The meeting was to be held in the
estate gardens adjacent to the main residence. A null frequency pulse blocked
all electromagnetic surveillance; not that anyone would eavesdrop on the Director of Public Safety
and his 1st Assistant. But some quarters of the ruling Guardian Council were
nervous about the growing power of the Directorate. Under normal circumstances,
briefings outside the Residence would have been voice encrypted. However, no
such precautions were taken today. The ranking executives of the Office of
Public Safety emerged from the reception hall, and descended a marble winding
staircase to the manicured garden path below. The Director who answered to
'Minister' was a robustly built man of late middle age. He had a full head of silver hair, and a
tanned unlined face.
A glorious day sparkled in the
afternoon sunlight. Everything was bright and bursting with color. At the end
of the path stood five massive glass columns, 45 feet high and 10 feet in
diameter. Their reflective skins distorted the dazzling patterns of plants,
trees and billowing clouds into slowly turning kaleidoscopes of color.
"What urgent news brings
you to my humble estate?" The Minister began.
"We have completed analysis
of our asset's reports from within the Priory." Dag said with a sigh of
disappointment. The Minister seemed drawn to the brilliance of shimmering flora
all around him
.
"And?" the Minister
gently urged.
"And, I'm especially
perplexed by the lack of coherence in the reports tracking the Order of the
Crescent's activities. It reads like a religious tract. I hand picked the man
for this assignment. It's as if they knew he was coming and immediately began
handing him this tripe. I'm afraid his position has been compromised."
For three years, the Department
of Internal Affairs, Dag's section of the Directorate struggled to place an
operative into the Cenobite stronghold called, the Priory. Embedding one of his people there would have
been a singular accomplishment, but once again, he failed.
The Minister stooped down to
admire a dazzling row of yellow daffodils. After a few moments he rose to his
full height and turned to Dag.
"Perhaps you should shift your
focus away from the Priory, and towards the Order of the Crescent. How much do
you really know about them?"
"The Order of the Crescent
is a sect within the Cenobite movement.
A lot of our information about them is contradictory; but we can agree
on certain details. The Order surfaced four years after the emergence of the
Cenobites themselves. Their leader, the Abbot is an enigma. We don't know who he is or how he rose
through the ranks. He seems to have appeared out of nowhere. The only thing we
know for sure is his abiding interest in developing paranormal abilities in his
members, such as, telekinesis, and mind control. The question is why?"
"Perhaps they seek to use
paranormal forces to detect extraordinary objects of immense power?" The
Minister said playfully.
"If you're referring to the Founder's
Archive, then we really have nothing to fear! The Founder's Archive is a fairy
tale. It was my favorite bedtime story as a child."
The Minister agreed. "We
all have fond childhood memories. Why
don't you refresh mine about the Founder's Archive, if you please?"
Dag wondered what he was playing
at.
No comments:
Post a Comment