Infinitus Anathema: Chapter 4 – A New Me

 

Chapter 4 – A New Me

“Good evening, Mr. Regal. On time as always, I see,” the desk attendant says.

“Always better to be on time than late.”

“Ha, you don’t have to keep reminding me of that.”

I go into the office and sit at the desk. After entering in the password, I begin to look through the files and emails on the computer and copy them to my flash drive. Let’s see what kind of dirt we can find here. So, the rumors are true. I am going to have a meeting with Ms. Myra in a few minutes. My key to where I need to go should be walking in right about now.

“Good evening, Mr. Regal,” Ms. Myra says as she enters the office.

“Good evening, Ms. Myra. Come in and take a seat.”

“Right to business as usual.” I stop myself from asking if anything is wrong even if she does sound a little annoyed. “I’m surprised you’re so fixed on your computer. Usually, you like watching the city from here.”

“Oh, I’m more focused on my work right now so I can enjoy it more.” I remembered one thing but forgot the other. “Anyways,” I say as I get up and walk to Ms. Myra, “The Ecclesia Aeternam has made our lives unbelievably more difficult because of their massacres and hostile takeover of our worlds and the worlds of the other empires. Our business and partners have suffered unbelievably because of it and it doesn’t help that we have people defecting left and right. Why is infiltrating them the best course of action?”

“Because it’s the best way to stall their advance and possibly cripple them. There was a small civil conflict on their worlds a while back and the Church is known to always have some kind of conflict within themselves. I believe that if we were to nudge that internal conflict even further then we would be able to get back to business as normal and may even give our future generations the ability to prosper.”

“I like the idea and would like to learn more,” I say before lightly stabbing the back of Myra on the neck with my special knife.

The knife doesn’t kill her. Instead, its coated tip injects a knockout substance into her that puts her to sleep. I then scan her face with my facial scanner so I can switch the look of my face. Going into a nearby closet, I find a drawer with some of her clothes in it and a wig. It’s not a good thing for there to be an affair in a place and time like this, but the affair between these two sinners have helped us a lot. At least the same outfit she is wearing is in here, so I don’t have to take it off her and it’s not too feminine for me to wear. I also change my voice to Myra’s before exiting the office. Thanks to her talking for a bit, my voice recorder got a large enough sample for me to use.

“Have a good night,” I say to the desk attendant.

“Same to you. It’s a wonder to me as to why Mr. Regal always calls you back here just for a quick meeting.”

“He does love his traditional meetings. Better to talk with people in person than over the phone or holograms.”

“I get it. Thank you for coming.”

“It was a pleasure.”

I go to the elevator and take it to the top floor. Here is a secret room that I enter by scanning my face then confirm it’s “me” by saying “my” name. The door opens and I enter the dimly lit room. Inside is a planning room with a single computer at the end. This is going to contain better secrets than the ones on Regal’s computer, so I copy them and send everything I have over to HQ via my personal IS or info sender.

“Nice job, Jules. We got the information we came for and we’re looking through the rest right now,” the primary communicator, Jada, says over the small communicator in my ear.

“Great. I can’t wait to see this place go up in flames.”

“I’m afraid that won’t happen. City planets are too expensive to rebuild and repair.”

“Then it’ll look even better than it does now. Anyways, is my EP clear?”

“Yes-ah, hold on.”

Okay. While they’re looking at what I’m looking at, I might as well read it. See if I can find anything about-

“It looks like we’re going to have to delay your extraction.”

“Why’s that?”

“You have a new objective.”

“We’ve just learned through the information that you’ve gathered that your family is in the area. This is a golden opportunity to take out a high value target.”

“I…I don’t know about this. Are there any other agents in the area?”

“Yes, but they’re busy with their assignments. You aren’t feeling nervous about this, are you? Remember Matthew ten, thirty-seven.”

“Yes, I remember that. Send me their location.”

“Already sent. Remember that you can always try to convert them. May God give you the grace to make the right decision.”

“Right. I’m hoping that He’s giving me all the graces I need right now.”

I hoped that a situation like this wouldn’t happen, and it does. They’re a royal family that governs over a majority of who is in power and business in this galaxy. We thought they were underground in the deepest depths of this city planet, but it looks like they’ve emerged and gone back to our home. They were never really afraid of the Church nor facing her in the open even after we watched the Pope put planets in a Purgatorial state. If I still know how they are, they’ve reemerged with a plan though I do know that they’re going to regret it.

Going to the location of the castle fills me both with nostalgia and nervousness. It’s always been a wonder to me how a castle could be built upon the houses and buildings of many people as if the castle were the head of it all. To think that I used to criticize the pope for being overly pious when I used to live here. Remembering the secret ways I used to leave and get in, I go into the department store and into the women’s dressing room. Lifting the ceiling one of the dressing rooms reveals a crawlspace that I use to get to the basement of my house. If any part of this planet is going to be destroyed, I hope it's this part because of the shameful memories associated with it.

Speaking about shameful memories, I ring the bell downstairs to get one of the butlers to come downstairs.

“Hello? Is anyone there?” he says before I knock him out.

I could’ve got him talking longer since he knows me like how the other butlers and maids do, but I didn’t want him to raise any alarms. The voice sample my voice recorder got is okay, however, I can’t really talk to anyone since the voice will sound more like my own. After putting his body aside in the dark, tossing away my previous outfit when I should really burn it, and changing into a butler with a nearby butler’s outfit, I go upstairs. This place looks exactly like how I remember it. Right now, there’s a party going on with several members of my family walking around. Knowing all their weaknesses, I think of a plan then put it into action.

For my brother, I bump into him and spill a drink on his shirt. He chases after me in a rage. With his attention, I take him outside to the garden.

“You have no excuse not to hear me now! Apologize for what you did to me,” he says.

Disappearing into the shadows of the fruit trees, I go around him to lock the door then approach him from behind with my real face.

“Brother,” I say.

“Jules?! You traitor! What are you doing here?!”

“I’m-”

“Nevermind that! I don’t want to hear your filthy excuses!” he says as he attacks me with a knife from his back pocket.

I dodge his attack then stab him in the head to give him a quick and painless death. That was easier than I thought it was, which should scare me. It shouldn’t be this easy and emotionless to kill my brother and scan his face for a possible future use. I can’t just leave his body here, so I activate the decomposition function on my knife to drop some acid on him that melts his body. In a matter of seconds, his body will be nothing but an odorless puddle of water. To think that I had this whole plan laid out to talk to him about the times we played here in the garden to appeal to him to get him to convert. I’m such a fool. I hope you’ve gone to Heaven despite your great sins, brother.

Anyway, my next target is my dad. Switching back to the butler’s face, I go back to the party and find him talking to a bunch of politicians and businessmen. I listen to their conversation and take note of what they’re talking about and record their voices for later use. One of the businessmen walks away to the bathroom and I follow him there to knock him out. The good thing about him is that I only need to take his suit jacket and tie to look like him. It’s also fortunate he’s bald too so I don’t need to get a wig to wear on top of my mask. After switching to the businessman’s face and voice, I go back to my dad.

“Sir Nicodemus, I’d like to sign the terms to our arrangement,” I say to him.

“Ah, so you’ve come to your senses about it then.”

“Well, getting the alcohol out of me helped, haha! I can sign the papers now in your office.”

“Are you sure? I wouldn’t want to take so much from you during a party.”

“Think nothing of it. This is your party after all so consider it as a present in addition to my other ones.”

“You truly live up to your name as the most generous man in business, my friend.”

My dad and I get up and go to his office where he takes out the papers. I’m surprised that he still has pictures of me hanging up here after what I did.

“Is something the matter?”

Dang it. He must’ve noticed the expression on my face.

“No, nothing. Why do you have pictures of your son who betrayed you still hanging up? Isn’t he a traitor?”

“He’s nothing of the sort. People may talk horribly about him and his brother may have disowned him, but I still love him. I would tell him that too even if he still hates me.”

“I don’t hate you, dad,” I say as I change my face and voice back to mine.

“Jules?! How did you…oh nevermind,” he says before hugging me.

He genuinely seems elated to see me.

“You’re not mad that I’m here like this?”

“No, not at all! I don’t care what kind of things you did to get back here as long as you’re here. Come! Let’s bring you to your mother and brother! I’m sure they’ll be just as excited to see you!”

“No, no! I’m not here for a reunion. I’m here from the Church, the Ecclesia.”

“Huh?”

“I’m here to bring you home to the Church. Please repent and leave this place. I promise that they’ll be merciful to you as they were to me.”

“Jules…”

“I repented and they gave me this special job that mostly converts and reverts can do. I guarantee you that this is the right thing to do.”

“Jules, I can’t do that. I don’t believe that your Church is the true Church of God. That’s my decision and it’s final.”

My dad turns around and looks at the picture of our family as if knowing what I’m going to do, so I grant him it by giving him a quick death. As I scan his face, I see that he’s at peace so hopefully, he’s in Heaven. Out of everyone in the family, he’d probably be the most likely to go to Heaven. I’m almost hesitant to apply the acid to get rid of his body and almost miss. As I leave the room, I almost want to take the picture of my family on his desk, but I restrain myself and immediately leave the room. Okay, okay. Just one more.

My mom is in her room looking out at the city from her balcony. I knock on the door with a plate full of her favorite food and drink while having the butler’s face and voice.

She answers the door and says, “Hello, I didn’t order anything, but oh! You know my favorite, so I don’t mind taking it. You can leave it on the table by my dresser.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

I do as she says then silently lock the door as she goes back to the balcony. Alright, I might’ve not thought this through. The only thing I can do now is approach her, so I switch to my normal face and voice.

“Mom,” I say.

My mom turns around with a curious look on her face that instantly turns to shock when she sees that it’s me.

“Jules?!”

She does the same thing as dad did as she hugs me and talks about how good it is to see me and about reintroducing me back to the family.

“I’m not here for that, mom. I’m here to bring you home to the Church where you belong.”

“Jules, I belong here. I don’t belong to that demonic church and neither do you. I don’t even understand why you ran away to go there.”

“Because it’s the true Church of Jesus where the fullness of truth resides. You saw their might. You know how they keep coming back no matter what evil things we do to them. Open your eyes to what is happening and try telling me this isn’t God judging us for what we’ve done.”

“I see this as a test. You were supposed to be the heir and the leader of our revolution against those hypocrites.”

“Hypocrites? You are the hypocrites killing and doing underhanded deeds with criminals and corrupt businessmen and politicians for ‘the greater good’. You even dressed me up as a girl to get more approval for them and I don’t even want to remember everything else from there.”

“I was justified in doing what I did.”

“You justified yourself. You aren’t justified by God.”

“I’m not joining the Ecclesia no matter what you say, so you might as well leave or kill me.”

“Come on, mom. There’s another way. They’ll grant you mercy and convince you they-”

“I’m not going to do it.”

“…okay.”

I slowly take out my knife and hope that my mom turns around, so I don’t have to see her face as I kill her, but she doesn’t turn around. I do what I have to, scan her face, and decompose her body before contacting HQ.

“It’s uh. It’s done.”

“Thank you, Jules. Your extraction point is in the fire escape,” Jada says.

“Got it.”

As I leave, I cross myself then take the secret path to the fire escape through the door in my mom’s closet. There I find a ship ready to pick me up. Once I sit down in the ship and it takes off, I take off my mask and fix my hair.

“You alright, Jules? I heard what you had to do,” the pilot says.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just keep me in your prayers.”

“Always. There’s food and booze in the ship’s mini-refrigerator if you need it. Don’t touch the stuff marked with my name on it though.”

“Haha, thanks, but I’m good.”

On the way back home, I pray for the souls of my family, for the sinners like them who haven’t repented yet, and my fellow converts and reverts who have the same job I do because betraying the people you know for the right reasons isn’t as easy as it sounds.