7
As per usual, Luther Brady had awakened early and driven in from the hills. He'd started the day with a slight headache—not unexpected after a night of carousing—but that was gone now. And as always after a bout with the boys, he felt rejuvenated. Give him the right playmates and he'd never need Viagra.
He liked to arrive before seven, when the temple was relatively deserted, and slip up to his quarters.
But this morning he found chaos—flashing police cars and ambulances outside, bustling cops and EMTs within.
One of the TPs recognized him and came rushing up.
"Mr. Brady! Mr. Brady! Oh, thank Noomri you're here! It's terrible! Just terrible!"
"What's happened?"
"It's GP Jensen—he's dead!"
Shock passed through him like a cold front. Jensen? Dead? He'd been Luther's most valuable asset—loyal to the Opus, fearless and relentless in pursuing its completion. What would he do without him?
"How?"
"An accident. He fell down the elevator shaft. It was awful! TP Cruz found him. His head… his head had smashed through the top of one of the elevator cars!"
An accident…
Already Luther could feel a small sense of relief tempering the shock, a slight loosening of his tightened muscles. For a moment there, and he couldn't say exactly why, he'd feared that Jensen had been murdered. Bad enough that he'd lost his right-hand man, but a murder… that would cause a storm in the media. An accident, however… well, that was a nonstory. Accidents can happen anywhere, to anyone, at any time. No reason the Dor-mentalist temple should be expected to be any different.
"This is terrible," Luther said. "This is tragic. I must get to my quarters to commune with my xelton."
"The police may want to talk to you."
"I'll speak to them in a little while. Right now I'm too upset."
Too true. He'd invested a lot of time, money, and effort in Jensen. He'd been one of a kind. How was he going to replace him? Worse, this was going to set back the Opus Omega timetable.
Damn it to hell! Just when the end was in sight.
He'd worry about a replacement later. Right now he had to get Vida working on a press release, and have her prepare some public remarks about what a kind, gentle, wonderful man Jensen was.
Oh, yes. And he needed her to look up Jensen's first name. He should know the first name of the man he'd be publicly mourning.