulfed in the melee. Just out of their sight, and coming down an adjoining hall, a very stoutly built nurse was leading four orderlies toward the same crowd. Soon Decker and Christopher were pushed away along with the rest of the throng. They might have stood their ground – the others probably would have made their way around anyone who seemed unwilling to move. Instead, they made for an empty alcove as the mass moved by them, driven on like a herd of cattle. 'What is going on!?' asked Decker in disbelief. But the only one who heard him was Christopher, who seemed as bewildered as Decker.
'Do you think something has happened to Secretary Milner?' Christopher asked.
'Nah,' responded Decker reassuringly. 'Didn't you see those people? They weren't acting like they were headed for a funeral. In fact, from the looks on some of their faces, I'd think it was more likely that Milner had a baby.'
Christopher smiled, and soon the final stragglers passed, followed closely by the stout nurse and her armor- bearers. From there it was only a matter of getting past the guard at the door, an easy task for someone of Decker's experience and credentials. As the door to Milner's room swung open they saw two doctors huddled around the bed, leaning way over as if working on their patient. On closer examination it became clear that the bed was unoccupied except for some medical charts the doctors were examining.
'Where is Secretary Milner?' Christopher asked anxiously.
For a moment the doctors ignored them, and then one turned and called for the guard to escort the intruders out of the room. 'It's okay,' the second doctor said as he recognized Christopher from his visit earlier in the day.
'Where is Secretary Milner?' Christopher repeated insistently.
'He's in the lavatory,' the second doctor answered.
'What was all the commotion about? Is he all right?' Christopher asked, a little less urgently.
'See for yourself,' said a voice from their left. There, standing in the open bathroom door was former Assistant Secretary-General Milner dressed in his hospital gown. His appearance gave no hint as to why he was even in the hospital. His eyes were clear and bright, his complexion restored to its ruddy glow, his stance tall and erect with shoulders and chest broad and firm.
Decker gave his head a quick shake to check his orientation. Christopher simply stared.
'How do I look?' Milner asked proudly.
'You, uh… look great,' Christopher answered. 'What happened?'
Milner cast his eyes toward the doctors, though it seemed he did so less for an answer and more to gloat over their lack of an explanation.
'We're not sure,' one of the doctors admitted. 'He seems to be in perfect health. He's no spring chicken, but if I didn't know better I'd swear he was twenty years younger than when he checked in.'
'They're not sure,' Milner said, repeating the doctor's first remark with glee. 'Actually, they haven't the foggiest idea.'
'He's right,' one of them confessed.
'Why don't you fellas just go on back to your offices and study those charts while I talk to my visitors,' Milner urged, as he motioned his physicians toward the door.
The doctors didn't resist but warned Milner not to overexert himself.
'Of course not,' Milner responded, unconvincingly.
When they were gone, Milner checked the ties on his hospital gown and quickly dropped to the floor and began doing pushups. 'Count 'em for me, Christopher,' he said as he began. Christopher resisted but counted them anyway as Milner, refusing to let the feat go unmeasured, started to count for himself. As he reached twenty-three Christopher insisted that he cease, which he promptly did, after two more.
Decker was too busy chuckling at this strange scene to speak, but Christopher asked again, 'What's going on? What happened?'
'What do you mean, 'What happened,'' Milner responded. 'It's obvious: I'm well and I feel ready to take on the world.'
'But how did this happen?' Christopher pressed.
'It's obvious,' Milner repeated, unharried by Christopher's insistence, but then came to the point, 'It all started just after I got the transfusion of the blood you donated.'
Decker's stopped laughing. He was momentarily stunned, not only by the fact that Christopher's blood had this effect, but by Milner's matter-of-fact response. Did Milner know about Christopher? How could he? He wondered whether he should pursue this any further and risk giving away Christopher's secret. 'What are you saying?' he asked, unable to control his own curiosity.
'Mr. Hawthorne,' Milner said, formally, 'I have known of Christopher's history since the first moment I saw him. And to some small extent I also know his destiny – though I am forbidden to reveal it, even to him. I cannot claim that I knew this would happen,' he said, referring to his improved condition, 'but neither does it surprise me in the least!'
Chapter 19
The Prince of Rome
Eight years later: Sunday, June 30, 2019 – Germany
The train from Heidelberg to Frankfurt sped quietly along the track through the German summer evening. A few hundred meters to the left, the foothills of the Odenwald Mountains burst forth from the flat plains of the Rhine Valley to form the western wall of what in millennia past had been a massive sea. Every eight or ten kilometers along the crest of the mountains, castles sat in various states of repair, some in ruins, others still inhabited. Along
