about. Evangelists such as Emil Zacharias and the like rail against the ads and hint at Armageddon. But they've been doing that for years. They just use it to get money.'
I smiled. Zacharias must be burning mad if the money coming in to fight us went straight out again to help us.
'Maybe we can turn that to our favor,' I mused.
I congratulated Kathleen on the campaign as she left. Everything was going marvelously well.
That same day, unfortunately, The Cardinal and his boys came to town.
20
Conversation
Ann, Isadora, and I sat at a table in The Prisoner of Zelda eating a very late breakfast. The Great Gatsby atmosphere of the place grated on my nerves, but the kid seemed to enjoy it. She acted surprised when she discovered that the decor came from a period even before my time.
'Gee, this stuff must really be
'
Ann was outfitted in a breathtaking violet dress that was cut in a style that revealed everything yet displayed nothing. By rights, our table should have been surrounded by wolves.
No one even glanced at her.
Isadora wore a scarlet body shirt that displayed everything and revealed nothing. The color of her nail polish and eye shadow matched, making her look like a stunted neon sign. Her black picoskirt ended where her thighs began. I couldn't even look at her black fishnet stockings. I was still eating breakfast.
Her only nod to good taste was a GodKiller button pinned to her shirt.
The waitress returned, looking like a flapper who'd spent one night too many taxi-dancing.
'There's a gentleman who'd like to speak with you,' she said, highlighting her speech with snappings of her GodKiller bubblegum.
I started to rise, then cautiously sat. 'Send him to our table.' I was still smarting from what had happened the last time.
He walked toward us. Had we been in less civilized surroundings, I would have taken the opportunity to smear him into the ground.
Father Beathan smiled, pulled a chair up next to me, and sat with folded, calm hands.
'The first day of the year two-thousand? How melodramatic.'
'It makes its point,' I said. I lit a cigarette and eyed him, awaiting his next move.
He looked past Ann at Isadora. 'There are some people who would like to see you now. Immediately. If both of you will please follow me-'
'Both of us?' the kid asked, looking at Ann and me.
Beathan nodded, looking from Isadora to me, his gaze never lighting on Ann.
Ann made a silent hushing sign with her left index finger.
'Well?' the priest asked.
Isadora peered at me, concentrating. Suddenly, the restaurant seemed to tumble and fracture and crumble away.
The kid stood in a blank room wearing a diaphanous bit of nothing. Spectral winds blew dreamlike through her hair. I seemed to be watching her, but I couldn't see my own body.
'
'
I shrugged invisible shoulders. '
