THE ACOLYTE

Jonah Murtag is an Acolyte on the New Bethlehem police force. His job: eradicate all heretical religious faiths, their practitioners, and artefacts. Murtag''s got problems-one of his partners is a zealot, and he''s in love with the other one. Trouble at work, trouble at home. Murtag realizes that you can rob a citizenry of almost anything, but you can''t take away its faith. When a string of bombings paralyzes the city, religious fanatics are initially suspected, but startling clues point to a far more ominous perpetrator. If Murtag doesn''t get things sorted out, the Divine Council will dispatch The Quints, aka: Heaven''s Own Bagmen. The clock is ticking towards doomsday for the Chosen of New Bethlehem. And Jonah Murtag''s got another problem. The biggest and most worrisome . . . Jonah isn''t a believer anymore.