He didn’t need to do a three-point as it developed, because a gate was open to a field, and he drove in and began to turn the Sportina around in a large arc.

“Isn’t that . . . ?” I said, pointing to a car hidden from the road inside a clump of birch saplings.

“Yes it is,” said Friday. “Uncle Miles.”

We parked the Sportina next to Miles’s car and climbed out. Initially he seemed surprised to see us, but soon he realized that if there was any Goliath mischief kicking around, then I’d doubtless be involved somewhere.

Miles Hawke had worked in SpecOps Tactical Support after a brief career in professional croquet. His midair roquet in the 1984 SuperHoop was the high point of his career, as he succumbed to a knee injury soon after. He and my brother Joffy hooked up in 1986 and were married two years later. He had resigned from SO-14 soon after to help Joffy raise the Church of the Global Standard Deity from obscure religious group to the world-dominating force it was today. Of course, this didn’t mean that Miles was involved in the day-to-day running of GSD—he wasn’t. He was simply support for Joffy and looked after his partner’s spiritual and emotional well-being. And on occasions like this, it seemed, he also did a bit of hands-on surveillance. SO-14 training can be useful.

We greeted Miles, and after exchanging pleasantries and the almost mandatory short conversation about the weather, I asked him how Smite Solutions intended to lure the smiting from Swindon.

He pointed at a camera attached to a tree branch high above us. “I have an eye in the sky,” he said. “Take a look.”

He was holding a miniature flat-screen TV in his hand, and the camera above gave us a good view of the airfield. A good but unremarkable view of the airfield. Even when he remotely zoomed the camera, it was quite unexciting—just a large marquee that had been set up right in the middle of the main runway.

“That’s it?” I said.

“You don’t actually need a marquee,” said Miles, “but Goliath knows full well that not even the supremely sinful will wait to be scoured from the face of the earth by a flash of energy without at least a choice of drink and a sports channel to watch.”

Friday understood first.

“Are you telling me,” he said, “that Goliath aims to divert the smite by having a few immoral people collected together?”