She hesitated, but there was no way out.
Another nod.
“You lied to me about everything,” he yelled. “You’ve not experienced any reawakening. The words of the prophet haven’t moved you. You mock all that is holy.”
“You’re not the man I once knew.”
“I’m exactly the same man. I was then, and am now, a devout follower of the Prophet Joseph Smith. Heavenly Father has sent the prophet to me. He is here now, watching all of you. He is my guidance. He never lies.”
“It’s not real,” she told him.
The gun shifted among them all, staying aimed, a shaking finger on the trigger. She knew Josepe was an expert marksman, but his mind was wavering.
“Brother Salazar,” Rowan said. “I’m leaving. I will no longer be a part of this.”
“See. He leaves you to do the dirty work,” Stephanie said. “That way he can deny any involvement. Ask the vision if that’s what he wants this apostle to do.”
Josepe’s gaze darted toward the statue, where he stared for a moment.
“Do you really see him?” Cassiopeia asked.
He nodded. “A wondrous sight.”
“Josepe,” Rowan said, his voice filled with pity.
“See what he thinks of you,” Cotton said. “He allowed you to kill that agent in Denmark. Fine by him, as long as it’s you pulling the trigger. Now he doesn’t care what you do to us, just so long as he’s not a part of it.”
Rowan turned and started to walk away.
“Stop,” Josepe screamed.
The senator hesitated, turned his head, and said, “And what will you do? Shoot me? I’m a member of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles. You profess so much obedience. So I assume that means something to you.”
“He’s abandoning you,” Stephanie said. “Leaving you to us. But you can’t kill us all—not before we get you. Do you really think I brought only two agents?”
Actually, Cassiopeia believed just that.
Bad enough what Josepe had already done.
She could not allow him to do any more.
SALAZAR’S MIND REELED.
He stared again at the angel.
“I was the prophet, the seer, the revelator. I was the dictator in the things of God and it was the duty of the faithful to listen to me and do as I told them.”
That he knew to be true.
“It was my plan to form a temporal kingdom that would be subject to no laws of any government. We would make our own laws and have our own civil officers to execute them. When their edicts were sent forth they would be obeyed, without a murmur.”
That was his dream, too.
“Brother Salazar,” Rowan said. “Look at me.”
He turned from the vision.
“There is nothing there. Joseph Smith is dead. He’s not providing any guidance.”
“He speaks blasphemy. He insults me. I am his prophet. Make him obey.”
LUKE KEPT EVERY MUSCLE LIMBER, READY TO REACT, HIS NERVES electrified. Salazar could go any which way and he had to be ready to counter. He could feel the gun pressed at his spine. Malone stayed just behind him, to his left, where a right hand could easily retrieve the weapon. But not with Salazar’s gaze tight on them. They’d need a distraction, preferably one that did not entail anyone getting shot.
“Brother Salazar,” Rowan said. “I will pray to Heavenly Father for your soul, for you have lost your way.”
“If he did,” Stephanie said, “it was because of you. Tell me, Senor Salazar, who encouraged you to form the Danites? Who directed you every step of the way? Who gave all of the commands? And who obeyed? Now ask yourself, is this man, this United States senator, with you or against you?”
Salazar was obviously rattled.
“Which one?” Salazar asked Rowan. “For? Or against?”
SALAZAR WAITED FOR AN ANSWER TO HIS QUESTION. AS DID the angel, who watched Elder Rowan with a stern gaze.
“I did not encourage or condone murder,” Rowan said. “I never have.”
“We murdered no one,” the angel said. “We saved those sinners from the cold and the darkness. That is good and just and right. He is against us, Josepe. The woman speaks the truth.”
“I did not commit murder. I atoned sinners. That is our way.”
“No,” Rowan said. “It is not. No one and nothing in our church condones such an atrocity. What you did is wrong in every way.”
He was hurt by the rebuke.
“We had a grand vision,” Rowan said. “A new Zion. Just as Prophet Joseph wanted. That is still within our grasp. But you, and your foolishness, have placed it all in jeopardy.”
“Where is the document?” he demanded.
“I thought it was here. I was wrong.”
“And now he intends to leave you to these enemies.”
Rowan turned and walked away.
The others stood and watched him.
He still held the gun, finger on the trigger, Cassiopeia’s eyes pleading with him.
“Do it.”
I can’t.
“Then you are no better than him. You have failed me.”
That rebuke he could not bear. The angel had been with him a long time, never yielding, guiding him to this precise moment when he must decide what was more important.
Now or eternity?
He’d always thought the choice clear.
More than anything else, he was loyal to the prophets.
So he swung the gun around and fired.
ROWAN HEARD THE BLAST THEN FELT THE BULLET AS IT PIERCED his right shoulder from behind. At first it was as if someone had shoved him with violence, then a searing pain exploded upward and out, an agony he’d never felt before.
He staggered a few steps, then turned.
Pain both weakened and alarmed him.
Salazar still had his gun aimed.
He opened his mouth to protest, to ask why, to question the foolishness of such an irrational act, but another blast filled his ears.
And the world ended.
SIXTY-NINE
STEPHANIE WATCHED AS SENATOR THADDEUS ROWAN DIED.
Neither she, Luke, Cotton, nor Cassiopeia moved.
Everyone kept still as Salazar ended a problem.
&
nbsp; One down.
Two to go.
CASSIOPEIA WINCED AS JOSEPE COMMITTED MURDER. HER first thought was revulsion, her second anger.
“You did this,” she screamed at Stephanie. “You pushed him.”
“This man is a murderer. Even worse, he’s a delusional murderer. He actually thinks he’s doing good.”
“I am a warrior of God. Server of the prophets,” Salazar said, the gun now aimed straight at Stephanie. “Get. On. Your. Knees.”
“Is that what the angel wants?”
“You mock him?”
Cassiopeia decided to try, “Josepe. Please. Leave these people be and let’s you and I go.”
“You lied to me. You used me. You’re as bad they are.”
“I’m not like them at all.”
Josepe gestured with the gun at Stephanie. “I told you to kneel.”
MALONE REALIZED THIS WAS GOING TO BE TRICKY.
Salazar was deranged. But that didn’t mean he could not be led. In fact, it might make the task easier. He caught Stephanie’s gaze and gave her a slight nod of his head, enough for her to know he was with her.
So she knelt on the dry ground.
Luke stood in front of him, both of them holding their arms at their sides, the gun no more than a foot away, hidden from everyone’s view but his. He searched his eidetic memory for what he’d read in the book back at his shop. Salazar clearly lived in the past, so the past would be his weapon.
He said, “Wherefore, this is the land of promise and the place for the city of Zion. And thus saith the Lord your God, if you will receive wisdom here is wisdom.”
“You know the Doctrine and Covenants?”
“I’ve read it. Verily this is the word of the Lord that the city New Jerusalem shall be built by the gathering of the Saints.”
“And we built it. In Ohio. Missouri. Illinois. And finally in Salt Lake. If you know our teachings then you know that the Prophet Joseph declared that the redemption of Zion comes only by power.”