The Mormon Candidate - a Novel (45 page)

“True,” Powell said. “
But lying about it? Abusing Zachariah? It’s a cover-up!
”

“
Like
Nixon,
” Ben said.

“
We must
expose Morgan,” Dreyfuss said. “
He was directing the pressure on Zachariah, and we believe all this is chronicled in
the files of the Strengthening Church Members Committee
.”

“Wh
at’s that
?”

“It’s like the Mormon FBI
.
”

“Never heard of it
,
”
Ben said. “Does it really exist?”

Chapter 48

The pathology lab was located on the basement level of the medical school, which Keera always felt was creepy, as if all of them—cadavers, students, and the pale professor—belonged six feet under. On the other hand, unlike rounding with the other professors on the hospital floors above, where live—or barely alive—patients and their families provided ample fuel for stress and self-doubts, here there was only a cool, quiet interaction with uncomplaining patients who were at no risk of getting any sicker.

Today’s subject was
c
ritical
c
are. As part of the
training
in that demanding, intense part of medical care, students were required to attend the post-mortem pathology of patients who
had
died under their
team’s
care. It was traumatic in some cases and less so in others, depending on how much time she had spent with the patient in the CCU and what the patient’s mental status had been. A frail Alzheimer
’s
patient with no communication capacity was easier to confront in mortality, but a vivacious
cancer
patient
, who had become a dear friend over weeks of care, would turn a postmortem into a devastating experience of peeling away layers of familiar skin and removing the brittle organs of a ravaged body
in which,
so recently
,
a
precious life
had been breathing
.

Thankfully
Keera’s
subject today was
a ninety-six
-
year
-
old man who had spent only two days in the CCU, unconscious and hooked up to a ventilator. The
initial
focus was his feet, which had lost blood supply days before his death and looked quite gruesome. By virtue of cadaver
s
having two feet
each
,
the
pairs of
medical
students were able to work simultaneously, unlike the dissection of a nose or a heart, where only one could work at any given time
while the other watched
.

Keera exposed the underlying structure of muscles and bones as the professor had instructed. She put down the scalpel and stepped back. He was still in the front of the room, examining another student’s work.
With
at least ten minutes to kill, hunger struck her.

Taking the stairs to the main level, Keera hurried to the elevators and up to the cafeteria on the fourth floor. Buying a cup of coffee and a donut, she found a window table flooded with sunlight.
The clouds had moved away, and t
he warmth of the sun was especially nice after the chill of death in pathology. She turned to face t
he window while sipping coffee.

Below her, the parking lot was vast, hundreds of cars lined up
in rows
, waiting out the day. She tried to orient herself and figure out where the Mustang was parked. Tracing her route from memory, she remembered where she had left it that morning—all the way to the side, near the fence that bordered the highway.

Keera
was about to turn away and head back downstairs when something drew
her attention:
Two
rows
away from the Mustang, in the shade of a minivan, was a
white
motorcycle
.

“I’m not surprised you’ve never heard of it,” Dreyfuss said. “
The
Strengthening Church Members Committee is a department of the General Authorities of the LDS Church.
The term ‘Committee’ sounds benign, but you should think of it in the context of, let’s say,
Senator McCarthy’s
House Un-Ame
r
i
can
Activities
Committee.
”

“I beg to disagree.” Powell was scrubbing a pot in the sink. “It’s more like the KGB during Stalin’s days, enforcing the strict dictates of a rigid party
hierarchy
.”

“But with
love rather than torture cellars
.” Dreyfuss chuckled. “Working with similar zeal, though, and in total secrecy
. T
he LDS Strengthening Church Members Committee’s mission is to investigate and collect information on every Mormon who is suspected of opinions that deviate from the Mormon faith, contradict Mormon doctrines, or question the total authority of the Mormon leaders.”

“They
investigate people’s op
in
ions
?” Ben was intrigued. “Everyone has occasional doubts about faith
, even the most religious people
.”

“Not among Mormons.
To maintain one’s good standing, a Mormon must regularly offer testimony of
his or her faith
that
Joseph Smith
was a true prophet who
received from God
the only true g
ospel. Testimonies are given i
n front of the cong
r
egation at weekly ward meetings. Each local bishop must report to the
s
take
p
resident, and up to Salt Lake City, any
s
aints who deviate in any way.
Th
e
c
ommittee
collects
files
of
public statements, such as speeches, articles, or interviews, as well as private letters, and statements from spouses, colleagues, or fellow Mormons who might have
over
heard the
inappropriate statements
.
”

“It’s true,” Powell said. “I’ve seen it in my own trial.
Th
e
Strengthening Church Members Committee’s
file
was thick with every little detail of my life, especially
my
academic research, communications with colleagues, and the efforts of good Mormons at convincing me to drop the issue.
The file was used by my accusers to chronicle my
sinful attempts at substantive discussions of the LDS
’s
racist theology. Based on those files the
tribunal
found me
guilt
y, declared me
an apostate,
and
excom
municat
ed me
.
”

“
We know
,” Dreyfuss said, “
that
Zachariah
stood
trial at the DC
t
emple. The
c
ommittee
had
transfer
red
his
file electronically ahead of time
to the chair of
the tribunal
—the president of the DC temple. We must access the computer in his
office
and copy the file. Then we’ll have proof of
Joe
Morgan’s direct involvement in the events leading to
Zachariah’s
death.
”

“A long shot,” Ben said.
“Have you tried hacking?”

“No chance
.
The LDS Church has top-of-the line Internet security. It would be easier to hack into the FBI system. W
e need to physically enter the
t
emple, sit at a computer terminal, and sign into the system with a valid password. We
had hoped
Zachariah
would agree
to
do it
, but—”

“
There was something on the second floppy disk.
”
Ben
turned on the
Canon
and searched the
memory for the photo he had taken of Ray’s computer screen
:

User ID: Zachiboy

Password: DCMTDBS

File: BFD111995

Dreyfuss
looked at
it
.
“The password is an acronym:
DC
Mormon Temple Data Base System.
And once you sign into the system with
the user name and password, you’ll be able to
search for the file name.”

“Which is also literal,” Ben said. “
Baptism For Dead
Eleven
Nineteen Ninety
-
Five.
”

“
There’s the answer,” Dreyfuss said. “This file is on the system at the DC
t
emple, which would also have
file
s
of Zachariah’s
trial and evidence
.
”

“
Have you tried to
enter
the
t
emple
?
”

“No can do
.
Each one of us is a known apostate
. Security
will
throw us out as soon as we show up
.
”

“
Have you tried a
mole?”

“Twice,” Streep s
aid. “Cost us a pretty penny
.
The first one was
young, single college
grad with good computer skills
.
A n
ice boy.
We
trained
him
for a couple of weeks and sent him
to a
pproach Mormon missionaries
at the University of Maryland campus at College Park. He pretended to fall
in love with the
Book of Mormon
and
a
greed
to be baptized into the Church
.”

“And?”

“We lost
him. T
ried again,
another nice kid, but we lost him
too.”

Ben was shocked. “The Danites killed them?”

“Worse.
The
boys
became true believers.”

“I don’t understand.”

“What’s not to understand?
” Streep laughed bitterly. “
Our well-paid moles
drank the same
K
ool Aid
given to
three hundred
thousand
converts
who
embrace Mormonism every year
. It’s a magic potion made of l
ove, community,
divine
answers to existential questions
of why are we here and where are we going when we die
. I mean, the promise
of
godhood,
for God’s sake
!
And don’t forget
male
hegemony,
lots of
sex as a divine duty, and
a great deal of
happiness.”

“Happiness?”

“That’s another
interesting statistic
,” Powell said. “Mormon m
en
are happier than any other category of men, except perhaps the members of the Saudi royal family.
”

“What about Mormon women?
”

“The opposite. High levels of anti-depressants usage, compared to other female demographics.”

“
Then w
hy don’t you recruit a female mole?”

“
No use,
” Streep
said.
“
Mormon girls
are
n’
t allowed
in
the temple until
the
day
of their
marriage
to a
fertile
s
aint
in good standing
.”