“Nine years,” she said precisely. “I know that ‘cause the kids and I started going to the church after my husband died—he was a firefighter here in Kennesaw. Died rescuing a child from an apartment blaze.” She sighed and swirled her glass absently, clinking together the ice cubes. “My husband and baby are together now in heaven, waiting on me and my son to join them one day.”
In spite of the multiple tragedies that had struck her, she spoke of her family’s final reunion in heaven with complete conviction. He wondered about that. When he thought of his own parents, he didn’t envision a heavenly gathering with them someday, though he had once entertained such fantasies.
He thought of just . . . nothing. And at certain times, as it did then, it left him feeling cold and empty, as if nothing really mattered at all.
57
“Daddy invited me to bring the kids to the church,” Susie continued. “He’d been working at New Kingdom for a while by then. Growing up, I’d never much been into church. But after my husband died, I needed to believe there was something more than living and dying.”
“And you found it there?” Anthony asked.
“Let me tell you, honey—the minute I set foot in that sanctuary and said I was a visitor, I was just overwhelmed with attention. Folks ‘bout fell over themselves to introduce themselves to me and my kids. Everyone was so darn nice, so eager to be a friend and make sure I knew that yeah, there was a whole lot more to life, and I could find it right there with them. Next thing I knew, I’d joined up, and I was going to in-home Bible study and reporting to a servant leader.”
“What’s a servant leader?” Lisa asked.
“Sort of like a coach or a mentor, I guess you’d say. Your servant leader heads up your Bible study group and checks in with you a lot, prays with you, makes sure you’re growing in your faith and being accountable to the Lord and the church—not being a backslider, as they like to say.”
“Sliding back to your old life,” Anthony said.
“Back to your sinful ways, uh-huh. And some of everything is considered sin. Like missing Sunday service or Bible study. Doubting what you’re being taught. Not paying your tithes. Questioning the Prophet’s authority or ideas.”
“Bishop Prince, you mean,” Anthony said.
“We were supposed to call him the Prophet.” Crimson burned her cheeks. “What a joke.”
“But you liked him at one time, or else you wouldn’t have joined,” Lisa said.
“Liked him?” Susie laughed bitterly. “I used to believe everything the Prophet—excuse me, Bishop Prince—taught. From God’s mouth, to his ear, is how he said he ‘received’ his sermons. He had an anointing on him like I’ve never seen, or so I’d thought. It was something to see.”
“I’ve seen him in action on TV,” Lisa said. “He’s quite charismatic.”
“We devoted our lives to the church, and we were happy to do it,” Susie said. “Soon as we got settled in good with the church, we got busy doing Kingdom building.”
“Kingdom building?” Anthony asked.
“Each and every servant doing his or her part to make the world a better place,” Susie said. “A cleaner place. Spiritually cleaner, I mean. The secular world celebrates sex outside of marriage, gratuitous violence in entertainment, air-headed celebrities, morally bankrupt values. Everyone knows it, everyone complains about it, but no one does anything. Well, Kingdom building is all about doing something concrete, making your contribution.”
“What would you do?” Lisa asked.
“I work for the county as an acquisitions librarian,” she said. “That means I have a lot of say over the books we purchase for our collection. I would campaign against acquiring any books that were morally questionable—like your books, Mr. Thorne. That violent, vigilante fiction you write?” Disgust twisted her face. “Hmph. Let me tell you, I made sure that it wasn’t on the shelves of my library, no matter how much the patrons fussed about it.”
Anthony looked at Lisa, and the shock on her face mirrored his own. This woman knew exactly who he was.
Perhaps that was another reason why she had invited them inside her home.
“Shouldn’t a library patron have the right to decide what he or she wants to read?” Anthony asked. “What you’re describing is a form of censorship.”
Susie laughed hoarsely. “ ‘Course it is. That’s what Kingdom building was all about. Limiting choices and restricting freedoms. ‘Giving people what they need,’ as Bishop Prince calls it—which isn’t the same thing as giving them what they want.”
“Giving them material approved by the church, in other words,” Lisa said.
“I was awfully misguided, but I didn’t see it that way at the time,” Susie said. “Outside of my work at the library, I was in a church group, too. Mothers Against Violence In Entertainment—MAVIE. MAVIE would send protest letters to television networks, record companies, book publishers, video game creators, film studios. A couple of years back, we organized a demonstration on the set of a big-budget action movie filming right here in Atlanta. Let me tell you, we splattered ourselves with red dye, carried around fake severed body parts, really whooped it up, put on a good ole’ show.”
“I remember that,” Anthony said. “It made the news.”
“Uh-huh. National news, too. Those Hollywood folks were so mortified they left town with their tails between their legs and filmed their trash in Canada instead. I thought that was a shining moment for the Lord.”
“Sounds like you were very zealous,” Lisa said.
“More like very dumb. Now look, I still despise gratuitous violence in media and think it glorifies the worst in human nature, but my personal beliefs don’t give me the right to keep other folks from watching it or reading it—even if I think they’re rotting their brains by doing so.” “So you no longer attend New Kingdom, I gather,” Lisa said.
Susie looked at them as if Lisa’s comment were the most absurd statement ever made.
“After what happened to my baby? After what that terrible man who calls himself a prophet did to her?”
Embarrassment seared Lisa’s face, and she stammered.
“We’re sorry,” Anthony said. “It’s just that Bob never went into any details with me about Kelley. He didn’t tell me much about his family at all, actually.”
“And I apologize if I offended you,” Lisa said. “We’re in the dark here, honestly.”
Susie gazed out the window for a long moment, a faraway look in her eyes.
“Before Daddy went away, he told me you might come calling, Mr. Thorne.” She turned to him, and her eyes seemed to be aglow. “He didn’t tell me what was going on between you two, and to be honest, I don’t want to know—but he said I should help y’all with whatever you ask. He said you were going to get justice for all of us.”
“Bob has a high opinion of me,” Anthony said.
“Shouldn’t he?” Susie asked, her gaze direct.
“I’ll take you up on your offer for help.” He picked up the Bible, opened it to one of the pages full of highlighted passages, and showed it to her. “What do you think of this?”
Susie took the book, and scowled as she had when holding it the first time. “I was going to tell you this. This isn’t my daughter’s Bible, even though it says here that it is.”
The bottom fell out of Anthony’s stomach. “That’s not Kelley’s Bible?”
“No. I have her Bible. It’s still in her room . . . I haven’t moved anything in there.” She dabbed at her eyes, looked away from them.
“All this time, we thought it belonged to her,” Lisa said.
“Could be that’s what Daddy wanted the servants to think if they got hold of it,” Susie said. “He knows how they tick better than anybody.”
“We’ve been through maybe ten percent of the highlighted verses,” Anthony said. “We haven’t been able to make sense of them, but we were thinking they were some kind of coded messages.”
“I doubt I could figur
e them out, either.” She riffled through pages. Shrugging, she passed the Bible to Lisa. “But your thinking about a code is right on the nose, dear. Daddy loves crossword puzzles, brain teasers, word games, that sort of thing. Lives for it, bless his heart.”
“Where is Bob?” Anthony asked. “Maybe I can call him and clear this up.”
She shook her head. “I got no idea where he is. He’s gone, and I don’t have a number for him. He called me late last night, and I had a funny feeling that he’d gone out the country, or was planning to soon.”
“Great,” Anthony said. “We’re back to square one.”
Susie rose. “I’m sorry. I wish I could be more helpful to y’all.”
“Thanks anyway for taking the time to speak to us,” Lisa said. “We appreciate the hospitality.”
At the front door, Anthony paused. “One more thing.”
“Sure.” She had picked up one of the Pomeranians, and cuddled the dog in her arms.
“After becoming so disillusioned with the church, and after what happened to your daughter, what helps you cope? You seem so . . . together.”
Lips buttoned in thought, Susie hesitated, absently stroking the small dog behind the ears.
“I’ll tell you what, some days are much harder than others,” she said. “But my gardening helps me a lot. The past couple of months, it’s been my passion, my escape, I guess. Like it’s all that shocking if you look ‘round the house.”
“Gardening, huh? That’s the key?”
“The key?” She frowned. “Well, if you wanna put it like that . . . the key’s been my faith.”
“But after your experience at the church . . .”
“Mr. Thorne, what does having faith got to do with anybody’s church?”
He considered her question for a moment, and couldn’t think of an answer. Awkwardly, he thanked her again for her time and walked away from the house to join Lisa on the sidewalk, Susie Marrow’s question still echoing in the chambers of his mind, summoning thoughts that he wasn’t prepared to consider.
58
Cutty had never been blessed with a personal audience with the Prophet. In his stunned mind, he thought the experience of being in the same space with the holy man was perhaps the equivalent of what Moses had felt when confronted with the presence of God in the burning bush.
He dropped to his knees and bowed his head.
Although the Prophet sat in a high-backed chair on the other side of the chamber, Cutty felt the man’s aura radiating from him like waves of intense heat, as if some sort of spiritual sun blazed in the man’s soul. Fat beads of sweat appeared on Cutty’s forehead, and his palms, pressed flat against the cold tile floor, became clammy.
“I am not worthy of this,” Cutty whispered, trembling. “Am I in the correct place, your holiness? I was ordered to meet the Director here.”
The Prophet answered in the booming voice that had captivated millions across the world.
“You are in the right place, indeed, Noah Cutty—exactly where God wants you to be. I informed the Director that I wished to speak with you myself.”
Words failed Cutty. Mute, he kept his head lowered to the tiles, drops of sweat coursing off his brow and plopping against the floor.
But questions stormed through his mind. Did the Prophet wish to personally rebuke him for his failure to eliminate Thorne? Was he going to cast him out of the ranks of the Armor of God and relegate him to a lowly role in the Kingdom? Was he going to condemn him to hell for his ineptitude?
Please, have mercy on my soul, Lord, he prayed, feverishly. Please ask your prophet to deal gently with me.
Cutty heard the Prophet push his chair away from the table, heard the thud of footsteps as the Prophet approached, and caught a hint of the anointed one’s scent—he smelled like divine power made manifest.
The Prophet touched Cutty’s shoulder. Cutty flinched as a sensation like electricity buzzed through his muscles.
“On your feet, Kingdom servant. We will speak to each another as men of God.”
Cutty inclined his head, and stood on wobbly knees.
The Prophet was six feet seven inches tall, which gave him nearly a foot and a half height advantage over Cutty. His awesome aura served to make him seem even larger, impossibly huge, giant-like.
Before him, Cutty he felt no bigger than a ground-hugging insect.
Cutty was dimly aware that they were not the only ones present in the softly-lighted chamber. A trio of others lurked in the shadows, well-built men clad in white tracksuits, Armor of God agents assigned to the Prophet’s private security detail. Although they worked in the same division, if Cutty had made a threatening move to draw a weapon or somehow harm the Prophet, they would not have hesitated to chop him down—Cutty understood this without needing to be told, for he would have done the same thing.
With a long finger, the Prophet directed Cutty toward a leather chair. “Sit.”
One of the agents pulled out the chair for Cutty, and Cutty did as he was told, thankful to relieve his watery knees. Another agent handled the chair across the table for the Prophet.
The Prophet folded his long, slender hands on the polished tabletop and gazed directly at Cutty. Cutty wanted to look away—looking into the Prophet’s dark eyes was like looking at your own terrible fate if you disobeyed God—but an unseen force held his head still, as if his skull had been placed in a vise.
“You have been a loyal servant of the kingdom for twelve years,” the Prophet said. “For the past eight, you have served as a soldier for God, in whatever capacity has been asked of you. Yes?”
“Yes.” His voice was ragged, and he cleared his throat and said in a clearer tone, “Yes. That is true, your grace.”
“Faithful servants such as you are the foundation of the Kingdom. The sturdy stones on which the Kingdom stands. Without your service, our Kingdom would be doomed to crumble and wash away as readily as a child’s sand castle underneath the breaking waves of the ocean.”
Listening to the Prophet’s mesmerizing voice, Cutty’s lips parted slightly, and he found himself tilting forward, entranced.
If the Prophet had ordered him to place his Glock to his own head and pull the trigger, he would have done so without hesitation.
“Will you continue to serve our God as you have done thus far?” the Prophet asked.
“Absolutely. Nothing means more to me than serving the Lord. I’ll do anything required, I’ll die for God, for you.”
The Prophet smiled. He leaned back in his chair, slender fingers tented.
“God speaks to me daily,” the Prophet said. “He gives me messages to deliver to the flock, in my sermons, in my books. Have you read my most recent book?”
“The Keys to the Kingdom? Yes, I’ve read it—ten times.”
A nod of approval. “What did you think of it?”
“You shed light on many things that had sometimes perplexed me. It was a blessing on my life.”
“Thank you. As I was saying, God speaks to me daily, and I share these messages in sermons, in written materials, and in other forms. But those are messages intended for our global flock. Occasionally, our Lord will give me a message that I am charged to personally deliver to only one servant.”
Cutty remembered the stories of the Prophet appearing in a servant’s home, or servants receiving phone calls or e-mails from the Prophet. Although he had known such things occurred, he had never imagined that he might one day be the recipient of such a communication.
The Prophet leveled his gaze on him.
“This morning, God gave me a message to deliver to you, Noah Cutty.”
“Me?”
“Do you wish to receive it?”
“Yes!”
“You are to bring Anthony Thorne Junior here, to the Armory, alive and unharmed.”
Cutty frowned. “You want Thorne alive? But the Director said earlier that I was to eliminate—”
The Prophet raised his finger, and Cutty’s words faltered in h
is throat as he realized the terrible sin he had committed.
He bowed his head and clasped his hands together in his lap. He trembled as if expecting a bolt of lightning to crackle through the ceiling and strike him down where he sat.
The Prophet said, “When God commanded Abraham to take Isaac, his only son, to a mountain top in the land of Moriah and present him as a burnt offering to the Lord, did Abraham ask God why?”
“No, your grace,” he said, unable to meet the Prophet’s penetrating gaze. “Abraham obeyed God without question. Questioning God’s authority is a sin. I beg your forgiveness for my trespass.”
The Prophet rose from his chair and strolled around the table. He placed his hand on Cutty’s shoulder as if they were brothers. Cutty’s shoulder tingled from the contact.
“Do what God commands, Noah Cutty,” he said. “Serve him, and you will be blessed with the desires of your heart. There is one servant, Maria Valdez, your partner, for whom your heart longs, yes?”
Cutty’s lips quivered. The Prophet knew of his feelings for Valdez? He’d told no one about his growing affection for her.
But the Prophet was God’s messenger. He knew everything.
“Yes,” Cutty said. “I’m very fond of her.”
The Prophet chuckled softly. “It is not good for man to be alone. The man who finds a wife finds a good thing, for a good wife is the crown of her husband.”
“I will serve God,” Cutty said. “Please, forgive my doubts—Satan tried to lead me astray.”
“The Adversary is busy at work, indeed, even within Kingdom walls,” the Prophet said. “Rise now.”
When he rose, the Prophet folded him into a warm, brotherly hug.
“God and I love you, Noah Cutty,” the Prophet said. “We forgive you.”
Cutty held onto him like a child embracing a father. Warm tears slid down his cheeks.
This was the most memorable day of his life—the day that God’s Prophet had personally called upon him to serve and bring the Kingdom glory. If only Father could have seen him then. He would have been so proud.
The Prophet gently nudged Cutty away.
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