Death Scanner

By Peter J. Sell

In this novel ghosts are the result of the emotions of the traumatic occasion being absorbed by inanimate objects (room, murder weapon etc). Sensitive people see a re-enactment of the murder recreated in their minds and it appears to them as ghosts.

An Oxford University Professor researches this phenomenon and invents a machine that can read these emotions imprinted on inanimate object after a murder that had happened in the objects vicinity. He recruits three post graduate students to help him develop the machine to be used in crime fighting and archaeology. They inadvertently discover a secret that some in the Catholic Church would rather not be revealed.

This is the story of a race against the forces of an evil department within the Vatican, a serial killer who is someone too close for comfort and two of the students. They have to find the so called treasure that the Catholic Church failed to find in the early fourteenth century before they are all killed.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Jul 17, 2013
• ISBN: 9781291491470

Book preview

Death Scanner

Death Scanner

A novel

by

Peter J Sell

ISBN 978-1-291-49147-0

Dedications

To my many friends in North America.

Also to my very many friends in the Freemasons worldwide.

Freemasonry is not an organisation to be afraid of but on the contrary in the time I have been in it I have seen only good come out of it (a bit of silly bickering within the ranks but what organisation doesn’t have that).  It has and still does raised vast sums of money to be given to charity, both Masonic charities and non-Masonic ones.

It has spent millions raised within its ranks (it never goes around with a begging bowl like so many other organisations). This money is spent buying things like equipment for hospitals that have and will continue to save the lives of cancer patients and others.  Most of it is cutting edge technology that wouldn’t be implemented if it was not donated.  All this completely anomalously and from its own (that is Freemasonry’s) sources. Once the money had been raised and paid then the project is left to its own devises and considered history, the next charitable gift is then concentrated on.

No publicity is sort and indeed any publicity that is inadvertently obtained is quietly played down.  Any plaque placed on the donated machine or equipment would simply say donated by an anomalous organisation or anomalous donor.

Charity after all is in the hearts of the giver and should not be given to obtain kudos.

Preface

In this novel ghosts are the result of the emotions of the traumatic occasion being absorbed by inanimate objects (room, murder weapon etc).  Sensitive people see a re-enactment of the murder recreated in their minds and it appears to them as ghosts.  This is what they see in their mind superimposed on the real world.

An Oxford University Professor researches this phenomenon and invents a machine that can read these emotions imprinted on inanimate object after a traumatic incident that had happened in the objects vicinity.  He recruits three post graduate students to help him develop the machine to be used in crime fighting and archaeology.  They inadvertently discover a secret that some in the Catholic Church would rather not be revealed.

This is the story of a race against the forces of an evil department within the Vatican, a serial killer who is someone too close for comfort and two of the students. That is to find the so called treasure that the Catholic Church failed to find in the early fourteenth century.

The two students have two CIA agents sent to protect them, because the research is part funded by the FBI.  The FBI can’t operate outside of the US boundaries therefore enlists the help of the CIA its sister organisation.  The agents can’t help the two students because unfortunately the two students don’t know they are, there to help them.  The CIA agents are initially always one step behind due to the hindrance by the British authorities and the superior knowledge of the so called treasure, by the head of the church department vowing to stop it becoming common knowledge.

The other complication is that the professor’s work is also in part funded by the Catholic Church itself and the Pope being a rather progressive Pope wishes to use the machine to try to eliminate some of the bogus relics revered within the church.  The evil organisation within the church is therefore working against the wishes of the Pope and outside of its jurisdiction.

It is a pursuit across England and France, to the USA then up to Canada, back to Scotland and finally to Italy and the Vatican itself, before the treasure is finally known and revealed.  It is not a search for the Holy Grail but it transpires to be almost as important to the perceived reputation of the Catholic Church and another involved organisation.

It is a completely fictional story and has been weaved around actual events in history.  I make no assertions that any of the so called treasure actually existed in the way that it is depicted, or that any of the organisations portrayed operate in the way that they do in this novel, or indeed that such an organisation within the Catholic Church exists now.  I also apologise for using the Catholic Church yet again in a fictional account of those within the faith in a way that may not show them in a good light however due to their history they send to bring it on themselves.

There certainly was pressure put on those that discovered the Dead Sea Scrolls to not reveal them, so the equivalent of the department mentioned in this novel certainly existed within the Vatican in the early to mid twentieth century and in past centuries.  The Catholic Church has tried to bring pressure in the past to suppress scientific discoveries that seem to contradict the bibles version of things.  Galileo being a classic case of direct Papal pressure to stop him telling everybody that the earth was not the centre of the Universe.  On that point the church burnt at the stake a monk named Giordano Bruno who dared to suggest that the Earth was NOT the centre of the universe.  He believed and stated openly that the earth went around the Sun instead of the other way around.  He was born in AD 1548 and he eagerly accepted the teachings of Copernicus instead of the teachings of Aristotle.  He was executed in AD 1600, cursing the Pope until he had no more breath and life in his body.  He was apparently a very fiery character.

My apologies for any spelling mistakes but I am a diagnosed dyslexic and because of this I only wrote my first book at the age of 60.  I had to wait for a relatively sophisticated spell checker to be developed before I could become an author.

Chapter 1 Chance encounter

It was late one afternoon and there were several lines of student queuing for different lectures at Oxford University.  The corridor had many doors leading to semi-circular lecture theatres used by the university staff. There was only a very short line leading to the one that was in the middle of the theatres as the subject was rather obscure.  The professor wasn’t very well known and had no students attached to him, so it was not required reading or attendance for anyone.  On the left hand side of each door leading into the lecture theatre was a small notice board with the title of the lecture, who was giving it and a brief synopsis of what the lecture consisted of.  As they were queuing several students would barge their way through the line to read the notice board.  Several of the students asked What the hell is this lecture all about.  The reply was in general I haven’t got a clue, but sometimes they are interesting.

Those in the line were talking quietly amongst themselves and they were obviously in the same years and probably reading the same or similar subjects, but there were three students that were not talking to anyone.  These students were a bit older than the rest and consisted of an Asian student of about average height, a petit blonde with long blond hair in her early to mid twenties and a tall dark haired white man also in his mid twenties.  The tall man in his mid twenties was a post graduate student named James Lavoie who was half French and half English as his mother was English and his father was French, and he was looking at the petite blonde girl next to him trying to think of a way to break the ice.  Are you waiting for this lecture? No I’m waiting for a number 9 bus! Of course I’m waiting for this lecture and so that you don’t come up with another lame chat-up line my name is Nancy, what’s yours? replied the girl, but before he could reply, the door to the lecture theatre suddenly opened and all those in the line surged forward.  James was elbowed in the ribs in the commotion.  For Christ sake that hurt, can’t you be more careful Sorry said the offending student.  Nancy looked daggers at James and said I wish people wouldn’t swear  But he didn’t swear  Not him you! You took the Lords name in vain.  What! But I didn’t, I just said for Christ sake, that’s not swearing, that’s just a saying that everybody uses.  It is swearing if you are a true believer replied Nancy.

All of the line paraded into the lecture theatre to find themselves a good seat.  James was looking very solemn as he felt that he had missed out on the opportunity to make friends with the pretty student.  The three older students naturally sat near to each other, each on their own as the other under graduate students talked loudly and giggled amongst themselves.  James made another attempt at striking up a conversation with Nancy while the Asian student looked on with amusement.  I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to upset you; it’s just something that I naturally say along with a large part of the general population.  Can we start again?  My name is James, James Lavoie.  Nancy looked at him still with daggers in her eyes, but somehow there was less venom in her face.  Slowly, ever so slowly she started to smile.  Okay we are now starting again, my name is Nancy Briggs, and it’s nice to meet you at last.  What do you mean nice to meet you at last? Nancy smiled and said You were at a lecture that I attended about 6 months ago and I admired how you corrected the lecturer on his French translation, or shall we say lack of it.  Oh that! My father was French and a passionate French man at that who believed in the Académie Fronça and the purity of the French language.  He always wanted me to go to university and study languages but Quantum Physics interested me more, how about you?  I’m just boring old British through and through, and studied imaging of all sorts but specialised in X-ray diffraction techniques.  We are being rude and ignoring our friend at your side.  What is your name as you seem to be like us a fish out of water as Nancy turned to the Asian student.

I’m not a fish! I come from India and I am a man like both of you Nancy and James looked at each other and both burst out laughing.  I’m sorry, you really are funny, we didn’t mean any offence, and the term fish out of water is an English saying that just means that you like us are out of place here.  Can we also start again?  What is your name?  said Nancy with the most disarming smile that you could imagine.  My name is Patel, Bopinda Patel and I come from Mumbai in India.  I have several degrees in computer programming, some from India and one from Oxford University said Patel almost singing the words with his head bobbing from side to side.

Suddenly they all sensed that the lecture theatre had gone very quite and they looked up to see that someone had entered the theatre from a door behind the lecture area.  It was a middle aged man with a scruffy looking beard and wild uncut hair.  His cloths were not worn out but he had leather patches sown on to his elbows and brown corduroy trousers.  He took his glasses off and placed them on the large lecture table and looked up at the audience.  He looked every bit the traditional image of the mad professor.  He took out of his mouth his beloved pipe that was unlit and now essentially redundant as the Professor was a non-smoker.  The pipe was however a prop that he almost always carried with him.  He treated it like a child’s dummy or comforter and would think with it in his mouth and use it as a pointer at other times.

Chapter 2 The Lecture

Welcome ladies and gentlemen and welcome to my first lecture at Oxford University.  I’m curious as to why you all have come said the lecturer, Professor Buxley, looked up at the semi-circular lecture theatre, with tiered seating rising to a height of about ten metres at the back.  He of course was in the pit on a slightly raised stage with a big semi-circular experimentation desk in front of him, and a large video screen behind him where in the past had been the black boards.  He opened up his laptop and his assistant checked that everything was linked.  First I must explain.  My position in this university is one of research, and teaching is to a large extent of secondary importance to me and the university.  I am looking for a minimum of two research students and a maximum of four to help me in my research and in return I will mentor and guide their thesis with the ultimate goal of obtaining PhD’s for them.  They also could be at the forefront of possibly a new branch of science.  To that end can I ask those that are post graduate students in the auditorium to put up their hands?  Five students proceeded to put up their hands James Patel and Nancy being three of them.  I assume that the rest of you are under graduates yes?  There was a general buzz from the assembled students and so the professor continued.  On that assumption I must tell you that this is not a formal lecture but a demonstration of my research so far.  I trust that you know the title of my lecture, well what you thought was going to be a lecture that is?  Its on Para-physical effects with inanimate objects shouted out one of the students.  Very good, at least some of you read the advert on the notice board and the secondary school education that cost this country so much wasn’t wasted.  What do you understand that title to imply the lecture is on?  Probably some mumbo jumbo that you have been granted some vast sum of money to research into, that will come to nothing and rob research money from legitimate and deserving researchers shouted out another student who was in the group of students that had indicated that they were post graduate students.  Oh very good, Yee of Little Faith.  I assume you are one of the post graduate students, and that you have had a request for a research grant turned down? continued the professor smiling.

What is your name, and also that of your very pretty young girl friend the side of you?

I’m not his bloody girl friend shouted out Nancy the only female post graduate student in the group, much to the amusement of the other students present.

Before either of them could reply the professor lost concentration with them and continued in his own little world as if the past conversation had not happened.  Forgive me I have been toying with you all.  Please can any of you post graduate students who maybe interested in my request see me afterwards as I would like to put a proposition to you, if indeed your qualifications are right the professor continued.

I said that this was going to be a demonstration and so to the demonstration.  I have discovered that inanimate object can record emotional trauma if the emotions are strong enough.  Let me explain, if an object is used as say a murder weapon for example then there is a possibility and as far as I can tell only a possibility that the weapon will retain an imprint of the emotion of the occasion in its very fabric.  It appears to record the emotions at a sub-atomic level.  The problem is reading that recording and that ladies and gentlemen is what my research grant is for.  I can see that there are many sceptics among you and you are thinking to yourselves what proof has he that it works.  Well let me give you an example, a haunted house could be an example of this phenomena.  If for example a murder happens in the house, then it is possible that the walls absorbs the hatred or fear that accompanies that gruesome incident and the haunting is the result of the walls giving up the recorded emotion.  Anyone who is tuned to receive this information from the walls of the house will see what they interpret as a ghost Are you saying that ghosts are really recordings of a real event that are somehow imprinted into the very fabric of the building? said James Lavoie the student that originally called out complaining about funding.  Yes that is exactly what I am saying. Now let me demonstrate Professor Buxley made a gesture to the assistant at the side of the stage.  She dually walked onto the stage and gave him a long kitchen knife with a label on it.

Now before we continue, can you all please come down to the stage so that I can hand out something for you to look at and feel.  There is only about eighteen or twenty or so of you by the look of it, and it will be easier to hand it between you all down here.  The audience duly filed down to just in front of the lecture bench.  "Now this is a knife that was used in the Sharon Dempsey murder that most of you are probably familiar with.  It was national news in the UK and also in some other countries so even those of you from outside of the UK may have heard of the murder.  It was particularly gruesome as the victim was literally carved up while she was still alive.  Please look at the knife, feel it, see if you can detect anything that is unusual about it or if there is any, shall we say vibrations given off by the knife. The trial has finished now and this knife has been completely cleaned so there is no residue on it from the murder or anything else for that matter.

Are you all satisfied that you have seen everything you can from the object?" the last of the audience handed back the knife rather quickly as she appeared not to like even handling it.  Professor Buxley then called over his assistant again, who handed him another knife. Ladies and gentlemen this is an identical knife and can you please look at this too.  The audience then took the identical knife and each of them looked at it.  Finally the last of the audience placed the identical knife back on the lecture bench as before.  Professor Buxley then picked up the two knifes, one in each hand and proceeded to take off the label and then mix them up.  Now even I don’t know which knife is which, and now we can precede with the demonstration.  Will you all please return to your seats and make yourself comfortable as the rest of the demonstration can be seen on the screen behind me.

The assistant disappeared out of the back of the lecture hall and the screen lit up.  It was a few moments before they could see the assistant enter a large room that was packed full with equipment.  In the centre of the room was a cabinet with a door on it with lots of cables coming out of it, from all sides and the back, with most being connected to an obvious computer rack that had several monitors connected to it, another computer on a make shift bench had a cable coming from it to all these other computers in the rack.  My assistant has now entered my laboratory which is situated just below this lecture theatre.   It’s a fairly large area but unfortunately it’s already full and I need a bigger space.  She will place each of the knives in that central chamber that you can see and then in turn operate the controls.  On the screen behind me you will eventually see the machines output.  The assistant as predicted swung open a large door to the central chamber.  The chamber measured approximately six hundred millimetres square (about two foot square) with a depth of about a metre and a half (about five feet deep).  She placed one of the knives on a small platform within the chamber, swung the heavy door shut and proceeded to lock it shut.  She then connected the cables coming from the door back up to the computer.  It was about five minutes before the screen stabilised and an image started to appear on the lecture theatre screen.

What they saw was a scene with a girl lying asleep on a bed with very little clothes on and few bed clothes covering her.  She was obviously asleep; however she was probably just awakening as the sun was streaming through the half drawn curtains.  Within a matter of a few seconds the scene was of a very violent attack on the unfortunate girl.  She was stabbed repeatedly and violently.  The body still bleeding as it was cut up into smaller and smaller pieces as the scene slowly faded.  Some of the audience were staring wide eyed while others were shielding their eyes in horror.  The professor switched off the screen as it started to get blurred probably as the girls life force was being snuffed out and said I think that’s enough as the scene still distresses me, let alone those of you that were not expecting it one of the undergraduate girl students was vomiting into a bag that she conveniently had.  Two others were running out of the theatre screaming and were as white as ghosts.  The rest just sat there stunned with shock.

It was several minutes before anyone else moved and the audience started to file out in complete silence.  Thank you ladies and gentlemen for your attention and please accept my apologies if I have upset any of you with the demonstration.  Are there any questions?  There is more that I intended to show you of my research, but it appears that most of you have decided that the lecture is over.  The professor picked up his glasses from the lecture desk and started to assemble his papers that were now scattered all over the desk.  He looked up at the almost empty lecture theatre and the only people still sitting in the lecture theatre were the three post graduate students Bopinda, Nancy and James who were talking quietly amongst themselves.  The other two post grads had been among the first to leave.

Chapter 3 The Team is complete

With the lecture theatre finally completely empty the professor came out of the lecture theatre and there standing in the corridor were the three post graduates who had waited until all the others had left the lecture theatre as requested.  Ah I see I have not frightened you off.  At worst you are curious but at best you are interested in my proposal said the professor.  Come with me to my laboratory and then we can talk.  The four of them went to a side door at the side of the semi-circular wall that was jutting out into the corridor that marked one of the many older lecture theatres in Oxford University.  They descended the steep stairs and came out into another corridor.  This corridor was not as elaborate as the one above as it was classed as a service corridor and therefore utilitarian in nature.  They only had to go a matter of a few metres to get to the door of the laboratory.  The professor opened the door without hesitation and rather noisily, the assistant suddenly turned around.

Fucking hell you made me jump! Please give me warning next time.  You know how this place gives me the creeps just after it’s been working with a murder weapon.  Sorry, I thought you had gone back to your workshop.  Now come through here, you three into my study said the professor.  The professor squeezed past the massive computer rack that only left less than a metre between it and the wall and opened the door to his study.  Now what the professor’s assistant said is what I call swearing said James to Nancy who completely ignored him.    The study like the laboratory was situated just below ground level and there was a row of small windows set high in one wall near the ceiling, with the bottom of the windows marking almost the ground level.  The study was like most academic’s studies, organised chaos.

Come in, come in, make yourselves at home, just move one of those piles of books to make a seat.  The professor sat down behind his desk and moved some papers to make room for him to place his elbows on it.   Now I had better fill you in on some things.  First the finances! I have funding from three sources and the first and largest and therefore I suppose the most important is from the European Union that is from its research and science budget.  This grant is for pure research and covers most of the funding that I require including your salaries if you join me.  The second part of the funding is from the FBI in America, and before you ask, yes they do have discretionary funding that they can dish out even to foreigners so long as the funded project will help in crime fighting.  I think I have demonstrated that potential with the last little demonstration.

But how did they know what you were working on? The FBI is only, or should be only an internal American crime fighting organisation  I thought that to, but I was told that after the 11th of September incident in New York when the twin towers were attacked by terrorists the President of the United States insisted that all the government department liaise with each other.  The result was that the CIA who is the US’s outside America’s spy organisation informed the FBI of my research.  Hence the funding from a foreign government organisation.  The British government and the EU are happy with the situation so long as I don’t tell one organisation that’s funding me anything more than I tell the others.  To that end, I have to send weekly progress reports to all interested parties.  The reports are completely generic and contain the same material.  I suppose that they each have a department that rewrites them to extract what they are really interested in?

And the other part of the funding?  The professor smiled and said You had better make sure you are sitting down or holding on to something.  The other part of the funding is coming from the Catholic Church direct from the Vatican itself

What on earth would possess the Catholic Church to fund pure scientific research? "Well if you think of it the Catholic Church has its own astronomical observatory and funds many archaeological digs among other things.  I know the church hierarchy itself is very slow to react and in a lot of respects it is still in the nineteenth century and some would say still in the sixteenth century but they do eventually accept what scientist have found out.

Let’s face it five hundred years ago the earth was thought to be flat and at the centre of the Universe according to the church.  They persecuted Galileo, excommunicated many leading scientist and independent thinkers.  My research could prove many things about the church and religion, it could also disprove other things but that is the gamble that they have to take.  If for instance they really did have a piece of the cross that Jesus Christ was crucified on, and then if they put it in my machine then it may just may show a picture of the crucifixion, and that is why they are funding me.  The optimum word is MAY! show, and that as far as they are concerned is their get out clause.  If you have faith then you don’t need proof, but by the same token if you can prove something then those that have doubt could be swayed" said the professor.

You seem to be the doubting one and what is your name pointing at the student who had done most of the heckling in the lecture theatre.  It’s James Lavoie and I only believe what I can prove  Of course you do, and your degree was in? And what do you hope to get your masters or PhD in? replied the professor.  It’s in Nuclear Physics or to be more precise Applied Quantum Physics.  At the moment I am reading further into the subject and taking programming courses to have another string to my bow, so to speak.  Very good both of those subjects could be useful.  I am interested, in as a man with shall we say no faith you chose a subject that is probably the least precise in science?  Even Einstein could not accept quantum mechanics, as he described it as not being elegant enough for God to have invented as nothing is what it seems.  Even the very act of observing changes what you are observing.  Know the charge and you can’t know the spin.  If you know the mass then you can’t find the velocity.  Rather intriguing replied the professor.

And what about you my dear what is your subjects, and what is your name?  My speciality is in imaging and X-ray diffraction and now I’m doing further research into it on my own, but its hard to get any funding in this economic climate  I know what you mean.  Now tell me you have a gold cross hanging on a chain around your neck.  Are you a believer? And what branch of the Christian faith do you belong to?  "You are asking questions quicker than I have time to answer them.  My