Vatican Assassin (19 page)

After the ceremony comes another lavish dinner. The meal is sumptuous, even though BC heard Kim complain earlier that their supplies were dwindling and the supply ship couldn’t come soon enough. Throughout dinner BC keeps up his happy front, while inside feeling hollow and phony.
Something has changed. I used to be able to play these kind of games without feeling
anything. Why should I feel bad about deceiving these people now?

When he gets up from the table after dinner, one of the younger women approaches him. She has long brown hair, and eastern, almost elfin features; large almond eyes, a petite nose, a small, red blossom of lips. When she speaks her voice sounds warm and fluid, flowing and kind.

“Father?”

“Yes?”

“Do you have anyone to share your bed with you?”

“Ah, no. No I don’t.”

“I could join you, to help you celebrate your new oneness with us, if you’d like.”

“I’d like, but I can’t. Not tonight. I need to meditate on today, my sister. Thank you for your love offering, my dear.”

The woman smiles wisely at him, “Perhaps some other time, Father.”

“Perhaps. Goodnight... what was your name, sister?”

“Ruth, Father. Goodnight.” She turns and walks away, turned down but not rejected. She looks back at him once before she leaves the room entirely.

So that’s how it is here. Membership has its privileges!
I could get used to this. Maybe I
won’t leave. But then Kim would probably kill me himself!

The Light approaches from across the room.

“Father, I’m surprised you pass up Ruth’s charms!” The Light upbraids him with a laugh, “I should tell you, she doesn’t offer them up often or to just anyone. You’re a lucky man! One shouldn’t refuse one of God’s gifts when it is so freely offered...”

“I need to think tonight, to take this all in. I’m sort of overwhelmed right now.”

“I see. Well, have it your way, Campion.
Father
Campion! Goodnight.”

“Goodnight, sir.”

“Oh, and one more thing,” The Light says, reaching into his pocket, “here!” He hands BC the little black plastic control cube for his room. “It might even change your decision about Ruth. No one will be watching you now. That’s yours. Sleep well.”

BC looks at the cube. “Thank you.”

The Light smiles at him, then he turns and leaves the room, leaving BC by himself in the dining room. BC pockets the cube, leaves the dining hall, and finds his way back to his room.
My closet. Home Sweet Home. Kim must have gotten The Light to give me that cube.
That’s why he wanted me to stay in this closet. So he and I could meet and talk without anyone
eavesdropping. Stuck in this cell. Just another week or so. Three months! Wonder if anyone misses
me?

“Governor Edwards?”

“Yes, Cardinal?”

“Yes, governor, well, the, um, The Pope has asked me to convey his regrets, but he can’t...”

“Look, Cardinal, no offense, but the man is ducking my calls! I’ve gone through the proper channels, made the proper requests... It’s been over a month since I made the request! I’m the head of Lunar Free State, Goddammit! Sorry, Cardinal.”

“Apology accepted. Governor Edwards, you’ve got to understand, His Holy Father is a very busy man...”

“Good-bye, Cardinal. You tell his royal holiness to look me up when he gets a free moment or two, won’t you?”

Edwards slaps off the com, scowling.

“Betcha they’ve already written BC off,” he says to himself. “Maybe I should, too.”

BC wakes with his arms around Ruth.

Oh yeah.

She’d been persistent. After her third night asking, BC gave in.

She was wonderful!

BC stares at her. Her long brown hair drapes down the middle of her back. He thinks of those almond colored eyes, sharp and penetrating. He breathes her scent in as they lie entangled together. She smells of cinnamon and vanilla.

Pounding on his door shatters his reverie. Kim opens the door and stands there, eyes wide.

“Father,” Ruth says.

“Daughter,” Kim replies.

“Daughter? What, for real, daughter?” BC stammers. Kim nods. Ruth kisses BC on the cheek, wraps herself in her clothes and runs out past Kim. He comes in closing the door behind him.

“It is done.”

“Done?”

“I did not think you’d refuse my daughter so many times. She is a good daughter.”

“Ruth is your daughter? You didn’t tell me that. What is done?”

“The Light. While my daughter gave you your alibi, I did the deed. He is dead. Come, quickly, we’ve got to join the others.” Kim opens the door and speaks in a deliberately loud voice. “Mary found him this morning. It looks like His heart.”

Kim leads BC to the throne room. When BC enters, he sees the throne has been removed. In its place is the dinner table, cleared, draped with a black cloth, the body of The Light lying in state upon it. Followers are spread around the body, lying face down on the floor, crying, and lamenting the loss of The Light.

My job is done! Remote killing. I can’t believe Kim did it!

Kim gestures for him to approach the body. BC does, kneeling down before the table. Suddenly, The Light sits up! Bolt upright, eyes wide open. His mouth opens, but no sound comes out. He moves his mouth, as if to try to speak, but still there’s no sound. He falls back upon the table, his arms fall to the sides and his right hand hits BC full in the face, as BC

pulls back away from the table.

BC falls to the side, trying to catch himself as he crashes from his kneeling position to the floor. The room is full of gasps and murmurs. Father Kim gets up from beside BC and looks down at him in feigned amazement.

“A sign! The Light’s last breath and he blesses Father Campion! What could it mean?”

BC looks up in true amazement at Kim. The crowd is already pointing at him, talking about him, as he gets back up on his knees.

“The Light blessed him!”

“Blessed by the light!”

“Father Campion is chosen by The Light!”

That was Ruth.

Daddy’s little girl does her work well. She didn’t seem to be doing it for Daddy last night,
though. At least, I thought it was all for real. Never trust a woman, BC, you know better than
that!

She sees him looking at her and smiles.

Well, that’s real. Sweet girl. I like her. Won’t trust her. Not too sure about the family...
Kim is addressing the crowd. “I believe we have just seen something miraculous! The Light was already gone, his body lying dead upon the table, when suddenly he rises as Father Campion approached him! He has anointed for us a New Light!”

Oh, man, he’s reaching! This is too much, too soon...

Gasps and murmurs again fill the crowd.

It’s clear not all are buying what Father Kim is selling.

“He’s not one of us!” somebody shouts.

Kim turns to the voice. “The Light himself accepted him, heard his confession, took him in and anointed him priest! What more does he need to do to become one of us? Will you turn away from The Light so soon after He’s left us. This is fortuitous! The Light must have known something! He didn’t kill Father Campion, but took him in. He took him on as a test, a project. He groomed him! Father Campion’s arrival, conversion and his joining us as The Light leaves us is God’s Will at work!”

BC knows what he has to do.

“Father Kim, I’m sorry, this is very flattering, but I can’t accept what you’re saying. There’s no way I’m a New Light. These people need someone like you to lead them.”

Kim rests a hand on his shoulder. “The Lord puts us all in the right place at the right time, Father. Who are we to question His plan? You are here, now, because we need you to be here! You are The New Light!”

“I don’t know, Father Kim, this is all so sudden, so overwhelming. I can’t think the Lord means for me to be the New Light...”

“I can help you, Father Campion. The signs are clear to me. Does anyone else see what I see?”

“I see!”

There are more answers from the people.

“Yes, Father Kim, I see. He is blessed by The Light!”

“There are signs. He is the New Light!”

“The Light Blessed him from beyond the grave.”

“I see. He is the New Light!”

This is too bizarre...

BC gets to his feet on the dais, in front of the table on which lies the body of The Light. He looks out over the crowd. Kim is on his left, egging on the followers, “The New Light!” Kim proclaims, opening his arms to BC, presenting him. “The New Light!” Ruth says, as she looks up at him from the crowd, a smirk curling up the corners of her mouth.

I like that mouth. Maybe I’ll just look at those lips for a while. Need to focus on
something
right now. This is surreal. What am I supposed to do now?

Ruth nudges two women, one on each side of her, and the three approach BC. They kneel at his feet. More of the congregation rises to join him on the dais. Hands begin to reach out for him, to touch him. He feels Ruth’s arm snake around him, and the arm of one of her friends on the other side, as they kneel beside him. More of the crowd gets up, gathering around him, touching him. Kim is smiling at him. Finally, he smiles back at Kim.

You bastard. Memo to self: remind me never to fuck with him. His daughter, yes, him, no.
Yeah, I’m The Light, all right. Let’s see...

“I will try to serve you well, my bothers and sisters. I don’t know that I can be what you want me to be.”

“You already are,” someone he doesn’t know says. He can feel their love like a palpable thing as it pours off them.

I feel dirty. Could you have picked someone more unworthy? This is nice, but so wrong...
Even his jagged, hardened cynicism begins to melt as they continue to gaze at him with full attention.

What can I say?

“I can’t tell you all how much I love all of you, right now. You’re all incredible!”

Not lies. Just not the truth they think they heard.

“It doesn’t matter what you’ll have me do. I can’t thank you enough for even just letting me be a part of you. Thank you.”

One of the women looking up at him smiles and says, “You do shine brightly, Father Campion. You do, whether you know it or not.”

BC manages to disentangle himself from the middle of the love-in and looks around for Kim, who has somehow managed to disappear. BC sees Kim’s bald dome flash around a corner in front of him over towards Kim’s rooms. He follows and knocks on the door to Kim’s room.

“Come in, Campion.”

The door opens. BC enters. Father Kim is inside taking off his outer robe. BC waits until the door closes behind him to speak.

“You poured it on pretty thick back there, didn’t you?”

“You weren’t helping your cause much. Your protests weren’t even all that convincing! I wouldn’t have believed you, ‘oh, no, don’t pick me.’ I had to provide the drama. These people are used to it!”

“How’d you get the body to sit up like that? And his hand to hit me? Felt more like a slap than a blessing, though.”

“I didn’t do anything. That just happened. I thought I’d use it, improvise.”

BC gets a serious chill and shakes it off.

“Spooky, isn’t it, Campion?”

“That was weird. I felt better when I thought you had done it.”

“I thought he was long dead. I used the dropdead so it would look like a heart attack. He was already cold.”

“Wow. That’s even freakier... So. What now, then?”

“The supply ship arrives in two days, we got their confirmation this morning. They’re en route. They’ll take you back to the Moon when they return, and I’ll take care of things here, as we agreed.”

“Trying to get rid of me so soon? Don’t you want to bask in the New Light?”

“Look, we agreed. I help you, you help me. I can run this place a lot more effectively with you as an absentee Holy Father.”

“I’m glad I fit your plan. Mine wasn’t working so well.”

“You were the right man at the right time, Father. Most of what I said was true, just
enhanced
,”

Kim says. “The two before you were slower, not as sharp. I couldn’t use them. Look, there’s one more thing you have to do.. You have to officiate at The Light’s funeral before you leave. Do you have any clue what to do?”

“No.”

“More lessons, then. We’ll hold the Funeral Mass at 10 am tomorrow. That gives us plenty of time to teach you the Catholic Funeral Mass.”

“Can’t wait.”

BC feels as filled in and informed as he can be when he prepares to say the mass the next morning. Kim has been grilling him on what to do when, what comes first, next, last. They’ve been going over just what BC has to know since the early morning hours.

“You have to win them over with this. There are still many doubts, despite my assurances and the love you felt last night. Your sermon is of vital importance. Do not falter,” Kim tells him as they prepare for the service the next morning.

“Gotcha.”

The mass goes as it should, smoothly, up to the sermon. BC gets his chance to address the congregation. He walks across the dais to the podium, clears his throat, looks out across The Light’s followers, and then begins.

“I came among you as an outsider, and still, you took me in. I came among you as a sinner, and still, you took me in. I came among you as a killer, and still, you took me in. Where I sowed hatred, you reaped love. How did you do it? How did you save a wretched soul like mine? I can only say, I have seen The Light! The Light,” BC gestures at the open casket before him, “showed me so much, showed me the error of my ways, and showed me the infinite patience, and the infinite love...” BC pauses for effect “...of God Himself, of our Lord Jesus. He taught me what it was to truly follow our Lord.”

If I had a shovel, I’d shovel in the morning...

“My only regret is that I could not spend more time with Him! If I had only seen my error, the fault in my ways, sooner! He had so much yet to teach. I have so much yet to learn. We all are left now without The Light to shine and lead the way, and we could get lost. I know Father Kim thinks I’m The New Light, but I don’t know... I’ll try to shine. I tell you there is light within each of us, the Light of Christ, and it’s there for each of us to find. We need to shine for each other. We need to shine for ourselves. We need to see that the Light is not dead, no! The Light is alive, inside of each and every one of us! We just gotta let it shine. We need to help each other shine now, especially, for it will seem dark now that we have lost The Light.