Martha’s cousin William told me that Bethany House is the oldest and best of all the Four safe houses; so I’m surprised when Martha says “There it is” and through the trees I see a dilapidated house that appears to be in worse shape than Brill’s electric bus. The house itself is at least two hundred years old and appears to have been abandoned for nearly half of that. It still has the original aluminum siding clinging to it and a rusty metal roof. What might have been a lawn surrounding the house is now more like a pasture with occasional trees springing up randomly.
“It looks… um, nice?” I say.
I take one step towards the house, then stop myself. There’s no sign that anyone has approached the house. Even if the members of Four were careful not to create a path, there’d still be bent blades of grass. I look at the door and can see generations of unbroken spider webs in the sunlight. Nobody has gone through that door in a very long time. Martha watches me but says nothing.
“You use a secret entrance,” I say.
I begin to walk in a circle around the house. Here and there I see signs that people have passed, but none of them ever stepped out from the shade of the tree line.
“You stay under the canopy. That way if a random drone happens to pass over, you’re never photographed entering the house.”
Martha gives a respectful nod.
I continue to walk around until I see signs of greater foot traffic. They’ve done a good job of spreading out where they walk to avoid creating a path; but the tracks spread out in a fan pattern, so all I need to do is follow them back to where they all meet. There I find a tunnel entrance that’s hidden by a boulder and some small trees.
“I’m disturbed by how easy that was for you,” Martha says. “Is everyone at the Corps this well trained?”
“Of course not. I just learned about tracking from you on our way here. I’ve told you many times, I just solve puzzles. Now that you’ve opened my eyes to them, broken sticks and disturbed ground are no different from puzzle pieces. Put them together and you see a bigger picture. I wish I’d discovered tracking years ago. It’s really fun.”
Martha just shakes her head.
Given the exterior of the house, I expect to crawl through the dirt to enter, but I’m happy to see the tunnel is big enough to stoop at first and then stand. Martha stops me before we climb a ladder to the main cavern.
“This is your first visit. You need to sign the guest book.”
“Seriously? You keep a guest book?”
“Sure. Here’s the pen.”
She hands me a large nail that’s hanging from a string. I look at the dirt walls and see dozens of sets of dates and initials have been carved into them. Four has been operating here for some time.
“Make them big. You’re our most famous visitor.”
“Then I’ll use the initials that are most famous with Christians.”
I carve “DRCP” in large letters. When I look up again I see that while I was carving, Martha fastened her long, blonde hair into a tight bun on the back of her head. Her features have gone from gentle and innocent to the look of a hardened battle commander in mere moments.
At the top of the ladder there’s a small chamber with two more ladders leading down to other escape tunnels and two large passageways leading deeper into the complex. There’s also a large metal door with a prominent “Danger, Do not Enter” sign.
“Is that where you keep the monsters? Or am I the first one you’ve captured?”
“That was supposed to be a fourth escape tunnel, but they ran into some sort of old mining area. The vent shafts are too dangerous; so they blocked it up. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise because we vent all the heat from our equipment into the old mine so the house above has no thermal signature for drones to detect.”
When we reach the main chamber, I stop abruptly. The room is much larger than I expected and looks like a modern military installation. I thought I’d find ancient computer technology and old men hunkered in the dark; but instead the room is full of modern gear and young people who look like a university research team. Most are about my age, but some of them appear to be no older than thirteen or fourteen years old.
“How?” I ask.
“Over a decade of hard work. I’m new to this house, but some of these people literally grew up here.”
“How’s it all powered?”
“The house above was chosen because it sits just a few hundred meters from an enormous set of underground power lines that feed electricity from the Sunspot One fusion reactor in Michigan to the East Coast of the United States. One nice thing about unlimited electricity is nobody notices when you take a little, so we tapped in without being noticed.”
“Apparently Four’s knack for deception goes beyond its people,” I say.
Martha is speechless that I’d be so harsh over our ended “relationship” but is rescued when several staff members notice us standing in the entry, allowing her to shift to her “Team Leader” persona. Her demeanor towards me switches to being outright cold, like she’s intentionally signaling to the others that I’m not to be trusted. The staff follows her lead and either eye me warily or ignore me.
“I’ll only be a minute. Stay here,” she says.
Martha leaves me standing alone and makes the mistake of turning her back on me.
Not far away an attractive woman about my age, with dark hair, keeps glancing at me: so I walk to where she’s sitting.
“Hi, I’m Cephas.”
At the sound of my voice, Martha’s head snaps around to see who I’m speaking with.
“I know who you are. I’m Amelia.”
“What’s your job, Amelia?”
“I’m supposed to be reading some boring government communications, but instead I’m reading a medical text. I want to be a doctor.”
“Helping to heal others is a beautiful goal. Do you have a minute to give me a quick tour? This my first time here.”
“A tour? I’m not even supposed to be talking to you.”
“I know. Nobody from Four talks to me. It’s pretty lonely; but you looked like the friendliest face in the room - so I thought I’d give it a try.”
“I thought my instructions to both of you were clear,” Martha says. “Out.”
Martha points, then pushes me roughly towards the door, which earns nods of approval from the staff.
As we leave the command center, I look at every screen I can. On one screen I see the Bible verses that are being hacked into random shows in various languages around the world. There’s a schedule showing that dozens of Four houses are taking turns doing the hacks. The second screen we pass is hacking me singing “He’ll find you” at the big press conference followed by shots of people singing the new “Christian” words and raising their arms into crosses at protests all over the world.
It’s the first real news I’ve seen and it warms my heart to see others making a cross with their arms.
Martha leads me down a hallway. I wave goodbye to Amelia, whose head snaps back to her screen as we both earn irritated looks from Martha. She leads me down another hallway to an area known as “The dormitory” and shows me to a room with a simple bed, a desk and a chair.
“This is your room when you visit Bethany House. Wait here and someone will bring you when the Council is ready to meet with you.”
“Sure. It won’t be the first time I’ve sat alone and completed a puzzle long after the end result should have been obvious to me.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“An hour ago I was held at knifepoint by the woman I -”
Love.
I raise my head and look at her, but find her staring at the floor.
“By someone I apparently never really knew. I was wrong about her and I was wrong to think I could enter your world. There’s no forgiveness, no redemption for me here. It seems that no matter what I do, I’ll always be The Cult Hunter. Why don’t you tell me how I can change that?”
She meets my gaze and for the first time in weeks I see the eyes I remember when she was my student. The fiery eyes that I thought wanted to be near me just because I’m me. The same blaze that seemed like a guiding light, but now feels like a lake of fire destined to burn me for eternity. It only lasts a moment before she breaks eye contact.
“I can’t help you with that,” she says and disappears.
****
Ten minutes later, a guy I saw in the command center takes me down another hallway and deposits me in a small room decorated only with a desk, two chairs and video equipment. All he needs to do is motion for me to sit; but instead he pushes me down into the chair and tells me to wait here for Martha.
This isn’t for a conference. It’s an interrogation room.
When he leaves, I walk to a door opposite where I entered to see if it’s a control room. The old door is thin; so I can hear Martha is already on a conference with someone on the other side.
“This was your idea, Martha - not mine,” a woman’s voice says. “You’re risking Bethany House and the entire network by having him there. Get some useful information out of him or get rid of him like you were supposed to do in the first place.”
They’re communicating electronically. They don’t need me to create a new code. They never did.
“You’re not listening, Zip. I’m telling you he’s not what the leadership thinks he is.”
“We all know what you think he is, Martha. I read the report and I also know you kissed him. Is that what this is about? Did you develop feelings for the animal?”
“No. Of course not.”
I close my eyes.
“Then get me some information I can use or better yet, turn him over to me and let me do it. This is the best opportunity we’ve ever had or we’re ever going to get. We must act.”
“Six months ago I would have been first in line behind you; but things have changed. You need to meet him and see for yourself that he’s not what we thought. We can use him.”
“Fine. Introduce me to your new pet but don’t ask for my help when you get bitten unless you commit Bethany to me right now.”
“I’m not ready to do that, Zip. These people have always been a technical team. I’m training them hard, but they’re not ready for combat. Bethany House will continue to support you with information, as it always has; but otherwise we’re still neutral.”
“You won’t always be the team leader at Bethany. If it was up to me, I’d remove you just for letting Paulson live.”
“Threats, Zip?”
“Advice.”
I knock hard on the door and enter without an invitation. As I do, I transform my face to a smile to hide what I’ve just heard.
Martha is seated in front of a control panel with a large screen featuring a young blonde woman. Her face is pretty; but my eye is drawn to the tattoo on the right side her neck. I can see part of what appears to be an intricate fractal pattern that reminds me of the sort of patterns I would draw when I was a child.
Patterns within patterns, puzzles within puzzles.
“Dr. Cephas Paulson! What an unexpected pleasure. My name is Zipporah - but everyone calls me Zip.”
“I hope I’m not intruding. I thought I might be late.”
“Intruding has always been your business Cult Hunter. I guess old habits are hard to break.”
“I thought I was here to make a first impression on the Four Council. It seems I was correct. I am too late.”
Before Zip can respond, Martha puts her hand onto my shoulder and guides me out of the control room.
“The meeting is about to start. You should have sat where you were told.”
Once I’m in the chair, a massive screen activates to reveal Martha’s face, which is being projected from the control room - even though I can see her through the open door.
“The meeting of the Four Council will now come to order,” she says.
The screen splits in two so that Martha is sharing with Zip; then splits into four; then six as more team leaders join. A minute later there are a hundred or more young faces looking back at me. They all defer to Zip to start the conversation.
“Let’s begin by welcoming Dr. Cephas Paulson,” Zip says.
There are a few polite claps, but even more murmuring.
“Thanks to Cephas, there’s been a worldwide swelling of support for religious freedom.”
That’s more than Martha has told me in weeks.
“I’ve made no secret of my desire to use this moment to show the world we’re here to stay and they’d better get used to seeing crosses again. We have the training and weapons. We have the technology. And now we have The Cult Hunter.”
I watch the faces carefully as Zip speaks. They’re angry. For three years I was the face of the Cult Hunter Corps, and now I’m the focal point of their rage.
“We all know what to do with our training, weapons and technology. The question is: What do we do with him?”
There are murmurs of making an example of me as a warning to the Corps.
“Cephas? Would you care to make a statement?” Zip asks.
“A statement? Am I on trial?”
“You are The Cult Hunter, aren’t you? Don’t you think killing a thousand Christians deserves a trial?”
A thousand? How I wish the number was that low.
I watch Martha’s face and conclude she didn’t know this “meeting” was going to be a trial.
“I’ll save you the effort. I plead guilty to you just like I stood before Christ and pled guilty to him. The question is: Can you find the same forgiveness that He did?”
“You’re not currently in God’s custody, Cult Hunter. You’re in ours.”
There are snickers and nods of approval from the Council.
“And technically I’m in Satan’s jurisdiction,” I say. “If you want to put me on trial as a war criminal, I can accept that, but I’d rather join you and try to atone for what I’ve done.”
“I intend to kill cult hunters,” Zip replies. “You acted as their poster boy; so now you can act as ours. Your conversion could put a righteous spin on my plans.”
“I spent three years as a symbol of fear and destruction. That man was destroyed when I turned my back on being The Cult Hunter and accepted the love of our Lord. I won’t become a new face of death for you.”
The smile never leaves Zip’s face, but her eyes tell me I’ve just sealed my own fate.
“Has any group ever won freedom without blood being shed?” she asks.
“It took just the blood of one man to win the only freedom we need. After seeing His blood shed, I don’t want to see more.”
Zip’s eyes narrow, but the smile remains on her face.
“Those are cheap words coming from you, Cult Hunter. You haven’t lived your life looking over your shoulder, listening for the tromping of boots behind you. Once you’ve been the hunted, maybe you’ll change your mind.”
A private message from Martha comes onto my screen: “End this.”
I look over the faces again. Most of them look angry, like Zip; but a few look open to hearing me.
“How can you silence tromping boots by putting them onto your own feet? I’m grateful to Four for rescuing me; but perhaps I’m not the sort of member you’re seeking.”
“So be it,” Zip says. “In view of his guilty plea, I move for an immediate sentencing vote.”
“You can’t,” Martha says. “Council rules require a one-month wait between a trial and sentencing.”
“But he confessed.”
“There’s no exception for confessions,” Martha says.
Zip and Martha stare into their respective cameras.
“Meeting adjourned,” Zip says. “The Council will meet again in thirty days for sentencing.”
****
A guard escorts me to my room; then sits in a chair outside.
I fall to my knees and pray.
“Lord, I’ve spent my life solving puzzles; but now I’m trapped in one of my own making. They’ve been angry for a long time - but it was me breaking the code that made Four what it is now. I twisted them. I drove them away from You.”
Feed My sheep.
“How can someone who caused such violence ever convince them that violence is the wrong path?”
Feed My sheep.
“This is my fault. They hate me because I deserve to be hated. I’m the one responsible for all that death and I deserve whatever punishment they think of for me.”
Feed My sheep.
“I don’t feed sheep! I solve puzzles and look at what happens when I do. They ordered Martha to kill me rather than rescue me. Why didn’t You just let her do it when she had the chance?”
My head snaps up.
“Thank you Lord. That’s an excellent puzzle.”