Sidney Sheldon - The sands of time

Please, God. Let me be on time, Megan prayed.

The walk to the village square was a pleasant one, with side streets shaded by towering trees, but Jaime was unaware of his surroundings. He was thinking about Felix. He had been like a brother to him, had given him his full trust. What had turned him into a traitor willing to put all their lives in jeopardy? Perhaps Paco's messenger would have the answer. Why couldn't Paco have discussed it on the telephone? Jaime wondered.

He was approaching the village square. In the middle of the plaza was a fountain and shade trees with benches scattered around. Children were playing tag. A couple of old men were playing boule. Half a dozen men were seated on the benches, enjoying the sunshine, reading, dozing, or feeding the pigeons. Jaime crossed the street, slowly moving along the path, and took a seat on one of the benches. He looked at his watch just as the tower clock began to chime noon. Paco's man should be coming.

Out of the corner of his eye, Jaime saw a police car pull up at the far end of the square. He looked in the other direction. A second police car arrived. Officers were getting out, moving toward the park. His heart began to beat faster.

It was a trap. But who had set it? Was it Paco, who sent the message, or Amparo, who delivered it? She had sent him to the park. But why? Why?

There was no time to worry about that now. He had to escape. But Jaime knew that the moment he tried to make a run for it, they would shoot him down. He could try to bluff it out, but they knew he was there.

Think of something. Fast!

A block away, Megan was hurrying toward the park. As it came into view, she took in the scene at a glance. She saw

Jaime seated on a bench, and the policemen closing in on the park from both sides.

Megan's mind was racing. There was no way for Jaime to escape.

She was walking past a grocer's shop. Ahead of her,

blocking her path, a woman was pushing a baby carriage. The woman stopped, set the carriage against the wall of the store, and went inside to make a purchase. Without a moment's hesitation, Megan grabbed the handle of the baby carriage and moved across the street into the park.

The police were walking along the benches now, questioning the men seated there. Megan elbowed her way past a policeman and went up to Jaime, pushing the baby carriage ahead of her.

She yelled, "Madre de Dios! There you are, Manuel! I've been looking everywhere for you. I've had enough! You promised to paint the house this morning, and here you are sitting in the park like some millionaire. Mother was right.

You're a good-for-nothing bum. I never should have married you in the first place!"

It took Jaime less than a fraction of a second. He got to his feet. "Your mother is an expert on bums. She married one.

If she—"

"Who are you to talk? If not for my mother, our baby would starve to death. You certainly don't bring any bread into the house…"

The policemen had stopped, taking in the argument.

"If that one was my wife," one of them muttered, "I'd send her back to her mother."

"I'm damned tired of your nagging, woman," Jaime roared.

"I've warned you before. When we get home, I'm going to teach you a lesson."

"Good for him," one of the policemen said.

Jaime and Megan noisily quarreled their way out of the park, pushing the baby carriage before them. The policemen turned their attention back to the men seated on the benches.

"Identification, please?"

"What's the problem, Officer?"

"Never mind. Just show me your papers."

All over the park, men were pulling out wallets and extracting bits of paper to prove who they were. In the midst of this, a baby began to cry. One of the policemen looked up.

The baby carriage had been abandoned at the corner. The quarreling couple had vanished.

Thirty minutes later, Megan walked through the front door of the house. Amparo was nervously pacing up and down.

"Where have you been?" Amparo demanded. "You shouldn't have left the house without telling me."

"I had to go out to take care of something."

"What?" Amparo asked suspiciously. "You don't know anyone here. If you—"

Jaime walked in, and the blood drained from Amparo's face.

But she quickly regained her composure.

"What—what happened?" she asked. "Didn't you go to the park?"

Jaime said quietly, "Why, Amparo?"

And she looked into his eyes and knew it was over.

"What made you change?"

She shook her head. "I haven't changed. You have, I've lost everyone I loved in this stupid war you're fighting. I'm sick of all the bloodshed. Can you stand hearing the truth about yourself, Jaime? You're as bad as the government you're fighting. Worse, because they're willing to make peace, and you're not. You think you're helping our country? You're destroying it. You rob banks and blow up cars and murder innocent people, and you think you're a hero. I loved you, and I believed in you once, but—" Her voice broke. "This bloodshed has to end."

Jaime walked up to her, and his eyes were ice. "I should kill you."

"No," Megan gasped. "Please! You can't."

Felix had come into the room and was listening to the conversation. "Jesus Christ! So she's the one. What do we do with the bitch?"

Jaime said, "We'll have to take her with us and keep an eye on her." He took Amparo by the shoulders and said softly,

"If you try one more trick, I promise you you'll die." He shoved her away and turned to Megan and Felix. "Let's get out of here before her friends arrive."

"You had Miró in your hands and you let him escape?"

"Colonel—with all due respect—my men—"

"Your men are assholes. You call yourselves policemen?

You're a disgrace to your uniforms."

The chief of police stood there, cringing under the withering scorn of Colonel Acoña. There was nothing else he could do, for the colonel was powerful enough to have his head. And Acoña was not yet through with him.

"I hold you personally responsible. I'll see that you're relieved from duty."

"Colonel—"

"Get out. You make me sick to my stomach."

Colonel Acoña was boiling with frustration. There had not been enough time for him to reach Vitoria and catch Jaime

Miró. He had had to entrust that to the local police. And they had bungled it. God alone knew where Miró had gone to now.

Colonel Acoña went to the map spread out on a table in front of him. They will be staying in Basque country, of course. That could be Burgos or Logroño or Bilbao or San

Sebastian. I'll concentrate on the northeast. They'll have to surface somewhere.

He recalled his conversation with the prime minister that morning.

"Your time is running out, Colonel. Have you read the morning papers? The world press is making us look like clowns. Miró and those nuns have made us a laughingstock."

"Prime Minister, you have my assurance—"

"King Juan Carlos has ordered me to set up an official inquiry board into the whole matter. I can't hold it off any longer."

"Delay the inquiry for just a few more days. I'll have

Miró and the nuns by then."

There was a pause. "Forty-eight hours."

It was not the prime minister whom Colonel Acoña was afraid of disappointing, nor was it the king. It was the OPUS

MUNDO. When he had been summoned to the paneled office of one of Spain's leading industrialists, his orders had been explicit: "Jaime Miró is creating an atmosphere harmful to our organization. Stop him. You will be well rewarded."

And Colonel Acoña knew what the unspoken part of the conversation was: Fail and you will be punished. Now his career was in jeopardy. And all because some stupid policemen had let Miró walk away under their noses. Jaime Miró might hide anywhere. But the nuns… A wave of excitement coursed through Colonel Acoña. The nuns! They were the key. Jaime