The Oriental’s facial expression was totally numb, he didn’t even try to cover up his fright with an ironic remark like he usually did. Also, he made no move to remove the drape. In the darkness he simply sat there and breathed like someone who had shaken off worry. He even purred!
I bit in one corner of the cloth and ripped it off ...
Revealed was ... it was insane ... it was ridiculous ...
There was a toy missile lying on the table! The anthracite-colored thing was only about 1.5 feet long. On its front were two tiny video eyes in the dedicated orbits, on side of the fuselage it had short, stable wings and tillers, and there were fins fixed to its rear. The whole construction looked like a military missile had shrunk to the size of children’s hands. Yet, the »brain«, which could be seen through an opened little door at the front, revealed a totally different function. This part was full of electronics. A staggering arabesque of boards, microprocessors, ultra-thin cables and blinking electroluminescent diodes hinted at the weapon’s intelligence. In all this technical clutter a feline vestibular organ was placed, which swam into a little glass ball full of nutrient solution and exchanged information with the rest of the electronics through subtle connecting wires!
»Have you seen Sancta in the pictures, Francis?« Antonio said in a quiet voice that was almost lost in dreams and sounded like a call from a very far galaxy to me.
»Sure«, I said. »She is in cahoots with this Umberto. She killed Samantha, so that I ...«
»She’s so gorgeous, isn’t she? What a perfect symbol of harmony she is. The picture of Sancta has always been our ideal, when we thought about the future world. Beauty, dovishness, justice, love for life and tolerance. The ideals of ancient philosophy. The TV news speak another language though. All this scum, which they show, all the evil and the pain. During the last centuries our world has dramatically changed, Francis, and society rules – like the discrimination of race, sex and breed – are not accepted anymore. The bad genie from the bottle has vanished. The monsters of intolerance, mutual suspicion and polarization march through our streets. Dialogue is nothing more than a poor relative or terror and intimidation. These prosimians with their primitive religion, which only preaches murder, with their freaking ape culture, which only issues prohibitions and only allows being a dead man walking! Intolerance against dissidents, against women, against homosexuals and against animals. They let sheep and cattle bleed out through a cut at their throats before they eat them, did you know that? They buckle dynamite belts on donkeys, just to fire them from distance. They shit on animal rights, Francis. Samantha knew this and was pleased to offer help. And Sancta shines, she resembles our culture of soulfulness.«
Although my fur was still soaked in the cold Tiber water, I suddenly was so hot as if someone had put me into a microwave for a moment. This whole damn workshop seemed to expand like a gum in front of my eyes, and I felt how I gradually got weak in the knees. Yet, I had the strength to remember something Sancta had mentioned casually: »... Umberto is obsessed with our kind, and besides me he also keeps some black rascal on this site, who runs away pretty frequently though. At least, I don’t see him very often ...« The black rascal stood in front of me.
»Whom do you mean by ›we‹, Antonio«, I wanted to know.
»If I were George W. Bush, I’d say Western civilization, il mio amico. But I’m not George W. Bush, only a little fag who doesn’t want anything but to clear the world of intolerance once and for all.«
»Why did you bring me here?«
Tears flooded out of my eyes and dripped on the operating table. The world was a cesspool!
»So that you will bring the last sacrifice, Francis. As you can imagine that such an important thing like world peace can hardly be achieved by droning Urbi et Orbi down from the benediction loggia at Easter.«
Suddenly I felt an unyielding grasp in my neck! A hand had grabbed me and had me immobilized now. Then I was slowly picked up and got turned around in the air. I faced an old acquaintance’s flawless visage. It was the very young man of God, in whose bag I slipped in my distress at the airport, when I started on my