Credo

In this future oil has been superseded for power generation and transport by electricity from nuclear fusion, which is stored in advanced batteries and fuel cells. These technologies all depend on Lithium, and most of the world’s Lithium is found in the extraordinary salt-flats of Bolivia and Chile. This has brought new riches to the area, but also new tensions.

The Roman Catholic Church has responded to the decline of its flock in the old world, and the growing importance and wealth of the new world, by founding two new Vatican Cities: one in Brazil and the other in Nigeria. The lack of Catholic clergy in the USA has led to the establishment of mega-parishes visited on “tours” by celebrity priests. The hero of Credo, Father Conor McBride, is one such priest.

This “breakup” of the church, has been interpreted by some conservative Roman Catholics as a sign that the apocalypse is near. Bishop Marius Cárdenas is the leader of Bolivia’s secretive and ultra-conservative Movimiento de la Virgen de Copacaban (MVC). He believes that God has given him the mission, the organisation and the tools to hasten the coming of Christ.

The MVC’s plan is to explode a radioactive dirty bomb in Jerusalem to purge the sacred city of “unbelievers”, a biblical precursor to The Second Coming. Conor is drawn into the plot when his journalist brother, Neil McBride, and Neil’s colleague Padma Dasani, both vanish in Bolivia, while investigating the MVC.