A Fate Worse Than Death Read Online Free PDF

do.”
    Gabriel led me down the corridor to a small door, hidden just to the left of the stairs.
    “The residential quarters,” he explained. “Members of the public are not usually permitted in here.”
    He opened the door and walked through. I followed and then stopped, blinking in disbelief. For a moment, I thought that maybe the painkillers the doc had given me were messing with my head. I had never in my life seen anything like this before.
    We were in a huge hall that swept away as far as the eye could see. The ceiling was so high it could barely be glimpsed, gleaming far above my head. The walls were adorned with paintings and tapestries that could only have been the work of grand masters. The massive columns that supported the roof were embellished with carvings of amazing intricacy and studded with diamonds and other jewels. To create this place, God must have gathered every great artist that had ever lived for the past three thousand years and then let them loose.
    I followed Gabriel through the hall, passing marvels of art that would have made a museum curator feel like a stamp collector. My eyes were popping out like a cartoon mouse’s, and my mouth was hanging so far open that my jaw was dragging along the ground. Finally, Gabriel produced a key and unlocked a door. I crossed the threshold, holding my breath in anticipation of what new wonders would greet me.
    It was a room, a bed, a desk. No gold or silver. No jewels or sculptures. Just a simple, basic room with timber shelves, a worn old carpet, and a patterned cotton sheet on the bed. After the magnificence of the hall, this was a major letdown. I turned to Gabriel.
    “Why so plain?”
    “The Master felt it was important to give His children as normal an upbringing as possible. He always said that just because they were the sons of God, that was no reason to spoil them.”
    “Your boss is a clever fellow.”
    “Infinitely so.” Gabriel lifted an arm and began fiddling with the sleeve.
    I took the hint and began to examine the room more closely. There was an overpowering sense of neatness to it. The bed was neatly made. The desk had a couple of pens and a notepad neatly arranged on it, while the shelves above were neatly packed with books and ornaments. I opened the closet to see a neatly organised assortment of clothes on one side, and a tennis racquet and some balls neatly placed on the other. If being neat was an Olympic sport, this Phil would be up on the podium brandishing a gold medal.
    I closed the closet and walked across the room to inspect the desk. The notepad had a series of mathematical calculations written on the first three pages. The books arranged on the shelves above had titles like Introduction to Elementary Accounting and Learning Balance Sheets the Fun Way .
    “What’s with the books?” I asked.
    Gabriel reluctantly looked up from his sleeve adjusting. “Master Phil is a keen student of the financial sciences.”
    A “student of the financial sciences” seemed like a pretty fancy name for a bean counter. I had a lot of names for my accountant, but none of them sounded as nice as that.
    I scanned the shelves further and, at last, my eyes alit on something out of the ordinary. Amongst the ornaments displayed was a group of items that seemed completely out of place in the room: a long hunting knife, a deadly-looking spear, a collection of fearsome native carvings. Was it possible that underneath the neatness and the number crunching, this fine young gentleman did have a darker side? I picked up one of the carvings.
    “What’s a nice boy like Phil doing with a nasty thing like this?”
    “A gift from Master Jesus. He travels a lot, often to quite exotic places. He always brings back the most remarkable things.”
    So much for that idea. I put the carving back.
    “Do you see what I mean, Mr Clarenden?” Gabriel’s voice somehow managed to convey a mix of both triumph and complete indifference.
    I nodded. It seemed Gabriel was