Messiahs by Matt Rogers (bookstand for reading txt) 📕

He walked out with his stomach sinking.

She’s in deep now, he thought.

A terrifying thought struck him.

You’re on your own.

Out in the church now, he stood at the altar so he could overlook the dozens of empty pews. Every footstep echoed in the colossal space. It had taken two laborious years and thousands of hours of manual labour to build. They’d had to swear the building team to secrecy, and then killed a couple of them at the end anyway because they didn’t trust they’d keep their mouths shut.

But Maeve had stressed its importance.

‘We need it,’ she’d said. ‘Every religion relies on monuments that inspire awe. We’re the same. It’ll help the image.’

He’d said, ‘We’re going to be a religion?’

Her eyes had widened, alive with excitement. ‘Baby, you have no idea how big this is going to get.’

Back then she’d known the Mother Libertas rhetoric was made-up nonsense.

Nowadays, the lines were blurring.

He missed the old times. The simple times.

He fished out his sat phone and called Connor.

The young man took a few rings to pick up. ‘Hey. Sorry.’

‘No problem,’ Dane said. ‘Work got you on your toes?’

‘It’s crazy right now. More ops than ever that need intel.’

Dane said, ‘I’m going to provide you with the exact physical description of two men. I believe they might have been involved in your world, once upon a time. I want you to scour the system for them.’

‘I can’t do that without triggering alerts.’

‘Then find a way around,’ Dane said. ‘I hope you understand what’s on the line here.’

Connor inhaled.

Dane knew the man would do anything to follow through.

A monthly supply of Bodhi hung in the balance.

68

Slater was en route to the bathroom when King came out of nowhere, grabbed him by the wrist, and hauled him aside.

They moved silently through the building, went out the back door, and surveyed the landscape again.

The sun was halfway hidden below the prairie.

The grasslands glowed gold.

Slater lowered his voice. ‘What?’

‘I killed a guy.’

Slater looked over his shoulder out of paranoia, checking for eavesdroppers. Satisfied, he turned back. ‘You what?’

‘That man who wormed his way between us in church,’ King said. ‘He tried to stab me in the middle of the fucking sermon.’

Slater became aware of a familiar sensation.

Crippling uncertainty.

Who was coming for them? Why? Was their cover intact? Did Maeve suspect something? Did she know something? Was it simply a random, disgruntled disciple?

He forced the questions aside and fixated on what was in his locus of control. ‘Where’s the body?’

‘Supply closet in one of the bunkhouses. I think Dane found it.’

Slater’s stomach dropped.

King said, ‘Yeah, I know…’

‘Why haven’t we been outed yet?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘What do you mean he found it?’

King said, ‘He sprung me in the hallway as I was closing the door. We had a bullshit conversation, and he lingered. I had to leave. To do otherwise would have been suspicious. But all he had to do was open the door and have a look once I was gone.’

‘Why did you let him do that?’

‘You wanted me to kill him?’

‘Yeah,’ Slater said, clenching his fists one by one, rolling his neck. ‘That’s exactly what I fucking expected. Now we have one more person to worry about when this all goes haywire.’

King said, ‘Do we pull out?’

Slater stared at him.

King raised an eyebrow. ‘Do we?’

Slater said, ‘When have we ever retreated?’

‘When it’s tactically sound to do so,’ King said. ‘I have. Plenty of times.’

‘This commune is unarmed nutcases,’ Slater said. ‘You really want to run?’

‘Two hundred bodies is two hundred bodies. Trained, untrained, armed, unarmed. It doesn’t matter. They all sink a vial of Bodhi and come after us, we’re fucked. Even if we got our hands on weapons, we’d run out of bullets.’

‘So we make sure it doesn’t come to that.’

‘How?’

‘If you’re so sure Dane found the body,’ Slater said, ‘then he hasn’t sounded the alarm. Deliberately. He doesn’t want this powder keg to blow, just like us.’

‘Why wouldn’t he?’

‘Some of the disciples might not be all the way in. It’s a fairly new movement. They probably don’t want to put everyone to the test so soon. They don’t need their devotion questioned. They need to be coddled, further indoctrinated. You know they do.’

King thought about it. ‘So you go to dinner?’

‘I’ll see what happens,’ Slater said. ‘I’ll take part in whatever conversation he’s planning to have with me. If I see a window of opportunity, I’ll take it.’

‘What opportunity?’

Slater spoke softer, so it was barely a mutter. ‘You know.’

‘Are we prepared for that?’

‘We have to be.’

King had deliberately tested the plan with incessant questions, but now he nodded, jumping on board. ‘I don’t think I’ll be able to get my hands on weapons before then. They’ll be locked up somewhere safe. Possibly in the depths of the farmhouse.’

Slater shook his head. ‘We won’t need them. We take out Maeve, Dane, and Elias … then the Judas goats are gone.’

King raised a questioning eyebrow.

Slater said, ‘The goat that leads the sheep to slaughter. Without them, the sheep don’t know what to do with themselves. Don’t know where to go. They’re rendered useless.’

The sun melted away, but the sky stayed gold.

Rapidly fading to dark.

King said, ‘So it’s go time?’

Slater nodded.

King said, ‘Enjoy your dinner.’

He walked away, heading for the mess hall.

69

The bell tolled twice, signifying the workday had come to a close and it was time to eat.

King moved through the small clusters of disciples heading for the mess hall, and found Violetta and Alexis loitering in front of the entrance.

A big young man stood beside them. His build was tall and lanky, but he had big hands and feet that offset his thin limbs. His nose was squashed, adding to the flatness of his face, and his hair was already receding. He was an ugly guy with an intense stare that he wasn’t smart enough to recognise as confronting.

King nodded to Violetta as he approached, which drew the ire of the young man.

King looked into her eyes.

She was intensely uncomfortable.

So was Alexis.

Both of