"I am bringing it about," he said complacently. "Masses of people are impatient for it. They're eager to embrace it, to embrace me. But it's not yet time. And until the time is right, we must work toward our goal in secrecy, Melina.
"Can you imagine the worldwide bedlam that would erupt if my plans were exposed prematurely, before the children are old enough to assume the positions for which they're being so carefully cultivated?"
"Couples like the Andersons would storm this place." "You see my point."
"Women who had conceived by any means of artificial insemination would panic."
"Exactly."
"They'd be terrified of the risk of accidental incest."
"Not a possibility yet," he said. "The first generation of children haven't reached puberty. But we've prepared for it. There's already in place a tagging system that will prevent brothers and sisters, or sons and mothers, from coupling in the future."
Closing her eyes briefly, she shuddered. "My God."
"In any event," he continued blandly, "no good purpose would be served by informing the public before the optimum time."
"Except that it would stop you."
"And I can't allow that to happen." He clasped his hands on his knee and, sighing, said, "Consequently, I'm faced with the dilemma of what to do with you."
She squared her shoulders. "You won't kill me."
He arched one golden eyebrow in a silent query.
"As you've demonstrated, you're not stupid," she said to him. "Too many people know that I was coming here to confront you."
He cracked a wide smile. "Not a problem. We've got a contingency plan for that. Right, Mr. Hancock?"
"That's correct, Brother Gabriel."
Nervously she glanced at Hancock, who stood between her and the door.
"You see, Melina, like Gillian, you made a serious miscalculation. A bad choice, as it were. That unfortunate choice ordained your dispensability."
"What about the Program?"
"In what regard?" He was being deliberately obtuse. Furthermore, he was enjoying it.
"I thought you planned for me to take Gillian's place." "That was the plan. But, to my great sorrow—genuinely,
my
great
sorrow—we've discovered that you and Gillian were not, in fact, identical."
"But we were."
"No," he said, drawing out the word. "There was a difference. And, as it applies to the Program, that difference is immense, I'm afraid." His beautiful eyes turned sad and sympathetic. His mouth turned down at the corners. "You, Melina, are of no worth to me whatsoever. You, my dear, underwent a hysterectomy."
CHAPTER 40
"
Jem Hennings didn't know about that, did he?" Brother Gabriel continued with the same taunting inflection. "Like a good sister, Gillian never discussed your medical history." Lowering his voice to a confidential whisper, he said, "Your female problems."
She kept her expression impassive, although his insulting tone made it difficult.
"Gillian never told Mr. Hennings about those pesky ovarian cysts that beset you when you were only twenty-seven. Thankfully they turned out to be benign. Following the surgery, you were no worse for wear. Except, of course, that you no longer had reproductive organs."
"How did you... how..."
"How did I know? Hennings was a good man, but on this one point he failed to do his homework. He was so eager to replace Gillian, you see. Mr. Hancock conducted a more thorough background check on you."
He reached for her hand and pressed it between his own. "I assume you barged in here believing that you could barter your life for a contribution to the Program. You reasoned that I would be reluctant to harm you since you had been selected to bear one of my children in Gillian's place. Unfortunately. . He raised his shoulders in a sad, sympathetic shrug.
"When Agent Tobias arrives—and we know he soon will, probably accompanied by the Dallas homicide detective, possibly even Colonel Hart—they'll find the compound in an uproar. A crazed woman, erroneously believing that I was somehow connected to her sister's murder, managed to breach our security.
"Although misguided and emotionally distraught, this young woman was extremely resourceful. She got as far as my private quarters, where she threatened my life with a firearm far too large and unwieldy for her small hand. But determination gave her strength and, for several terrifying minutes, enabled her to hold me at gunpoint. However, when she was ultimately cornered and ordered to relinquish the pistol, she put it to her own head."
He let all that sink in before continuing.
"After the mess is mopped up, the authorities will be given unrestricted access to the Temple. If you're very nice, Melina, I'll let you in on a little secret. Mr. Hancock has recorded every document in a code only he can decipher. Shh, don't tell." He even held his finger to his lips and winked at her.
She was in the company of madness.
"But to the FBI and anyone else who peruses the records," he continued, "they will seem to be those of a law-abiding American with no criminal tendencies whatsoever. We don't take the allowed tax exemption granted to churches. We pay our taxes. The ministry is not anti-government. As you see, I advocate patriotism." He motioned toward the American flag in the corner of the room.
"Yes, they'll find children and their mothers living together happily in a communal setting, which is of their choosing and which breaks no laws. They'll see that our school is fully accredited and indeed is superior to most public schools. Within the compound is a medical facility.
"I, of course, will lament Dale Gordon's descent into insanity and grieve over the tragic chain of events that a former disciple set into motion, which, to my horror, culminated in your ghastly suicide."
"Peace and love," she said quietly.
"Precisely, Melina."
Again, his complacent smile made her want to strike him. Instead she withdrew her hand from between his and took a step back. "You've forgotten a few things."
"I don't think so, but I'll be happy to listen to your observations."
"Tobias and Lawson know that you were in close contact with Dale Gordon. Chief heard Jem admit that they worked for you."
"Explainable. Hennings and Gordon devised this plan themselves. They had warped my message, perverted it to fit their vision of a new world order. Joshua and—"
"Joshua?"
"The man who impersonated Tobias. He was hired by Hennings. I knew nothing about it. Obviously they had a disagreement, probably over his fee. He turned on Hennings and killed him."
"Joshua may tell a different story."
"Joshua is uniquely skilled to transform himself and avoid capture. He has before. He will again."
"Say Jem and Dale Gordon had hatched this plan," she said. "They could hardly implement it without your cooperation. You had to send them sperm."
"I had sent specimens to Gordon for analysis."
"To—"
"Check for genetic abnormalities I didn't wish to pass down. He was doing tests in his spare time, at my request. I'm speechless to discover what was happening to these specimens once I sent them."
She tugged on her lower lip. "The children here."
"The mothers will truthfully claim that I sired many of them. Fathering children outside of wedlock might be considered a sin by some, but I consider it a holy responsibility. It's certainly not an indictable offense."
"But they'll run DNA tests on the others that will prove they're yours."
"What others?" he asked innocently.
"The Andersons' baby. The other kidnapped children who were brought here. The—" She stopped suddenly. Then, remembering, she said slowly, "The ones on the buses."
He glanced at Mr. Hancock. "Is she referring to our production buses?"
"It would seem so, Brother Gabriel. They're the only buses I know of."
Brother Gabriel looked back at her as though to say, Anything else? "By the way, I've been remiss. I haven't thanked you for having Gillian's body cremated, thus eliminating DNA testing on intrauterine tissue. It wouldn't have proved that I knew anything about Gordon inseminating her with my sperm, but it could possibly have lengthened the investigation, and my schedule is already so demanding as it is. I really didn't have time for any of this. I'm relieved it's almost over and I can get on with my work."
"Don't pat yourself on the back yet. The other woman you had killed days after she conceived? Tobias is having her remains exhumed. They'll test the fetus."
"And it will match my DNA. Fortunately, I donated sperm to the sperm bank that supplies the clinic where she was a patient. There would be a logical explanation for any mixup."
She held his gaze for several moments, knowing with certainty that he was in the grip of unmitigated insanity. "You seem to have everything covered."
"We strive to be thorough. We couldn't be successful if we weren't. Years of..." To his utter astonishment, she started laughing. "Melina?"
"I hate to dash your record of successes, but you have missed something,
preacher
"
He liked neither her terminology nor her disparaging tone.
Brusquely, he motioned toward her. "Mr. Hancock. I see no benefit in further delay."
Hancock grabbed her arms from behind. She submitted without a struggle, which came as another surprise to Brother Gabriel. Even when Hancock pushed the barrel of Longtree's pistol against her temple, she didn't flinch.
"So now I commit suicide, is that the plan?"
"That's the plan." Brother Gabriel came to stand within inches of her. "I'm terribly sorry it had to end like this, Melina." His fingers trailed over her cheek, her neck, her breast. "Truly I am."
. His touch revolted her, but she didn't give him the satisfaction of cringing. "You don't know how sorry you're going to be if you order him to pull the trigger."
"Why is that?"
"Because it's easy to issue an order and have someone else kill for you. It's quite another to look a woman in the eye and kill her yourself."
"You'll have to do better than that."
"All right. If you kill me, you'll destroy yourself."
He smiled. "Riddles, Melina?"
She would never know which puzzled him most—her soft laugh or her softly spoken answer to the riddle.
He reflexively retracted his hand. The facade crumbled. All pretense vanished, and it was no longer Brother Gabriel looking at her with abject hatred. It was Alvin Medford Conway.
And it was he who angrily gestured for Hancock to get on with it.
Penetrating the Temple turned out to be easier than Tobias had anticipated. It wasn't without its obstacles, but it wasn't the fiasco it could have been. He had dreaded a full-scale standoff or shoot-out with cult members. The bureau didn't need the negative publicity, and, if it went the way of similar incidents where people were wounded or killed, his career
would be put on hold for the years required to conduct a thorough investigation.
But when he flashed his ID at the guard in the gatehouse, the young man was awestruck by Tobias and the men accompanying him. Because it would have taken too long to summon other agents from Santa Fe or Albuquerque, even if they'd come by chopper, and since the local sheriff was AWOL, Tobias's backups were policemen from the Indian reservation that incorporated a portion of the county.
Also with him were Lawson and Hart. If Tobias had known that Hart was going to insist on coming along, he would have left him locked in the jail cell. As it was, he was there, looking like he'd already fought in one battle tonight.
Swallowing a knot of apprehension, the Temple's young
guard asked, "Did somebody do something wrong?"
"Did you admit a woman into the compound this evening?" "Yes, sir. About an hour ago."
"Then it's you who's done something wrong. She's a threat to Brother Gabriel. Open the gate."
"Can I call my supervisor?"
Shortly, a jeep roared up to the opposite side of the gate. A man stepped out and came toward them, his bearing defensive and suspicious. He was backlit by headlights, which he'd failed to turn off. "Baker, chief of security," he said through the iron pickets. "What's the problem?"
"Special Agent Hank Tobias, FBI."
Baker seemed singularly unimpressed with Tobias's credentials. If anything, his hostility rose a notch. "I say again, what's the problem?"
When he was informed that Brother Gabriel's life was in danger, he was only marginally more receptive to the idea of letting them inside the compound. "My men know that the woman in question is here. We'll take care of it."
"Look," Tobias said, "I don't care if you're dancing with snakes and biting the heads off live chickens in there. I'm only trying to keep Brother Gabriel from getting killed tonight.
And just in case you don't think the threat is serious, look what this woman did to him." He hitched his thumb in Hart's direction and Baker took in the nasty, unattended cut on his cheekbone and the streaks of blood that had dried on his face. "And he's supposedly a friend of hers.