Heiser-The-Facade - Sparkling Eyes

major's own override card. It too failed to open the door."All the override cards must have been rendered inoperable," Father Benedictsaid, rising from the floor. "That only leaves us with one course of action. Get going,Malcolm. There's still time to get Deidre out of here.""Goodbye," he said shaking Brian's hand. "May God be with you." He grinnedplayfully at Melissa, who hugged him in return. "Thanks, Malcolm.""Figures," he said to Brian as he broke the embrace. "She hugs me now that I'm apriest.""Be careful," Brian cautioned."I always am. Till next time," he added, and departed."Come here, both of you," Father Benedict insisted with a tone of urgency. "We'llhave to use the major's ID card. The Colonel doesn't know he's dead, so we should beable to buy some time with a Group member's ID. Unfortunately," he noted, removing aretractable knife from his pocket, "there's at least one entryway we can't negotiate withouta required retina and palm scan.""I hope you're not thinking about what I think you're thinking about," Brian said,his stomach churning."What would that be?" the priest asked casually."You're not going to take his eye out and cut off his hand are you?""No of course not. You are," he announced, handing Brian his knife."No way," Brian excused himself and backed away. "I'll never make it withoutthrowing up, and why should I do it?""Assuming you get out of here, I'll be left alone. I can't have any of this traced tome. You need to do it for the same reason you need to carry my gun," he explained, andhanded that to Brian as well."We could take Greg's gun," Melissa interjected."No ... ," Andrew said thoughtfully, "it has to be mine .. . you'll understand whenwe get off the base.""But then my prints will be on a murder weapon!" Brian pro-tested."Exactly. If they were mine, my cover would be blown. Now take my gun; there'sno other way."Brian reluctantly took the priest's pistol, but refused the knife once more."I'm serious, Andrew. I don't have the stomach for it.""Give me the knife," Melissa said in a resigned tone. The priest obliged. "NothingI wouldn't have had to do in medical school," she deadpanned, kneeling beside thecorpse."It's the right eye and right palm," Father Benedict instructed."Get me something to carry these in . . . a towel maybe," she requested. Briancomplied hurriedly as Melissa grabbed the cadaver's forearm and began the ghoulish task.He returned just in time to see the point of the knife flick the eyeball out of its socket. Hethrew the towel at the priest's feet and turned away, fighting his gag reflex."Leave a little of the optic nerve so we'll have a way to hold it up to the scanner,"Andrew said passively, watching Melissa's progress carefully. "Just pull the eyeball outanother inch, and ...""Father ...""Yes.""Add anything else and I'm going to lose my lunch."316