It’s a February evening in London: cold but not yet chilly, dank and dark beneath clouds that promise rain but never quite deliver. The chauffeur drives smoothly, but behind the gold-tinted reflective surfaces of his shades his eyes are constantly flickering, evaluating threats, looking for trouble. A few months ago, a banker had his Aston-Martin hijacked at knife point while waiting for traffic lights not far from here. It would be most unfortunate if thieves were to target this particular vehicle: explaining their injuries to the police might delay Ms. Hazard.
“Zero.”
He glances in the mirror at her voice. “Yes, boss?”
“Tune to Premier Gospel, please.”
Zero blinks slowly, then switches on the sound system and brings up the radio control panel. “What do you want that rubbish for?”
“I couldn’t possibly say.” She sounds coolly amused. “Mood music, maybe.”
Zero’s knuckles tighten on the steering wheel for a moment, then he goes back to scanning for hijackers, tails, suicidal cyclists, and other threats.
It takes them half an hour to drive out to the North Circular, then a further twenty minute detour into the wilds of London suburbia—estates of 1930s semis with privet hedges and fences out front. Finally they come to a pub with a mock-Tudor half timbered frontage and a sign declaring it to be The Legionnaire’s Rest. Zero pulls into the abbreviated car park and stops. Behind him, Persephone is finishing a phone call. Moments later the back door opens and a man climbs in.
“I thought you said smart casual, Duchess,” complains Johnny. His accent switches seamlessly to cod-cockney: “Wotcher, Zero old cock.”
“Same to you, motherfucker,” the chauffeur says cheerfully. “Strap in so I can go.”
“Smart casual for you,” says Persephone. She’s wearing a Chanel suit and a hat. Gucci handbag, designer heels. “You’re going in the main audience. I’ve got a VIP backstage pass. Going to see the Man.”
“What’s the gig?”
“Revival meeting. Have you found Jesus yet?”
“Isn’t he down the back of the sofa?” Johnny stares at her for a moment, his face set in a grimace of distaste. “Revival meeting. Have you gone freaking insane?” He looks at the back of Zero’s head, then asks plaintively: “Is it something in the water?”
“Button it up, we’re on a job.”
“Oh.” He shakes his head. “You had me for a moment there. What kind of job?” He notices the music, barely audible over the road noise. “Is the Church of England hiring us to take out the Pope? Or are the Scientologists—”
“Neither.” She passes him the phone. “Start reading.”
Johnny takes the phone and begins to skim. Then he stops abruptly and stares out the window, his expression haunted. “Tell me this isn’t what I think it is.”
Persephone is silent for a few seconds. Then: “Gerry Lockhart thought you might have some special insights.”
Johnny pauses, doing a slow double take. “Gerry wants my insight? Since when?”
“Since you grew up in a very wee highland kirk that practices the baptism of the sea and other, odder traditions.” She looks at him. “He figures you’re quite the expert on what’s going on here.”
“Does he now,” Johnny breathes.
Persephone nods. “We’re to sit at the back—or at the front, in my case—and sing along with the music. And we need to make notes. Your job is to apply your highly experienced eyeball to their particular brand of religion. What are we looking at, what do they believe, what species of animal are we dealing with? I’m going to be in the front row.” She unfastens the top button of her blouse, raises a button-sized leather bag on a fine silver chain from around her neck. “I’m warded.” She lets it drop between her breasts, refastens the button, then rummages in her bag and pulls out a small cross and pins it to her lapel. She passes another cross lapel pin to Johnny. “Here, use this. Camouflage.”
Johnny is wearing chinos, a polo shirt, and a fleece. After some fumbling, he pins the alien symbol to the fleece. “I’m allergic to churches,” he says glumly. “As you should well know.”
“Yes. But are you warded?” Persephone persists.
Johnny sighs. “Does the Pope shit in the woods?” He doesn’t bother to show her the wrist band.
“Good.”
“You think we’re going to run into trouble?”
“Not on this occasion.”
“Are you sure?” He pushes. “Really sure?”
Persephone sighs. “Johnny.”
“Duchess.”
“We are going to a church service. Evangelical big tent outreach, singing and clapping, that kind of thing. No more and no less. Doubtless your dear departed dad would disapprove, but ours is not to question why, etcetera. Take notes, do not draw attention to yourself, we can discuss the where and the why of it afterwards.” She pauses. “We’ve got a lunch date with Gerry and a junior co-worker tomorrow. That’s when you get to hear what the caper’s all about, capisce? For now, just finish reading that report and take notes.”
Johnny glances back at the phone. “There’s nothing here that a hundred other churches aren’t doing. They’re millenarian dispensationalist Pentecostalists and they’re trying to spread the happy-clappy around. Film at eleven.” He sounds as if he’s trying to reassure himself, and failing.
“Let’s hope that’s all it is.” She takes a deep breath. “Either way, we’re here to find out.”
THE GOLDEN PROMISE MINISTRIES ARE NOT UNAMBITIOUS: they’ve booked the O2 Arena for a week now, and another week in a month’s time.
It takes Zero the best part of an hour to drive into Greenwich. He drops Johnny just around the corner from the O2 complex, then drives on to find a spot in the VIP car park. Traffic is heavy—the arena is able to hold more than 20,000 spectators, and a lot of them are coming by car for this one. It’s not just a church service—it’s an evening out for all the family, with a gospel choir, a band, and a star-studded cast led by Pastor Raymond Schiller of the Golden Promise Ministries.
The arena itself is huge—a domed performance space the size of a medium-scale sports stadium. Tiered blocks of seats tower above the central stage, lit by distant spotlights far overhead; the atmosphere among the audience is as deafeningly expectant as at any rock concert or football match. Johnny, who walks in among the regular punters, finds himself a roost halfway up one of the rear stands, with a bottle of Pepsi and a cheeseburger. He settles back in his seat and scans the crowd below him. Somewhere near the front of the stage there’s a roped-off VIP area, accessed via a red-carpeted subway. The Duchess is down there now, chatting and laughing with the others on the restricted guest list: company directors with sick wives and children, wealthy widows, the children of the idle rich come in search of some additional meaning for their lives. Potential deep-pocket donors for Christ.
Back here in the bleachers it’s another matter. It’s an everyman (and everywoman) cross-section of London, emphasis on the cross. Family groups with children, some couples without, fewer men and women on their own, and larger groups—church trips, youth groups, some that Johnny can’t identify or can’t credit. (A hen night? he jots discreetly in his notepad.) There are a lot of non-white faces: religion is a minority pursuit in England these days. They come from all walks of life: builder, trader, website-maker. They’re here for the music, the pizzazz, the excitement, the joy, and the sense of common purpose. It’s like a reflection of his misplaced childhood, cut off behind the broken mirror of his adult cynicism.