Vatican Assassin (18 page)

“You want my help? How can I help you? And why the fuck should I?”

“You don’t know. You’ve been in here this whole time. Those of us who spend our time with The Light, we’ve been seeing him... change. Sometimes He’s not himself. Not like He used to be. He’s been sick. He has mood swings, sudden shifts in his attitudes and behavior. It’s been happening a lot lately. Your arrival seems to have driven him over the edge.

“You’ve seen him, the way he’s been with you. He was going to kill you after you first woke up today, that was his plan. Then he felt, I don’t know, sorry or something, because he knows too well who you are. Do you know He’s done nothing but talk about you this whole time you’ve been in here? He’s spent hours watching you on the monitors, talking to us about your killings, the mockery of your rise to the priesthood. He’s obsessed with you. He told me he wants to kill you but he can’t,” Kim says, disgusted. “God won’t let Him, He says. He says you’re a test. His test. I think He thinks you’re his final test before He dies, and if He fails He won’t end up at God’s side.”

“So, because He’s not Himself, He may want to believe me... but you wish I was dead. What, you want me to kill myself? Is that how I can help you?”

“No. I want you to help me kill Him.”

Holy Shit, indeed! Out of left fucking field!

“What?”

Kim can’t speak at first. He looks like he can’t believe he’s just said what he just said. “I want you to help me remove Him. There. Now do you believe me?” Kim holds up the black cube, “I’d never say something like that unless I was sure no one could hear us.”

“I can’t believe you just said that.
You
want to kill Him?”

“I don’t want to. I have to. You know what he said about religious leaders dying young? Maybe they have to. Maybe it stops working after a while. You do it for too long you begin to think of yourself as above everyone else, special, being tested personally by God, eh? Then you’re no longer the great religious leader. See what I mean?”

“Not quite.”

“Look, Campion, so far I’m the only one who sees The Light declining like this. If He can go out now in a blaze of Holy Glory, he’ll be a martyr and his legend will be preserved, everything he built here will be preserved.

“But if I let His decline continue, let Him visibly deteriorate in front of everyone, we’ll lose it all, the whole thing. The dream will die with Him, because He’s too tied into it!

“We need to set Him free, to set the dream free from him, the way it was set free when Jesus died. He, too, shall rise, just as Christ did. We’ll make sure of it.”

“You keep saying ‘we’...”

“I need your help.”

“But why me? And how? My base of power ain’t what it used to be.”

“There’s another reason you should help me. Do you feel clearer headed lately?”

“What do you mean?”

“I stopped the drugs they were feeding you about a week ago. They were keeping you pretty high. I need you clear headed and clean for this to work. And I thought you might appreciate it.”

Now THAT’S interesting, considering that last hallucination... Is he lying? What is he up
to? What is he setting me up for?
”

BC asks, “For what to work? You’re not being too clear.”

“I have a plan.”

God save me from the plans of short, overly ambitious, bald men.

“Of course. A plan. Wonderful.”

“The Light has been speaking of you as his test from God, as I said. Now, He’s speaking of you as a test He has passed.

“I’m here, officially, anyway, to ask you to eat with us tonight. You are His great conversion, you see. A brilliant accomplishment of the True Will of God and the Glory of His Son, Jesus Christ. And He seems to really believe this! I have... encouraged this. I know you still want Him dead, but I’ve said nothing of the kind to Him. To Him, I speak well of you. Very well. Extremely Well,” Kim says, and almost chokes,

“it disgusts me. ”

“I still don’t know why you want my help. Or how I can help.”

“You are the center of His universe right now. He stands at the center of our world, and so, then, do you, for now. This places you where I can use you.”

“Use me how?”

This should be good...

“What do you see when you look at me, Campion? I know. Short, bald, ambitious... am I right?”

That hits it just about right...

“Sure.”

“What you don’t see is a charismatic leader. I’m just not the type. Don’t look it, can’t act it. I know it, and I can live with that. But this place, this group needs a charismatic leader to keep it together. I think you could pull it off.”

“What? I’m not charismatic! I’m no celebrity. I’ve never even been big on public speaking... ”

“You underestimate yourself, Campion. I want you to be the leader I can’t be, Campion.

“Don’t misunderstand me, you won’t really be in charge,” Kim laughs, “Ha! You wouldn’t want to be, trust me. You’ll be the figurehead, while I run the place. As you may have guessed, I already run the place, while The Light’s followers bask in His radiance. I can’t let that Light sputter out. If He’s quickly extinguished, legends can be born, but if he rots on the throne we are doomed. I must act to guarantee our very survival. When we take out The Light, someone has to step in and fill the void. That can be you.”

“Not me. No way. Who’d believe it?”

“They will. We’ll make them believe it. Trust me, The Light himself has already built you up into something larger than life: His nemesis, His test, His great new success!

“I’ll help you get in even closer with The Light, close enough so He trusts you. If you can act the part of the newly converted fanatic, I can convince The Light you’ve come at the ordained time to follow him. In His eyes, I’ll make you the son He never had. We’ll make your choice as His successor inevitable. Then, when the time is right, we’ll make sure you’re in a situation where no one can suspect you of anything, and I’ll administer a poison I found among your things which I believe will kill Him as if from a heart attack. You’ll then resist my attempts to elevate you, thereby ensuring your success as the rest demand you lead us.”

“That’s your plan? This is fucking crazy. You know that don’t you?”

We don’t have a fucking snowball’s chance in hell of making this work.

“No, it really isn’t. This will work. I have a few others who will support me as I support you. I’ve just been waiting for the right time, the right ally to make this work. You’re it. There’s only one problem.”

“Here it comes. I knew it, there’s always a prob...”

“We have to do this in the next two weeks.”

“Two weeks? Two fucking weeks!”

Oh my God this guy really is fucking crazy. They all are here. Two weeks?

“
Maybe two months, maybe, but two... You are crazy. No way. And why? Why would you do this, make me the boss?”

“Because I can’t be, like I said. The others won’t follow me. But they will follow you. And, on top of that, you have a life to go back to off this station.

“You see, Campion, I’m not asking you to stay here. Just the opposite. I’m asking you to go. Go back to your life. Leave us alone here. You’ll be The Light in absentia, spreading the word to the rest of the world. So you’ll need someone to run the station in your place while you’re gone.”

“You.”

“Me. I can’t be the ‘leader’ of this group. But I can lead them. I do now, really. I keep this place running, Campion. Do you think He has any idea how to maintain a space station?”

“I don’t...”

“Not a clue, I assure you. He doesn’t have to. He has me, why should He? With you, I’ll have your reflected power and your stature as a figurehead to use as I see fit. If I need you to come back for some reason, I’ll get in touch and you can return. I can’t see you having to come back here too often. It will be a perfect arrangement.

“We had better be going. But think about this as we eat. Watch His behavior. You’ll see what I mean. For all his anger and fear of you, Campion, He has a grudging admiration for you. He admires your scrappiness, He told me so, in private.”

There is a pounding on the door. The Light yells on the other side.

“Kim! Are you okay?”

Kim turns around and opens the door.

“I’m fine, sir.”

“The control for the room is missing!”

“I have it. Here,” Kim gives it to Him. “I used it to turn on his lights.”

“You locked the door, too. I thought Campion here might have gotten you, somehow. I want to believe you’ve changed, Mr. Campion, but I still have my doubts, it seems. Well, let’s forget about it and head for the table, huh? It’s time to eat!”

Dinner is again at the big table BC sat at before… only this time he’s not tied down! They even sit him down closer to The Light at the table, at The Light’s request. Another plentiful meal is spread out before him.

“I can’t believe the food! It’s so good.”

“The Lord provides, Campion. We have hydroponic gardens that Father Kim manages to keep running. We get a lot of our vegetables that way. And there’s a supply ship that comes each quarter. We still have friends on Earth. They make sure we stay fed, keep us alive up here. You just missed the last ship, came just before you arrived. Next one comes in about two weeks.”

Ah... that explains Kim’s deadline. But, shit! I’ve been here almost three months! They had
to have kept me doped up for a while. They’ve seriously fucked with my time sense. Well, I’m on
that ship when it leaves here. That’s
my
plan. But first I eat!

This time at The Light’s table, BC lets himself enjoy the meal, even overindulging a bit. Stuffed to the gills on his first full meal in weeks, he’s almost falling asleep when The Light begins to talk to him after dinner.

“Kim tells me you want to remain in that tiny room even after your penance.”

I do? He does? Sure...

“Yeah. I figure it reminds me of where I’ve been, where I come from, and what I need to aspire to. I’m used to it, too, I guess.”

“You don’t have to stay there, but I admire your ethic, Campion. You surprise me. You have more discipline than I thought.” The Light laughs. “Maybe there’s hope for you yet!”

“Um, thanks.”

“You’ve come a long way already, Mr. Campion. And you’ve still got a spine.”

“What?”

“I can see it. You’ve still got backbone, Campion. So many of these sheep are just that. Sheep!

They can’t think for themselves anymore. Followers. They always will be. You’re not like them, are you?”

“I’m not? I’d like to think I’m not... but I was following the Pope’s orders...”

“Yes, but you stopped. You did not do what was obviously wrong. You confessed, recanted. You’ve seen the error of your ways, as they say. Yet, there is still steel in you, Campion. I’ve decided something, right here and now. I think you could be one of my priests.”

Where’d that come from?
One of Kim’s seeds springing to life?

“I can see you’re surprised. Good! Father Kim pointed out how far you’ve progressed, and how much more priestly you are now than when you arrived pretending to BE a priest! Just your attitude about your room reminds me of a monk and his cell. You could be a priest, Campion.”

“I thought I was one.”

“Ah, but now, you can be a real one. One of mine! Do you want to be?”

“Yes, I’d like that. If you’ll have me.”

Kim must have been working on Him. This is too easy. It could all be a setup. But The
Light seems to be for real in His unreality.

“We shall have you ordained next Sunday! I know it’s soon, but I see no reason to delay. Never know how much time we have left, do we, any of us, eh? You’ll have some studying to do first, but we’ll grant that your former status in the NcC gives you a leg up, how’s that?”

“That’s fine. Thank you, sir.”

“Yes, you’re coming along just fine, Campion. Just fine. Father Kim will instruct you this week in what you’ll need for Sunday. Yes, let’s do that. This test... Hmm, well, excuse me. I forgot... I’m, uh, I’m going to bed now. It’s been quite a day! Sleep well, Campion. Welcome to The Body of Christ!” The Light says, spreading his arms as He stands, encompassing the table, the people, the entire room with his gesture. Then He turns and leaves.

Grand exit. Guy likes his drama. Glad I can play a role. Didn’t know I was gonna be one
of the stars, though....

Kim comes to his room early the next day.

“You’ll have to come with me for breakfast. Now that you’re no longer a prisoner you no longer get room service, either.”

“I’ll take the trade off, thank you very much. So, where do we go for breakfast?”

“Follow me.”

Over the course of his first week free, Kim shows BC around the station. They are only using this toroid, as Kim calls it. The other toroid is for current storage and future expansion. BC learns where the galley is, the throne room, The Light’s quarters, the main dining room, and everything’s relation to his room and the bathrooms. He learns his way around.

His daily sessions with Kim prep him to say the right things to The Light at dinner each night, to strengthen the growing bond The Light feels with BC. Father Kim also coaches him on what to say on Sunday. His ordination.

I’ve never really been ordained. Not like this. My first ordination came in the mail! My
second was a sort of ecumenical group thing. Maybe third time’s the charm. Or maybe I’ll finally
be damned for good. How much of this crap can I pretend to really believe? At least there’s not
much chance of lightning striking me down on a space station...
The rest of the week and Sunday go by fast. The ordination itself is a ritualistic, kneel, stand, sit, lie prone, chant sort of blur as BC recites his lines, plays his part, and accepts a sash around his neck symbolizing the Church as The Light declares, “Welcome to The Body of Christ, Father Bernard Campion!”

The rest of His followers crowd in around BC, laying their hands on him, welcoming him.
This is so fucked up. I hope you know what you’re doing, Kim.