Sacred Flesh (7 page)

“No, you wouldn’t have. They were rejected by the communities where they settled. Forced underground they set up a rather extensive network. It’s all very bizarre and complicated but they have flourished and survived for many years waiting and plotting for their chance at revenge and now I’m afraid they are nearing it,” he says.

“I don’t know if I believe everything you say. But it’s true they are a very strange and secretive organization. At first I welcomed doing business with them but now I must admit I’ve grown a little uncomfortable with the whole deal. However, I find it difficult to believe I’m performing DNA tests on the foreskin of Christ, that’s just too way out there,” Jim says.

“Then what could it be Mr. Dunbar, why are they following you around? Why else would Rome send me to America to find you and speak with you? Why else would all this be going on if something of this magnitude were not indeed occurring. You’re in danger Mr. Dunbar, dealing with the
Elite
is hazardous to your health but I can help you. We can help you.”

“Who’s we?” Jim asks.

“The Church. Join us, work for us and we’ll save you from the
Elite
. We’ll save you.”

“Oh boy, they found a new chancellor,” Jim says having returned from the restaurant and settled into an afternoon of grazing out his office window.

“I know. I could really care less. In fact I’m considering early retirement,” Glenn says, sitting in the chair across from Jim’s desk, enjoying a moment of leisure during the middle of the afternoon.

“Really?” Jim thinks it over. “That may be an attractive option. I’ve about had it with this place. The awards and grants keep going to new and younger guys all the time. I know they’re never going to recognize my work. They just don’t care about it. Do you know how difficult it is to work so hard and have no one care?” Jim says turning to address his friend.

“Is that a new watch?” Glenn says pointing to Jim’s wrist.

“This? Yeah I just got it,” Jim looks at the gold timepiece. “Maybe it’s time to get out of here.”

“You seem a little stressed lately Jim.”

“It’s not the grant or the crap from the university. I’ve been moonlighting you might say and it may be more than I counted on.”

“How so?” Glenn asks.

“Well, just between you and me Glenn, I may have gotten myself in over my head. I agreed to do some DNA testing for this company, a private group. But I’ve found out they may not be who they say they are. They may be quite criminal in nature, it’s all covert. I’m paid in cash, never meet with the contact in the same location twice.”

“Really?” Glenn attempts surprise and concern.

“Yeah, I even wonder if they’re not following me sometimes,” Jim says.

“Why do you think that?”

“Strange occurrences, it’s spooky in a way, maybe I’m just paranoid you know looking in the mirror, over my shoulders. I just get the feeling sometimes like I’m being watched,” Jim says while getting up out of his chair and beginning to pace the floor of his office.

“Hum, maybe you need some time off,” Glenn offers.

“It is summer Glenn, I’m not teaching until August,” he sits back down behind his desk.

“How much more work do you have with these guys?”

“Not much, not much at all. Just a couple more tests to run then I’m done. I’m almost afraid if I tell them I want out they’ll do something. I don’t want to end up in a ditch somewhere and I’m not real thrilled with the idea that I may end up in prison because of these guys,” Jim says.

“You know if I were you I would just do the rest of the testing as quickly as possible and then take the money and run. It’s too late to wash your hands with them so you might as well finish the job. Just get it over and be done with them. Then you can relax and enjoy the money,” Glenn says.

“You make it sound so easy. But I guess I don’t really have that many options. Maybe the sooner I’m done with these guys the better,” Jim says while lending back in his chair.

“Well, friend I have to get going,” Glenn announces and walks toward the door. “I’ll call you later.”

“Okay,” Jim says as Glenn leaves. For the next few minutes Jim quietly plays over events in his mind. Regret begins to settle in. This was a big mistake he keeps telling himself. His thoughts are suddenly broken by the sound of a knock at the door.

“Who is it?” he asks.

“It’s me, Joey. You busy Jim?” he says while peering in through the door.

“No, come on in,” Jim says.

Joey, as usual, dressed in a simple dark suit and tie walks over and sits down in the chair by Jim’s desk where Glenn was just sitting moments ago.

”These guys are clean Jim.” He announces. “I didn’t find anything on them. I don’t think you got anything to worry about, nothing that I can see anyway.”

“You’re kidding right? What do you mean there’s nothing wrong. Are you sure we’re talking about the same people?”

“I checked them out Jim. I don’t see any red flags,” Joey says shrugging his wide shoulders.

“I found a freakin microchip in the last envelop they gave me. I’m sure it’s a tracking device. What do you mean you don’t see any red flags!”

“You can’t jump to conclusions. I’m just reporting to you what I found and it wasn’t much of anything. I don’t know exactly how they got a hold of old foreskins, but otherwise I believe they are who they say they are. I don’t see a grand case of misrepresentation here. You asked me to look and that’s what I found,” Joey says.

“Well, if they are who they say they are then why is the Vatican involved? Some joker tracked me down yesterday and gave me this whole line about these guys and the church. The whole thing goes back hundreds years or something.”

“Sounds like bull,” Joey says.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought too, at least at first anyway but now I don’t know,” Jim says.

“You got his name, anything else on him? I can follow him around for a few days see what his story really is.”

“I’m not that concerned about him. I’m just surprised you don’t see anything to worry about.”

“I think you’re stressed out Jim. You should take some time off. You still have that cabin up on the lake?” He asks.

Jim looks squarely at him, “You’re not the first person who’s said that.”

“Just a thought.” Joey stands up. “I got to be going Jim. I’ll call you tomorrow okay?”

“Okay.”

Joey walks out into the hallway of Jim’s office, turning he continues down to the twin set of elevators, pushing the round white down button he reaches in his jacket pocket for his cell phone. Quickly, he punches in some numbers and places it next to his ear as the elevator dings and the doors swing open. He hurriedly shuffles into the empty elevator as the doors close. “Okay, I told him. I’m not sure he brought it, but I told him.”

“I’ve told you everything I know. They recruited me. I’m not a member of the
Elite
I just work for them. You have to be born an
Elite
, no one becomes one. It’s a bloodline,” she says while sitting at the table in the exam room speaking with the man in the suit with a badge who called her and asked if she could come downtown and answer a few questions, she told him sure why not she didn’t have any major plans for the day.

“How did you come to know Jim Dunbar?” he asks sitting across from her, holding a pen next to a yellow legal pad.

“They told me he was going to be very important to them. He was going to do some important work and they needed to be absolutely sure about him, needed to know everything they could about him.”

“That was your job?”

“Oh yeah, they got me enrolled in his micro biology class. “

“As an undergrad? “

“Yeah, an intro class last year I sat in the front row and wore very short skirts. I used to do some modeling. I caught his eye. It wasn’t difficult,” she says breaking into a slight smile.

“Fell right into your trap?”

“Sort of, though it did take a little legwork. I could tell he wasn’t happy.”

“How?”

“I just have the ability to read people. In class he was just going through the motions that was oblivious to anyone I think. I had to know more, get closer so I started going to office hours. At first it was just talking about class stuff, microbiology which I really likes but that’s about it. He was helpful but I could tell there was more to him. I could tell there was a part of him that felt very alone in the world. So I gradually began to change the subject. We wound up discussing almost everything.”

“Really?”

“Oh yeah, in fact I never meet a more unhappy person. He didn’t like his job and I guess his marriage wasn’t so great either. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure this guy out. So I started coming on to him. I was getting paid pretty good and I was intrigued by the
Elite
, the whole secret society thing. What they told me of themselves sounded pretty cool. I’ve always wanted to be part of something big.”

“And that’s when you began sleeping with Mr. Dunbar?”

“No, he wouldn’t do anything until after the semester was over and grades were final, said it would be unethical.”

“Interesting,” he says while jotting down a few notes.

“Yeah, he’s not a bad guy, not at all. I kind of feel sorry for him, all he talked about, all he wanted was a chance to do his research, said the university didn’t give a damn about him because being in his fifties he was considered past his prime in the scientific community.”

“And you related all this information back to the
Elite
?”

“Yes, but I don’t think I told them much they didn’t already know. I felt I was mostly meant to keep tabs on him, keep him happy maybe.”

“In bed?”

“This is going to sound strange but we never actually had sex, believe me I wanted to I like older guys, there’s something about them. But anyway, he said he wanted to but couldn’t bring himself to go through with it, thought it would make him a different kind of person and he wasn’t comfortable with that idea, at least for now anyway. This is going to sound even stranger but after the first few times we got together he gave me some of his wife’s old clothes from when they were dating and he had me dress up in them. It was creepy at first but then I didn’t mind it was almost like acting, playing a part. Then he mostly just wanted to talk about his work and all the stress he feels, how alone in the world he feels because no one takes in interest in what he does, well no one until the
Elite
came along anyway. I kept trying to make the sex happen, thought it would relax him. All he said was that you never know what the future brings. I don’t know if that meant he was leaving his wife at some point or if we were going to do it or if it meant anything at all. But the
Elite
said once the testing began they needed to know if he was getting cold feet or anything like that. It had to be all or nothing. They didn’t want any one abandoning the project mid-stream.”

“Why do you think they had so much at stake?”

“To me it seems the
Elite
are on a power trip. I don’t really know a great amount of details they are always very careful with information, who knew what when, that sort of thing. They told me the DNA testing was paramount to the plan and that Jim Dunbar was the chosen instrument to execute that plan and it was my responsibility to get into his world and make sure things ran smoothly.”

“Did Mr. Dunbar suspect you?”

“No, he doesn’t know about me although I thought he was getting suspicious of them like something wasn’t right but he wasn’t sure. He’s been acting stressed out lately and then I walked in on a conversation with some guy he’s been meeting with. He won’t say who it is. But sometime after the first test he became different.”

“We appreciate the information you are providing,” he tells her.

“So, I get my amnesty right?”

The spinning dancing double helix weaving the very web of life, ‘click’ and that’s the second test complete: normal DNA results nothing dramatic, nothing supernatural here. Whose ever foreskin this tiny piece of flesh once belonged to he appears to have been a regular old human being. One that walked the Earth much as I do now, Jim thinks to himself while sitting at the lab counter. It’s quiet, very early in the morning the sky beginning to become light, he rubs his eyes having been up all night finishing the test as well as thinking of the mess he seems to have walked into: “All I wanted was the money to buy the freedom of time, just to do my work.”

One more test, one more sample and that’s it I’m done with them. But then what? I’ll have a good chuck of money (mostly all packed away in the two large home safes he had to purchase to avoid making large cash deposits.) Maybe I should get away, somewhere I could relax a little and then get some lab work done. But where? I could just tell Janet I have to get away. She’ll understand or more likely she won’t care we never see each other anyway. What about Melody I haven’t heard from her for awhile why doesn’t she return my calls?

What if? What if the third sample is The One, that of Christ? What will it look like? What if it’s odd somehow and I give the results back to them and they impregnate a woman and raise a child from the DNA of Christ what then? If they use the child and the power to no good then I will have been implicated in the act; an accomplice. Damn! I can’t be a party to that I can’t risk anything like that. If there is anything usual about the third result I can’t let them know. But they’ll be expecting it to be The One if the other two are normal then the third must be what they are looking for. They would know this too. Why even do the third test it qualifies simply by elimination. All they really need is this second result once they know its normal DNA they will precede with the impregnation of the third sample. Then they won’t need me any longer. That guy that came to warn me said that they’ve killed before how do I know they wouldn’t want me out of the picture. I’m disposable to them now. Do they think I know too much? But what if that’s all a lie? What if they
are
a private archeologically group or just a bunch of wealthy crazy old men, then who cares? Like Glenn said just take the money and run. Overwhelmed, he buries his face in his hands on the counter.