Sacred Flesh (5 page)

“So many questions!” She says.

“Go ahead,” he says with a blank expression.

“A few days ago a young woman went to the police claiming to have been held against her will, by as she puts it ‘a nut wagon religious group.’ Anyway, they want to pay her a large sum of money to be artificially impregnated. In fact, apparently the leadership of this group believes that she is actually carrying
now
but the process was faked by the scientist who she claims they killed. She also believes the scientist was helped by someone within the group a member who has turned against them but she doesn’t know his identity. Since they believe her to be carrying they were holding her against her will. If she speaks to anyone about it they’ve promised to kill her, which at the moment is a big problem for her since she has escaped from them.”

“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.

“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.

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.

“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.

“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.