The Colony by F.G. Cottam

Author:F.G. Cottam
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: (¯`'•.¸//(*_*)\\¸.•'´¯)
Published: 2012-08-23T06:00:00+00:00

Alexander McIntyre went personally to see Father Degrelle at the seminary in Highgate where the veteran exorcist resided in a modest cell. Raised a Catholic, the media magnate had allowed his faith to lapse over the years of his success and enterprise. But conscience, or possibly nostalgia for his more innocent youth, had influenced his charitable activities. He had given sufficiently generously to Catholic causes to have the ear of the Cardinal.

‘Vanity,’ the Cardinal told him over the phone, ‘is Degrelle’s great weakness. He goes on your expedition with my blessing. But he can be a contrary man. At three days notice, he will know he had been at best, an afterthought. I hope you can persuade him, Alex. I would suggest flattery is the key to doing so.’

‘Shall I woo him personally, Your Eminence?’

‘Always wise, I think, with a man like Degrelle. He has a very high opinion of himself. But then his strength and will make him enormously formidable at the ritual. And there is his faith, of course, which is unflinching and unwavering. He is the best at what he does. The problem is that he knows it. He will watch for your arrival through his window. I suggest the Bentley. You still own the Bentley, Alex?’

‘I do.’

‘Excellent. And have your chauffeur wear his full livery. And have him salute you when you exit the car. Father Degrelle appreciates status. And he loves ceremony.’

They walked together through the seminary’s ornamental gardens so that Degrelle could smoke. This was something McIntyre observed he did ceaselessly. Physically, he was imposing, both tall and heavily built. He had the wary tread and club fists of an ageing pugilist. He’s God’s prize-fighter, McIntyre thought, smiling to himself. He’d go the championship distance with Satan himself. He’s perfect material for the expedition and in the hands of the gifted Lucy Church would make riveting copy on reputation and appearance alone.

Was he quotable, though? And there was the more immediate question of whether he would even agree to go.

He listened in silence as McIntyre offered a brief history of events on New Hope and then outlined the aims of the expedition. Then McIntyre, tired of his own voice, said, ‘Do you think demonic possession could have destroyed the New Hope community?’

‘Destroyed it, no.’ Degrelle said; ‘afflicted it, without reasonable doubt. The heretic Ballantyne was almost certainly a servant of Satan.’

McIntyre had never heard the reformed slave master called a heretic before. Degrelle’s use of the term reminded him that the Vatican had its own historians, its own intelligence network and its own take on theology.

‘Why do you say that?’

‘There is compelling anecdotal evidence that Ballantyne was able to work what his followers construed as miracles. He got the power to play his tricks from somewhere. It was not from the Almighty.’

When Degrelle spoke, it was like listening to words chiselled from stone. He was a gift from God, McIntyre thought, if he could be persuaded to go.

‘Your Cardinal has sanctioned your participation in the expedition.

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