Mission by Patrick Tilley

something I have a lot of time for. That goes for a lot of other people too. But there are millions of others of various persuasions who take it very seriously indeed. And the irony is, you could be in big trouble with both groups if you went about telling people who you are.’
    â€˜Tell me something new,’ he replied.
    â€˜No, really, it’s a lot harder now,’ I said. ‘Since you died, there have been quite a few freaks who claimed they were the Messiah, uhh – not that I’m trying to suggest that – ’
    â€˜Sure,’ he said, ‘I know that.’
    â€˜You see,’ I continued, ‘Miriam and I
know
what happened. We don’t need convincing. We saw it with our own eyes. But if you decided to make your presence known to a wider audience, we could encounter a serious credibility problem. Take the Jews for instance. If my people didn’t believe you were you then, what’s going to make them believe you are you now?’
    He nodded thoughtfully. ‘I see what you mean …’
    â€˜It’s the same with the Christians,’ I said. ‘There are plenty of them around but they can’t even agree amongst themselves as to who you were, what you did, what you said, or whether you meant it. I think I’d better tell you that while you’ve been away they’ve been rewriting the script. The Ten Commandments are out, and faggots are in. People still believe in you but they might not be too happy if they knew you’d come back. I have a feeling that most of them would prefer the myth to the real thing.’
    His eyes fastened on mine. ‘But in spite of what you’ve said,
you
believe me.’
    I wriggled uncomfortably under his gaze. ‘Look, uh, I already told you. Religion’s never been a big thing with me. Especially my own.’
    â€˜Religion is not what it’s about, Leo,’ he said. ‘That’s something you people dreamed up. What I’m concerned with is awareness.’
    I grimaced. ‘You may have trouble in putting that across. I hate to tell you this but, in the last twenty years, “awareness” has become one of the world’s great clichés. It’s been exploited by all the wrong kinds of people.’
    â€˜I know,’ he said. ‘The other side has been busy.’
    â€˜The other side?’ I ventured cautiously.
    â€˜Yes,’ he said. ‘Didn’t you know there was a war going on?’
    I hesitated, unwilling to respond to his question, but I couldn’t think of a way out. ‘You mean all those stories about a ceaseless conflict between the Forces of Light and the Forces of Darkness are true?’
    â€˜Yes,’ he said.
    My brain began to back-pedal. ‘Sounds interesting,’ I said flatly. ‘But I’m not clear on where I fit into any of this. I mean, this is big league stuff. What can I do?’
    â€˜That’s something we still have to work out,’ he said.
    My face must have been a picture.
    â€˜Leo,’ he said. ‘This is one fight where you can’t stand on the sidelines. All of us are involved whether we like it or not. So you might as well get used to the idea.’
    Okay, I thought. But don’t expect me to volunteer for hazardous duty. I’m strictly a rear-echelon man.
    If he picked up my cowardly thoughts, he did not reveal it. The one thing I did not need was news of an imminent Armageddon. I decided to steer the conversation back to something more innocuous. ‘I imagine your people must be wondering where you are.’
    â€˜Yes,’ he mused. ‘I wish there was some way I could make contact.’
    I must tell you, I found it odd that he couldn’t. I mean, from the way he’d been built up by the Roman Church, you’d have expected him to have a direct line. But I didn’t press the point. ‘Where were you when you made this last time-jump?’
    â€˜In a village a