Rigby Taylor
1: Somewhere in Far North Queensland Towards the End of the Twenty-first Century. ‘Make sure there’s nothing left to salvage, or tomorrow there’ll be nothing left of you.’ The priest’s twisted smile, more venomous than his customary frown, underlined the threat. Ignoring the nervous nods of his sweating acolytes, he turned, raised an imperial finger in warning and waddled back to his limousine, slashing the air with his stick to ward off mute offers of assistance from heavily armed bodyguards. After passing silently through the gates the black car stopped to allow the priest to gaze back through tinted windows. Impassive, he watched as the splendid old buildings exploded in a gigantic fireball that briefly rivalled the sun. This wasn’t the first such establishment he’d had the pleasure of demolishing, and wouldn’t be the last. Releasing a wheezy sigh of satisfaction he nodded slightly and chewed thoughtfully on his bottom lip. There were few pleasures to match erasing the stench of Roman Catholic blasphemy, nonconformist freethinking tolerance, and secretive research by ungodly intellectuals bent on disrupting God’s plans. He tapped on the bulletproof glass and the chauffeur drove smoothly away, leaving the once grand edifice’s executioners to ensure all had been destroyed. After poking at ashes and embers long enough to ensure nothing useful remained, the demolition team drove noisily away in three small matt black trucks bearing the same gold logo of intertwined crosses as on the doors of the priest’s limo. Forty kilometres inland, two elderly men were attempting to relax on the wide verandah of a house nestled in a luxuriant garden that merged with dense surrounding rainforest. The leaner and taller of the two snapped his phone shut with a sigh. ‘That was Lindoro. The Research Institute is no more. Brother Dominic has just left so we have about half an hour.’ ‘Half an hour. You say it as if it were a lifetime. You’re always so positive, Sebastian.’ Jarek’s sigh w
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