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“Eschatology is the study of final things. Death. The afterlife. The end of the world.”
“Oh. Gotcha.”
“And thaumatology is the study of miracles. So you see, it was only natural that Samson should involve us once the Sword was lost.”
She motioned to the large man with the dog face and the big flappy hands, and he brought her the long object wrapped in satin. She laid it on my lap.
“What’s this?” I asked. But I figured it out before she could answer. I pulled on a corner of the cloth and the black blade tumbled out.
“Bennacio’s sword,” she said. “We recovered it at Stonehenge and thought you might like to have it.”
I stared at the sword. “Thank you,” I whispered.
Abigail said, “There is one other thing before I go, Alfred. I must say The Company is quite impressed.”
“Impressed by what?” I asked.
“With you,” she said. “It is nothing less than extraordinary.”
“What is?”
“That you not only survived your ordeal, but accomplished what we, with all the resources at our disposal, could not.”
“Well,” I said. “The whole thing was basically my fault, so I kind of thought it was the right thing to do.”
“Don’t be so hard on yourself. You’re very young. You have no idea how rare that is.”
“Youth?”
“Doing the right thing. Not only doing the right thing, but understanding what the right thing is.”
“Oh,” I said. “You bet.” Though I wasn’t completely sure what she was getting at or why we were having a philosophical conversation.
“We will be keeping an eye on you, Alfred Kropp,” she said.
“You will?” That didn’t sound good.
“We are very interested in your . . . development.”
A shiver went down my spine. “Look, Abby . . . Abigail . . . ma’am . . . I don’t have any intention of getting involved in anything like the Sword again, so if you’re worried—”
She raised her hand to shut me up. “We’re not worried at all. In fact, I wanted to give you this, in the event you decide you want to know more about The Company. We are always looking for fresh talent—for the extraordinary, if you will.”
She dropped a business card in my lap, shot up from the chair, nodded to hound-dog man by the door, and left me al
one. I picked up the card and read it:
OFFICE OF INTERDIMENSIONAL PARADOXES
&
EXTRAORDINARY PHENOMENA
(OIPEP)
Abigail Smith, MD, PhD, JD, MBA
Special Agent-in-Charge
