the smell of gardenia and magnolias hung over us like a sweet umbrella. I was never going to be able to enjoy those flowers again as long as I lived.
We skirted around the outside perimeter, and I made sure to step on every wolfsbane plant I could find. Purple blossoms were mashed into the cedar shavings around the bushes. When I was satisfied by my small act of rebellion, I grabbed the biggest rock I could carry—which was pretty big considering I could hoist my own body weight—and made a beeline for the church.
Wilder, who had held back to this point, whispered, “Isn’t it a regulation that churches need to be open to the public twenty-four-seven or something? Maybe we should try the door?”
“I’ve never heard that rule.” I kept going and got to the entrance, eyeing the floor-to-ceiling glass. My reflection glinted back at me, and the girl in the window looked a little insane.
I threw the rock at the front door, which shattered in such a triumphant, glorious way I wanted to repeat the process on every window in the whole place. It crumbled apart like a stunt window in a movie, glimmering cubes of glass falling in a heap, like diamonds.
After wading through them, I grabbed the handle for the second door and tugged. It opened without resistance.
“You were right. Unlocked.” I held it open for him, and after he took a moment to make sure I knew he thought I was nuts, he went inside. No alarm sounded, which was a surprising disappointment to me.
Bits of glass trailed us like guilty bread crumbs as we moved through the lobby and into the main congregation room.
Jesus stared down at us from the cross, the gaudy gold sun glimmering behind him, haloing his limp body in a grotesque way. The sun might be the church’s symbol, but I was disgusted by the implication of the idol. It seemed to suggest God was rejoicing in the death of his son, and I couldn’t look at it for long without wanting to climb up and tear it down with my bare hands.
I really didn’t like these people.
Wilder and I walked up to the front pulpit area where a lectern stood, waiting for Timothy to take his place for Sunday worship. On the left was a door marked Exit and another matching door on the right with a printed sign that read Employees Only.
Bingo.
I glanced behind us, up to a big glass control room overlooking the whole scene. Several video cameras were positioned around the room, to televise Deerling’s weekly sermons. I’d seen links for the feeds on their website. It wasn’t uncommon for local churches to share the Word on Sundays for folks who couldn’t make it down to an actual church but still wanted to feel like good little Christians.
The Church of Morning was no different. They had fans all over the country who weren’t able to come to Franklinton in person. It made sense, given how big the church was. The money had to be coming from somewhere, and a sucker was born every minute who would give their cash to a charming leader.
Before we went to see what was in Deerling’s chamber of horrors—which I prayed I wasn’t wrong about—we’d need to be sure the cameras were rolling. Alarm or no alarm, we were short on time, and we had to make the most of every second.
“See if you can find access to the control room up there.” I moved along the side wall, hoping a staircase would pop out that I hadn’t noticed before. Wilder beat me to it.
Between the two of us it would have been easier to learn to fly an airplane than to get the AV turned on. A degree in electrical engineering would have helped us a bit, but even then I wasn’t sure anyone could decipher what all the knobs and dials and switches did.
We accidentally turned on all the lights, then dimmed them, then shut off the lights in the room we were in. By the time we finally found the switch for the cameras, we had wasted so much time I thought we might have to abandon the plan altogether. I never thought I’d be bested by a bunch of switches.
Four overhead monitors turned on, showing different views of the pulpit area and a reverse angle facing the crowd. An empty hiss of white noise told me the sound was working, there just wasn’t anything for it to pick