Sacred Flesh (6 page)

“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.”

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.”

“And 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?

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.

“Yes, fine,” Jim cups his hand tightly around his glass.

“In my briefcase is a large manila envelope containing a small metal box just as before, in there you’ll find the second sample to be tested,” he says with a matter of fact tone.

“Okay,” Jim nods.

“The payment will be as before. I’ll call you and set up the location and time. Once you have the results.”

“They certainly are very old samples,” Jim says nervously.

“Old? Yes I suppose they are. Do you foresee any difficulties in completion of the tests?”

“No.”

“Because if there is any problem we would wish to know about it immediately,” he says.

“I see no problem. Although I’m a little concerned, you see I’ve never engaged in such secretive dealings,” Jim confesses.

“No, I suppose not. But trust me Mr. Dunbar there’s nothing to be concerned about. No one knows we’re here. We deal strictly in American currency; as long as you can hide this extra income from the IRS I think everything should be fine. Once the third sample testing is complete we simply go our separate ways that’s all.”

“I can’t help but wonder why you chose me of all the people skilled to perform these tests,” Jim asks.

“You were in the book,” he laughs. “Seriously, how or why isn’t so important is it? We’re both here now doing business as all good business people do that’s all it really amounts to Mr. Dunbar simply business, no need to read anything more into it, that wouldn’t do any of us any good.”

“I suppose not,” Jim says.

“Here then,” he hands him the envelope. “Please be very careful with this.”

“Yes, of course,” Jim takes it and slowly places it in his brown briefcase.

Logo nods to Jim then gets up and leaves the restaurant. Jim turns to see Joey darting up and following him out the door. Jim reaches back into his briefcase and feels the envelope, something’s different this time, what’s this, a microchip?”

It’s a large book to say the least, taking both hands to lug it up the back stairs he carefully carries the old aged tome toward the storage room located in the far corner. It’s dark. He’s hasn’t turned on any lights to avoid attracting attention. No one looks back here, he thinks balancing the book against his body while placing the key in the lock. Slowly, he uses his body to open the door revealing a room lined with metal shelves of all types and sizes, a couple of old desks sit idle in the corner while the smell of dust pervades the air. Closing the door behind him he flicks on an overhead light and carries the large book with its cracked brown leather cover. It nearly requires the totality of his strength just to plop it down on one the old desks.

“Ah,” he lets out a sigh of relief, “Free at last my old friend.”

“You don’t know me and you probably aren’t going to believe it but I swear what I tell you is the absolute truth,” he says having walked into the restaurant and seeing Jim still sitting at the booth he knew this was his chance, this has to work so they will release me from my service and stop the
Elite
from carrying out their plans.

“Really? And who exactly are you?” Jim says looking every bit annoyed.

“I have been sent here to help you.”

“Sent, by whom?” Jim asks.

“By The Church Mr. Dunbar, we are very concerned about what is happening. We know the
Elite
have contacted you and we know why,” he says.

“You know a lot don’t you,” Jim says.

“Mr. Dunbar you are dealing with a group of religious radicals, a very old society who’s passed down their beliefs and practices for centuries,” he says while sitting down across from Jim. “They are dangerous to say the least. They will kill you or me and not even blink if it were to serve their purpose. They are using you Mr. Dunbar to fulfill a grand scheme of theirs, one of international proportions.”

“They told me they were a private archeologically society,” Jim says flatly.

“Did they give you a name? Did you check them out?”

“Well no, not exactly. I wasn’t too concerned with that at the time.”

“I know. I’m sure you weren’t. I’m sure they offered you a pretty good sum of money. They are very wealthy, having held investments for many years. Money is not an obstacle for them,” he explains.

“Why should I believe you?” Jim asks.

“I don’t know why you wouldn’t Mr. Dunbar. The samples you are testing, the small ringlets of flesh, are purported to be from the circumcision of the baby Christ.”

“What?”

“In the Middle Ages several churches claimed to have the foreskin. It wasn’t an unusual practice for these churches to lay claim to such relics. You see relics brought visitors, pilgrims, which meant money. Many churches claimed to process such holy articles; wood from the cross, a lock of Mary’s hair, anything that got people through the door, sort of a marketing device really,” he explains.

“But there couldn’t have been several foreskins from one baby,” Jim says.

“No, there couldn’t have been and there in lies the grand question, which if any of them are authentic?”

“This is what the
Elite
wants to know?” Jim asks.

“Yes, but they’re not the only ones. Rome would like to know too. They never paid much attention to them until technology advanced to the point that DNA testing could be performed to recover the old decaying stains,” he says.

“What are they looking for?”

“Mr. Dunbar, if you knew you had a flesh sample from the body of Christ from when he lived on Earth and you performed DNA testing on it what exactly would you expect to find: a normal double helix like you and I have or something else, something very different? You see Mr. Dunbar, Christ came into the world via the virgin birth. Joseph and Mary didn’t have sex to conceive him therefore he can’t have Joseph’s DNA so whose does he have? Where did he receive the Y chromosome from? If not from Joseph, from the Father Himself?” he says.

“How could that be?” Jim asks

“We don’t know. That is what we wish to discern, that is what the
Elite
wishes to discover so badly that they have stolen the three known samples, stolen from the Church itself.”

“Stolen?”

“Yes, and in fact killed for them. They are ruthless thieves and liars Mr. Dunbar. For it is not so much the testing results they wish but beyond that we believe they plan to artificially impregnate a woman with the DNA who will bring the baby to term. The
Elite
will then raise the child under their protection,” he says.

“Sounds pretty far out there,” Jim says.

“It is. But it’s true. This stuff
is
happening. Once they have the child they will wield great power over Rome. They seek revenge and if they are successful in raising the child they will certainly get it for by that time there will be nothing we could do but give into their demands.”

“Why do they want this revenge?” Jim asks.

“As I understand it they developed as a fringe religious sect centuries ago. They aligned themselves with Rome but were never officially recognized as legitimate. There was a break in relations so much so that they decided to immigrate to America in the 19th century.”

“What kind of doctrine?”

“Well, I’m not an expert but from what I understand the
Elite
believe that there are two main spheres in the world: that of the spirit and that of the animal. They believe that humans are caught in the middle. Following the path of God allows one to be released from the animal hold: the earthly desires that plague the human race. Otherwise, one is doomed to live a lowly animal like existence. Well, as you can see this doesn’t jive with the teachings of the church.”

“I never heard of the
Elite
,” Jim says.