The Lincoln Myth (55 page)

S
ALAZAR WAITED FOR AN ANSWER TO HIS QUESTION.
A
S DID
the angel, who watched Elder Rowan with a stern gaze.

“I did not encourage or condone murder,” Rowan said. “I never have.”

“We murdered no one,”
the angel said.
“We saved those sinners from the cold and the darkness. That is good and just and right. He is against us, Josepe. The woman speaks the truth.”

“I did not commit murder. I atoned sinners. That is our way.”

“No,” Rowan said. “It is not. No one and nothing in our church condones such an atrocity. What you did is wrong in every way.”

He was hurt by the rebuke.

“We had a grand vision,” Rowan said. “A new Zion. Just as Prophet Joseph wanted. That is still within our grasp. But you, and your foolishness, have placed it all in jeopardy.”

“Where is the document?” he demanded.

“I thought it was here. I was wrong.”

“And now he intends to leave you to these enemies.”

Rowan turned and walked away.

The others stood and watched him.

He still held the gun, finger on the trigger, Cassiopeia’s eyes pleading with him.

“Do it.”

I can’t.

“Then you are no better than him. You have failed me.”

That rebuke he could not bear. The angel had been with him a long time, never yielding, guiding him to this precise moment when he must decide what was more important.

Now or eternity?

He’d always thought the choice clear.

More than anything else, he was loyal to the prophets.

So he swung the gun around and fired.

R
OWAN HEARD THE BLAST THEN FELT THE BULLET AS IT PIERCED
his right shoulder from behind. At first it was as if someone had shoved him with violence, then a searing pain exploded upward and out, an agony he’d never felt before.

He staggered a few steps, then turned.

Pain both weakened and alarmed him.

Salazar still had his gun aimed.

He opened his mouth to protest, to ask why, to question the foolishness of such an irrational act, but another blast filled his ears.

And the world ended.

SIXTY-NINE

S
TEPHANIE WATCHED AS
S
ENATOR
T
HADDEUS
R
OWAN DIED
.

Neither she, Luke, Cotton, nor Cassiopeia moved.

Everyone kept still as Salazar ended a problem.

One down.

Two to go.

C
ASSIOPEIA WINCED AS
J
OSEPE COMMITTED
MURDER
. H
ER
first thought was revulsion, her second anger.

“You did this,” she screamed at Stephanie. “You pushed him.”

“This man is a murderer. Even worse, he’s a delusional murderer. He actually thinks he’s doing good.”

“I am a warrior of God. Server of the prophets,” Salazar said, the gun now aimed straight at Stephanie. “Get. On. Your. Knees.”

“Is that what the angel wants?”

“You mock him?”

Cassiopeia decided to try, “Josepe. Please. Leave these people be and let’s you and I go.”

“
You
lied to me. You used me. You’re as bad they are.”

“I’m not like them at all.”

Josepe gestured with the gun at Stephanie. “I told you to kneel.”

M
ALONE REALIZED THIS WAS GOING TO BE TRICKY
.

Salazar was deranged. But that didn’t mean he could not be led. In fact, it might make the task easier. He caught Stephanie’s gaze and gave her a slight nod of his head, enough for her to know he was with her.

So she knelt on the dry ground.

Luke stood in front of him, both of them holding their arms at their sides, the gun no more than a foot away, hidden from everyone’s view but his. He searched his eidetic memory for what he’d read in the book back at his shop. Salazar clearly lived in the past, so the past would be his weapon.

He said,
“Wherefore, this is the land of promise and the place for the city of Zion. And thus saith the Lord your God, if you will receive wisdom here is wisdom.”

“You know the Doctrine and Covenants?”

“I’ve read it.
Verily this is the word of the Lord that the city New Jerusalem shall be built by the gathering of the Saints.”

“And we built it. In Ohio. Missouri. Illinois. And finally in Salt Lake. If you know our teachings then you know that the Prophet Joseph declared that the redemption of Zion comes only by power.”

“Yet you have none.”

“I have this gun. I have my enemy on her knees. I have the rest of you at my mercy.”

“
You elders of Israel, have you not entered into a covenant with God that you never would betray one another? A covenant not to speak against the anointed.”
He was quoting more of what he’d read, a statement made by one of the early church elders.

“Every Saint pledges that,” Salazar said. “We must stay together. We draw our strength from being together.”

“Yet you were surrounded by liars,” Stephanie said.

S
ALAZAR TRIED TO KEEP REALITY IN FOCUS, BUT TOO MUCH
assaulted him. Luckily the angel had remained, watching, staying silent, allowing him time to think. He was angry at everyone, Cassiopeia included. Elder Rowan lay on the ground, his body still, almost certainly dead.

“Shedding human blood is necessary for the remission of sin,”
the angel said.
“The apostle sinned. He is with Heavenly Father now, happy, and will thank you one day. His tortured soul could only be saved through the shedding of his blood.”

He felt comforted by the knowledge.

Still, Rowan had been a chosen man.

Had he done wrong atoning him?

“Don’t be alarmed if there be curiosities in Zion. If I wished to find the best men in the world, I should go to Zion to find them. If I wished to find the biggest devil, I would also look in Zion. For among the people of God there I can find the greatest scamps.”

Which surely explained Rowan’s betrayal.

What now?
he asked in his head, staring at the apparition.

His enemy still knelt before him.

“She must be atoned.”

He agreed.

“All of them must be atoned.”

Including Cassiopeia?

“Her most of all. She betrayed you to our enemies.”

“Salazar.”

Malone’s voice jarred him from the vision.

“It’s done.”

“No, it’s not.”

“Yes, it is,” Cassiopeia said.

He swung the gun her way. “Don’t say that. Don’t ever say that. You have not earned the right to pass judgment on me, or anyone else.”

“Are you going to shoot me?” she asked.

“Atone her.”

“I can’t,” he called out. “I can’t.”

S
TEPHANIE WAS CONCERNED FOR
C
ASSIOPEIA
. S
ALAZAR WAS
now not only seeing things, he was talking to them. There was no telling what he would do next. She assumed Luke and Cotton had things under control. They’d freely shed their weapons, which meant that at least one of them was still armed. She’d noticed how Cotton stayed close to Luke, keeping him to his right, in front of him, never far away.

That could not be unintentional.

And thankfully, in his present state Salazar was incapable of noticing anything.