the plaque. 'Thanks. Now get out before scientific curiosity overwhelms me and I decide to vivisect you.'
Easing the door shut behind me, I walked down the silent, musty hallway toward the stairs. I decided to perform my own test. The stairs seemed less formidable. I ran up two at a time.
My legs and lungs hardly noticed.
Mystified, I walked toward my office door. It stood halfway open, throwing a trapezoid of light across the cracked linoleum of the corridor.
There are times when the answer to a burning question lurks just beyond a door such as that. This was one of those times. I quietly slid my automatic from its holster. Something clattered inside my waiting room. A pair of feet scuffled about.
I edged closer to the door, keeping an eye on the shadow that flitted about into the hall. One step brought me inside the doorway.
His athletic body neatly filled the light gray suit. His back turned to me, all I could see was a head of brown hair and gloved hands clasping a walking stick.
'Mr. Ammo,' he said before turning to see me.
'Reverend Zack.' I slipped my pistol away and leaned against the jamb, arms folded.
'I'm expected, then?'
'Like famine after flood.' I stood my ground. 'What do you want?'
'The project we discussed. You've had time to reconsider my offer.'
'The answer's still no.'
He looked me up and down. A smile spread across his smooth face. 'Nice head of hair you might be getting there.'
I knew what he was getting at. I played dumb. Inside, something began to quiver.
'Yeah. So what? Maybe I've read a book on life extension.'
'And your aches. Gone?'
'Yeah. Gone. For a while. What of it?' I knew what of it. And I knew what he would say next.
'I told you I'd give you something to help you reconsider my offer. Shall I take it back?'
That was it, then. I'd never before met someone with an offer I couldn't refuse. I was staring at the ultimate Godfather. If that term could be applied. I wasn't going to give in that easily, though.
'Take what back?' I lit a cigarette and watched the smoke arch upward. I put on my best act of calm assurance. Inwardly, I quaked.
'Come on, Dell. We can play ridiculous head games for hours. The truth is you don't want to die, and I'm offering you a way out.'
I moved behind my desk to sit down, dousing the cigarette in a coffee cup. 'What's the deal, Zack?'
He sat in the easy chair next to the couch. When he lit a cigarette this time, I tried to see exactly how he did it. I wasn't too sure he used a lighter.
'The project involves a single killing. One being.' Waving the smoke away from his face, he smiled calmly.
'Being?'
'He is known by many names. Jehovah. Allah. Brahma. The King of Kings. The First Cause. God.'
'I see.'
'The All-Powerful. The Creator.'
'I get you.'
