The Relic Keeper Read Free

inmates snoring and talking in hushed voices of miracles and the next life. His mind raced through the muddled gauzy haze that sometimes descended over him, making the world seem soft and uncertain. As many souls as possible needed to be saved, Deon knew that, but with so little time it seemed a risk to send Aaron out into the world recruiting. His trips often lasted weeks, yet if he were not back in time the world would end with Aaron in some unholy place. They all had to be at Unit when it happened; yet here was Caroline jeopardising one of her Prophets’ very soul. The more he thought of it, the more it unsettled him, although he dared not mention it to Caroline, who was not one to be questioned. He would make it his task for tomorrow to find out what job Aaron was engaged on, and if it seemed too dangerous for the time allowed, he would suggest to Caroline that she call him back. This, he said to himself, was not to satisfy his curiosity, but to aid the salvation of a colleague, and he concentrated on this as he fell into an uneasy sleep.

3
    Rei walked slowly and purposefully along the ward to room 133. She glanced at the medipac she held as she moved past the corridors and private rooms that spun off in every direction like the wings of a vast eighteenth century country estate. Her heels clicked loudly in the gloomy emptiness of the building; drowned out only by the hiss of the rain on the windows. That sound always annoyed her. There really was no need for glass windows in this day and age, she would say to herself, although she knew that it was money, and not technology, that forced the clinic to be housed in a building over one hundred years old, full of idiosyncrasies and the ‘mod-cons’ of the twentieth century. Back at home in Tsukuba, of course, all the buildings of this type and age had been demolished years ago. Perhaps she was getting a little homesick, or maybe she was just worried about this task. Perhaps it was getting near the time to return home.
    She scrolled down the medipac, flicking through pages that hovered in front of her. Maybe something had been missed, and in these final few minutes she would spot it. But she knew that this wasn't going to happen. All the tests were run, all the findings analysed, and all the options exhausted. Sometimes, she thought, there was only one answer to a problem, and whether you liked it or not, events could dictate to people. She hesitated outside room 133, thought about her opening line, and looked in.
    Adrian and Bethany looked tired, even in the soft artificial light of the private room. George was playing with some small square boxes that beeped and lit-up periodically in what appeared to be a random sequence, although the automated voice emitting from the base implied that George fully understood the rules to this game. Rei switched off the medipac and entered.
    “Adrian, Bethany, may I speak with you a moment?” asked Rei politely, carefully hiding the sensation that her heart was leaping somewhere in the back of her throat. They followed her out of the room as George played quietly. The couple stood in front of Rei expectantly, his arm around her shoulders as if they were new lovers out for a quiet walk. They said nothing, but waited for Rei to initiate the conversation. Adrian raised his eyebrows slightly and Rei knew that she had to begin.
    “We have had the last of the test results back. George has been responding fine to the drugs that we've been administering, but his body is refusing the organs that were transplanted, and to be perfectly honest, we currently have no idea why.”
    “So that means what exactly?! Another set of transplants? More operations? Do you know how many operations George has had for this organ failure? He's six years old!”
    “I know,” replied Rei. “But there is still only so much that we can do. For some reason, George’s body has persistently refused the artificial organs that we have inserted, and there seems to be