Holy Fire - Bruce Sterling [97]
“Thank you, madame,” said the plane. “Are we ready for departure?”
“I suppose we are,” Novak grumbled. The long slender wings underwent a silent high-speed vibration. The plane ascended vertically.
Novak gazed out the window with silent concentration until the last of his beloved Praha was out of sight. Then he turned to her.
“Do you model? Surely you must,” he said.
“Sometimes.”
“Do you have an agency?”
“No. I’ve never modeled for real money.” She paused. “I don’t want to do it for money. But I’ll model for you, if you want me to.”
“Can you show clothes? Do you know how to walk?”
“I’ve seen models walking.… But no, I don’t know how.”
“Then I’ll teach you,” Novak said. “Watch carefully, and see how I place my feet.” They stood and their chairs vanished instantly, like silent burst balloons. Without the clutter of chairs around, there was lots of room to learn.
In 2065, Innocent XIV had become the first pope to undergo life extension. The exact nature of the pope’s treatment was shrouded in mystery, a rare and very diplomatic exception to the usual political practice of full medical disclosure. The pope’s decision, with its profound violation of the natural God-given life span and its grave challenge to the normal processes of papal succession, had caused a crisis in the Church.
The College of Cardinals, meeting in council to discuss the implications of the pope’s action, had experienced an episode of divine possession. Their frenzied spiritual exaltation, ecstatic dancing, and babbling in tongues had looked to skeptics like chemically propelled hallucination. But those who had directly experienced the descent of holy fire had no doubt of its sacred origin. The Church had always survived the uncharitable speculations of skeptics.
After this divine intervention, formal Church approval of certain processes of posthumanization had swiftly followed. The Church now recommended its own designated series of life-extension techniques. These approved medical procedures, along with modern entheogenic tincture communions and various spiritual disciplines, were formally known as the “New Emulation of Christ.”
The humble and metabolically tireless Holy Father, with his long white beard now grown out black for half its length, had become a central, iconic figure of European modernity. Many had once considered Innocent a mere careerist, the genial caretaker of an ancient faith in decline. After the holy fire, it became clear to all that the reborn pope possessed genuinely superhuman qualities. The pope’s astonishing eloquence, his sincerity and his manifest goodwill, shook even the most cynical.
As his chemically amplified Church reconquered the lost ground of ancient Christendom, the vicar of Christ began to manifest miracles unknown since the days of the apostles. The pope had cured the lame and the halt with a word and a touch. He had cast out devils from the minds of the mentally ill. Furthermore, their recovery was often permanent.
He could also prophesy—in detail, and often rather accurately. Many people believed that the pope could read minds. This paranormal claim was attested not merely by credulous Catholics, but by diplomats and statespeople, scientists and lawyers. His uncanny insight into the souls of others had often been demonstrated on the world political stage. Hardened warlords and career criminals, brought into private audience with the pontiff, had emerged as shattered men, confessing their sins to the world in an agony of regret.
Pope Innocent had succored the poor, sheltered the homeless, shamed recalcitrant governments into new and more humane social policies. He had founded mighty hospitals and teaching orders, libraries, netsites, museums, and universities. He had dotted Europe with shelters and amenities for the mendicant and pilgrim. He had rebuilt the Vatican, and