“Brother Noah, please pray for our Assembly, and we’ll adjourn this meeting.”
Fuck!
I needed to get to Fairbanks. Two more days.
Lost in my own thoughts during the prayer, I didn’t realize it was over until Father Gabriel said my name.
“Brother Jacob, were you listening?”
All of the other Assemblymen were standing and moving toward the door.
“I’m sorry, Father. I admit I wasn’t.”
“I thought we’d eliminated your distractions.”
Why does he keep using that word?
“Father, you said you’d keep her alive.”
Brother Abraham nodded and closed the door, leaving me alone with Father Gabriel and the Commission.
“And she is. Your job is too valuable right now for you to meet the same fate as Brother Benjamin. Sister Sara’s current position is your warning.”
I looked to Brother Daniel, but his jaw was set and his eyes were on Father Gabriel.
“Father, I won’t fail you. I promised that.”
He narrowed his dark gaze. “You already did. Tell us what was said during your discussion and why it couldn’t be done on your real phones. Explain to us why you needed deception.”
The obvious answer: because that our real phones were monitored wasn’t acceptable. I fought to make sense of the lies we’d told while I simultaneously wondered what Benjamin and Raquel had said. With my elbows on the table, I held my head. Three years of hard work and this was going to end over a damn phone call.
“Brother, speak now or I will make a call to the Eastern Light.”
The room blurred as I summoned my Light persona and ignored his blatant threat. “Father, I’m sure Brother Benjamin explained.”
“No, he didn’t. As a matter of fact, you can cut to the chase. We know it was Sister Raquel whom you spoke with, not Brother Benjamin.”
Brother Timothy replied, “We have the technology to triangulate the location of the phone. The call came from the Assemblymen’s apartment building. That was the best we could isolate it. Everyone was accounted for, except Raquel and Sara. When Raquel was questioned, she finally admitted to having the phone, and swore Benjamin didn’t know anything about it. She said she called about Sara and used the phone to not get Sara in trouble.”
“Brother Raphael, remember Sara’s confession?” I asked.
“Yes.”
I ran my hands through my hair. “Ever since the time Sara was corrected by Brother Timothy and Sister Lilith, I’ve been worried about her when I’m gone.” Timothy sat back and crossed his arms over his chest. “I asked Sister Raquel to alert me if anything unusual happened while I was away. This is my fault. I should be banished, not Benjamin or Raquel and not Sara.”
“Brother Jacob, decisions made by this Commission can’t be unmade. Go on.”
“Sister Raquel was worried when Sara didn’t go to work, especially when she couldn’t find her. That was why she called me using the phone I’d given her.”
“I’m going to ask this one more time,” Father Gabriel said. “Why did you go to Fairbanks?”
“Because Raquel was afraid that Thomas took Sara. She said she’d seen him in the community.”
“You lied, to me and to Brother Daniel.”
“Yes, I did.”
“Why?”
“Because I found Thomas and eliminated him as a problem.”
Father Gabriel leaned back as the rest of the council shifted in their chairs. “You killed him?” he asked.
“He was a threat to The Light. I didn’t want anyone to know what I’d done. After I did it, I worried that it could somehow come back on The Light.”
“Why did you kill him?”
“He’d been in the community. Xavier never comes into the community. Thomas threatened to expose things he’d seen as well as our location.”
“His body?”
I shook my head. “I brought him back here. That was my true distraction, not Sara. I brought him back here, and left him for the wildlife.”
Father Gabriel nodded. “I believe that in light of this new information, we’ll need to reconsider our safety measures. You’re correct that he should never have been given access to the community. How did he learn the codes?”
“I don’t know the answer to that,” I answered honestly.
“Each Assemblyman and Commissioner has his own code for the gates. We could go back through and assess the surveillance . . . ,” Brother Timothy offered.
“The video’s on a loop. It erases every third day,” Brother Daniel replied, finally meeting my eyes. “Besides, there’s also the code used by followers who work at locations outside the walls.”
“Change everyone’s codes,” Father Gabriel said as he turned to me. “Thank you, Brother Jacob. It seems as though we may have rushed to assume the worst. Pilots are in precarious positions. I’ll take this new information into consideration regarding our situation at the Eastern Light.”