“Baalzebub is the master of lies, Father. It is his nature to deceive. You said so yourself. Perhaps he's buying some time.”

“Buying time until what?”

The chubby holy man shrugged.

Thrist stopped short of rolling his eyes. “Look, Rabbi, the creature has only been awake for a week. He was discovered in Panama, which, the last time I checked, is not an English-speaking country. He'd been buried since the time of the Mayans. It's hardly likely he knows English.”

Shotzen folded his arms. “I'm convinced he's deceiving us.”

“Do you at least agree he's a demon?”

“I'm undecided. You're the debunking expert, yet you seem to be eating this up.”

“If Bub's a fake, I can't spot it.” Thrist said. “And I’m good at spotting deception.”

The bleeding painting had been unremarkable in its execution, a typical pieta scene. But streaking down the Virgin's face were trails of blood, and a puddle the size of a throw rug was pooling on the floor.

Thrist's first reaction to it was disbelief, but upon examination he couldn't find any holes or tubes behind the canvas, and the blood smelled, felt, and even tasted real. Could this truly be a miracle?

The gathering crowd seemed to think so. The old mestizo woman who owned the painting was charging people five dollars a head to come in and genuflect after dipping their fingers in the puddle of blood.

This incensed the priest. His parishioners were worshiping a false idol, rather than God. But he couldn't figure out the trick.

His epiphany would come the following day at lunch, when he was making himself a grilled cheese sandwich in the toaster oven. He'd left it in too long and the toast burned, all of the cheese melting and leaking out from between the bread.

That, of course, was the answer.

He had returned to the apartment, his Roman collar allowing him to bypass a line that stretched around the block, and again asked to examine the painting. The several burly men standing over the growing pile of money almost refused, but the old woman relented. In one quick move Thrist seized the painting and dashed it to the floor.

There were several cries of horror. The cries turned to outrage when he held up the broken frame and showed the crowd the hollow middle where the blood had been stored. Then he tore the false canvas off the back of the painting, exposing the thin plastic tube that fed the blood from the reservoir in the frame to the Virgin's eyes. They had sandwiched the tube between two canvases, attempting to make them appear as one. Thrist guessed that there was a hole somewhere in the frame that they could use to refill it with chicken blood, or whatever blood they'd been using.

“Still searching for the fakery?” Shotzen mused. “It's there. You just aren't looking close enough.”

“I've been looking for it for over thirty years,” Thrist replied.

Shotzen sighed. “Michael, you've said it yourself. Adonai works in subtle ways. You’ve spoken to me about your acne and your facial tic, and how they went away during your early years as a priest. That's how ha-shem works. He isn't a show off like this.”

Shortly after he’d proven the painting a fake, Thrist’s childhood afflictions had gone away. But whether that had been a sign from God or simply a physical manifestation of his own growing self-confidence, Thrist had never decided.

“Rabbi, what other explanation is there? We've been discussing this since your arrival more than twenty years ago. We've done the research. We've posed the theories. Fallen angel, genetic experiment, biological weapon, man in a rubber suit—neither of us can find any evidence of fraud.”

“So just because we can't see it, it isn't there? During your tour as Vatican Examiner, did you ever authenticate a miracle?”

Thrist frowned. “No.”

It had been a wonderful time for Thrist, serving the Lord with a renewed vigor. His Eminence the Cardinal removed him from the Chicago parish and Thrist traveled throughout the Americas, investigating miraculous phenomena. Sometimes the occurrence was amusing, such as the case in Texas where Christ's face had appeared simultaneously on several dozen cow patties—they turned out to be hoof marks. Sometimes it was appalling, such as the baby who was supposedly exhibiting signs of the stigmata, when actually it was his disturbed mother inflicting the wounds with a razor blade.

But for all his travels, he never authenticated a miracle.

“Look at the mounting evidence,” Thrist insisted. “Bub has mentioned both heaven and Jesus Christ. He can resurrect sheep. He speaks in ancient tongues...”

“What language is he speaking now?”

“I'm not sure. Sounds like Egyptian.”

“I tell you, the beast is a liar. He can speak all languages, I'm convinced. Watch this.”

Shotzen marched over the Plexiglas and gave it a tap, drawing Bub's attention.

“Anachnu holchim leshamen otcha ve'lehchol otcha,” he said to Bub.

Bub cocked his head to the side, doing a damn good imitation of confusion.

“What did he say?” Sun asked.

“He told Bub we're going to fatten him up and eat him,” Andy turned to Shotzen. “Isn't the food here good enough for you, Rabbi?”

“Fah!” Shotzen said, pointing at the demon. “You understand me. I know you do. Admit it!”

Bub looked hard at Shotzen, and the holy man took a step back, dropping his arm.

“He understands me.” Shotzen whispered. “Every word.”

“Perhaps Yiddish?” Thrist offered a tight smile. Mirth was an emotion he rarely showed, but the whole idea of a demon speaking Hebrew amused him. Everyone knew demons spoke Latin.

Epiphany.

“Latin,” Thrist said aloud.

He rushed the glass, pressing his palms against it.

“Potesne dicere Latinam?” he asked Bub.

Can you speak Latin?

The demon turned his attention to the priest. “Ita, Latinam dico.”

Yes, I speak Latin.

“Ubi Latinam didicisti?” Thrist asked.

Where did you learn Latin?

“Me abimperatore in loco appellato Roma ea docta est.”

It was taught to me by an emperor in a place called Rome.

“Quis rex erat? Quando regnabat?”

Who was this king? When did he rule?

“Aliquem hac aetate eum noscere dubito. Misere cecidit. Membra senatus sui eum insidiis interfecerunt.”

I doubt anyone remembers him in this era. He died poorly. Members of his senate assassinated him.

“Caesar!” Thrist cried, his voice cracking in an octave that was normally too high for him. “Julius Caesar!”

“Illud erat nomen,” Bub said. His voice was oddly sensual, almost a verbal caress. “Quis nunc imperator tuus est?”

That was his name. Who is your emperor in this age?”

“What just happened?” Sun asked.

“Apparently Julius Caesar taught Bub Latin,” Andy replied.

Thrist’s heart was threatening to burst from his rib cage. He was talking with a being who lived in the era of Christ. In the same part of the world. This was even more incredible than he'd imagined.

A demon by itself was ample evidence for the existence of God. But could this creature also prove without doubt that Jesus was God's son on earth?

This was the dawn of a new era. Religious differences, agnosticism, atheism, war, inhumanity; they'd all be things of the past. The world would embrace Bub's message and a collective effort would be made to worship the one true God. The Christian God.

Thrist's God.

“Habesne cognitionem viri religiosi ex Galileo, qui in Bethlehem natus est? Iudaes qui multos disipulos habebat?”

Did you know of a religious man from Galleli, born in Bethlehem? A Jew with a large following?

“Jeeeesus Christ,” Bub said the name in English. “I haaaaave seeeeen Jeeeeesus.”

The breath caught in Thrist's throat and his lower jaw began to tremble. All the Bible study, all the research, all the prayers, none of it had brought Thrist as close to God as he was feeling right now.