«You hit the right button, Jace,» Michael went on, grasping the stone balustrade of the balcony in both hands. «Holy Mother Church has the integrity to look after the freezees while they’re helpless, and the endurance to take care of them for centuries, millennia, if necessary.»
«But how did that change everything?»
Michael grinned at him. «You, of all people, should be able to figure that out.»
«Money,» said Jason.
Pope Michael nodded vigorously. «The rich came to us to take care of them while they were frozen. You gave us half your estate, many of the others gave us a lot more. The more desperate they were, the more they offered. We never haggled; we took whatever they were willing to give. Do you have any idea of how much money flowed into the Church? Not just billions, Jace. Trillions! Trillions of dollars.»
Jason thought of how much compound interest could accrue in half a century. «How much am I worth now?» he asked.
His brother ignored him. «With all that money came power, Jace. Real power. Power to move politicians. Power to control whole nations. With that power came authority. The Church reasserted itself as the moral leader of the Western world. The people were ready for moral leadership. They needed it and we provided it. The old evil ways are gone, Jace. Banished.»
«Yes, but how much—»
«We spent wisely,» the Pope continued, his eyes glowing. «We invested in the future. We started to rebuild the world, and that gained us the gratitude and loyalty of half the world.»
«What should I invest in now?» Jason asked.
Michael turned slightly away from him. «There’s a new morality out there, a new world of faith and respect for authority. The world you knew is gone forever, Jace. We’ve ended hunger. We’ve stabilized the world’s population—without artificial birth control.»
Jason could not help smiling at his brother. «You’re still against contraception.»
«Some things don’t change. A sin is still a sin.»
«You thought temporary suicide was a sin,» Jason reminded him.
«It still is,» said the Pope, utterly serious.
«But you help people to freeze themselves! You just told me—»
Michael put a hand on Jason’s shoulder. «Jace, just because those poor frightened souls entrust their money to Holy Mother Church doesn’t mean that they’re not committing a mortal sin when they kill themselves.»
«But it’s not suicide! I’m here, I’m alive again!»
«Legally, you’re dead.»
«But that—» Jason’s breath caught in his throat. He did not like the glitter in Michael’s eye.
«Holy Mother Church cannot condone suicide, Jace.»
«But you benefit from it!»
«God moves in mysterious ways. We use the money that sinners bestow upon us to help make the world a better place. But they are still sinners.»
A terrible realization was beginning to take shape in Jason’s frightened mind. «How … how many freezees have you revived?» he asked in a trembling voice.
«You are the first,» his brother answered. «And the last.»
«But you can’t leave them frozen! You promised to revive them!»
Pope Michael shook his head slowly, a look on his face more of pity than sorrow. «We promised to revive you, Jace. We made no such promises to the rest of them. We agreed only to look after them and maintain them until they could be cured of whatever it was that killed them.»
«But that means you’ve got to revive them.»
A wintry smile touched the corners of the Pope’s lips. «No, it does not. The contract is quite specific. Our best lawyers have honed it to perfection. Many of them are Jesuits, you know. The contract gives the Church the authority to decide when to revive them. We keep them frozen.»
Jason could feel his heart thumping against his ribs. «But why would anybody come to you to be frozen when nobody’s been revived? Don’t they realize —»
«No, they don’t realize, Jace. That’s the most beautiful part of it. We control the media very thoroughly. And when a person is facing the certainty of death, you would be shocked at how few questions are asked. We offer life after death, just as we always have. They interpret our offer in their own way.»
Jason sagged against the stone balustrade. «You mean that even with all the advances in medicine you’ve made, they still haven’t gotten wise?»
«Despite all our medical advances, people still die. And the rich still want to avoid it, if they can. That’s when they run to us.»
«And you screw them out of their money.»
Michael’s face hardened. «Jace, the Church has scrupulously kept its end of our bargain with you. We have kept watch over you for more than half a century, and we revived you as soon as your disease became curable, just as I agreed to. But what good does a new life do you when your immortal soul is in danger of damnation?»
«I didn’t commit suicide,» Jason insisted.
«What you have done—what all the freezees have done—is considered suicide in every court of the Western world.»
«The Church controls the courts?»
«All of them,» Michael replied. He heaved a sad, patient sigh, then said, «Holy Mother Church’s mission is to save souls, not bodies. We’re going to save your soul, Jace. Now.»
Jason saw that the six Swiss Guards were standing by the French windows, waiting for him.
«You’ve been through it before, Jace,» his brother told him. «You won’t feel a thing.»
Terrified, Jason shrieked, «You’re going to murder me?»
«It isn’t murder, Jace. We’re simply going to freeze you again. You’ll go down into the catacombs with all the others.»
«But I’m cured, dammit! I’m all right now!»
«It’s for the salvation of your soul, Jace. It’s your penance for committing the sin of suicide.»
«You’re freezing me so you can keep all my money! You’re keeping all the others frozen so you can keep their money, too!»
«It’s for their own good,» said Pope Michael. He nodded to the guards, who stepped onto the balcony and took Jason in their grasp.
«It’s like the goddamned Inquisition!» Jason yelled. «Burning people at the stake to save their souls!»
«It’s for the best, Jace,» Pope Michael I said as the guards dragged Jason away. «It’s for the good of the world. It’s for the good of the Church, for the good of your immortal soul.»
Struggling against the guards, Jason pleaded, «How long will you keep me under? When will you revive me again?»
The Pope shrugged. «Holy Mother Church has lasted more than two thousand years, Jace. But what’s a millennium or two when you’re waiting for the final trump?»
«Mike!» Jason howled. «For God’s sake!»
«God’s a lot smarter than both of us,» Michael said grimly. «Trust me.»
(With special thanks to Michael Bienes.)
APPOINTMENT IN SINAI
Of all the stories that were written about the first human flight to the Moon during science fiction’s «golden age» of the 1930s and ’40s (including Robert A. Heinlein’s script for the 1950 movie Destination Moon) not one author foresaw that the lunar landing would be televised back to Earth.
Television was not a common household fixture when those tales were written. By the time broadcast TV became as commonplace as commercial radio, the major science fiction authors had moved on to the other subjects. The first lunar landing was old-hat in science fiction circles.
When the first humans set foot on Mars, their landing will be transmitted back to Earth not only by television, but by virtual reality systems, so that people on Earth with the proper equipment will be able to see, feel, experience the thrill of setting foot on the red planet.