Chapter 22 MMCC
At the Mammon Mart Community Church, Prevarica had separated herself from Faith Orchard and Wisdom and was walking through the slowly filling sanctuary shortly before the special service was to begin, looking for her Sunday School teacher. She soon spotted her, for the Deaconess Faith was standing up front, positively in the altar area, one hand resting lightly on the machine that would soon be projecting the 3-D image of Mayor Therion. She was talking with two other deaconesses, Mrs. Tradition and Mrs. Reputation.
It was no coincidence, Prevarica knew, that her teacher’s name was the same as Faith Orchard’s. This Faith was really named Good Works, but everyone in the Mammon Church called her Faith and thought of her as Faith. Long before Prevarica was born, Pastor Hypocrisy had hired Good Works, a professional actress, to impersonate Faith. She had had a strong natural resemblance to Mrs. Orchard that had been increased by means of plastic surgery until almost no one could tell the two apart.
Today Good Works was wearing a bright green spring dress with matching shoes, handbag, and Bible cover. Her hair was neater than the real Faith’s, her smile more smug, her talk, as Prevarica approached, louder. She looked like Faith Orchard if the Heavenite lady had been playing a mild joke, pretending to be showy and boastful.
Seeing the girl, she left off her conversation and turned to her with a smile and one finger raised.
“You’ve not been to Sunday School for weeks, little lady,” she said in mild rebuke.
“I know, and I’m so sorry,” Prevarica responded solemnly. “But you know our family has had such troubles lately.”
“No excuses, Prevarica.”
“Oh, that’s right, but I wonder if I could talk to you privately?” Prevarica whispered. “Something terrible is going to happen tomorrow unless you can help.”
“If you have something to tell me, you should just say it right out.”
Prevarica glanced behind her nervously, slipped closer, and looking into Good Works’ blue eyes, spoke even more softly. “It’s about our house. Please, come down to the Sunday School room with me, and I’ll tell you everything.”
Good Works’ eyes narrowed with interest. “Yes, of course. We have a few minutes before the service begins. I’ll come down to the basement with you. Ladies, please excuse us.”
In Hypocrisy’s spacious office, located near the rear of the sanctuary, the Pastor was hosting Mayor Therion and agent Edgar. Therion and Hypocrisy were seated in capacious chairs; the well-dressed skeleton had been leaned casually against the wall with his fedora pulled down over his eye sockets.
“Chief Sordid brought Edgar by,” Hypocrisy was saying, “I think at your request, Mr. Mayor.”
“Yes, I’ve known Edgar, and in fact his whole family, for many years,” Therion replied while slightly adjusting the turban-like bandages on his head. “But it had been a long time and I had totally lost touch with him, so I asked Sordid to make a few investigations. Sure enough he found him in town, and since then the Chief has helped him to get a job in Intelligence.” He turned to Edgar and asked, “How’s it working out, Ed?” Edgar did not respond. “Ah, you were always the humble one! Hypocrisy, he doesn’t want to say it, but Chief Sordid speaks highly of him.”
“I’m sure he’s doing fine,” the Pastor said smoothly. “It’s great to see you back, Edgar. You know, Mayor, Ed and his family were here at the very first service of Mammon. They practically founded the church. Edgar didn’t want to miss the unveiling of your image.”
Outside the office, at the back of the sanctuary, Mr. Power had arrived, and having left his bodyguards in the foyer, was surrounded by many of the eminent people of the congregation, including the beautiful Miss Fame Vainglory and the deacons Reputation, Disdain, and Tradition. Everyone wanted a word with him or at least a handshake. People were gathered so thickly around him that he was unapproachable.
As Wisdom looked at the situation with dismay, tugging nervously at his necktie, he was joined by Prevarica, who seemed a little out of breath. When he turned to her with a ‘what do we do now?’ look, he found she was staring at Mr. Power with surprise.
“So he is here,” she said.
“Sure, Patience told us he would be,” he said. “But it’s just a few minutes before the service starts, and he’s totally tied up with all those guys. You have any ideas?”
Her thin face reflected some inner struggle.
“Sure, always,” she said finally and with some confidence. “You run in there among them with me chasing you, and after that, just follow my lead.”
“What are we going to do?”
“Just run up to Power! You’re a genius, right? So you’ll pick up on what I do. Go!”
Feeling very foolish, he sprinted up to the group of men, found a narrow gap between two of them, and pushed his way in. Prevarica, he found, was following close behind him and yelling loudly. When the two burst in among them, the men stopped talking and stepped back a bit, widening the circle. With his back turned to Power’s broad stomach, Wisdom faced Prevarica.
“You scumball!” she wailed in his face. “Do you think I didn’t see the way you were looking at Alexandra Disdain! Holding her hand! And my family hasn’t even left town yet. Couldn’t you wait? Well, that’s OK with me, because I don’t ever want to see you again!”
His mind racing, Wisdom answered in something approaching a shout. “That’s just right with me, too! I don’t ever want to be seen with you! I never cared anything about you to begin with!”
“You curly haired pig!”
Though caught by surprise, after a moment he managed to hurl back, “Skinny scarecrow!”
She clutched the front of his jacket and gave him a shove, propelling him backwards a few steps so that he stumbled around Mr. Power and backed into Miss Vainglory.
“Oh! Get them out of here!” Fame yelped.
Prevarica ran off suddenly, but Power’s large hand gripped Wisdom’s collar and held him.
“Boy! Yeah, I know who you are, you’re Truth’s boy. I could have you arrested for assault.”
“Please, don’t do that,” a woman said, and looking around, Wisdom saw that the speaker had slipped in among the others due to the opening up of the group that Prevarica had contrived. She held a huge Bible, its bright green cover matching her dress and accessories. She looked smug.
“Good evening, Faith,” Power said. “You know anything about this?”
“Mr. Power, I know that it’s no wonder the Leasing girl is testy and upset. She just told me that her family will be Relocated tomorrow. She begged me to ask you to reconsider the demolition. It would be so meritorious if you would give them more time.”
“I know the situation,” Power said, still holding Wisdom. “I can’t say I have much pity for them.”
“I’m not talking pity, Mr. Power, I’m talking merit.”
Prevarica had ducked behind a pillar and was on her phone again, having speed dialed Chief Sordid.
“Damn! Power wasn’t supposed to be there,” Sordid was saying. “If there’s any chance of his being talked into cooperating with the Heavenites’ plans, we’ve got to shut it down fast. I’ve only got one other agent there at the church. I’ll call him. Uh, Prevarica, you haven’t blown your cover, have you?”
“No, Chief. I’m doing things that make them think I’m loyally on the Heavenite side.”
“Fine, keep reporting whenever you’re able.”
Sordid broke the connection and speed dialed another number.
In the pastor’s office, Edgar’s phone rang in his breast pocket, but he made no move to answer it.
“Let it go to voice mail, eh?” Mayor Therion said to him. “That’s right, we can’t be slaves to our phones. Tell me, what do you hear from your sister Doubt these days?”
In a sweat, Sordid called another number. “Pretence! I’m glad I caught you, old pal. Are you in the Mammon church for the special servic
e? Good. Look, I have no right to ask you to do this since you don’t work for me, but I’ve got a crisis. It’s very important that Leasing House gets demolished tomorrow and enemy agents are probably talking to Mr. Power right now, right there in the church, trying to persuade him to call it off. You get the picture? So can you find him and—you see him? Great, so do what you can, will you? I don’t know, but just somehow make sure that nobody talks him into giving more time to Guiles Leasing. Thanks, I really owe you one. Bye.”
As the time of the service had drawn closer, the group around Mr. Power had thinned, but the pretty lady in green was still holding his eye and talking to him.
“This is the sort of thing that makes people sit up and take notice,” she was saying. “You give a family, and especially a church family, some slack—even just a few more days, and it’s worth thousands of dollars of advertising for the Mayor’s reelection bid. And you get to be the hero.”
Power, still holding Wisdom, nodded slowly.
“And the other side has to honor it too. They get no choice about it. Prevarica gave me a letter,” she drew it from her purse, “to pass on to you. If you’ll just take a look at it, you’ll see how badly the Heavenites want you to hold off on Leasing House. Going by their own rules, what else can they do? And by their rules they have to honor you for doing it. They’ll owe you. So as I said, it isn’t pity; it’s really just a business decision.”
During this last speech, Mr. Pretence had arrived near them, standing somewhat behind her, where Power could see his face but she could not.
“Oh, absolutely,” Pretence chimed in. “Even just the intention of such a thing, when aired about, does a world of good. Image is everything. Why, I’ve known cases when the mere rumor of some charitable action by the City has been very soothing. Mr. Power, I urge you to give Faith your gentlemanly assurance that the Leasings are as safe in their house as she is in hers.”
Wisdom could see that, within Pretence’s bland face, his eyes were twinkling.
The lady turned and looked at Mr. Pretence wonderingly, then turned back to Power. “Can you give me that assurance?” she said.
Power hesitated, looking to Pretence, who smiled like an insurance agent who has just promised full coverage in case of earthquake. Slowly and repulsively, Power smiled too.
“Sure, let me give you that assurance,” he said. “I’ll make the necessary phone calls.”
“And will you take this letter?”
“No need, Faith. You keep it.”
“This is so kind and commendable of you! Well done. But I hear the organ, so we’d best get to our pews.” She reached out and tugged Wisdom away from him. “I’ll take care of disciplining this unruly boy. Thank you, Mr. Power, and uh, you, Mr….”
“Mr. Pretence.”
“Yes, thank you.”
As the two walked away, Hypocrisy appeared, headed for the pulpit, and beside him, to Power’s surprise, was the Mayor.
“Your Honor!” Power said to Therion, “I was supposed to be filling in for you. My secretary said you couldn’t make it.”
“No such thing,” Therion replied.
“Well, damn it—I mean darn it—this sort of thing happens too often. Look, I’ve got another meeting I’m missing because of this.”
“But you’ll want to stay for the unveiling of the image, won’t you?” Hypocrisy put in.
The Mayor drew Hypocrisy to one side and said quietly, “You got any hooch in your office?”
“Liquor? Uh, no.”
“All right, I got to go. Mr. Mayor, sorry about that.”
As he headed for the door, he was joined by Fame Vainglory, who apparently preferred his company, wherever he might be going, to an evening at church.
The hulking man passed out to the foyer and Hypocrisy advanced to the pulpit. Therion, looking thoughtful, went back into the pastor’s office. It was just a little bothersome that Power had received an incorrect message about the plans for the special service. He also wondered who had been calling Edgar and why? Was it related? Asking Edgar’s pardon, he took out the intelligence agent’s cell phone and listened to the message that had been left on it. Then he called Sordid. He found the Intelligence Chief strangely reluctant to discuss why he had called Edgar and why he had left no message except the instruction to call back.
“We thought we had a situation,” Sordid said, “but everything is fine now. No problem. As for Power being told you wouldn’t be there, those kind of snafus happen all the time.”
“OK,” said Therion. “But tell me, are you going to need Edgar tonight? Because if not, then after the service I’d like to spend the rest of the evening catching up on things with my old friend and talking about old times. Great. Then where should I drop him off afterward? Leasing House, then. Hey, Edgar, the Chief says he’s assigning you the night shift at Leasing House. No rest for the wicked, eh? Thanks, Chief. Good bye.”
As the service began, the lady in green and Wisdom slipped downstairs together, where they were soon joined by Prevarica. All three went to Prevarica’s Sunday School room. Inside was a blonde-haired woman wrapped in a sheet and lying on the floor unconscious.
“I wish I’d been here to see you give her the knockout spray,” Wisdom said to Faith.
“It was cool,” Prevarica said. “Faith was behind the door when I brought Good Works in here. She just gave her a spray of that Essence of Demerit, and Good Works went right down. We had to catch her before she hit the floor. So awesome. How did it go upstairs?”
“It worked!” Faith said wonderingly as she picked up her own blue and white dress from a table. “Power has promised to call and have your house’s demolition set back. Say, we should get out of here fast. Wisdom, go outside the door and keep a lookout while I change back into my things.”
When Wisdom was allowed back in the room, Faith was in her own clothes and so was Good Works. The latter was also sitting up with her back against a wall, partly conscious and with tears on her face. Though Faith and Prevarica were paying no attention to her, he listened for a few moments to the church lady’s moaning soliloquy.
“Oh, I feel so empty! I’ve got nothing, nothing to show God, nothing to prove myself with! What will He think of me? I’ve got to hide! I’ve got to hide here and never go out. How could I show my face to the congregation?”
Happy that she did not seem alert enough to recognize and remember them, they left her and exited the building. As they were passing along the rows of cars in the Mammon Mart parking lot, Faith was on her phone, talking to Patience.
“Code Gold,” she said triumphantly. “It felt very wrong to use the kind of arguments that Good Works would use, but I did, and Power has firmly promised to postpone. You better call Reason and tell her she won’t be needed, that she can just meet us back at Grace House. Say, why not have a celebration? You’ll meet us there too? OK!”
When they were in the limousine, Faith looked uneasily at the lit up dashboard. “It shows Dignity’s limo as being not far from us,” she said. “Maybe fifty yards to the south. I wonder why? Anyway, I better call him too, and tell him that it’s Code Gold.”
“Please don’t do that, Mrs. Orchard,” Wisdom said suddenly from where he was seated beside her. He was peering at the electronic map on the dash that showed the other limo’s location.
“Why not, Wiz?”
“Because, well, maybe it’s not for sure. Maybe Mr. Power didn’t mean what he said.”
“He meant it, he had to. Don’t be a worrier, hum? It’s time to celebrate.”
“Are you sure you won’t—”
“Wiz, this was nerve wracking and exhausting for me, pretending to be someone else and someone I despise. I’m not going back in that church based on your impression that Power was lying. Why would he lie?” She put the car in gear.
Wisdom opened his door and got out. “Don’t forget about Dignity being
here, Mrs. Orchard. I’ll run over there and tell him the good news, and then I’ll ride home with him.”
“But I can just call him,” Faith was saying, but he was already on his way, and two car doors were slamming. Prevarica had hopped out of the car almost simultaneously and was running off with him.
Faith sighed and called Dignity, briefly telling him that the kids were on there way to him and why. Then she started for home.
As they loped across the parking lot, Wisdom asked to borrow Prevarica’s cell phone. He paused to call his mother and walked on quickly after Reason answered.
“Mom, you haven’t started home yet, have you? Well, don’t! It’s not true. I just know that Mr. Power wasn’t really convinced. Please stay where you are and call Patience and tell him. You will? You’re the greatest, mom. I’ll call back, but first I have to talk to Dignity.”
When the two youngsters had climbed into the back seat of the other limo, Dignity listened patiently to Wisdom’s story.
“So this guy who came along, Dig, he was saying these good things to Power about helping the Leasings but it was like he was winking while he was saying them. OK, he wasn’t winking, but it was like he was. He was coaching Mr. Power to say he’d play along but not really do anything. I just know it.”
“I don’t know, Wiz, I don’t know. Who was the guy? What’s his name?”
“He said his name is Pretence.”
Dignity emitted a low whistle. “I ran into him many years ago. He used to work for Mr. Influence, maybe still does.” He rubbed his forehead, seeming to strain to remember more. Then he started the engine.
“Where are we going, Mr. Dignity?” Prevarica asked.
“Numb’s Place, fast as I can go, to back up Reason. You get on your phone and tell her about Mr. Pretence. I think she’s met him before too.”
Wisdom grinned as they rocketed out of the parking lot. Dignity had virtually no skills, but one of the few he had was the ability to drive at breakneck speed.