Chapter 75
“Stop!” Her Grace told the wheelchair. The wheelchair stopped in time to position her perfectly in front of three large computer screens. She went through the awkward steps she needed to establish secure email contact.
The message from Canada was one of failure. Again. The woman they had kidnapped was a stand-in. Through amazing bad luck, the woman’s body, which should never have been found, was found immediately. This woman was a cousin who had been sacrificed so Hong Lee could enter the country. Her Grace entertained a moment of doubt about the Church’s ability to deal with this foe. These people were resourceful and tenacious. Years ago she might have entertained a brief thought of admiration or respect, perhaps even questioned her decision to go down the road she had chosen.
She had burned with her fire of faith for too many years now to think of anything but her mission. Nowhere in her mind would she acknowledge that she hated those who had enjoyed the pleasures of the flesh and not been given the virus. She had flowered and never known the love of a man. Years ago she had railed against the unfairness of it all. She now understood that this had been His way to show her that even the most righteous were at risk as long as the plagues of marital infidelity, homosexuality, and drug abuse stalked the world. Now her only feelings were the need to carry out her savior’s will.
Sometimes she wished she still had her father. She thought about those times when she was a little girl and he slipped into her room after mother passed out. He had made her feel so good and she had given him pleasure. She watched on her monitors as her blood pressure and respiration climbed. If she stayed on this course of thought the alarm would ring and the doctor would order her sedated again. Enough, she told herself as she used her tremendous will to relax. She planned the next steps.
They would be able to use the priest who heard Robert Smith’s confession. She thought long and hard about how to proceed. Every time they had come up with a way to thwart these people and act on it, these people had countered. This time she would try a different approach. She was certain these people would not simply lay low. They would take action. She was sure this action would be violent and directed at her.
Once she learned of their plan she would wait until the last possible moment to counter their plan so they would not have a chance to create another. They would take the man and the woman and ransom them. Then they would kill them. Perhaps she could find a way to kill one of them herself? Perhaps by pushing a button to have one electrocuted or blown up? She fell asleep with a smile on her face dreaming of the brother burning on the cross. She woke from the dream because she heard him screaming for forgiveness for his sins.