‘Ah! Now I get it!’ Perse exclaimed. ‘That is why you are so bitter towards Ares, cousin Hephy,’ she said, pointing a finger at Hephaestus. ‘You want mighty Zeus, here,’ she added, pointing to me, ‘to do something nasty to poor, possibly my half-brother, Ares just so you can get your own back without lifting a finger. Ares doesn’t really want to harm us, does he?’
Hephaestus looked longingly at Persephone for some time before replying: ‘Feisty as well as beautiful. What an adorable combination,’ he said, avoiding answering her question.
‘I have to say, Hephy, that what Persephone just said had also crossed my mind,’ Demeter said. ‘Is there a conspiracy against us?’
‘Oh, yeah, you better believe it, or you are surely doomed,’ he replied, rather too dramatically for my liking.
‘Who else is involved?’ I asked.
‘Ploutos will fund the whole operation...’
‘But Ploutos has never been a great admirer of Hera, so why is he siding with her?’ Demeter asked.
‘He has heard rumors that you want to eliminate the wealthy in the mortal world...’
‘Hephy, that is nonsense!’ Demeter exclaimed. ‘It is true we believe that extreme wealth is a sin, is unnecessary...nobody needs billions to live on...’
‘Oh, very Marxist!’ Hephaestus interrupted.
‘We are not communists, yet we do believe that excessive wealth should be redistributed to the more needed or used for the good of the whole community. Nobody needs ten houses, a dozen cars and hedonistic amounts of expensive jewelry...’
‘Oh, I don’t know...’ Persephone began but was cut short by a withering glare from her mother that not even Perse could ignore.
‘Maybe you are right. However, Ploutos believes that if they have earned that wealth then they are entitled to keep it,’ Hephaestus said.
‘Yes, the operative word being if,’ Demeter said.
Hephaestus struggled to his feet and turned to face me.
‘I have told you, in good faith, all I know. It is up to you whether you believe me. I hope your invitation to join you in the mortal world still stands...’
‘Yes, yes, of course it does, Hephy,’ Demeter said.
‘Thank you. You have always been very generous spirited. I will let you know, if I hear of anything else. But please take what I said seriously,’ Hephy said and limped towards the door, which I opened for him with a wave of my hand.
‘Oh, why on earth did we come to this godforsaken place?’ Perse yelled petulantly, after the door had closed behind Hephaestus. She turned away from us and stared out of the window again.
I caught Demeter’s eye and raised my eyebrow. She nodded her beautiful head. ‘Not everything, though,’ I said quietly to her.
I knew what was going through Demeter's mind. We had discussed it for many hours before beginning this journey. It was at the very epicenter of our thinking. I looked across to Persephone.
‘Listen carefully to your mother, Perse, then maybe you will understand why we are here, and why we must soon return to the mortal world.’
‘I don’t know if you realize it, Perse,’ Demeter began, ‘but nearly every major civilization that the mortal world has ever seen eventually collapsed under the weight of political instability and intense greed that inevitably combined to produce massive and widespread corruption on the one hand, and immense poverty, on the other.
‘The fall of the Roman Empire is a classic example. Early in the fourth century – I mean A.D. in the mortal calendar, of course – Emperor Constantine the Great declared that the Roman Empire would forthwith be a Christian state. As such, it suddenly became a monotheistic community after 1,000 years or more of polytheism. Who to pray to, became the critical issue. The people became confused; the generals became confused; the politicians became confused – no surprise there, I suppose. Everybody became greedy, yet nobody was sure to which gods, or God, they should pray for help.
‘And then Constantine came up with what he thought was a masterstroke. He divided the Roman Empire into two zones: the west centered on Rome, and the east, on the new city of Constantinople, named after him. However, it soon became obvious that Constantine’s masterstroke was no such thing. Unfortunately, the flow of trade was from east to west meaning that the flow of money was from west to east. Rome soon became debt-ridden with little hope of a financial savior. People had to look out for themselves; the state was no help to them now. As a result, corruption became rife and the city, defenseless. It didn't take long for the warlords of Europe to realize that the Roman Empire, once so invincible, was now ripe for plucking. The Visigoths invaded Rome; the Franks took France; while the Angles and Saxons walked into Great Britain, which had already been deserted by the Romans.’
Demeter was in full flow now. I looked across at Persephone and was delighted to see that she appeared genuinely interested and engrossed in what her mother was saying.
‘A Holy Roman Empire,’ Demeter continued, ‘emerged in central Europe with allegiance to the Pope in Rome. This Holy Roman Empire had an elected leader. Through the largess of Pope Leo III, Charlemagne was created the first Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. As a modern equivalent – modern in the mortal world, that is – in effect, this was a Christian “European Union” in all but name. This, of course, greatly upset the Eastern Roman Catholics who thought that Irene of Athens should have gotten the gig.
‘After Constantine, new monarchist dynasties sprang up throughout Europe and Britain. These dynasties were greatly assisted by the Roman Catholic Church, which cleverly insisted that all monarchs ruled by Divine Right. Naturally, the monarchs jumped all over that by extravagantly supporting the Church. Unsurprisingly, the Church became very wealthy and politically influential, as did the monarchs and their most trusted aristocrats.
‘These Church-backed dynasties held sway for centuries, while the lot of the struggling masses deteriorated year upon year. It remained thus until the Protestant Reformation, when the Roman Catholic Church began to lose its grip on the monarchs. Nevertheless, the Holy Roman Empire held on until 1806 when Napoleon decisively defeated Frederick William III of Prussia at the battle of Jena-Auerstädt, west of the river Saale in Germany...’
I could see that Persephone’s eyes were beginning to glaze over. I nudged Demeter; she looked at Perse and nodded.
‘You look tired, Perse. Perhaps we will continue this another time,’ Demeter said.
‘Yeah, yeah, whatever. Can we eat now?’
Chapter 7
Attorney General Adam Themison stared at the Director of the FBI in utter disbelief.
‘Ari, are you seriously telling me that some guy took a photograph of the car we’re looking for, and then lost the goddamned camera?’ Adam shouted and immediately regretted his anger as much as the uncharacteristic mild expletive. A devout Catholic, he realized that it was a long time since he had been to confession.
Ari Kratos interrupted his thoughts. ‘He didn’t exactly lose it, sir. His cell phone was stolen, which he reported to the local police who passed it on to us.’
‘What! Oh, the president will love this. Who stole it?’
‘Two local black teenage kids…’
‘And how many black teenage kids are there in Southeast Washington?’ the Attorney General asked.
‘A hell of a lot, sir,’ Ari replied quietly.
‘Which means, at the end of the day, we’ve got diddly-squat.’
‘Not quite, sir. We know from Mr. Ranoch…’
‘Who the hell is Mr. Ranoch?’ Adam asked impatiently.
‘The