时间之砂 (1988)

The Sands of Time is a 1988 action novel by author Sidney Sheldon. The novel follows the adventures of four women who are forced to leave their Spanish convent for the outside world of threat, violence and passions; and two men who are pitted against each other in a fight to the death.

Plot

In Pamplona, Spain in 1976, the Basque people are fighting against the Spanish government for their rights to autonomy. ETA leader Jaime Miró, along with friends Ricardo Mellado and Felix Carpio, escape from prison, but at the expense of many civilian lives during a sabotaged bull-running exhibit that was used as a distraction from the police. Following the event, the Prime Minister assigns Colonel Ramón Acoca (head of the anti-ETA group GOE) to hunt down Jaime Miró; Acoca's wife and unborn child were killed in a Basque demonstration assisted by ETA and the Church, so when he suspects Jaime hiding in a convent, he decides to raid it by force despite the implications of it.

The Cistercian Convent of the Strict Observance just outside Ávila, where women of all backgrounds choose to live a life of solitude, worship, and fasting, is run by Reverend Mother Betina. When the GOE raid the convent and proceed to assault and rape the sisters, four sisters manage to escape; the eldest nun, Teresa, is given the task to take the convent's only valuable asset, a cross made of gold, to the nearest convent where it will be safe. The four nuns have different back stories. The latest member of the convent, Sister Lucia, is actually Lucia Carmine, the wealthy daughter of a Mafia Don who went to the convent as a means of escape after she murdered three men involved in her father's arrest, and plans to lie low for a few months before escaping to Switzerland to retrieve her father's offshore money. Sister Graciela is the daughter of a bitter woman who loathes her daughter because she is a reminder of the man who left her, as well as the fact that Graciela "stole" her beauty, and beat her daughter unconscious when she caught her having sex with her current lover; Graciela found peace with God, and voluntarily went to the convent. Sister Megan was abandoned and was never claimed for adoption and opted to join the convent instead of becoming a maid, but longs to know who her real family is. And Sister Teresa was a religious person growing up until her younger, more beautiful sister Monique stole her fiancé, and she went against God until she decided to stay in a convent when her fiancé begged for her forgiveness and said he was coming back for her.

Lucia is determined to make it to the Swiss border without drawing suspicion, and plots to steal the golden cross, pawn it, and use the money to go to Switzerland. They are tricked by a man named Carrillo who poses as a priest, but they manage to subdue him before he rapes Graciela. They change out of their convent clothes to seem inconspicuous while travelling. However, they run into Jaime and his men, along with Jaime's girlfriend Amparo. Afraid that the sisters will give away their location, they decide to take them to their hideout.

Colonel Acoca has figured out that four of the nuns are missing and is convinced that Jaime Miró escaped before the soldiers got there. The Prime Minister doubts that he was there in the first place and believes that Acoca is starting to get out of control, but continues to have the Colonel search for both Miró and the missing nuns, in order to avoid public's suspicion and critics about the brutality and raid to the convent done by his men for no obvious reason. They get a tip from Carrillo, whom they suspect due to the robes left in the store that he was subdued in.

Meanwhile, Sister Teresa, nervous about leaving the convent after years of solitude, has become paranoid of everyone, including the men escorting her to the ETA hideout. She sees a father pushing a baby stroller, and is anxious that it is her fiancé and his child with his sister, but she tries to remind herself that the infant is supposed to be an adult by now.

Meanwhile, Ellen Scott, a CEO of Scott Industries, has incurable cancer. She once was a middle-class worker who saved the life of Milo Scott, the younger brother of Byron Scott, the then-CEO of the company. They married and Ellen went to live in New York, where she saw how Byron mistreated Milo and how greedy and manipulative upper-class people were, turning her into a bitter woman whose only consolation was that Byron would eventually give the company to Milo. However, Byron and his wife produced a daughter named Patricia, and Milo and Ellen feared that Byron would name her the heiress of the company. During a business trip to Spain, the private jet they are travelling in crashes, killing everyone except Milo, Ellen, and Patricia. Ellen convinces Milo that if they take Patricia, they will simply raise her before she comes of age and inherits everything and leave them with nothing, and they abandon her at a farm and claim that they are the only survivors. However, during the reading of Byron's will, it is revealed that Byron's personal assets go to Patricia, but Milo will inherit the company, leaving them both guilty over abandoning Patricia, since they cannot claim her now and face suspicions that they attempted to abandon her. Milo dies of guilt a year later, leaving Ellen to inherit the company. She hires her chief of security, former detective Alan Tucker, to search for a baby abandoned in Avila, Spain, not telling him why. It is implied that the baby is Sister Megan.