“So? There are all kinds of religious nuts out there. That can’t be anything new to American intelligence,” he says.
“Of course we’ve seen all types but there’s something a little more disturbing about this one.”
“Really?”
“We believe they are a firmly established and elaborate operation. We’re not sure of their ultimate intentions but we don’t want to find out the hard way.”
“I imagine not,” he says picking up his drink.
“Our insiders tell us that The Church itself is very much aware of them and is possibly working to destroy them. We want to know why.”
“And you think I can tell you this?”
“I’m sure you can tell us a great deal,” she says.
“And why should I?” He tilts back his head and the glass of beer.
“You’re on American soil now. I can have you locked up on a farm in West Virginia in twenty minutes, a high price to pay for a simple set of answers.”
“Yes, a high price.”
“I know you’re a representative of The Church and you’ve come to America to make contact with a scientist, one crucial to the group’s agenda somehow.”
“You do understand my superiors don’t tell me everything. I am mostly a pawn maybe slightly higher but a pawn mostly.”
“But you know more than we do and that’s why we’re here. I can’t let you go until you fill me in on a few things,” she says.
“Sounds like you already know a good deal. That I work for The Church, an agent if you will. It’s true that I’m here to contact a scientist who we believe is unknowingly working for the group.
“Unknowingly?”
“Yes, that is why I’m here, to expose the group to him and convince him to work for the church.”
“In destroying them?”
“Well, basically yes that is the desire of the church,” he says.
“What do you know of the young woman that has come to us seeking help?”
“I’m not aware of her but it wouldn’t surprise me. The Elite has been known to go pretty far to obtain their objectives.”
“I must admit that our research is weak concerning their history although we do know that they are an old group spanning back generations.”
“Oh yes they go back quite a way. Even The Church keeps quiet about their origins. They are not a group that is discussed in polite conversation.”
“They are dangerous to The Church?”
“Apparently, my superiors understand that they’ve been in opposition for centuries for reasons that neither side wishes to disclose in public.”
“The Elite originated in Europe?” She asks.
“Yes, around the time of the renaissance I think anyway, as I say they are not discussed in open. At first they were accepted into the church then something, I’m not clear on this part as it has been kept secret, occurred and they became a fringe group until finally they left Europe altogether and came to America sometime in the 19th century. There they attempted to operate openly but for some reason, maybe because they were so odd, they were forced underground where they have been ever since. The Church adamantly believes they are bent on revenge and must be stopped,” he says.
“Interesting.”
“The Church has battled them throughout the years, at times thinking that they have disbanded only to detect their rearing heads again.”
“So this is just another battle?”
“Maybe, but something tells me there is more at stake this time around.”
“Why so?” She asks.
“My superiors, they are very nervous,” he adds grimly.
CHAPTER 19
“I don’t know what we’re doing here. This may not even be the place.”
“It’s the place. I saw her downstairs yesterday. This has to be where she is staying.”
“I don’t understand why the phone intercept didn’t work. Usually it works fine, hey, is this your water? Clovis says picking up the half empty bottle from the floor of the black van.
“I don’t know, could be,” Cosward answers.
“Who’s been eating tacos in here? Those little yellow cheese pieces all over the floorboards, you can never get that stuff up, never, years of vacuuming to no avail.”
“If Haggai would let us send the vans out for cleaning it would get done right.”
“The old man’s afraid we’ll raise suspicions,” Clovis says.
“I don’t see how,” Cosward says looking down the barren city street. Its gray emptiness littered by a few parked automobiles.
“She sure picked a hell of a place to run to.”
“I just want to get this done. Logo usually does these things. He’s so much more cold blooded than the rest of us.”
“Yeah, he sure is, our beloved trigger man,” Clovis jokes.
“Seems like we’ve been chasing this forever.”
“Who, her?” Clovis asks.
“No, the clone and the power and money that it’s suppose to bring, seems like we’ve been at it forever. It just won’t stay still long enough for us to reach out and grab it.”
“Yeah, I know. This is definitely a complication. She was supposed to be the one and now she’s run out on us and we have to track her down. As it turns out she’s not the one at all but has to be taken out of the picture or she could destroy the whole operation.”
“If she were to talk—,” Cosward says.
“Would anyone believe her? They’d probably lock her up somewhere but they wouldn’t believe her,” Clovis shakes his head.
“Let’s go in and wait for her. I’m tired of sitting out here.”
Hurriedly, they enter the apartment building and walk down the dark hallway with its lime green carpet.
“That’s her door up there on the end,” Clovis says.
“I’m thirsty. There’s a pop machine back there in the laundry room,” Cosward remarks.
“What?” Clovis exclaims.
“Come on, who knows how long we’ll be waiting.”
They turn around and walk into the dimly lit laundry room, the silence is suddenly broken by the faint crackle of Clovis’s hand held radio.
“What is it?” Cosward asks.
“It’s Solar outside, he’s just seen her pull up. She’s downstairs coming up. Okay, get your freakin pop this is it.”
“It’s not giving me any change,” Cosward kicks the machine.
Clovis violently waves his hands to be quiet, Cosward moves over against the wall as the sound of rushing footsteps fills the hallway. Suddenly, three men in black suits with guns drawn race past them, stopping at the end of the hallway they quickly burst into the apartment.
“Opposite way NOW!,” Clovis says as they quickly scamper out of the laundry room taking the stairs they race down and sneak out the back exit of the building and into an alley. Catching their breath they crouch beside a large blue dumpster.
“What the hell was that? Why would those guys be bursting into the sample woman’s apartment?”
“They wouldn’t be unless they’re federal agents and I doubt they were looking for her,” Clovis says.
“Then who are they looking for?” Cosward asks.
“Us,” Clovis says looking him square in the eye.
CHAPTER 20
Jim throws his hands into the pockets of his loose fitting khakis while pacing in his office. “I know you won’t believe this but I had to call someone to get this checked out.”
Jim tells him about the strange envelop and the initial meeting. “They claim to be a private archeologically group testing three samples of very old human flesh. But something’s not right about the whole thing.”
“You think the samples are from murder victims?” Joey asks while rubbing his double chin.
“No. These samples are very old, we’re talking centuries, ringlets, small ringlets of flesh like when male infants are circumcised,” Jim tells him.
“Is that what they are?”
“I don’t know what else they would be.”
“Strange,” Joey nods his head back and forth while sitting in the chair by Jim’s desk and taking notes in his small black notebook.
“No kidding and why so secretive, what’s the big deal?”
“They must have them illegally somehow, like from a museum or something and they don’t want anyone to know.”
“That’s for sure. I may be getting paranoid but I swear someone’s following me around in traffic. I mean are these guys tracking my every move? What the hell is that?”
“Whatever they’re up to it doesn’t sound good,” Joey says.
“In a way I don’t mind doing business with them. The moneys great I mean really great and that’s all I want, but it’s not hardly worth it if I’m sitting in prison five years from now for being involved with them.”
“I see what you mean,” Joey says with a concerned look on his face.
“I just need to know—.”
Jim turns his head in response to the knock on the door as it gently opens.
“Hi,” she says leaning in with her dirty blond hair falling to one side. Joey can’t help but notice her pristine white smile and tight fitting light blue turtle neck sweater, the kind of young lady Joey would love to meet in a bar sometime.
“Kind of in the middle of something right now,” Jim says.
She looks around seeing Joey “Oh, I’m sorry you said over the phone I could meet you here tonight.”
“Oh yeah that’s right, I forgot. Do me a favor, can you wait in the lounge downstairs and I’ll be right down,” Jim tells her.
“Okay,” She smiles and closes the door.
“Cute, friend of yours?” Joey asks smiling.
“Aw, no just a student,” Jim says blankly.
“I didn’t know biology professors had groupies,” Joey laughs.
“Groupies are the least on my problems. Listen, I need to know what my liabilities are with these guys. Am I going to end up going to jail? Are these guys dangerous? That’s what I want you to find out.”
“Okay, how much do you know about them?”
“Not much. I have a phone number if I need to call them but I don’t have any names to go on. I’m supposed to meet with my contact again on Thursday to pick up the second sample.”
“I can shadow you and then follow the contact. That’ll at least give us something to start with.”
“Something sounds good,” Jim says as he finally stops pacing.
CHAPTER 21
“Something’s not right. I don’t know who the guy in his office was. He never said,” she tells him as she pulls out a chair and sits down.
“Nothing?” Glenn says as he sits at the long table in the Elite meeting room. The walls adored with painted portraits of past master Elites, old stoic men their gaze frozen in time.
“No, I did everything to get it out of him and I mean everything but he won’t give up the info. Whatever is going on he’s keeping it close to him.”
“So, our Jimbo has a secret from us, that’s not good. I’ll have to tell Haggai tonight when I see him.”
“Can you ask him how much longer, am I to stay on as a recruit or is this just a temp assignment?” She asks.
“We always need recruits in the field. I don’t see why he wouldn’t consider it,” he says.
CHAPTER 22
“Something’s amiss in Denmark,” Glenn says to Haggai who appears half asleep sitting behind his desk.
“What?’
“Jim Dunbar, our biology professor.”
“What of him? Does he want more money? If so give it to him this has to go as smoothly as possible, we’re sitting on gold here, nothing screws this up—nothing!”
“I have concerns about his behavior. He’s meeting with someone, someone we don’t know. It seems suspicious.”
“Why? Maybe it’s a lawyer. Maybe he’s getting a divorce. Maybe his wife found out about the girl, it could be anything like that. Maybe he’s getting new car insurance. How can you tell by just walking in on a conversation?” Did you bug his office?”
“No.”
“Why not, why didn’t you do that in the first place? That should be your responsibility. You work there, get in and plant something and then we’ll see if your suspicions contain any validity.”
“I’m sure they do,” Glenn says.
“We’ll see,” Haggai answers without looking up from his desk.
“Haggai, you know I’ve been an active member all my life, part of the bloodline.”
“Yes, of course I know you are.”
“I was instrumental in obtaining Dunbar for our operation. I’m keeping close watch on him along with the girl I recruited to work for us, who by the way wishes to remain active after completion.”
“She does?”
“Yes, she does and speaking of completion once we arrive at that point I can’t help but be curious as to my role then.”
“Your role at the completion stage?” Haggai looks up at him and squints his wrinkled eyes. “Once the child is born he must be raised in a protective environment, that’s going to be difficult but it is a must. Once Rome is aware of his existence they will surely come after him and us too. We will begin negotiations but they will really be more like demands. We’ll let them think that we’re bargaining but that’s just stage one. They will be at our mercy. We’re going to have a lot of fun with them.”
“I’m not sure where I fit in,” Glenn asks.
“We won’t need you at the university anymore. But I can’t say exactly where we’ll put you. I sure we’ll find something for you to do, there’s so much going on now I haven’t had time to think about everyone’s position. I think right now you need to work on Mr. Dunbar and make sure he goes along with us. You don’t need to be bothering me with this now!”
“Who’s bothering you? I just want to know.”
“You that’s who!”
“You don’t have to get upset.”
“I’m not getting upset. You know how many people I got—,” suddenly the phone rings, “Hello, oh no damn it! You’ve got to be kidding. Did they get out okay? Tell them to get up here I want to talk to them. You know what this means don’t you, yeah that’s right exactly!” He slams the phone down.
“What’s wrong?” Glenn asks.
Haggai looks him in the eye, “The Feds are coming.”
CHAPTER 23
I shouldn’t have told her so much, he says to himself while sitting in his rented blue sedan parked outside the university entrance. How do I know for sure what her intentions are? I should make points with this job but my superiors are going to be pissed when they learn that American agents are involved. He quickly straightens up seeing Jim Dunbar’s car exiting through the university gates. Stealthy, he follows from a reasonable distance clutching his stomach he begins to regret the drive thru egg and sausage biscuit that constituted his breakfast, not taking his eyes off the street he fumbles with his right hand on the passenger seat for his trusty bottle of anti-acid tablets.
He remembers how his grandfather, the wealthy tycoon, had always wanted him to enter the priesthood. In accordance with grandfather’s wishes he went through all the years of schooling and grooming for such a position. But it would not be; guilty by association in a grand embezzlement scheme. His grandfather would have disowned him on the spot were it not for the Fathers promise to keep things quiet in return for dutiful service in his current capacity. “You see young man,” it was explained to him. “We’re not so concerned about the number of priests, our need is of a different order, one not so openly expressed in public forms you understand?”
Sure he did, in return his grandfather would never learn of his great misdeed, that one misstep so often taken and ever more regretted— if only, if only the words play on his mind.
“Your Grandfather will die a happy man believing his grandson made it into the priesthood and as such your large inherence will remain intact.”
“An
d when will my debt be repaid in full?” He asked.
“When the honor of your name is restored through your service to us that is when you will know,” they told him.
And this was all that was spoken. Dare he not inquire further for fear they will pull the plug and all of grandfather’s fortune disappear as a vapor.
This has to be it, the one job that gets me over the hump and released from my service. He stops when Jim stops and pulls over into a vacant parking space. It’s somewhere downtown. He doesn’t recognize the area, not one Jim normally drives through. He watches closely as Jim walks through the front doors of a building. He strains his neck peering closely at the façade of the building. What is this place?
CHAPTER 24
Feeling assured that Janet’s cousin is already in the restaurant Jim walks in and is escorted by the hostess to a nearby booth. It’s after lunch, late afternoon when the pace of business has slowed. The bar: a mass of wood and glass holds but a few regulars anchored to its stools. Jim orders a ginger ale (never been much of a drinker.) Fumbling with the round coaster advertising an imported beer he swirls the little red plastic straw, looking around he sees his wife’s cousin Joey at a table across the nearly empty room buried in what appears to be a crossword puzzle from the daily paper. How could he mistake Joey, how could anyone mistake Joey, with his thinning black hair combed over his round head and his puffy face displaying the extra pounds he carries upon his stocky frame.
“Been waiting long?”
Jim looks up to see Logo standing before him. A good dresser, Jim thinks noticing that the light grey suit Logo is wearing matches up well with his short cropped salt and pepper hair and square jaw.
“I’ll waste no time. Your work is good. We’re all very pleased with our arrangement. It’s working fine don’t you think?” He says while quickly sitting down across from Jim.
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