Strangers

found nothing like that. On the other hand, if they were not deflected by bone, they should've passed through him, leaving massive exit wounds. But I found them lodged in muscle tissue."
        Stefan stared at the surgeon's bent head. "Why do I have the feeling there's something more you want to tell me, but that it's something you're afraid to talk about?"
        At last Sonneford glanced up. "And why do I get the feeling that you've not told the truth about your reasons for coming here, Father?"
        "Touché," Stefan said.
        Sonneford sighed and put the tools away in the kit. "All right. The entry wounds make it clear that one bullet hit Tolk in the chest, impacted with the lower portion of the sternum, which should've snapped off or fractured; splinters like shrapnel should've pierced organs, vital blood vessels. Apparently, none of that happened."
        "Why do you say 'apparently'? Either it happened, or it didn't."
        "From the entry wound in the flesh, I know that bullet hit the sternum, Father, and I found it lodged harmlessly in tissue on the other side of the sternum; therefore… somehow… it passed through that bone without damaging it. Impossible, of course. Yet I found just an entry wound over the sternum, the undamaged bone directly under the wound - and then the bullet lodged inside behind the sternum, with no indication how it had gotten from one place to the other. Furthermore, the entry wound of the second slug was over the base of the fourth rib, right side, but that rib was undamaged as well. The bullet should have shattered it.,
        "Maybe you're wrong," Stefan said, playing devil's advocate. "Maybe the bullet entered just slightly off the rib, between ribs."
        "No." Sonneford raised his head but did not look at Stefan. The physician's uneasiness still seemed peculiar and was not explained by what he had said thus far. "I don't make diagnostic errors. Besides, inside the patient, those bullets were lodged where you'd expect them to be if they had hit bone, had punched through, and had had the last of their energy absorbed by the muscle. But there were no damaged tissues between the point of entry and the expended slugs. Which is impossible. Bullets can't pass through a man's chest and leave no trail at all!"
        "Almost seems as if we have a minor miracle."
        "More than minor. Seems like a pretty damn major miracle to me."
        "If only one artery and vein were injured, and if both were only nicked, how did Tolk lose so much blood? Were those nicks big enough to account for it?"
        "No. He couldn't have hemorrhaged so massively from those traumas."
        The surgeon said nothing more. He seemed gripped in the talons of some dark fear that Stefan could not understand. What had he to fear? If he believed that he had witnessed a miracle, should he not be joyous?
        "Doctor, I know it's difficult for a man of science and medicine to admit he's seen something that his education can't explain, something that in fact is in opposition to everything he had believed to be true. But I beg you to tell me everything you saw. What are you holding back? How did Winton Tolk lose so much blood if his injuries were so small?"
        Sonneford slumped back in his chair. "In surgery, after beginning transfusions, I located the bullets on the X rays and made the necessary incisions to remove them. In the process, I found a tiny hole in the superior mesenteric artery and another small tear in one of the superior intercostal veins. I was certain there must be other severed vessels, but I couldn't locate them immediately, so I clamped off both the superior mesenteric and the intercostal for repair, figuring to search further when those were attended to. It only took ' a few minutes, an easy task. I sewed the artery first, of course, because the bleeding was in spurts and was more serious. Then…"
        "Then?" Father Wycazik urged gently.
        "Then, when I had quickly finished stitching the artery, I turned to the torn intercostal vein… and the tear was gone."
        "Gone," Stefan said. A quiver of awe passed through him, for this was the thing he had expected - yet it was also a revelation of such astounding importance that it seemed too much to have hoped for.
        "Gone," Sonneford repeated, and at last he met Stefan's gaze. In the surgeon's watery gray eyes, a shadow moved like the half-perceived passage of a leviathan through the