The Magdalene Cipher [antikvár]

PROLOGUE 2 MAY 1945 NORTHERN ITALY Major Angleton floated through the moonless heavens above Sant' Ambrogio, suspended in the night air by nylon cords and a canopy of black silk. He could see a line of fire burning along the forested ridge above the town, and wondered whether lightning or bombers were its cause. There was little else that he could see, still less to be heard, and only the wind to feel. To build the city of Dioce whose terraces are the colour of stars. As he drifted lower, the smell of wood smoke came at him from the nearby fires, a whiff of hyacinths and the fragrance of scrub pines. The pines were shadows, swelling against the dark hillside, until, quite suddenly, he was among them, falling past them, flying laterally across the face of the hill. And then, with a shock, he was on the ground, staggering forward on his heels, pulling against the chute, rolling it up. The air was cool. The major's destination was a large and crumbling villa set amid ruined terraces on the slopes above where he'd landed. A soft yellow light spilled from the villa's windows, gilding the untended vineyards that sprawled in every direction. Major Angleton ¦. > I ! t f I . . I . 1 , . t I