The Messiah Choice (1985)

Read The Messiah Choice (1985) for Free Online Page B

Book: Read The Messiah Choice (1985) for Free Online
Authors: Jack L. Chalker
at my beck and call. A big company of which I know almost nothing is scared I will fire them all or something. You saw how they all looked and acted here."
    The nurse nodded sympathetically. "I saw."
    "And, the worst is, I am already corrupted by it myself. God forgive me, but I actually had a thrill at the power they feared that has been invested in me. I liked the corporate jets, the suites like this one, all the attention. "
    "And you are enjoying it."
    "God help me, but I am! On the plane, even now, I have fantasies. I have had no fantasies in years. No, don't look that way—not those kind. That, in fact, just gets in the way. I saw them taking my inventory with their eyes. Sometimes I wish they would invent a way to take that away, just leave my head, my eyes, ears, nose, mouth, brain. Powered like that wheelchair or my little mechanical gadgets. Don't look so shocked! There is nothing to me below the neck.
    Nothing. It does not exist. I no longer even dream of it, not since coming back from the Center.
    Even if they give me one day a contrivance so I can walk, I will not feel it. Enjoying good food and drink is the only pleasure of the flesh I will ever know. I have my mind and nothing else, so I must use my mind. Now I have a great fortune, and the power to direct some of it to good."
    "And those are your fantasies?"
    She nodded. "Somewhat. But there is also the opportunity to enjoy life as much as I can. Have a gang of servants to literally do everything for me, be my body. See the whole of the world and meet the important movers and shakers of it."
    "All this is true," the nurse agreed. "Why do you hesitate?"
    "Would you? In my circumstances?"
    Sister Maria shrugged. "I don't know. I could never conceive of it."
    "But that's just the trouble! Neither can I! Even now. I feel like a very un-godlike Jesus who upon the mount in the wilderness was offered the entire world by Satan as an alternative to dying on the cross. I was headed towards becoming a bride of Christ and doing His work, aiding the sick and handicapped. Now I am offered the world, and I am a poor sinner and not the Son of God! Will God be better served by my giving it all away, refusing it, or by my taking it and influencing what I can. Who knows what cures are possible with enough money and drive behind it? And what poverty might be cured? And all this while letting those who know what they are doing continue to run the businesses as always!"
    "I can pray with you," said Sister Maria, "but I can not guide you."
    "All this is for some purpose, some grand design," said the woman on the bed. "My disability prevents much corruption and forever reminds me through my dependency of my own small self.
    It gives—humility, and, perhaps, perspective." She was suddenly wide awake and excited. "Fix me a cup of coffee, will you? I would like to get started in this."
    After the coffee, Sister Maria dressed Angelique once more and strapped her into the chair.
    They had three fully charged battery packs and a fourth charging, so there was almost no limit to her range. After, they went next door, and looked over Sir Robert's tropical getaway.
    It was a suite much like theirs, although appointed differently, giving it less the look and feel of a luxury hotel suite than of a millionaire's rustic hunting lodge, complete with a bear rug on the floor and stuffed animal heads on the walls.
    They found his desk, an old, roll-top affair of weathered oak, and the nun set up an easel in front of Angelique, who took an unsharpened pencil in her mouth. She could now read through a stack of papers placed on the easel and, using the eraser, slide one sheet over to read the next. It was quite an art and had taken a great deal of practice, but it worked.
    "This is quite enough, Maria," she told the nurse. "Why don't you go next door and lie down yourself? I'll call if I need you for anything. I wish to go through this, and if I need some help some of the people at the Lodge will come

Similar Books

V.

Thomas Pynchon

Blame: A Novel

Michelle Huneven

06 Educating Jack

Jack Sheffield

Winter Song

Roberta Gellis

A Match for the Doctor

Marie Ferrarella