Read Online Dominant Species Volume Three -- Acquired Traits by David Coy - Free Book Online Page B

again.”
    “That’s
serious,” he said.
    “Yeah, I
guess it is.”
    “How
come?”
    “Go look
at it. Go see what this place was all about.”
     
    * * *
     
    Two days
later, in darkness softened only by the light of twin moons, they flew in and
dropped Jacob off within walking distance of the settlement. They watched him
limp across the plain with his net suit hanging from his thin frame like a
gossamer tent. His Bible, as requested, had been stored in an airtight case
and hung down low from his longer arm. He looked to Rachel like some lopsided
specter, stumbling across the field. He stopped and turned for a last look, and
Rachel could feel his eyes on her.
    “Good
riddance,” she said under her breath, certain he couldn’t hear her.
    “Well,
he’s gone now, Rachel,” Donna said. “You can relax now.”
    “Can I?”
she replied.
    As he
walked slowly along, Jacob rehearsed, as he had for every waking minute over
the last few days, precisely what he would say to this group of profane
sinners, this Sacred Bond. He knew all he needed to know about their
sacrilegious practices, thanks to the sinner called Donna.
    As the
truthful words, the real words of God, played over and over in his head, they
grew in strength like a mighty oak. As God had promised, his thousand waited.
     

 
 
    5
     
     
    I t was a summary execution,
the tenth in as many days. The doomed man, a laborer named Duggings, had been
accused of using foul language in the presence of a member of the Council. One
of the ones who saw and heard what happened, said the foul language had not
been used in the Council member’s vicinity but had been directed right at him—a
fatal mistake.
    “You
can’t do this!” Joan yelled. “He didn’t do anything to you!”
    “Shut up,
Joan!” Bill snarled, shaking her arm. “You could be next!”
    “This is
bullshit,” someone else muttered. “Bullshit. I’m for taking my chances in the
green.”
    “Me,
too,” another said. “Screw this. We should just gather up our stuff and march
right outta here.”
    “We’d
last about a week,” someone said.
    “They’re
gonna kill us all if this keeps up. Then whose gonna do their work?”
    “Look at
those bastards,” another said. “Have you ever seen such bullshit?”
    Execution
at the hands of the Council’s guard wasn’t a pretty sight. The mode of
execution was newly monstrous. But making the event as ugly and public as possible
was as old as tyranny itself.
    Duggings
was in a steel cage just big enough to sit in. The look on his face wasn’t
fear, but bemused arrogance. Duggings was braver, or more stupid, than any of
them realized.
    “Here
they come,” someone said. “I can’t watch this.”  
    “You’d
better stay and watch or they’ll put you in that thing,” someone offered.
    “This is
your goddamned Sacred Bond of the Bullshit Alliance. Fuck ‘em.”
    Two men,
covered in protective suits from head to foot, walked up to the cage. The Council
members sat or stood some distance behind it all, carefully watching, or
pretending to watch, the procedure.
    One of
the rubber-clad men held a flask of clear liquid, very carefully with both
hands. They took up positions on either side of the cage, faced the crowd and
waited, as executioners had always done, for the command to do their killing
work. Duggings just scanned the crowd and shook his head as if it were somehow
funny.
    One of
the leading Council members, the new one known as Jacob, stood up and addressed
the crowd.
    He was
the strangest looking man Joan had ever seen. He frightened her to her core.
    “This man
is profane and has shown disrespect for the will of God,” he said gently. “He
has used profanity to erode the Godliness of this holy body. The Lord God now
will punish him for his transgression. Let this be a lesson to us all, not to
trifle with the holy will of God and always to show respect to his agents
seated here.”
    What
shallow crap, Joan thought. What absolute