Chapter 30

Arlington, Texas – Sunday, March 30, 2064

The chapel of the Christ’s Golden Chalice Church was a large room; it would seat over 25,000 souls at the CGCC’s weekly televised and comm’d services. These days, the population of the audience – sorry, the congregation – was only a quarter of that. They would be crammed into the front pews and the camera showed what looked like a packed house.

At 1000 hours, local time, the area behind the central podium – in other churches it would be called a pulpit – was filled by three ranks of the Golden Chalice Choir, 39 white people in deep purple robes. A guitarist, drummer, and organist were on the left side of the choir. While the opening credits of the ‘Golden Chalice Hour of Christian Worship’ were running, and the Right Reverend Tommie LaPaige was striding toward the podium, a white-robed young woman appeared above the podium and off to the right. Her steel-toed boots were about four feet above the ground, as she waited for the silver-haired and somewhat overweight LaPaige to meet her.

LaPaige made a motion to stop the broadcast, and the lights on the TV/comm cameras went out, indicating they were no longer live. But the cameras continued to broadcast the goings-on there – Io just turned off the ‘on’ red lights on the cameras. They stayed focused on Armis and LaPaige, as they were before LaPaige’s gesture.

The choir stopped singing. A buzz went through the crowd.

LaPaige: “Miss Armis, what are you doing here? You are interrupting a sacrosanct service dedicated to the worship of our Lord, Jesus Christ.”

Armis: “Just Armis, if you please. And the sign outside the church says ‘All Are Welcome.’ I am among the ‘All’.”

LaP: “You are interrupting.”

A: “I wanted to talk to you and your congregation about the future of your church.”

LaP: “The First Amendment guarantees that our Church will continue.”

A: “Actually it guarantees that anyone may worship as they please, but I’m not here to dispute your right to worship here. You assume that discussing the future of your church means abolishing your church. I made no such implication.”

LaP: “Well, that’s all to the good. Shall we continue this discussion in my office?”

A: “Are you afraid of having a discussion in public?”

LaP: “No, of course not. All the people in this holy congregation share the decision-making of the Lord’s Church.”

A: “Oh, good. Last year, this church took in more than 90 million dollars but it gave about 1.5 million to charitable projects. What happened to the other 88.5 million dollars?”

LaP: “What? Where did you get your numbers?”

A: “From your own records. Here is your own laptop, with the numbers.”

She showed the laptop she had carried in with her. The crowd-buzz got louder.

LaP: “This is preposterous. You can’t do that ... if – and I say IF – that is really my church’s computer.”

A: “Oh, so it’s your church now?”

LaP: “Of course not. It’s the people’s church.”

A: “So what did you do with all the money? I see you got a new BMW this year. And I note that your personal salary is over 2.25 million dollars. You wife is on the payroll for over 1 million – she’s the choir directress, is she not?”

LaP: “I will not discuss anyone’s personal salary with you, missy.”

A: “And what about this string of attractive blondes that have been your secretaries over the past decade? I have all their names right here: there were seven in all. The one before the current one had a child that looks a lot like you. Does your wife know about the string of girl friends?”

LaP: “That’s it! This discussion is over.”

He turned to walk off the stage. His wife ran after him, calling his name.

A: “And you got yourself a $28,000 Patek Philippe watch, too. Marci, the pregnant ex-secretary got a new Ford pickup, along with a trust fund for the child. Your wife got a new Mercedes.” She shouted after him. “Ladies and gentlemen of the congregation: I apologize for the interruption of your services. And members of the TV audience: I hope you have learned something this morning, and you can do what you want with your contributions.

“I have Mr. LaPaige’s personal laptop here and the numbers I mentioned earlier. As is the case with other big earners, I will be taking a large percentage of this organization’s excess funds and use them for legitimate charitable purposes, and Mr. LaPaige and his family will be assessed a tariff similar to other big earners. I know he’s not supposed to be a ‘big earner, ‘ but he is.

“You can go to my website and see what I am doing on all the fronts that I am operating on. Thank you and have a good Sunday.”

She disappeared, and the cameras did go dark, this time.

Brussels, Belgium – Sunday evening, March 30

There was a secret meeting of the leaders of Europe in the Summit Room of the European Council meeting rooms. An additional seat was left open for a young woman in a white gown.

Elmore Haversham, the Prime Minister of Great Britain, spoke first. “Armis, welcome to our meeting. I trust your travels have been easy and pleasant for you. You have been busy, young lady. I have reports of you in Canada, Australia, Africa, and the United States recently.”

Armis: [smile] “Thank you for your concern. You missed my stop in Japan, recently, it would seem.”

Haversham: “Oh? I’ll have to speak to my secret services. James Bond will get a stern memo.” [laugh]

Gersten Meine, Prime Minister of Germany: “Yes, your work in Africa was exemplary. You are to be congratulated.”

Armis: “Thank you, Mr. Prime Minister.”

Philippe Montroge, President of France: “How may we be of help in your efforts to relieve the poverty and displacement of peoples, mademoiselle?”

Armis [to the entire group]: “Presidents and Prime Ministers of Europe. Thank you all for coming and keeping this meeting secret. I will have various projects that come up in the future that will be similar to what happened in Africa. You will have noted that I have some soldiers who have accepted service with me. They will be used only in extreme situations, like the terrorists, like the warlord armies, like the honor killings ... things like that. They are not meant to supplant your forces or the sovereignty of any nation.