Deadly Cult

by Joel Gomez-Dossi

  Ellen turned to Eddie and took his hand. “I’m so sorry. I hope you’re okay.”

  Eddie gave her a weak smile and nodded. Jamie was shocked. Was he the only person who didn’t know how much Eddie cared for Andy? How could he have been so blind? He glanced over at his husband and took his hand. Taking a deep breath, Jamie looked back at Ellen and got back to business. “Everything makes sense. Let’s see if we agree.”

  On the counter, Ellen made a mock-up of the harbor’s pavilion area, using the salt and pepper shakers, the cups and silverware. “This is the Pavilion, where everything is going to happen,” she said. “But unlike the earlier attacks on churches around the country, this won’t have a lone gunman.”

  Jamie nodded. “No. They’ll have multiple targets. The different leaders of the American Council of Conservative Christians.”

  Ellen stopped him. “There’s one more victim, Jamie. My father.”

  “But you called him, right? Told him not to go.”

  “I tried. I left lots of messages, but he hasn’t called me back.”

  Jamie took hold of her hand. “At least your father has his own security team.”

  Ellen nodded. Then she started shaking. “No, he doesn’t. He’s got a new security team, and it was chosen by Christian.”

  “Then we need to get to the harbor as quickly as possible.”

  When the four got outside, Jamie pulled Ellen aside. “You know, the irony that a bunch of gays are saving a group of homophobic church leaders hasn’t escaped me.”

  “It is kind of funny,” Ellen replied.

  Jamie gave her a sly smile in return. “Why don’t you ride with us? It’ll save time.”

  Ellen didn’t need to answer. She got into the back of the van with Peter and came upon the big cardboard box. “What the hell is all this?”

  “Veterinary medicine. It was in the van when we stole it from the Brethren’s car pool.” Jamie answered. “We’ve been treating Peter’s eye with the eyewash we found.”

  Peter took the wash from the box and handed it to her. She checked the medical app on her phone and said, “It should be safe. Basically, it’s just water and a tiny bit of mild bleach solution. Let me take a look at that eye.”

  Peter scooted toward Ellen as she wiped her hands with a wet-nap. She raised his eyelids with her fingers and took a look. “It appears that wash is doing a pretty good job,” she said. “Even on a human.”

  Ellen threw the eyewash back into the box and looked at the other medicines. She held up the vials of ketamine. “Were they planning to knock someone out?”

  Jamie gave her a blank stare. “Why? What’s the stuff used for?”

  “In hospitals, it’s an anesthetic, essentially it ‘cuts off’ the brain from the body. But on the street it’s sold as a date rape drug.”

  Eddie looked at them from behind the wheel. “Ellen, which way do I go?”

  Ellen didn’t have to think. “Head east, and follow the signs to Boston Harbor.”

  Chapter Fifty-two

  Mordecai knelt in a near-empty banquet hall. If he listened hard enough, he could hear his Faithfuls on the other side of the room’s movable wall. They toiled for the glory of Christ. Mordecai dubbed their hall the Son-Shine Room. He named his the King of Kings. Mordecai’s heavenly robes and crown tenderly rested on a table beside him.

  He lifted his arms up to God and prayed. “My Father in heaven, I willingly accept the fate you have given me. I know that when my work is finished, you’ll summon me to sit next to you and alongside my heavenly brother, Jesus.”

  Then it happened, just as it had happened before. Ezekiel, the archangel of transformation and death, appeared in front of him. The rays of golden sunlight emanating from the angel nearly blinded Mordecai. “Fear not,” Ezekiel said. “For God has chosen you to change the world.”

  Ezekiel picked up the robe and draped it over Mordecai’s shoulders. He put the golden crown on his head and held up the Lord’s mighty sword for him to take. Mordecai grasped God’s weapon, but he shook with apprehension and dropped it. Mordecai was tired, and his sweat fell like drops of blood.

  “Do not worry,” Ezekiel told him. “Our heavenly father knows your work is hard. The world refuses to recognize your divinity. In the beginning that was necessary, and the way God intended.”

  Mordecai nodded with understanding.

  “But now your time has come. The world will recognize the false prophets that currently rule the earth. And as you take your place at God’s side, mankind will bow before you.”

  Mordecai took Ezekiel’s hand. In that moment, a knock came from the side door, and the Archangel Ezekiel returned to heaven.

  “Who is it?” Mordecai asked angrily.

  Saul opened the door. “Sorry to interrupt, but we have a situation out here.”

  “A situation?” Mordecai didn’t like that word. It meant trouble.

  “A couple of cops want to speak with you.”

  “Tell them I’m busy.”

  “That might not be wise.”

  Mordecai took a deep breath. “Very well.” He took off his robe and crown and placed them back on the table.

  As Mordecai entered the Son-Shine Room, he addressed the officers with a thunderous voice. “Who is it that seeks me?” They approached in their dress uniforms. They took off their eight-pointed hats and flashed him their identification and badges.

  Mordecai stretched his neck, examined their IDs, and looked over to Saul. “Write down their badge numbers,” he instructed. Saul obliged. “What do you want from me?” Mordecai asked.

  The cop who appeared to be the leader casually walked around the room looking at everything. “Your appearance has raised some eyebrows around the harbor.”

  “There’s nothing illegal about that, is there?”

  “No, but the trailer with the white horse inside is parked illegally.”

  Mordecai shot a look at Saul, who snapped his fingers at Obadiah, who left the room immediately. “That oversight will be taken care of,” Mordecai said.

  “Thank you.” The cop was polite and gracious. “So, why did you decide to visit our city today?”

  “To celebrate Easter.”

  “Ah. So you’ll be participating in the National Easter Service?”

  “Alas, no,” Mordecai said. “The council, in their misguided wisdom, refused to allow us that privilege. Now if you’ll excuse me, we have to prepare for our own celebration.”

  “Of course, but just one more question. Do you know a man named Christian Donahue?”

  “No.” Mordecai looked into the officer’s eyes. “Should I?”

  “Not necessarily. But if you were to encounter a man named Christian Donahue, would you do me a favor? Let him know that the police would like to speak with him.”

  “If I were to meet him, Officer, I would certainly let him know.”

  “I understand. Thank you for your time.” The officer put his hat back on and looked at his subordinate, and the two left.

  Chapter Fifty-three

  Eddie couldn’t find a parking space in the harbor area. “We’re going to have to walk,” he told Jamie.

  “Will you be okay?” Jamie was concerned about Eddie’s leg, but Eddie was already halfway down the block. Jamie, Ellen, and Peter ran to catch up. Jamie checked the time on his throwaway phone. Five thirty in the morning; the service was just an hour away.

  As they approached the hotel, worshipers of all types filled the streets as they made a pilgrimage to the Pavilion. Some were dressed up in their Sunday best, others wore jeans and T-shirts, but all carried Bibles in their hands and had smiles on their faces. Jamie stopped walking when he spotted the Brethren’s horse trailer on the street. A police officer was there, writing a ticket. But then Obadiah came up to the cop and started talking with him. The cop smiled and put away his ticket pad.

  “Damn,” Jamie said. “It looks like the police aren’t going to do anything about the Brethren.”

  Eddie gave
him a consoling pat on the back. “Well, that doesn’t really surprise me. But I did hope when the police saw the Disciples, they’d run to get a warrant.”

  “Who are the Disciples?” Ellen asked.

  Jamie was surprised by Ellen’s question. “They’re the Brethren’s paramilitary commandos. Didn’t you tell the police about them?”

  “No. I just told them about the Brethren. Bible bangers. I didn’t know about any paramilitary commandos, so the police aren’t looking for the Delta Force type.”

  “Shit.” Jamie brushed the hair out of his eyes and rubbed his neck. “Then the police really don’t know anything. The Brethren are strange, but they don’t act like murdering maniacs.”

  “You’re right,” Eddie said. “It’s only when you see Mordecai with his Disciples that you realize what evil they’re capable of doing.”

  “Then let’s go to the police and tell them.” Ellen grabbed Jamie’s arm, but he shook it off.

  “We’d be spinning our wheels. We don’t have any real proof, anyway. And even if we did convince them, by the time they’ve called in their SWAT team, the Disciples will have started their executions.”

  “Then what are we supposed do?” Eddie asked.

  Peter took the handgun out of his pocket. “Should we use force?”

  “No.” Jamie shook his head and took the gun away from him. “There are too many innocent people here.”

  Peter nodded and Ellen snapped her fingers. “I’ve got an idea. Let’s go back to the van and get the ketamine. If we can administer it to the Disciples, it’ll knock them out.”

  “Then what do we do while we’re waiting for the drug to take effect? Read the Disciples a bedtime story?”

  “Ketamine is supposed to work pretty fast. And while we may not be able to give a dose to everyone, we might be able to shoot up some and at least put a dent into their plans.”

  Jamie reluctantly agreed. When they got back to the van, Ellen took out the syringes and the vials of ketamine. She wiped her hands with a wet-nap and Jamie rolled his eyes. “Oh yeah, take extra time to be sanitary.”

  Ellen didn’t bother looking at him. She asked Eddie to look up ketamine on her smartphone and read aloud the recommended dosages. “I’ll have to guess at the Disciples’ average height and weight, and hope for the best,” she said as she began the process. First, she stirred the drug by rolling the vials in the palms of her hands. “I have to be careful that my movements don’t make any bubbles,” she said.

  Then she asked Eddie to open up the syringe packages and check for any visible damage. As Eddie gave her the okay for each one, she disinfected its needle with an alcohol swab, then carefully filled each syringe to the prescribed amount and recapped the needle. “I’m guessing the average weight of the Disciples to be around a hundred and eighty pounds. Does that sound okay?”

  She looked up to Jamie, but he didn’t know. He nodded anyway and asked, “Then how are we going to stick it to them? So to speak.”

  “Unfortunately, we can’t knock them out instantly. In order to do that, we’d have to administer the drug intravenously. And under these circumstances, we’d never be able to find their veins. So instead, we’ll inject the ketamine intramuscularly. All you have to do is aim for a part of the leg or arm that has lots of muscle, and go for it.”

  “Right through their clothes?” Eddie asked.

  “You want to ask them to roll up their sleeves?”

  “I guess not. But how long will they be out for?” Jamie asked.

  “If they’re knocked unconscious, for about an hour.”

  Jamie was still worried. “And what if they don’t go under?”

  “That’s a good possibility, since I don’t want to kill anybody with an overdose. But even in the amounts we’re giving them, they’ll still be hallucinating. They won’t bother us. In any event, we have to work fast.”

  Jamie agreed. “Is everybody ready?” They nodded, so Ellen started divvying up the syringes.

  Chapter Fifty-four

  They ran back to the hotel lobby. Jamie expected people to stare because they were wearing linen work clothes and their pant pockets bulged with syringes, but no one batted an eye.

  Jamie tapped Ellen on the shoulder. “Do you know which room the Brethren are in?”

  She shrugged. “No, but one of the receipts I saw was for a banquet hall.”

  He smiled. “Considering Mordecai has a hundred Faithfuls, a banquet hall makes sense.”

  They walked up to the hotel’s directory. One event stood out from the rest. Private Easter Party in the Pilgrim Hall, temporarily renamed the Son-Shine Room.

  They ran to the hall, but stopped outside the closed door. They didn’t have to go in to know who was inside—Mordecai’s voice wafted out through the walls. Jamie opened the door a crack to peek inside. The Brethren sat on the floor, watching Mordecai. He stood in front, dressed in white linens and a sash, with a robe over it. It looked regal with its yellow piping. On his head was a golden crown, and in his right hand he firmly grasped a huge sword. He lifted the sword above the Faithfuls and proclaimed, “God’s holy servant, the Archangel Ezekiel, came to me. He told me to prepare for a disaster that will test man’s faith in God.”

  The Faithfuls got upset, but Mordecai calmed them down. “Do not fear. We aren’t the victims of God’s rage. Instead, God has appointed us to enact his will when this calamity happens.”

  One of the Faithfuls cried out, “What will happen?”

  “In about an hour, the so-called conservative Christians will begin their Easter service. But they have angered God with their liberality. They’ve tainted His rules with their love of money and power. And now their very existence threatens our holy way of life. They are vile, and dirty, and spawned from the devil.”

  “How do we stop them?” another person asked.

  “We don’t have to stop them,” Mordecai said. “God has appointed the Disciples to do that for us. But be warned, fulfilling God’s plan will be violent. The conservative leaders must die painful deaths, and their followers will be physically and spiritually injured. That is why we’ve been diligently cutting gauze into bandages and assembling first aid kits.”

  The Faithfuls cried out in confusion, and Mordecai smiled. “God has asked us to heal the survivors’ wounds. While you concentrate on their physical injuries, I’ll concentrate on their spiritual maladies. The world will be so grateful that they won’t call the Brethren a cult any longer. They will join the chorus of worshipers chanting ‘Mordecai is great. Mordecai is good.’”

  Jamie closed the door. When the Disciples began their massacre, the congregation in the Pavilion would be scared and start rioting. Then, acting like a group of Florence Nightingales, the Faithfuls would swoop in to rescue the congregation. Mordecai would become a national hero and the de facto leader of America’s conservative religions.

  Chapter Fifty-five

  Jamie stopped in the lobby, and they huddled to confer. “We need to stop the Disciples first. Agreed?”

  “I understand,” Eddie said. “Without the Disciples, Mordecai won’t be able to implement his plan. But we still don’t know where the Disciples are.”

  Jamie wasn’t deterred. “Figuring this out shouldn’t be too hard. Ellen, did Chris reserve any more banquet halls?”

  “I don’t think so.”

  “Well, I counted the Disciples when they left the Brethren—there were ten of them, so they probably reserved several rooms.”

  “No,” Peter interrupted. “They’re not sleeping here. They’re only getting ready for the Easter Service. Saul is too cheap. At most he’d only pay for a single suite.”

  “Okay, let’s suppose they’re all staying in one suite.” Jamie nodded. “Wouldn’t Mordecai make sure that the room had a special significance?” A crazy idea popped into his head. “Doesn’t the Bible use numbers to symbolize things?”

  Eddie rolled his eyes. “Yeah, but there are so many we don’t have enough time to go throu
gh them all.”

  “Okay.” Jamie thought for a moment. “Is there a number that symbolizes God?”

  “How about the number three? The Holy Trinity.”

  “No, that couldn’t be a room in this hotel. It’s got to be at least three digits long, with the first digits being the floor number. Isn’t there a number that represents the devil?”

  “Yeah, in the book of Revelations there’s the number of the Beast, 666.”

  Jamie’s face lit up. “I bet that’s it. Let’s try that room first.”

  They took the elevator up to the sixth floor, and ran down the hall to find room 666. But there wasn’t a room with that number.

  “Okay,” Jamie said, undeterred. “Let’s try this again. Ellen, you talked about a verse that describes the White Horseman.”

  “You mean the ‘conqueror bent on conquest’ line? Yeah, but I have no idea where it came from.”

  Jamie looked at Eddie, but he didn’t know, either.

  Holding up her smartphone, Ellen yelled out the answer. “It’s from the book of Revelations, 6:12.”

  “Then let’s go to room 612. It’s even on this floor.”

  “And it’s a suite,” Ellen said. “Chris’s suite was room 1212. And since there’s a suite on every floor, I’d bet room 612 is one, too.”

  They ran down the hallway. This time, Peter tried listening through the door, and shook his head. “I don’t hear a soul.”

  “Damn.” Jamie was finally discouraged.

  In a hushed voice, Eddie said, “But it would make a lot of sense if the Disciples were quiet.”

  “Why do you say that?”

  “Traditionally, the hours before Easter is a time to be quiet and contemplate a world without God’s love.”

  “They’re not religious, though.”

  “But they’re preparing for a religious crime. Do you think they’d want to take any chances?”

  Ellen took her syringes out of her pocket. “Does everyone have their syringes ready?”