‘Reverend-’ Quill began, turning to Franklin.
‘Or Toby,’ said the priest.
‘Yeah. . Reverend, Rabbi, Imam, we brought you here to ask you. .’ He looked to Ross.
‘For points four or seven on the Objectives list,’ she said, nodding to the concealed Ops Board, ‘I think we could do with some holy water.’
The clerics stared at her.
‘No,’ said Ross, ‘seriously.’
‘What do you want that for?’ asked Shulman.
‘That would be an operational matter,’ said Quill.
‘Okay. .’ said Franklin, ‘what exactly do you mean by-?’
Sefton couldn’t take it any longer. If they were going to do this, they were going to do it. If he’d known this was what Ross had been after, he’d have been able to provide her with all the details. And, as long as this was all there was going to be to it, he had to admit she had a point. He located on his phone the website he’d bookmarked. “Holy water,” he read out. “A sacramental, as used in baptism, having been blessed by a priest.” We’d need at least several large bottles of it.’ He looked challengingly at Ross. ‘For testing.’
‘Or,’ said Ross, ‘you could just. . do the water supply of this building, so we can get it out of the tap when required.’ She looked hopefully between them.
The clerics stared at each other. They then stood up. ‘All right,’ said Irfan, ‘I’ve had it. Your analyst got us to come all the way over here because it sounded urgent-’
‘No,’ Quill said, ‘listen, this isn’t a joke-’
‘You know,’ said Franklin, ‘even a couple of years ago, nobody would have dared to do this. Now I get kids knocking on my door, I get prank phone calls-’
‘You think we’re making this up?’ snarled Costain.
The clerics fell still.
Sefton watched the three men of faith doing what they did. He saw their body-language skills, their active listening, their voices pulling more and more explanation out of the others, to the point where he had to speak up and remind them of what couldn’t be said. They were preying on the group’s tiredness, on the stress, seeing their job as merely ameliorating that. They were also obviously aware that this was the team dealing with ‘the witch of West Ham’, and were excited and alarmed by what their being here meant. Whereas in fact they were here, to give Ross some credit, to demonstrate whether what they represented meant anything in this new world the team had found. Proof of meaninglessness would help Costain with his issues.
‘Holy water,’ declared Franklin finally, when it became clear the team weren’t going to share beyond a certain point, ‘is the water that’s blessed during the Easter vigil, after sunset on the day after Good Friday. Or at least that’s the only time it’s done.’
‘And it lasts all that time?’ asked Ross. ‘I mean, if you needed to do a baptism right now?’
‘Any water that’s added to the blessed water becomes blessed. I think that’s the rule.’
‘Sorry,’ queried Sefton, ‘you think?’
Franklin shrugged. ‘It’s been a long time since I’ve run a church. We just performed the one ceremony, and the rest of the year we filled the font up from a bucket. Listen, what can you tell me about the purpose this is going to be put to?’
‘Saving the lives of children,’ Costain had said it before Sefton could stop him.
‘And this would be saving them from. . a suspect that’s into the occult?’ said Shulman. ‘This “witch” of yours? And so, because they believe in the power of Toby’s “holy water”. ?’
Costain looked to Quill, and didn’t continue.
Franklin looked frustrated. ‘It’s very hard for me to provide something like this when I don’t believe in the system it represents.’
‘You don’t believe in holy water?’ said Sefton.
‘I believe the power of God can do anything, but He doesn’t need any particular thing to do it.’
‘That’s idolatry,’ agreed Irfan. ‘I’m not comfortable with any of this.’
‘Holy water, as you call it,’ said Shulman, ‘this means nothing to me and my colleague here. And I think even for Toby this is. . a metaphor.’
Sefton turned away so they wouldn’t see him rolling his eyes. ‘No good to us, then.’
‘You don’t believe in the devil?’ That was Costain again.
‘I think the “adversary” in the Bible is a metaphor, too,’ began Franklin, ‘for Christ’s hunger and fear-’
‘Like the Yetzer Hara,’ said Shulman, ‘the evil inclination of human beings. It’s sometimes personified in art-’
‘And in the words of my faith also, but “shaitan” is also an adjective, absolutely, that can be applied to people too,’ joined in Irfan.
It sounded as if they were going to go on like this for some time. Sefton sighed, glancing at Ross. ‘You should have got a Catholic.’
‘I tried to find a Hindu and a Buddhist too.’
‘Thank God you didn’t.’
Franklin spoke up then, and when Sefton turned to look, he saw that all the clerics were giving him a rather offended look. ‘All we’re saying,’ he said, ‘is that we believe in evil done by people.’
‘That is, and I’m sorry this displeases you so much,’ added Shulman, ‘because I’m a Reform rabbi. But even an Orthodox rabbi will tell you the time of ghosts and shades and shedim is in the distant past.’
‘And I,’ Irfan joined in, ‘spend my whole life trying to make people see how my tradition is a modern, relevant-!’
‘Please, Imam. .’ Quill raised a hand, ‘Rabbi, Reverend, we’re working against the clock here.’
‘I’ll provide you with whatever. . symbols you want,’ said Franklin.
‘As long as you realize-’ Shulman raised his hands warningly.
‘-that they are just objects,’ finished Irfan.
‘Thanks,’ said Sefton, ‘but we’ll be the judge of that.’
Ross produced some large bottles of mineral water. Meanwhile, Sefton watched as Franklin got a book out of his pocket, and found what he needed to say.
‘Father,’ he began, ‘you give us grace through sacramental signs, which tell us of the wonders of your unseen power. In baptism we use your gift of water, which you have made a rich symbol of the grace you give us in this sacrament. .’ When he’d finished, he took the tops off all the bottles. ‘And we need salt,’ he said.
‘What for?’ said Sefton.
‘What’s anything for? It’s what we do in my church.’
Quill found some sachets. Franklin blessed that also, and added it to the bottles. ‘Salt has always been regarded as a protection against evil,’ he said. ‘Maybe that’s because it preserved meat.’
‘Oh, that’d be science,’ said Sefton, failing to keep the triumph out of his voice. He could see what the others were seeing, and what had made Costain look awkward. Like the bastard had half wanted this to be true, because then there’d be rules and something they could fight for, even if it meant he himself was going to Hell. The blessing hadn’t made any difference to the water. Adding the salt hadn’t changed that.
‘Surely, science always applies?’
‘Are you Richard Dawkins in disguise?’
‘Sorry, Reverend,’ said Quill quickly, ‘we really appreciate what you’re doing here.’
‘Perhaps,’ suggested Ross, ‘you could say some different words, maybe something a bit older, a bit more. .’
‘Irrational and superstitious?’ suggested Shulman.
‘Yeah.’
‘Not from me,’ Irfan shook his head. ‘Islam is a blessing upon mankind. Nothing further therefore is needed. Allah will either help you or He won’t. His will isn’t contained in a bottle of water.’ He looked to Franklin. ‘No offence.’
‘None taken.’
Sefton finally gave in to the temptation. He had, for both Costain’s sake and his own, to take this as far as it could go. ‘After our experience the other day,’ he said, ‘I’ve been putting some stuff together.’ He went and found the holdall. He’d been planning to tell the others about it, at some point. ‘Okay,’ he said, ‘what about these?’ He produced four silver crosses attached to chains. Franklin took them in his hands, and blessed them. Doing so made no visible difference to them. He also blessed, rather more reluctantly, the horseshoes intended to be hung upside-down, the crowbars and bits of rusty scrap that the online folklore journal he’d found had called ‘cold iron’, and, with raised eyebrows, the pair of silver-plated handcuffs that had set Sefton back a week’s wages and that he’d distantly worried about claiming on expenses. None of these items glowed with a divine light afterwards.