going to push three crackheads up the list for you.”
“They’re not doing it for me, Terry.” Tyrell smiled playfully and nudged Kaczynski.
Lopez stood up and looked at Tyrell as Kaczynski left the room. “What d’ya make of it?”
Tyrell shook his head slowly, still looking at the bodies.
“Don’t know yet, but there are enough questions to make postmortems a priority. Let’s keep this one to ourselves, okay? At least until we hear back from the examiner’s office tomorrow morning.”
AMERICAN EVANGELICAL ASSOCIATION
NEW COVENANT CHURCH, WASHINGTON DC
What is the meaning of life? Where did we come from? What happens to us when we die?”
Pastor Kelvin Patterson’s words echoed as successive ranks of speakers amplified his voice around the church gardens, where two thousand pairs of eyes were fixed upon him. For a brief moment he caught himself waiting to hear the voice of the Almighty thunder down in reply and break the live current of anticipation flickering through the congregation. He was a small man dwarfed by the broad stage upon which he stood, yet although the ranks of speakers gave amplification to his voice it was his passion that truly powered it.
“What would life be if it had no meaning?” Patterson demanded of his flock. “What would be the point of a universe without purpose? Nature never does anything without purpose, for to do so is a waste of resources.”
Television cameras focused on him from nearby, broadcasting his image onto massive television screens and to millions of Americans across the United States. He could see his own image, his big, round gray eyes glowing beneath his short gray hair and a light sweat glistening on his brow from the stage lights. The man of the moment. Pastor to the nation. Patterson momentarily recalled his unhappy childhood as he looked at himself on the huge screens, a lonely and ostracized youth where his bulbous eyes and earnest desire to be accepted by other children had earned him the hated moniker Bug. If only they could see me now, he thought, before realizing once again that they were probably watching him on television.
Across the rear of the gardens, a huge banner spread between two towering trees was emblazoned with flowing red text: give blood for jesus!
Patterson glared at his congregation, his bulging eyes ablaze with the utter conviction of faith as he clenched his fist beside his head.
“The Darwinists, the atheists, and the secularists claim that the scientific method, pure logic, is the only way to find the answers to such questions. I say unto you now: if the universe is here and it is governed by the laws of nature, then it must have a purpose, and to have a purpose it must by that same pure logic have had a cause!”
A surging wave of cheers thundered down as though from the heavens to swamp him as he spoke.
“And all of you know that there is only one cause that fits every criteria, supports every fiber of our human instinct, and provides us with the answers we need, and that cause is God, and His word brought to us by our Lord Jesus Christ! This is not a movement for God, this is a movement because of God!”
The congregation roared their approval, applauding and swaying as Patterson gathered his breath and waved them down to silence. From the corner of his eye he saw a tall figure watching him from the wings of the stage. Patterson’s voice trembled with emotion as he spoke.
“Yet every day we see our Lord’s mission corrupted by the secularists! They infect our country with their filth and despair, their disregard for the sanctity of human life, their disrespect for God. There can be no peace on Earth, there can be no Second Coming, and there can be no Rapture until the prophecy is fulfilled!”
The pastor’s face twisted upon itself in righteous indignation, teeth gritted and spittle flying in the bright glare of the stage lights.
“Until the Holy Lands are returned to whom they rightly belong there will be no peace and there should be no peace! Peace before the glory of our Lord’s coming is a heresy, and I for one shall not rest until God’s will has come to pass!”
A tsunami of approval surged up into the vault of the sky before crashing down around Patterson. The ranks of the faithful bolted to their feet and punched the air, faces shining with the fervor and the fury of the chosen. Cameras flashed, flags and banners waved, faces