The Righteous (26 page)

“It does seem pointless to kill me, Gideon. I’m a used-up vessel of no use to anyone but my grandchildren.”

“That, and whispering in the ear of the prophet,” Gideon corrected. “He listens to you like he listens to no other man. And your son-in-law, Abraham Christianson, too. If you tell them to oppose me, they will. And you said yourself you have little to lose.” He smiled. “Not everyone who remains will step into line, of course, but most aren’t so brave as you, Elder Griggs. Brother Joseph will come face to face with the desperate need to hold Zion together. And that’s why you must die.”

Elder Griggs chuckled in a way Gideon would not have thought possible for a man about to die. “You’re a fool if you think my son-in-law will follow you. A Son of Perdition, that’s what you are. An excommunicate. I have never prophesied before, boy, but I feel a prophesy coming. You will be dead before the end of the week, Gideon Kimball.” He glanced at Israel. “And your henchman, too. They will be ugly deaths, I think. Your name will become a hiss and a byword among the people of Zion. No, you won’t be leading anyone, Gideon Kimball.”

“Tape his mouth,” Israel Young urged. “Make him stop talking.”

Gideon saw the uneasiness on his companion’s face. Yes, Israel was right. He re-taped the old man’s mouth.

Gideon raised his hands above his head and lifted his voice. “Elder Griggs, we now seal thee unto death. May the Lord have mercy upon thy soul.”

And now, the old liar gave one last twitch. Real fear in those watery eyes. Griggs struggled and kicked. Israel looked pleased.

They pushed. Elder Griggs tumbled forward. A single plop and the man sank to the bottom. And there, visibly, he thrashed. A single bubble rose to the surface. The ripples stilled. The movement stopped.

It was hard business, this killing. Some couldn’t stomach it. Enoch, for one. He had stood in front of Jennifer Gold, having been commanded to sever the woman’s unborn child from her body. He had balked.

Enoch’s violation of his covenants called for a blood atonement. It would be a mercy, really. Enoch’s own blood would allow forgiveness from the Lord.

They left Witch’s Warts by a circuitous route. In the desert, protected by the sandstone fins, some of these footprints might last for weeks. Better not to leave a direct path to where they had dumped Elder Griggs’ body.

It was because he was thinking about such things that Gideon noticed the extra set of footprints. A pair of tennis shoes tracked through the sandstone maze, pressing hard into the sand and lighter in the gravelly places. Kids often came into Witch’s Warts, but rarely adults. And almost never this far in.

“What do you make of this?” he asked. “How old?”

Israel bent and poked at one of the footprints. “The footprints are fresh, but they’ve formed a crust from the dew. Maybe last night.”

A good observation. Gideon followed the footprints for a stretch. They came from the South and headed Northwest toward town. Enoch wore tennis shoes. Gideon tried to think of the pattern on the man’s shoes, but couldn’t. They could easily have been someone else’s.

Except that they weren’t.

He looked toward Blister Creek. The temple spire lifted above the sandstone fins that otherwise blocked view of the town. Continue in that direction and one would emerge from the desert practically in the back lot of the temple. He used Witch’s Warts himself to come and go from the temple without being seen.

Gideon had taken a call a couple of hours ago, alerting him that Jacob and Eliza would be doing an endowment in the temple that afternoon. It was another sign that Eliza would soon marry. It was useful information, and he’d set it aside for later consideration. But now it occurred to him that maybe this was more than a simple endowment. And maybe there would be another participant.

The day was pregnant with killing, the anticipation, the promise of something dreaded, desired, and necessary. Before the day was over, he knew that he would kill several more times. He had known that from the moment he’d risen this morning. The difference was, he now knew the identity of his next victim.

Gideon turned to Israel. “Come on. We have an appointment to keep at the temple.”

#

Jacob’s sister sat at the front of the Telestial Room, which represented the “lone and dreary world” into which Adam and Eve had been driven after having eaten the forbidden fruit. The walls were painted with scenes of Noah’s Ark and the flooding of the earth. The first time through, Jacob had fixed on the scene of people drowning as the flood waters climbed. He saw Eliza studying it now.

People climbed upon each other, wild-eyed with fear. A woman held her child above her head as the waters licked her face. Another woman tried to keep her children above water while two men used their heads as stepping stools to reach higher ground. Bodies floated face-down. The serenity on the faces of the chosen and their animals, loading onto the ark, presented a sharp contrast to the terror of those God would drown.

God is merciful. He is also terrible.

Later, they would move to the Terrestial Room, and finally to the Celestial Room where the endowment ended as the initiate passed through the veil and into the presence of the Lord.

Jacob, playing Adam, prayed, “Oh God, hear the words of my mouth.”

Stephen Paul came on stage as Lucifer. “I hear you. What is it you want?”

Jacob looked toward him in feigned suspicion. “Who are you?”

“I am the god of this world.”

The initial part of the endowment was a rough retelling of the creation story of Genesis. Elohim (the Father), Jehovah (the son), and Michael created the Earth. Michael became Adam. Elohim and Jehovah created Eve from Adam’s rib. Lucifer arrived to tempt Adam and Eve, who Elohim and Jehovah then drove from the Garden and into the Lone and Dreary World.

The participants covenanted to obey the Law of Obedience, wherein men promised to obey the Lord and women promised to obey their husbands. In Eliza’s case, this meant her future husband. The Law of Sacrifice followed:

“We covenant to sacrifice all that we possess, even our own lives if necessary, in sustaining and defending the kingdom of God.”

The endowment moved to the rituals of the lower, or Aaronic Priesthood, which would be followed by the rituals of the higher, Melchizedek Priesthood. They represented higher and lower states of spiritual awakening. Stephen Paul, now playing Peter, instructed Jacob, as Adam, in how to put on the robes of the Aaronic Priesthood, and in the first token of the Aaronic Priesthood, its name, and sign. Stephen Paul’s brother, Aaron Young, filled in the other roles when three men were required on stage.

The name of the first token was the new name that Eliza had been given in the washings and anointings. The sign was a handshake with thumbs over knuckles. And then the penalty, for those who might be tempted to violate the covenants they had made in the temple.

“We, and each of us, covenant and promise that we will not reveal any of the secrets of this, the First Token of the Aaronic Priesthood, with its accompanying name, sign, and penalty. Should we do so, we agree that our throats be cut from ear to ear and our tongues torn out by their roots.”

The tokens, names, and signs were the meat of the endowment. Jacob took them as symbolic; he didn’t think angels would ask for secret handshakes and whispered signs and countersigns when you died and if you had a crappy memory then, oops, you’d be consigned to a lower kingdom. But why take blood oaths to protect a secret with only symbolic meaning? God knew that
someone
had taken them seriously.

Amanda Kimball.

They had cut her throat and torn out her tongue. But why? Was it for discovering that they had murdered the gentiles? For then threatening to go to the police? And he couldn’t wrap his mind around the original crime itself: the brutal murder of a woman and her unborn child. Why?

Jacob thought about what his father had said. The Quorum of the Twelve had wrestled for many years with the inherent flaw of any breeding program involving a small population. It didn’t matter that they doubled their population every twenty years and that they might some day number in the hundreds of thousands or even millions.

Take Golden Retrievers. Inbred with others descended from the same pedigree, it didn’t matter that there were millions of them. They still suffered from hip dysplasia, vision problems, and epilepsy because they didn’t have enough genetic diversity.

In humans, inbreeding also involved cognitive deficiencies, which was the antithesis of what the church elders sought to accomplish.

That they should breed themselves like animals filled him with disgust.
Golden Retrievers. Is that all we are?

Well, not exactly. Unlike a purebred animal, the stock could be improved by bringing in outside females. Some members of the Quorum of the Twelve had driven down that road before being turned aside by other, more practical voices.

The Jupiter Medallion.

The thought came unbidden to his mind and he almost dismissed it. But he could see it in his mind, now, the picture of the wall where someone had painted its symbols in the blood of a murdered baby and her mother.

And suddenly, everything came into focus. He knew what had happened, and why.

I am God.

Enoch stood on the far side of the veil in the Celestial Room of the temple. Stephen Paul Young would present Jacob and Eliza at the veil. Enoch would bring them through, acting as proxy for the Lord.

“God,” Enoch whispered to himself. It was half prayer, half affirmation of his role in the endowment.

He would tell Jacob everything he knew. It started with Elder Kimball, Elder of Israel and ended with his son, Gideon. Elder Kimball laundered money in Las Vegas, stole tithing from the church. He had bribed doctors and nurses and hospital administrators. Spied on people. Blackmailed. And he had given Gideon free rein to kidnap, murder, and intimidate.

Enoch would greet his brother through the veil and here, in the Celestial Room, he would tell Jacob everything. And then Jacob would do everything in his power to destroy Elder Kimball, no matter what damage he might inflict on the church.

But Enoch had to do it. He’d stood at the point of murdering an innocent woman. And he’d known that his actions were not of God.

Enoch wore temple white, pilfered from the changing room. Over this he wore his robes, his green sash, his cap. It was the clothing of the endowment and of a temple sealing. It was also the clothing they dressed you in at death. So that you would be prepared to give the real God the signs and tokens.

The others did as Enoch had told them. They passed first through the creation, then through the signs and tokens, one by one. The participants spoke in loud voices and he could hear them clearly as they recited their lines even though he couldn’t see them through the veil.

And they reached the Second Token of the Aaronic Priesthood, with its penalty:

“We, and each of us, covenant and promise that we will not reveal any of the secrets of this, the Second Token of the Aaronic Priesthood, with its accompanying name, sign, and penalty. Should we do so, we agree to have our breasts cut open and our hearts and vitals torn out from our body and given to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field.”

“An appropriate phrase, don’t you think?”

Even as Enoch turned with heart pounding, a fist crushed him in the solar plexus. He grunted and went down and the three men who’d come in behind him were on top of him.

Gideon Kimball. Israel Young. Eric Froud.

They were too strong. He was stunned from the blow. Within seconds they had him pinned. Eric held his legs, while Israel had his hands around Enoch’s throat. Gideon sat on his chest with a knife in hand. He pressed it against Enoch’s gut.

“Very clever,” Gideon said. “Coming to the temple. It’s the right place to make peace with the Lord, don’t you think?” The knife pressed harder and Enoch felt it pierce the skin. Only a prick, but the slightest pressure would slide it right in.

How had they found him? Maybe they
were
on the side of God.

And then he remembered the look on Jennifer Gold’s face. Enoch had stood over her, ready to cut her unborn child from the woman’s womb. No angel had directed those actions. No angel of God.

Israel Young choked Enoch’s air supply. Gideon leaned harder on the knife. It eased slowly in. An eighth of an inch, a quarter.

“One scream,” Israel said. “One single scream and your life will come to an end.” His grip relaxed on Enoch’s throat. Air burned back into his lungs.

He could barely breathe with Israel’s hands around his throat. “Why Jennifer Gold?” he whispered. “Why her?”

“A Jew,” Gideon said. “Native intelligence. And carrying a daughter. What does it matter?”

“Not yours?”

“What, the baby? No. Samuel Gold’s sperm and Jennifer Gold’s egg. We bring the child back, breed her with our own. It’s called hybridization vigor. It works with plants. It works with cattle. It will work with humans. But what does it matter?” he repeated. “You’re confused, Enoch. Taking these babies. Spreading our own seed. Those are only tactics. Individual battles. It’s the war, Enoch. That’s what matters. You forgot that. And so you forgot where your allegiance lies.”

Gideon claimed that it didn’t matter, but spread throughout the West were hundreds of vials of sperm. Gideon’s seed, much of it. Whatever breeding or random evolutionary mix had formed this monster, it would be spread to hundreds of children. Taking the information fed back by the clinics, the Lost Boys would kidnap some of the girls and return them to Zion. Other children would remain, like sleeper cells to be awakened by a future church fed and nourished on Gideon’s sickness.

“It’s all a lie,” Enoch said. He groaned from the unbearable pain and pressure of the knife pushing into his flesh. “The angel, everything. It’s you, Gideon. It wasn’t even your father. It was all you.”

Gideon leaned closer. “We are who we were born to be,” he whispered. “That’s all. You were ordained by God to fail. I was ordained to lead His kingdom.”