Iglesia ……………………………………… Episode 34

(Iglesia is a serialized novel, published on Tuesdays and Saturdays at midnight ET, you can read all of the episodes by clicking on the tag.)

Previous episode and previous pertinent episode

.

He had never been much for tea….but he had to admit, as he sat beneath the cottonwood canopy next to the pretty little pond, at a ridiculously fragile looking ornate tea table, on a wire chair….that this was delicious. Beneath the bold flavors it was very delicate and, what was the word….dainty. When he picked up a cucumber sandwich and took a small bite, he noticed in disgust that his pinkie was sticking out.

“So, whose throat do you want me to slit?”

It was nice to see Rogers flinch a little.

“I am afraid what we have in mind is a bit more involved than simple …vivisection, Abraham.”

“Ah….multiple targets. How many of them are there? Are they in a central location? Do you have information on their protection? Body guards, alarms, dogs? What kind of weapons do you have access to? Is there any reason not to use explosives?” He said it like he was rattling off a grocery list. He was back on familiar ground. This is what he did best.

“Unfortunately, it is quite a bit more complicated than that as well. This is not a short term endeavor with discreet specific individual targets that can be eliminated quickly and simply. For the most part. There will be no body guards, dogs or alarms, at least in the manner in which I suppose you are imagining them. Explosives and conventional weapons will do you no good…..in the traditional sense. You may find it expedient for your mental and emotional processes to think of your assignment as something more along the lines of a…. campaign.” He lowered his head and sipped his tea and looked at Abe over both the rim of his tea cup and the top of his glasses.

“Oh”

He was about to ask how long it would take….when it struck him like a blow between the eyes that….it didn’t really matter. He had managed to forget he was dead, for a moment there.

“oh”

“So ……………….forever?”

His heart was beating a little harder.

“Or……does it end?”

“I think it is very safe indeed to say that it will, at some point end.” Rogers got an odd look in his eye,…for him. “One way or the other.”

And then…he flickered in and out of existence for a split second. He was gone…..and when he came back, his head was cocked to one side, like a dog listening to something humans couldn’t hear.

“I am afraid that we must be going. If you will please follow me, I am afraid we must hasten by foot, as you are not yet fit for any other means of locomocution.” He did a quick 360 degree scan, spinning in place, and it looked like his ears actually distended a tiny bit and cupped, reminding Abe of a radar dish. A short, slim, brown radar dish in a bad, slightly floppy, tweed suit of indeterminate age and styling. At the end of his pirouette, he pointed.

“Please begin running towards that sandstone outcropping at the maximum speed that you are capable of achieving.”