Time's Adversary by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2016-08-07T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

Oscar Mathieson sat in his office, feeling miserable. Almost every day now he was seeing the Burning Man. Climbing out of cars, lurking in bushes, crossing the road, hiding behind the bar of coffee shops . . . and nobody else could see it, see him. Every day, Mathieson became slightly more convinced that he was going crazy.

His visor buzzed and he put it over his eyes. The face of Cornelia Agate swam into his vision. The visor made it seem as if the projection was hanging in the air.

“Yes?” he said.

“Sir, I just got a message from Mr. Vorg. He wants you to go to his office. Straight away.” She blinked at him with a sympathetic face.

“Fine. Thanks.”

Oscar Mathieson rang off but did not remove his visor. He felt himself shaking as he left his office. The boss. The CEO. What had he done wrong? No, no, that was foolish. It was probably nothing like that. But still he’d only seen Mr. Vorg in passing, had only ever muttered a brief greeting. If it was something work-related, why hadn’t he just called for Amara? She was the expert when it came to pattern recog. The head of the department. It had to be something personal, something related to him.

He got on one of the moving walkways which carried him across the vast complex, then walked the rest of the distance down a clinical corridor. This was the sanctum sanctorum, the Holy of Holies. Mathieson had never even been in this part of the building. The door opened, letting him pass straight into the office.

He stood before the desk of Anders Vorg.

Vorg said, “Good morning, Mr. Mathieson. Have a seat.”

He shakily obeyed. The boss was immaculately presented; his suit was pressed, his shoes were shiny, his watch gleamed. In contrast, Mathieson felt messy and underdressed, even though he was wearing his own work suit.

“I want to talk to you about Sagacity,” Vorg said.

Mathieson swallowed and heard himself replying, “OK.”

“It has come to my attention that you are a member of the Church.”

“I am,” Mathieson admitted. It would do no good to lie. Besides, lying was a grave sin.

“But surely you must have watched that astonishing performance? The contest between the two faiths.”

“I did.”

“Then how could you not have been convinced? I watched the whole thing myself. The prophetess—what was her name?”

“Saturnina.”

“Yes, that’s right. An utter failure. How could you still believe that God sent her after watching her fail to produce even a single miracle? And when the other prophet—remind me of his name.”

“Jaddar.”

“When the other prophet Jaddar was so impressive? Those bats he conjured up, which turned into doves. And the walking on water.”

“The Church of Sagacity published an official statement on the matter,” Mathieson replied. “They stated that Saturnina was a con artist who took the place of the real prophetess, in order to discredit the faith. God was so angry that his servant was replaced that he allowed the Tetran prophet to be victorious.”

“And you believe the statement? Many others didn’t.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.