when the armies come, the mask will fall.”

“It’s hard news. We are lost.

They will turn our own science against us.”

“No they won’t.”

“Why?”

“Because I and a handful of the faithful have blocked that game. I’ll tell you what I’ve done, and what moved me to it. Smart as you are, the Church was smarter. It was the Church that sent you cruising — through her servants, the doctors.”

“Clarence!”

“It is the truth. I know it. Every officer of your ship was the Church’s picked servant, and so was every man of the crew.”