Post by Admin on Dec 11, 2013 21:14:21 GMT
"Happy?" Senator Boxbaum said. "No, this is something quite apart from happiness. Call it a kind of bliss, an unquestioning serenity. True happiness requires some measure of self-awareness. We're talking about people here who have their very wills taken away."
Adelle raised an eyebrow. "Imagine such a thing." she said dryly.
"The irony of bringing this to you, Adelle, is not lost on me. I promise you."
"It's not the irony that concerns me. You're asking me to place an Active with a federal agent."
"Indirectly, yes."
"I don't wish to be vulgar, but one of the many benefits of having you as a client is that you help us avoid entanglements with federal agencies. Senator."
Boxbaum chuckled. "It's the ATF. You been running guns? Besides, your Actives won't be working with the government. One of your security guys would liaise. Your Active you would be perfectly safe. "
"In a fanatical religious cult." Adelle pointed out.
"Adelle... This is an election year..."
"Ah." Adelle said, realising.
"I got the family value voters on the right, the women's issues constituency on the left all coming after me if anything untoward is going on behind those compound walls. The ATF is convinced there is. Now, we have a very narrow window on this warrant. If the government sends in some wet-behind-the-ears Quantico undercover graduate, these people are gonna know about it. I need the real thing. I need a true believer."
*
"I can't help you." Loomis said, dodging between people in the hall in an attempt to escape Paul.
"You're the only one who can." he said.
Loomis stopped and looked at him. She was a pretty woman, with dari skin and a shaved head. "Aren't you supposed to be shot?"
"I lived."
"I see that. Shouldn't you be recuperating?"
"Come on, Loomis. You scan the face, you look for a match. Computer does all the work."
"Have Carter run it through NCIC." Loomis said through gritted teeth.
"I already did that."
"And you didn't get a match?"
Paul shook his head. "Nothing."
"Well, I don't know what you expect me to do--"
"We both know your clearance rating opens up databases Carter can only dream about."
"Then you know I've got plenty of faces to scan for people much more impressive than you."
Paul smiled. "But not as charming."
Loomis gave the most deadpan face known to man. "Was that flirting?"
Paul stood awkwardly. "I think so. It's been awhile... Did I mention I was shot?"
Loomis grabbed the file. Paul smiled as she left.
*
"I don't like it." Dominic said, accompanying Adelle across the Dollhouse floor.
"Good, it's your job not to like it, Mr. Dominic," Adelle said. "But Senator Boxbaum is more than just a valued client. He's a well-placed asset. Denying his request would have a steeper downside than acquiescing."
"It's not the job. I'm confidant Langton can handle the ATF. It's Echo." he insisted. "Her field response has been wildly erratic lately."
"She's demonstrated a... talent for adaptability, which is precisely what is required in this instance."
"They shouldn't be adaptable." Dominic pressed. "They should be predictable. If Alpha didn't teach us that much--"
"You don't like Echo, do you, Mr. Dominic?"
Dominic looked uncomfortable. "It's not that I don't like her. It's sometimes I worry you do."
"Your objections have been noted, thank you, Mr. Dominic."
Adelle left him and took a beeline for Doctor Saunders' office. Echo was there, sitting on the examination table, Saunders at her side. Topher was in the corner at a computer.
"Hello, Echo."
Echo beamed. "Hello." she said brightly. "I had an EXAM." the word sounded alien to her.
"That's good. Would you like to have some lunch now?"
Echo nodded. "I would."
"She shouldn't eat." Saunders said. "Not before the surgery."
"Echo." Adelle said, stopping Echo in the door. "Why don't you go have a massage?"
Echo smiled. "A massage would be relaxing." She left, closing the door behind her.
"If she were any more relaxed, she'd be ooze." Topher observed.
"So, it's doable?" Adelle asked.
"It's... experimental." Saunders said. "And highly invasive."
Adelle looks to Topher. "But doable?
"The actual procedure isn't much more complicated than laser eye correction." he looked at Saunders. "It ain't brain surgery."
"Actually, it IS brain surgery." she said. "We're going to be turning Echo into a human camera, and in order to do that, she's going to have to be made blind."
"Not permanently... In theory." Topher said meekly.
"So, this is it?" Adelle said, leaning over the computer.
"Yes, uh, the latest in CSEVP. Cortical stimulation for evocation of visual perception."
"Brain camera for the blind." Saunders said flatly.
"...Or that."
"And this is what she'll be seeing?" Adelle said, pointing at herself on tue screen.
"Well, this is what the feds will be seeing, only less clear once we get it inside of Echo. We'll be using her eyes as lenses. The image will bypass her own cortex and be broadcast directly back to the ATF. Echo herself will see no evil."
"There have been instances of this technology causing aneurysms and, in one case, death." Saunders said. "It's possible one good sneeze could being on a seizure."
"Or even worse." Topher said. "A SNEEZURE."
"The risks have been determined to be within the acceptable margins." Adelle said. "How soon can she be ready?"
"I'll need 24 hours." Saunders told her.
"Good. Clock starts now."
*
"This is our target." Agent Lilly, a middle-aged man with greeting hair, said. "Calls himself Jonas Sparrow. Real name: Nathan Allan White." He passed the mugshot around the cramped, damp cottage to his fellow ATF agents. "36 years of age, he spent most of those years in federal prisons. Last time he was inside Sparrow claimed a conversion experience. Upon release, he joined up with the Zion Ranch. Formed a splinter group. They grew in number... and set up shop here."
"What kind of shop?" one of the agents asked.
"Given Sparrow's history, it could be anything from gun running to human trafficking. One thing I can promise you: he is not up at that ranch putting hay in a manger."
Everyone chuckled, except Boyd. Boyd didn't find it particularly funny m
"Our problem has been we haven't been able to show cause for a warrant." Lilly continued. "Until now. Sparrow never leaves the compound himself. But once a month, he sends some minions into town to buy supplies. They go in groups to watch each other. Well, someone wasn't watching closely enough, because one of the faithful managed to scribble this on the back of a shopping list." Lilly held up an evidence bag with a shopping list in it. On the back of the sheet, the words 'SAVE ME' were scrawled. "'Save Me'. These two words have opened a crack in the door. A very small crack. A judge has agreed to let us do a sneak-and-peek. We have 48 hours to show cause for further action. Then the door shuts again."
"48 hours to penetrate a closed group?" another agent asked. "To gain their confidence, to get inside?"
"I'd like you all to meet Boyd Langton." Lilly said, alerting everyone to Boyd's presence in the room's corner. "Private contractor recommended to us by Senator Boxbaum. He's been vetted at the highest level. I'll let him tell you what he does."
"Hi," Boyd said dryly. "So, what I do is I work with an extraordinary young woman. She's not a law enforcement officer. She's not an undercover agent. She's just a girl. She's going to help us. Her name is Esther Carpenter, and she knows these people. She knows them like she knows herself."
"What, did she escape from a cult?" a male agent asked.
"No. She didn't escape from anything. Esther's talent is not in getting out, but getting in. And because of this talent, because of who she is, that is what she will do. She will not arrive there a stranger or an intruder. She will walk through the gates of the compound... and she will be accepted as one of them."
"How?" a female agent asked.
"Through a miracle."
*
"I can feel the sun." Esther said. "We're headed south now. You made the turn. It means we're getting closer. I really want to thank you for going out of your way."
Boyd looked to the passenger seat, where Esther was sitting. She was wearing heavy, woollen clothes with lots of holes and patches, and a cane was spread across her lap. Her eyes were glazed over, and her hair had a slight frizziness to it. Boyd was so used to seeing Echo's hair all sleek and wavy. "It's not as far out of my way as you might think. I admire your courage. Hitchhiking across country."
"Because I'm blind?"
"Nah, 'cause you're a girl."
"I'm a girl?! Wow, I've been blind longer than I thought." Boyd smiled. "Do I hear a smile?"
"You do." he assured. "So, you weren't always blind?"
"No," she said. "The Lord saw fit to take my vision when I was nine." Her smile faded slightly.
"The Lord, huh? And you don't blame Him?"
"Blame Him? No, I praise Him. Saul of Tarsus made it all the way to Damascus after he was struck blind, and he became a new person."
"You want to become a new person?"
Esther's smile grew wider. "More than anything."
Boyd stopped the car next to a chain link fence. Within the fence was a small compound, comprised of two dozen bleach-white wooden houses and a few barns. Men and women bustled about in pale white shirts and skirts, looking impossibly happy. "Are we here?" Esther asked.
"I think so. There's a gate. It looks like it's open. I could walk you there."
"No, thank you. I made it this far. Is the path close?"
"Open the door; you'll step right on it."
Esther opened the door, but paused to place her hand on Boyd's shoulder. "Thank you. And God bless you."
Esther felt her way out of the car. Boyd drove away.
"Hello?" Esther said, her cane clanging against the Gate's entrance. She walked down a dusty path. She could feel the people's eyes on her. "Hello?" she repeated. She could feel their presence now in coming in close. "Please." she said. "I know you're there."
She stopped as her came hit a shoe. She raised her hand to the vicinity of a face and found a cheekbone, strong, covered in stubble. She ran her hand across the face. "Jonas Sparrow. I'd know your face anywhere."
*
"Esther Louise Carpenter." Jonas said, reading Esther's ID. "From Raymond, New Hampshire." He waved his hand in front of her face. She didn't react. "A blind hitchhiker. And you got all the way here by yourself?"
"I was led." Esther informed him. "By God."
"And was that God in the car that dropped you off?"
Esther laughed lightly. "Just one of his instruments."
"Who told you about this place, Esther Louise Carpenter?"
You did.
Jonas shook his head. "I've never seen you before."
"But I've seen you." Esther said. The crowd was listening to her intently. "You appeared to me in a vision. You spoke to me. You said a place had been prepared for me. You told me to walk out my door, to not be afraid. You said, 'Come to your brothers and sisters at the Temple.'" A single tear rolled down her face. "You said I would be carried here... as if on the wind. And then you took my hand..." she couple his cheek. "...and you held it to your face...so that I would know it."
The crowd broke into a chorus of 'Hallelujah's "Amen." Jonas whispered.
*
"You broke in?" Paul said into the phone. "Okay. So then here's what I want you to do: bring the drugs to this address. You ready? 9000 Temple Street. Downtown. I'll see you then."
Paul hung up and say back to see Loomis standing over him, eyebrow raised.
"That was my neighbour." he explained. "I forgot my pain medication at home. She's gonna run it town here for me. Please tell me we've made some progress."
Loomis dropped the file on Paul's desk. "Sorry. I tried every biometric I know. Your Caroline doesn't exist. I'll leave it active and in the system, at least for now. If I get any hits off the face recog, I'll let you know."
She walked away. Paul looked to the desk to see the picture of Caroline, looking up at him. He looked at it for quite some time before he got back to work.
*
“Doctor?”
Topher slipped into Doctor Saunders’ office, looking visibly unsettled. Saunders raised an eyebrow. “Topher?”
“Hello.”
“…Hello.”
Topher cleared his throat. “So listen. Here's the thing. I was looking, glancing… the security feed... I noticed... Victor.” He held his arms out to see if she understood.
“You noticed Victor?”
“Mm-hmm. In the shower and he's... naked.”
Saunders raised the other eyebrow. “Victor's naked in the shower.”
Topher nodded furiously. “Right. Anyway, he seemed to be having a kind of... man reaction.”
“A what?”
“A, you know, reaction that a man person might have in the... you know, the... naked part. Shower. Victor.”
“Victor had an erection?”
Topher winced, as if the word hurt him. “I prefer man reaction.” he wheezed.
“Why?
He shrugged. “This is a problem. This can't happen. It shouldn't happen. When they're in their Doll state, there's a limp... ness…”
Saunders took a file from the shelf. “Well, I warned about something like this.”
"When?"
“His last engagement was with Miss Lonely Hearts.” The secretive client was notorious in the Dollhouse; most thought she was a dirty old lady.
“So?” Topher said. “That shouldn't matter. I mean, okay, it was a romantic engagement, but he was wiped.”
“This is the eighth time he's had that exact imprint. I've cautioned against repeated imprints in the same Dolls, haven't I?”
Topher shrugged. “I don't know.” He pointed at the file. “You put it in one of those reports?”
Saunders nodded. “Of course.”
Topher looked as if the case had been cracked. “Okay! Well, nobody reads those.”
Saunders resisted the urge to hit him. “How many times has this happened?”
“I don't know!” Topher said apprehensively. “I wasn't looking for it.”
“Well, now you're gonna have to.” She said, handing him the file. “Let's start with the last three months of shower tapes.”
Topher looked horrified. “We're actually gonna sit down and... look for the...?”
Saunders sighed. “Man reactions.”
*
“This is Sister Emma.” Sister Kris told Esther. People were standing in a circle to be introduced to Esther.
“Hi.” Esther said.
“Sister Annabelle, mm-hmm…”
“Hello.”
“Oh, this... is Iliya.”
“Hello.” Iliya said.
Esther went for his face, but instead brushed off his suspenders. Iliya was tall. “Hello, Iliya.” She said as he guided her hand to his cheek. “ It's a pleasure to meet you. And what a handsome face!”
Iliya laughed. “Thank you.”
“Iliya was with us at the Zion Ranch in Texas.” Kris told Esther.
Esther’s hand found Iliya’s steady heartbeat. “You were unhappy there.” She said.
She sensed him nodding. “Things happened there that should not have happened.”
“Jonas led us out of that place.” Kris said.
“He saved us.” Iliya agreed.
“Esther?” She heard Brother Seth’s voice. “Jonas would like to see you.”
Seth took her hand, and Esther smiled as she was lead from the room.
*
“Another female,” Agent Doggett told Agent Lilly, showing him a fuzzy still from Esther’s hidden camera. “Approximately 29 years of age. Let's tag her femme eight.”
Agent Lilly stuck it to the board. “Could be Andrea Parker from Florence, Texas.”
“You have some names?” Boyd asked, approaching the board.
“A few.” Lily said. “Been watching these people a long time.”
“Any idea who our cry for help came from?” Boyd said. “Be nice to know who our ally on the inside is.”
Lilly shrugged. “Yeah, it would be, but we can't presume any allies.”
“Damn it!”
Lilly turned. Agent Reyes, at a computer behind him, had said it. She was looking at blank screens. “What happened?” Lilly asked. “We lose our signal?”
“The signal's still there.” she said. “I'm just not getting—“
She was cut off by a flare of eerie light shining in the grainy darkness. “What the hell?”
The lessened. Agent Lilly and Boyd were met with the sight of cache upon cache of weapons.
“You getting this?”
“Oh, yeah.” Lilly said. “I'm getting it. That's an arsenal.”
*
Jonas watched as Esther didn’t react to the torch shining in her eyes. “I'm gonna ask you some questions, Esther, and I want you to be truthful with me, okay?”
“Of course.” she said, smiling. Jonas eyed her closely. No pupil dilation.
“You work for the government?” he asked.
Esther looked confused. “What?”
“The federal government.” he clarified. “Did they send you here?
Esther shook her head. “No. Of course not.”
“And you're not with law enforcement of any kind?”
“No.”
Jonas sighed and switched the light bulb on, releasing them from pitch blackness. Seth stood awkwardly, watching them. “I wanna believe you, Esther. I want to believe everything you say. It's a beautiful story... but the serpent also had a beautiful story and the woman was deceived, and the man was corrupted, and they were forced to leave the garden.”
Esther considered this, but ultimately replied with “I don't understand.”
Jonas walked to the wall and retrieved one of the many hidden guns from the stack. Seth gulped. “I do not come into this garden a pure being, Esther. I come to it the way Adam left. Broken.” He loaded a bullet into the gun. “Corrupted. Impure. But those whom I shelter: they are not corrupted by it. They have not walked in the world the way I have. They have not seen the things that I have seen.” He shut the gun. “And against this world they are defenseless. So I will protect them. And any who seek to harm them, to foul this garden…”
He stuck the gun between her eyes.
“...shall fail.”
Esther didn’t move. She didn’t know it was there. “Iliya told me that you saved them.” she said dreamily. “All who are here are blessed.”
Jonas looked to Seth and sighed. He knelt down in front of Esther.
“Welcome to the Temple. ‘Esther: she who was born for a time such as this.’ Welcome.”
He planted a kiss on her forehead. She reached for his hand, but he was already gone. She grasped at empty space. Seth was left to remove her from the weapons room. If anyone knew…
Esther looked in his general direction. “He is a great man.”
“Yes.”
For the first time, Seth wasn’t sure.
*
“Paul?”
Paul stood up. Mellie was at the other end of his desk, holding a casserole dish. “Mellie. Hi.
“I hope I got here fast enough.” she said worriedly. “You're not in a lot of pain, are you? Oh, here's your prescription.”
Paul stood up as he handed her the bag. She smiled and held out her dish, wrapped in Clingfilm. “Also, some leftover manicotti.”
Paul looked at the manicotti. Not a bite taken, as usual. “Thank you. I really appreciate this.”
“Oh, no big, I've been meaning to come down here anyway.”
Paul raised an eyebrow. “You've been meaning to come down to the Federal Building?”
Mellie looked awkward. “Well... you know. Oh, uh, some guy in the hall asked me to give you this.” She handed him a large yellow envelope with his name scrawled across it.
“Some guy in the hall?” Paul asked.
“Yeah, I was asking directions, and he heard me say your name.”
Something struck Paul. He picked up the envelope that had brought him the picture of Caroline. Same handwriting.
Paul nearly dropped the manicotti.
*
“I'm right, aren't I?” Paul asked Loomis frantically. “Both were written by the same person.”
“Give me a second—“
“And no postmark on either one!” Paul turned to Mellie. “Mellie, describe again the man who gave this to you.”
Mellie flinched. “Uh, sure, he was maybe mid-20s, um, not overly tall. Cute, brownish hair…”
Loomis opened the envelope. “Did he have a cart?”
“A cart? Uh, yes, yes, there was a cart there. I remember that.”
Loomis plunged her hand into the enevlope and took out a shiny disk. “Was there mail on the cart?”
“Uh, yeah, a lot of mail…”
Loomis glanced at Paul. Little Stevie from the mail room. Short, cute, brown hair. Too lazy to walk to your desk.”
“Oh. Well, that little bastard.”
“Still, though, you're right: the handwritings match, so whoever sent you the photo sent this to you, too.”
Loomis put the disk in the drive of her computer and hit play. Paul was taken aback when Caroline, Caroline from the picture, appeared
“Okay, hi, Mom. Are we done?” she said to the cameraman. She was wearing the same clothes as in the picture. The same day.
“Is there anyone you want to say good-bye to?” the cameraman asked.
“Wow,” Mellie said weakly. “The photograph didn't really do her justice, did it...?"
"This is real." Paul breathed. "I mean, this is who she was - just a girl..."
"Just a girl with a potty mouth." Loomis said.
"Someone wanted me to see this." Paul said, grabbing a pad and pencil. "Can you roll it back?"
Loomis rewound to the very beginning. Paul began a transcript.
"Okay," Mellie said. "Well, uh... I should probably get going..." She had been forgotten in the corner.
"Okay," Paul said flatly. "Thanks again, Mellie."
He didn't even look up as Mellie left.
*
"Let's roll that back, please." Saunders said. "I believe I spotted a tumescence at 3:21:04. Tell me what you think."
Topher hit the rewind button numbly. "Yeah," he sighed. "It's not oak, but it's on its way to wood. Are we done?"
"Go to Wednesday the 23rd, please." Saunders asked, scribbling something on her clipboard.
"You know, I could burn these and you could just take them home..."
Saunders glared. "Go back. There. Mm-hmm. Wait, freeze that--"
"I will not!"
Saunders sighed. "Of course. If it'd been a snake...
Topher looked at her.
"...Please pretend I didn't say that. G-Go back to 17:57:09. Can you zoom in to his face? Now jump to 24:25:14... Freeze!"
Topher froze. Victor was in the shower looking at something to his right. A fellow Active, a girl with blonde hair...
"Well, I guess that rules out Miss Lonely Hearts. It's not residual imprinting; it's her. It's Sierra."
"What?"
"It only happens when she's there, and it started not long after she arrived." Saunders informed him. "She's the new element that's been introduced to his environment, the catalyst to his physical response."
"He likes her?"
She sighed. "Yeah..."
Simpleton.
*
Boyd approached as Agent Lilly showed Agent Reyes a schematic. "When we breach, forward team here." he said. "We need to secure that arsenal."
Boyd approached as Reyes departed. "You're going in now?" he asked.
"Soon as my warrant comes through. Just waiting on the judge."
"Then I need to extract my associate."
Lilly chuckled. "Sure. Why don't you go knock on the door, let 'em know we're coming? Are you nuts? Your girl stays put. She's my eyes in there."
"She served that function." Boyd said, voice rising. "She's provided enough evidence for you to keep your case alive. Now I would like to do the same for her. In my judgment, this action is premature."
"Your judgment? Look, I was told not to be too interested in where you and the girl really came from. No problem, I'm not. What I am interested in is putting Nate White - or Jonas Sparrow or whatever he's calling himself this week - back where he belongs: for good this time."
Something occurred to Boyd. "You know this guy."
"Yeah, I know him."
"No, you KNOW him."
"Huh. You used to be a cop. Me, too. Twelve years, Laughlin PD, and back then, he wasn't calling it a church and they were mostly underage girls. We put him away for what was supposed to be forever. Forever turned out to be just shy of two years. Some judge decided he didn't like the way we handled the evidence. So when this judge calls... I'm not waiting."
Lilly stormed away. Boyd retreated to his van and immediately called Dominic.
"This is Langton. I need your okay for a forced extraction."
"Echo," Dominic said. "She's glitching on a government job. Damn it..."
Boyd didn't understand. "Echo is fine. She's performed perfectly within parameters."
"Then what's the problem?"
"Agent Lilly. He's about to release the hounds of hell on that compound. Echo's imprint will not have prepared her for this--
"Do nothing."
"What? If you're worried about a glitch--"
"No extraction. Authorisation denied."
He hung up a second later. Boyd stared at his phone in shock.
*
Jonas projected his voice to speak to the chapel, full to bursting with the citizens of the compound. "In our book, the story of Esther is a story of a woman. Her father died when she was still in her mother's womb. Her mother died in childbirth. What was so extraordinary about the Esther of the Book was her unique vision. She could see things no one else could. This was the essence of the Esther of the Book-her ability to... penetrate secrets, to pierce the darkness, to find truths others could not." Jonas looked to Esther, utching close to Kris in the middle row. "Our Esther, it seems, is no different. She says I appeared to her in a vision." Everybody chuckled. "All right. You all know me. You know that I make no special claim to revelation. I'm just a man, weaker than most, but my faith is not weak, and I see this place and all of you through Esther's eyes - her amazing eyes, which see things no one else can -that faith is only strengthened. Brother Seth, would you bring our sister forward?"
Seth waded trough the sea of people to Esther's side. He held out his hand. "Sister?" She clumsily took his hand and he led the way up to the altar. Jonas turned to her.
"Esther Carpenter, are you prepared to forsake the world of men, to give yourself, your life, your fidelity, and your industry to your brothers and sisters of the Temple?"
Esther smiled. "I am."
Jonas made the sigh of the cross on her forehead. "Return to the garden. A new beginning."
Esther was in a sea of hugs from her new Brothers and Sisters. There was cheering and clapping...
all until the flash.
A flash of light from the chapel's window, accompanied by a loud metallic click.
Jonas' jaw tensed. Someone had hit the trip wire.
"Nobody move." he ordered. He darted to the fuse box and flipped a switch, sending the chapel into darkness. He grabbed Seth by the arm and half-dragged him to the cellar.
"Jonas?"
"Seth..."
Jonas took a gun from the nearest container. "I need you with me."
Seth looked tentatively at the caches. Eventually, he grabbed a gun. "I'm with you, Jonas."
"Come on."
They returned to the chapel, where the people had meshed into one scared sea of bleaches white. "Brother Seth, guard the window."
Seth did.
"What's going on?" Esther asked Kris. "I don't understand. "What's happening?"
Jonas was at her in a second. "Was this you?" he spat. "Did you bring them here?"
Esther flinched in surprise. "I don't understand..."
Jonas slapped her across the face, hard, and Esther collapsed beside the pew, cheek burning. Jonas dragged her to her feet again. "Did you do this?" he snarled. "Did you bring the wolves to our door?"
Kris yanked at Jonas' sleeve. "Jonas, no, she's our sister..."
Jonas shoved her into the nearest person and whirled a disoriented Esther out of her reach. "Stop it." he ordered. He turned to Esther. "The truth this time, Sister."
He raised his hand, but Esther grabbed him by the wrist and held it steady. She looked at him and--
She looked at him. Right at him.
"It's a miracle." she breathed. "I can see..."
*
"This is the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms." A man called through a bullhorn. The compound residents sat huddled together on the floor of the house across from the chapel, listening. "The compound is completely surrounded. For your own safety, come out with your hands in the air."
Esther clung to Sister Kris as Jonas and Seth circled the chapel, holding rifles. "This is worse than Zion Ranch." Kris breathed. "Why does he have guns?"
Jonas sat on the ground. Seth joined him. "Jonas. You must speak to them... to your people. They're afraid."
Jonas looked at Esther as he spoke. "Do you believe it, Seth? Do you believe in her?"
"I don't know. I don't know what to believe. We took her into the dark; you put the light in her eyes. There was nothing: no physical reaction, no change. How do you fake that?"
"And yet she sees."
Jonas crouched and waddled below the windows to Esther. Kris was whispering soothing words in her ear as she dared at the bright colours. She saw Jonas approaching and shrank back.
"Esther." Jonas said softly. "Those men outside - I know you didn't bring them. I know you were telling me the truth. They have come to destroy us, to raze the garden and to salt the Earth... Esther, before I looked into your eyes, and I saw nothing, and so I believed. And I look into them now... and I need to know... was this a miracle?"
Esther considered this. "I was blind, but now I see." she said, simple and fragile.
Jonas stuck a supporting smile on his face. "Then you were brought here for this purpose: so that I might know what to do." He kissed her hand. And now I do."
He stood up. All eyes fell to him.
It is true." Jonas said. "Below us is a cache of weapons Brother Seth and I have hidden there in the event that this day should ever come. I prayed it would not, but I always knew that it would. The darkness cannot abide the light. And yet I now believe my prayers were answered. Esther was sent to us in advance of these men: a demonstration of God's power. So you will not take up arms. You will not have to. Come with me."
He held out his arm, leading the way back to the chapel.
*
Boyd stick to Lilly as they circled the words. The ATF Agents were owing in: Esther's camera had gone flat.
"You've got no way at all to communicate with her?" Lilly asked.
"No." Boyd said dryly. "I really don't."
"So my inside man is worthless is what you're telling me."
"She was never your inside man!" Boyd barked gruffly.
"Oh, she's just another one of them?" Lilly said. "Fine. That's how she'll be treated."
"Look, you do have someone on the inside: whoever sent up that cry for help. We should try to put a name to that, then at least maybe we can form a strategy."
"We are not going to do anything. You are not a part of this, not anymore--"
Lilly was cut off by the rumbling of engines. Boyd turned to see van upon can for news channels accompanying the newly-risen sun.
"Oh, great..."
*
Paul watched Ye clip at least 70 times before he emerged from the room. All other agents were crowded around the office TV, watching a news report.
"We now take you to our affiliate KPJK with this breaking news." A female reporter said, before the feed was transferred. A male reported appeared in a desert-looking area.
"A religious cult know as the Children of the Temple. This was the scene today in Pleasant, Arizona--"
"What's up?" Paul asked a nearby agent.
The agent shrugged. "Waco 2... maybe."
"--where agents from the Bureau of Alchol, Tobacco, and Firearms surrounded this remote compound. Attentions here are high with the presence of the armed agents. The cult leader was seen moving from one building to another. He's wanted by federal authorities on unspecified charges."
The footage cut to a few dozen people in bleach white clothes running from a chapel door, looking terrified. Then, a woman stopped, looked at the cameras.
Paul nearly fell into a chair. Brown hair, slightly frizzy but shiny. A pretty face. Dark brown eyes. Slightly older, but still beautiful. Still definitely her.
Definitely Caroline.
*
"I didn't see who wrote the note, now." the shopkeeper told Boyd. "It could have been any one of 'em. There was a bit of a mishegas going on up at the front of the store at the time."
"What kind of mishegas?" Boyd asked.
"Well. Jesse Dillard - he's a mechanic across the way there. He followed 'em in here and he tried to, uh, provoke a thing there."
"Why?"
The shopkeeper chuckled. "Well, I mean, they are kind of odd, you know. But, uh, you know, there's been a lot of rumours about what's going on up there at that compound. Now, I never believed any of 'em until I saw that note."
"Anyone check the security tape?"
"Well, nothing was stolen and nobody asked."
Boyd was perplexed.
*
"We think he's moved everyone into this outbuilding here." Doggett told Lilly.
"No, that's not where he's got the guns stored."
Boyd stormed up, interrupting, but Lilly continued. "Still, doesn't mean he can't get to them. There could be tunnels, underground access."
"If there were tunnels, why didn't he use them to move his people?" Boyd sad roughly. "Why herd them out in broad daylight?"
Lilly and Doggett exchanged a peeved off look. "Will you give us a moment, Carlos?"
"Yeah."
Doggett disappeared. Lilly turned to Boyd. "Okay. You want to go in there and get your girl? I'm open to letting you do that. Under a couple of conditions--"
Boyd slammed him against the car door. "How about these conditions? You stay the hell out of my way and maybe I won't tell anyone it was you! You knew he sent his people into town once a month!" He held up a grainy security camera picture of Lilly in the store. "You were waiting. You ginned up tempers. Started rumors in the town. Created a diversion, and then you wrote that note. That's how you got your warrant. Nobody ever asked to be saved. Not by you."
*
"You're witnessing the wonders of the most high, Brother Seth." Jonas told Seth. "Do not lose faith. Now go. Go."
Seth took a moment, ten left the chapel. Jonas approached Esther, bible in hand.
"Esther? Can you, uh, read? Sight-read?"
"It's been a long time.. I was nine... Yes." she decided, taking the bible.
"Read that for us." Jonas requested, pointing to a passage.
Esther screwed up her eyes. "Then... Nebuchadnezzar ordered the furnace heated seven times hotter than normal... and commanded the strongest soldiers in his army to throw Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego into the fiery furnace... the furnace was so hot that the flames of the fire killed the soldiers who took them up..." Esther paused. She was slowly realising something. "K-King Nebuchadnezzar leaped to his feet in amazement and asked his men 'Weren't there three men that we tied up...and threw into the fire?' And the King's men replied, 'Certainly, O King.' And the King said, 'Look! I see four men walking in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods.' Nebuchadnezzar then approached the opening of the blazing furnace and shouted 'Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the most high God, come out!' So Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came out of the fire, and the King saw that the fire had not harmed their bodies... nor was a hair on their heads singed... Their robes were not scorched and there was no smell of fire upon them." as Esther finished, Seth teetered the chapel, looking somber.
"We have witnessed more than one miracle these last days." Jonas announced. "Prepare yourselves for the next."
Esther smelled smoke. Seth had lit a fire.
*
Kris was the first uo.No, no, no! I-I want to leave--!"
"Kris!" Jonas said, stopping her. "Kris, wait! Everyone, wait. Lose your faith, and you will perish. Those flames can't hurt us. They'll protect us. Only the unrighteous will be consumed."
People began to cry. Jonas led Kris back to her seat. "It's okay. Come. Sit." he turned to Esther. "Thank you..."
Jonas returned to the Altar, sat down, and awaited the flames. People began furiously coughing. Esther rushed to the Altar. "Jonas. Jonas, you have to let them leave here. You have to tell them to!" she said frantically.
Jonas stood and took her aside. "Esther, where is your faith?"
"This isn't right. You can't force a miracle--"
"'And he saw that the flames did not harm their bodies, nor was a hair of their heads singed, and there was no smell of fire upon them.'" he quoted.
"These people are gonna die from smoke inhalation before the flames--"
Jonas slapped her again. She reeled, slipped, and fell at the foot of the Altar.
"If that's what God wants. You pray." He turned to the flock. "Let us pray."
Everyone knelt and closed their eyes. Jonas did the same. As they did, Esther scrambled to her feet and grabbed a nearby candlestick. She whipped it at Jonas' temple and he fell down, unconscious. "Go!" she ordered the people.
"Esther!" Seth exclaimed, shocked. No one moved.
"What is wrong with you?!" she yelled. "You people are dying!"
Seth ran to Jonas' side. "What have you done?!"
"Start taking these people out of here! He swore to protect them! If he won't, we have to. Seth..." She crouched down and looked him in the eye. The blind girl is looking you in the eye. Do you know what that means? It means God brought me here. He has a message for you. And that message... is MOVE YOUR ASS! Go! Come on!"
Finally, people started moving. Running. Escaping. Esther led them out the door but paused herself when she saw Iliya, praying, as the flames licked the tapestries. She ran to him. "Iliya, we have to go!"
"Where will we go?" he asked weakly.
I
"I don't know, but outside is life. In here..." she shook her head "No."
"How can you doubt after God restored your sight?"
Iliya", I don't think God let me see again so I could just watch."
Ilyia glared at her. Then he spat on her cheek. "Our home is gone."
Esther wiped her cheek with her sleeve, slowly. Then, she right hooked him, knocking his tooth out. Seth appeared in the doorway. He hooked his arm under Ilyia's torso.
"You got him?"
"Yeah. Come on, Iliya..."
Okay, go! Go!"
Seth and Ilyia exited as the flames spread to the pews. Esther was about to follow when she heard a gun cock behind her. She turned to see Jonas with a gun pointed at her head.
"'And he commanded them to purge the evil from their midst'..."
He raised the gun, reached for the trigger...
and half a dozen bullets pelted across his chest. He fell down, dead. Esther turned to see a masked figure clad in black, holding a gun. The man removed his mask.
It was Laurence Dominic.
He was not offering Esther a treatment.
Dominic grinned. "Our trouble ends here."
He knocked the butt of his gun forward, and everything went black.
*
"Of course we won't stop until we're sure we've found everyone." Agent Lilly told the reporter, as the chapel burned to the ground. "But... the grim fact is we don't think there are any more survivors..."
The reporter's mouth dropped open. Lilly frowned and turned to see Boyd, wearing an ATF uniform, carrying his girl Esther from the flames, mask on her face.
Lilly looked to the ground. He turned back to the camera awkwardly.
"Thank God..."
*
Paul pulled up to the wreckage the next morning. Several agents were analysing every scrap of burnt wood. Paul left the car and approached the first agent he found. His nametag said Lilly.
"You the AIC?" Paul asked.
"I was." Agent Lilly said flatly.
Paul stuck out his hand. "Special Agent Ballard. FBI."
Lilly didn't take the hand. "FBI. Little late to the party."
"I see that. The people you took out of here-where are they?"
"Being debriefed and then released."
"Where?
"Look, another agency has a problem how this went down, you can take it up with my superiors. I'm not gonna hand you the knife."
"What? No."
He pulled the picture of Caroline from his pocket. "I'm looking for this girl. She look familiar?"
Agent Lilly looked at the picture. "She could be anybody."
"Look, unofficially, before you release these folks, just let me talk to them."
"I don't do things unofficially. Get a warrant."
Agent Lilly vanished to the charred remains. Paul stood, watching as the last flame died.
*
"So, tell me, Mr. Dominic, how was Arizona?" Adelle asked as they strode from Topher's office. "I understand it's a dry heat. You requisitioned a company jet last night."
"Echo was glitching on a government job. I felt I should be on-site in case measures were called for."
Adelle smiled. "I see."
"As always, just trying to protect your interests."
She looked at him. "I'm touched."
She wasn't.
"If I may," Dominic said as they reached the elevator. "Echo has been exhibiting the same signs Alpha did before his composite event. Now, if you're not willing to send her to the Attic--"
Adelle blocked the door. "Don't gamble on what I'd be willing to do, Mr. Dominic. Take the stairs."
The doors closed, leaving Dominic alone.
*
"Hello, Echo." Topher said as the chair rose. "How are you feeling?"
"Did I fall asleep?" Echo asked dreamily.
"For a little while."
"Shall I go now?"
"If you'd like."
Echo stood. She walked out the door and began to make her way across the carpeted catwalk overlooking the Dollhouse--
"Echo?"
Echo turned. Doctor Saunders was there.
"How's your vision? Can you see okay?"
Echo looked over the railing. Mr. Dominic was walking across the Dollhouse. She stared at him.
"I see perfectly."
Adelle raised an eyebrow. "Imagine such a thing." she said dryly.
"The irony of bringing this to you, Adelle, is not lost on me. I promise you."
"It's not the irony that concerns me. You're asking me to place an Active with a federal agent."
"Indirectly, yes."
"I don't wish to be vulgar, but one of the many benefits of having you as a client is that you help us avoid entanglements with federal agencies. Senator."
Boxbaum chuckled. "It's the ATF. You been running guns? Besides, your Actives won't be working with the government. One of your security guys would liaise. Your Active you would be perfectly safe. "
"In a fanatical religious cult." Adelle pointed out.
"Adelle... This is an election year..."
"Ah." Adelle said, realising.
"I got the family value voters on the right, the women's issues constituency on the left all coming after me if anything untoward is going on behind those compound walls. The ATF is convinced there is. Now, we have a very narrow window on this warrant. If the government sends in some wet-behind-the-ears Quantico undercover graduate, these people are gonna know about it. I need the real thing. I need a true believer."
*
"I can't help you." Loomis said, dodging between people in the hall in an attempt to escape Paul.
"You're the only one who can." he said.
Loomis stopped and looked at him. She was a pretty woman, with dari skin and a shaved head. "Aren't you supposed to be shot?"
"I lived."
"I see that. Shouldn't you be recuperating?"
"Come on, Loomis. You scan the face, you look for a match. Computer does all the work."
"Have Carter run it through NCIC." Loomis said through gritted teeth.
"I already did that."
"And you didn't get a match?"
Paul shook his head. "Nothing."
"Well, I don't know what you expect me to do--"
"We both know your clearance rating opens up databases Carter can only dream about."
"Then you know I've got plenty of faces to scan for people much more impressive than you."
Paul smiled. "But not as charming."
Loomis gave the most deadpan face known to man. "Was that flirting?"
Paul stood awkwardly. "I think so. It's been awhile... Did I mention I was shot?"
Loomis grabbed the file. Paul smiled as she left.
*
"I don't like it." Dominic said, accompanying Adelle across the Dollhouse floor.
"Good, it's your job not to like it, Mr. Dominic," Adelle said. "But Senator Boxbaum is more than just a valued client. He's a well-placed asset. Denying his request would have a steeper downside than acquiescing."
"It's not the job. I'm confidant Langton can handle the ATF. It's Echo." he insisted. "Her field response has been wildly erratic lately."
"She's demonstrated a... talent for adaptability, which is precisely what is required in this instance."
"They shouldn't be adaptable." Dominic pressed. "They should be predictable. If Alpha didn't teach us that much--"
"You don't like Echo, do you, Mr. Dominic?"
Dominic looked uncomfortable. "It's not that I don't like her. It's sometimes I worry you do."
"Your objections have been noted, thank you, Mr. Dominic."
Adelle left him and took a beeline for Doctor Saunders' office. Echo was there, sitting on the examination table, Saunders at her side. Topher was in the corner at a computer.
"Hello, Echo."
Echo beamed. "Hello." she said brightly. "I had an EXAM." the word sounded alien to her.
"That's good. Would you like to have some lunch now?"
Echo nodded. "I would."
"She shouldn't eat." Saunders said. "Not before the surgery."
"Echo." Adelle said, stopping Echo in the door. "Why don't you go have a massage?"
Echo smiled. "A massage would be relaxing." She left, closing the door behind her.
"If she were any more relaxed, she'd be ooze." Topher observed.
"So, it's doable?" Adelle asked.
"It's... experimental." Saunders said. "And highly invasive."
Adelle looks to Topher. "But doable?
"The actual procedure isn't much more complicated than laser eye correction." he looked at Saunders. "It ain't brain surgery."
"Actually, it IS brain surgery." she said. "We're going to be turning Echo into a human camera, and in order to do that, she's going to have to be made blind."
"Not permanently... In theory." Topher said meekly.
"So, this is it?" Adelle said, leaning over the computer.
"Yes, uh, the latest in CSEVP. Cortical stimulation for evocation of visual perception."
"Brain camera for the blind." Saunders said flatly.
"...Or that."
"And this is what she'll be seeing?" Adelle said, pointing at herself on tue screen.
"Well, this is what the feds will be seeing, only less clear once we get it inside of Echo. We'll be using her eyes as lenses. The image will bypass her own cortex and be broadcast directly back to the ATF. Echo herself will see no evil."
"There have been instances of this technology causing aneurysms and, in one case, death." Saunders said. "It's possible one good sneeze could being on a seizure."
"Or even worse." Topher said. "A SNEEZURE."
"The risks have been determined to be within the acceptable margins." Adelle said. "How soon can she be ready?"
"I'll need 24 hours." Saunders told her.
"Good. Clock starts now."
*
"This is our target." Agent Lilly, a middle-aged man with greeting hair, said. "Calls himself Jonas Sparrow. Real name: Nathan Allan White." He passed the mugshot around the cramped, damp cottage to his fellow ATF agents. "36 years of age, he spent most of those years in federal prisons. Last time he was inside Sparrow claimed a conversion experience. Upon release, he joined up with the Zion Ranch. Formed a splinter group. They grew in number... and set up shop here."
"What kind of shop?" one of the agents asked.
"Given Sparrow's history, it could be anything from gun running to human trafficking. One thing I can promise you: he is not up at that ranch putting hay in a manger."
Everyone chuckled, except Boyd. Boyd didn't find it particularly funny m
"Our problem has been we haven't been able to show cause for a warrant." Lilly continued. "Until now. Sparrow never leaves the compound himself. But once a month, he sends some minions into town to buy supplies. They go in groups to watch each other. Well, someone wasn't watching closely enough, because one of the faithful managed to scribble this on the back of a shopping list." Lilly held up an evidence bag with a shopping list in it. On the back of the sheet, the words 'SAVE ME' were scrawled. "'Save Me'. These two words have opened a crack in the door. A very small crack. A judge has agreed to let us do a sneak-and-peek. We have 48 hours to show cause for further action. Then the door shuts again."
"48 hours to penetrate a closed group?" another agent asked. "To gain their confidence, to get inside?"
"I'd like you all to meet Boyd Langton." Lilly said, alerting everyone to Boyd's presence in the room's corner. "Private contractor recommended to us by Senator Boxbaum. He's been vetted at the highest level. I'll let him tell you what he does."
"Hi," Boyd said dryly. "So, what I do is I work with an extraordinary young woman. She's not a law enforcement officer. She's not an undercover agent. She's just a girl. She's going to help us. Her name is Esther Carpenter, and she knows these people. She knows them like she knows herself."
"What, did she escape from a cult?" a male agent asked.
"No. She didn't escape from anything. Esther's talent is not in getting out, but getting in. And because of this talent, because of who she is, that is what she will do. She will not arrive there a stranger or an intruder. She will walk through the gates of the compound... and she will be accepted as one of them."
"How?" a female agent asked.
"Through a miracle."
*
"I can feel the sun." Esther said. "We're headed south now. You made the turn. It means we're getting closer. I really want to thank you for going out of your way."
Boyd looked to the passenger seat, where Esther was sitting. She was wearing heavy, woollen clothes with lots of holes and patches, and a cane was spread across her lap. Her eyes were glazed over, and her hair had a slight frizziness to it. Boyd was so used to seeing Echo's hair all sleek and wavy. "It's not as far out of my way as you might think. I admire your courage. Hitchhiking across country."
"Because I'm blind?"
"Nah, 'cause you're a girl."
"I'm a girl?! Wow, I've been blind longer than I thought." Boyd smiled. "Do I hear a smile?"
"You do." he assured. "So, you weren't always blind?"
"No," she said. "The Lord saw fit to take my vision when I was nine." Her smile faded slightly.
"The Lord, huh? And you don't blame Him?"
"Blame Him? No, I praise Him. Saul of Tarsus made it all the way to Damascus after he was struck blind, and he became a new person."
"You want to become a new person?"
Esther's smile grew wider. "More than anything."
Boyd stopped the car next to a chain link fence. Within the fence was a small compound, comprised of two dozen bleach-white wooden houses and a few barns. Men and women bustled about in pale white shirts and skirts, looking impossibly happy. "Are we here?" Esther asked.
"I think so. There's a gate. It looks like it's open. I could walk you there."
"No, thank you. I made it this far. Is the path close?"
"Open the door; you'll step right on it."
Esther opened the door, but paused to place her hand on Boyd's shoulder. "Thank you. And God bless you."
Esther felt her way out of the car. Boyd drove away.
"Hello?" Esther said, her cane clanging against the Gate's entrance. She walked down a dusty path. She could feel the people's eyes on her. "Hello?" she repeated. She could feel their presence now in coming in close. "Please." she said. "I know you're there."
She stopped as her came hit a shoe. She raised her hand to the vicinity of a face and found a cheekbone, strong, covered in stubble. She ran her hand across the face. "Jonas Sparrow. I'd know your face anywhere."
*
"Esther Louise Carpenter." Jonas said, reading Esther's ID. "From Raymond, New Hampshire." He waved his hand in front of her face. She didn't react. "A blind hitchhiker. And you got all the way here by yourself?"
"I was led." Esther informed him. "By God."
"And was that God in the car that dropped you off?"
Esther laughed lightly. "Just one of his instruments."
"Who told you about this place, Esther Louise Carpenter?"
You did.
Jonas shook his head. "I've never seen you before."
"But I've seen you." Esther said. The crowd was listening to her intently. "You appeared to me in a vision. You spoke to me. You said a place had been prepared for me. You told me to walk out my door, to not be afraid. You said, 'Come to your brothers and sisters at the Temple.'" A single tear rolled down her face. "You said I would be carried here... as if on the wind. And then you took my hand..." she couple his cheek. "...and you held it to your face...so that I would know it."
The crowd broke into a chorus of 'Hallelujah's "Amen." Jonas whispered.
*
"You broke in?" Paul said into the phone. "Okay. So then here's what I want you to do: bring the drugs to this address. You ready? 9000 Temple Street. Downtown. I'll see you then."
Paul hung up and say back to see Loomis standing over him, eyebrow raised.
"That was my neighbour." he explained. "I forgot my pain medication at home. She's gonna run it town here for me. Please tell me we've made some progress."
Loomis dropped the file on Paul's desk. "Sorry. I tried every biometric I know. Your Caroline doesn't exist. I'll leave it active and in the system, at least for now. If I get any hits off the face recog, I'll let you know."
She walked away. Paul looked to the desk to see the picture of Caroline, looking up at him. He looked at it for quite some time before he got back to work.
*
“Doctor?”
Topher slipped into Doctor Saunders’ office, looking visibly unsettled. Saunders raised an eyebrow. “Topher?”
“Hello.”
“…Hello.”
Topher cleared his throat. “So listen. Here's the thing. I was looking, glancing… the security feed... I noticed... Victor.” He held his arms out to see if she understood.
“You noticed Victor?”
“Mm-hmm. In the shower and he's... naked.”
Saunders raised the other eyebrow. “Victor's naked in the shower.”
Topher nodded furiously. “Right. Anyway, he seemed to be having a kind of... man reaction.”
“A what?”
“A, you know, reaction that a man person might have in the... you know, the... naked part. Shower. Victor.”
“Victor had an erection?”
Topher winced, as if the word hurt him. “I prefer man reaction.” he wheezed.
“Why?
He shrugged. “This is a problem. This can't happen. It shouldn't happen. When they're in their Doll state, there's a limp... ness…”
Saunders took a file from the shelf. “Well, I warned about something like this.”
"When?"
“His last engagement was with Miss Lonely Hearts.” The secretive client was notorious in the Dollhouse; most thought she was a dirty old lady.
“So?” Topher said. “That shouldn't matter. I mean, okay, it was a romantic engagement, but he was wiped.”
“This is the eighth time he's had that exact imprint. I've cautioned against repeated imprints in the same Dolls, haven't I?”
Topher shrugged. “I don't know.” He pointed at the file. “You put it in one of those reports?”
Saunders nodded. “Of course.”
Topher looked as if the case had been cracked. “Okay! Well, nobody reads those.”
Saunders resisted the urge to hit him. “How many times has this happened?”
“I don't know!” Topher said apprehensively. “I wasn't looking for it.”
“Well, now you're gonna have to.” She said, handing him the file. “Let's start with the last three months of shower tapes.”
Topher looked horrified. “We're actually gonna sit down and... look for the...?”
Saunders sighed. “Man reactions.”
*
“This is Sister Emma.” Sister Kris told Esther. People were standing in a circle to be introduced to Esther.
“Hi.” Esther said.
“Sister Annabelle, mm-hmm…”
“Hello.”
“Oh, this... is Iliya.”
“Hello.” Iliya said.
Esther went for his face, but instead brushed off his suspenders. Iliya was tall. “Hello, Iliya.” She said as he guided her hand to his cheek. “ It's a pleasure to meet you. And what a handsome face!”
Iliya laughed. “Thank you.”
“Iliya was with us at the Zion Ranch in Texas.” Kris told Esther.
Esther’s hand found Iliya’s steady heartbeat. “You were unhappy there.” She said.
She sensed him nodding. “Things happened there that should not have happened.”
“Jonas led us out of that place.” Kris said.
“He saved us.” Iliya agreed.
“Esther?” She heard Brother Seth’s voice. “Jonas would like to see you.”
Seth took her hand, and Esther smiled as she was lead from the room.
*
“Another female,” Agent Doggett told Agent Lilly, showing him a fuzzy still from Esther’s hidden camera. “Approximately 29 years of age. Let's tag her femme eight.”
Agent Lilly stuck it to the board. “Could be Andrea Parker from Florence, Texas.”
“You have some names?” Boyd asked, approaching the board.
“A few.” Lily said. “Been watching these people a long time.”
“Any idea who our cry for help came from?” Boyd said. “Be nice to know who our ally on the inside is.”
Lilly shrugged. “Yeah, it would be, but we can't presume any allies.”
“Damn it!”
Lilly turned. Agent Reyes, at a computer behind him, had said it. She was looking at blank screens. “What happened?” Lilly asked. “We lose our signal?”
“The signal's still there.” she said. “I'm just not getting—“
She was cut off by a flare of eerie light shining in the grainy darkness. “What the hell?”
The lessened. Agent Lilly and Boyd were met with the sight of cache upon cache of weapons.
“You getting this?”
“Oh, yeah.” Lilly said. “I'm getting it. That's an arsenal.”
*
Jonas watched as Esther didn’t react to the torch shining in her eyes. “I'm gonna ask you some questions, Esther, and I want you to be truthful with me, okay?”
“Of course.” she said, smiling. Jonas eyed her closely. No pupil dilation.
“You work for the government?” he asked.
Esther looked confused. “What?”
“The federal government.” he clarified. “Did they send you here?
Esther shook her head. “No. Of course not.”
“And you're not with law enforcement of any kind?”
“No.”
Jonas sighed and switched the light bulb on, releasing them from pitch blackness. Seth stood awkwardly, watching them. “I wanna believe you, Esther. I want to believe everything you say. It's a beautiful story... but the serpent also had a beautiful story and the woman was deceived, and the man was corrupted, and they were forced to leave the garden.”
Esther considered this, but ultimately replied with “I don't understand.”
Jonas walked to the wall and retrieved one of the many hidden guns from the stack. Seth gulped. “I do not come into this garden a pure being, Esther. I come to it the way Adam left. Broken.” He loaded a bullet into the gun. “Corrupted. Impure. But those whom I shelter: they are not corrupted by it. They have not walked in the world the way I have. They have not seen the things that I have seen.” He shut the gun. “And against this world they are defenseless. So I will protect them. And any who seek to harm them, to foul this garden…”
He stuck the gun between her eyes.
“...shall fail.”
Esther didn’t move. She didn’t know it was there. “Iliya told me that you saved them.” she said dreamily. “All who are here are blessed.”
Jonas looked to Seth and sighed. He knelt down in front of Esther.
“Welcome to the Temple. ‘Esther: she who was born for a time such as this.’ Welcome.”
He planted a kiss on her forehead. She reached for his hand, but he was already gone. She grasped at empty space. Seth was left to remove her from the weapons room. If anyone knew…
Esther looked in his general direction. “He is a great man.”
“Yes.”
For the first time, Seth wasn’t sure.
*
“Paul?”
Paul stood up. Mellie was at the other end of his desk, holding a casserole dish. “Mellie. Hi.
“I hope I got here fast enough.” she said worriedly. “You're not in a lot of pain, are you? Oh, here's your prescription.”
Paul stood up as he handed her the bag. She smiled and held out her dish, wrapped in Clingfilm. “Also, some leftover manicotti.”
Paul looked at the manicotti. Not a bite taken, as usual. “Thank you. I really appreciate this.”
“Oh, no big, I've been meaning to come down here anyway.”
Paul raised an eyebrow. “You've been meaning to come down to the Federal Building?”
Mellie looked awkward. “Well... you know. Oh, uh, some guy in the hall asked me to give you this.” She handed him a large yellow envelope with his name scrawled across it.
“Some guy in the hall?” Paul asked.
“Yeah, I was asking directions, and he heard me say your name.”
Something struck Paul. He picked up the envelope that had brought him the picture of Caroline. Same handwriting.
Paul nearly dropped the manicotti.
*
“I'm right, aren't I?” Paul asked Loomis frantically. “Both were written by the same person.”
“Give me a second—“
“And no postmark on either one!” Paul turned to Mellie. “Mellie, describe again the man who gave this to you.”
Mellie flinched. “Uh, sure, he was maybe mid-20s, um, not overly tall. Cute, brownish hair…”
Loomis opened the envelope. “Did he have a cart?”
“A cart? Uh, yes, yes, there was a cart there. I remember that.”
Loomis plunged her hand into the enevlope and took out a shiny disk. “Was there mail on the cart?”
“Uh, yeah, a lot of mail…”
Loomis glanced at Paul. Little Stevie from the mail room. Short, cute, brown hair. Too lazy to walk to your desk.”
“Oh. Well, that little bastard.”
“Still, though, you're right: the handwritings match, so whoever sent you the photo sent this to you, too.”
Loomis put the disk in the drive of her computer and hit play. Paul was taken aback when Caroline, Caroline from the picture, appeared
“Okay, hi, Mom. Are we done?” she said to the cameraman. She was wearing the same clothes as in the picture. The same day.
“Is there anyone you want to say good-bye to?” the cameraman asked.
“Wow,” Mellie said weakly. “The photograph didn't really do her justice, did it...?"
"This is real." Paul breathed. "I mean, this is who she was - just a girl..."
"Just a girl with a potty mouth." Loomis said.
"Someone wanted me to see this." Paul said, grabbing a pad and pencil. "Can you roll it back?"
Loomis rewound to the very beginning. Paul began a transcript.
"Okay," Mellie said. "Well, uh... I should probably get going..." She had been forgotten in the corner.
"Okay," Paul said flatly. "Thanks again, Mellie."
He didn't even look up as Mellie left.
*
"Let's roll that back, please." Saunders said. "I believe I spotted a tumescence at 3:21:04. Tell me what you think."
Topher hit the rewind button numbly. "Yeah," he sighed. "It's not oak, but it's on its way to wood. Are we done?"
"Go to Wednesday the 23rd, please." Saunders asked, scribbling something on her clipboard.
"You know, I could burn these and you could just take them home..."
Saunders glared. "Go back. There. Mm-hmm. Wait, freeze that--"
"I will not!"
Saunders sighed. "Of course. If it'd been a snake...
Topher looked at her.
"...Please pretend I didn't say that. G-Go back to 17:57:09. Can you zoom in to his face? Now jump to 24:25:14... Freeze!"
Topher froze. Victor was in the shower looking at something to his right. A fellow Active, a girl with blonde hair...
"Well, I guess that rules out Miss Lonely Hearts. It's not residual imprinting; it's her. It's Sierra."
"What?"
"It only happens when she's there, and it started not long after she arrived." Saunders informed him. "She's the new element that's been introduced to his environment, the catalyst to his physical response."
"He likes her?"
She sighed. "Yeah..."
Simpleton.
*
Boyd approached as Agent Lilly showed Agent Reyes a schematic. "When we breach, forward team here." he said. "We need to secure that arsenal."
Boyd approached as Reyes departed. "You're going in now?" he asked.
"Soon as my warrant comes through. Just waiting on the judge."
"Then I need to extract my associate."
Lilly chuckled. "Sure. Why don't you go knock on the door, let 'em know we're coming? Are you nuts? Your girl stays put. She's my eyes in there."
"She served that function." Boyd said, voice rising. "She's provided enough evidence for you to keep your case alive. Now I would like to do the same for her. In my judgment, this action is premature."
"Your judgment? Look, I was told not to be too interested in where you and the girl really came from. No problem, I'm not. What I am interested in is putting Nate White - or Jonas Sparrow or whatever he's calling himself this week - back where he belongs: for good this time."
Something occurred to Boyd. "You know this guy."
"Yeah, I know him."
"No, you KNOW him."
"Huh. You used to be a cop. Me, too. Twelve years, Laughlin PD, and back then, he wasn't calling it a church and they were mostly underage girls. We put him away for what was supposed to be forever. Forever turned out to be just shy of two years. Some judge decided he didn't like the way we handled the evidence. So when this judge calls... I'm not waiting."
Lilly stormed away. Boyd retreated to his van and immediately called Dominic.
"This is Langton. I need your okay for a forced extraction."
"Echo," Dominic said. "She's glitching on a government job. Damn it..."
Boyd didn't understand. "Echo is fine. She's performed perfectly within parameters."
"Then what's the problem?"
"Agent Lilly. He's about to release the hounds of hell on that compound. Echo's imprint will not have prepared her for this--
"Do nothing."
"What? If you're worried about a glitch--"
"No extraction. Authorisation denied."
He hung up a second later. Boyd stared at his phone in shock.
*
Jonas projected his voice to speak to the chapel, full to bursting with the citizens of the compound. "In our book, the story of Esther is a story of a woman. Her father died when she was still in her mother's womb. Her mother died in childbirth. What was so extraordinary about the Esther of the Book was her unique vision. She could see things no one else could. This was the essence of the Esther of the Book-her ability to... penetrate secrets, to pierce the darkness, to find truths others could not." Jonas looked to Esther, utching close to Kris in the middle row. "Our Esther, it seems, is no different. She says I appeared to her in a vision." Everybody chuckled. "All right. You all know me. You know that I make no special claim to revelation. I'm just a man, weaker than most, but my faith is not weak, and I see this place and all of you through Esther's eyes - her amazing eyes, which see things no one else can -that faith is only strengthened. Brother Seth, would you bring our sister forward?"
Seth waded trough the sea of people to Esther's side. He held out his hand. "Sister?" She clumsily took his hand and he led the way up to the altar. Jonas turned to her.
"Esther Carpenter, are you prepared to forsake the world of men, to give yourself, your life, your fidelity, and your industry to your brothers and sisters of the Temple?"
Esther smiled. "I am."
Jonas made the sigh of the cross on her forehead. "Return to the garden. A new beginning."
Esther was in a sea of hugs from her new Brothers and Sisters. There was cheering and clapping...
all until the flash.
A flash of light from the chapel's window, accompanied by a loud metallic click.
Jonas' jaw tensed. Someone had hit the trip wire.
"Nobody move." he ordered. He darted to the fuse box and flipped a switch, sending the chapel into darkness. He grabbed Seth by the arm and half-dragged him to the cellar.
"Jonas?"
"Seth..."
Jonas took a gun from the nearest container. "I need you with me."
Seth looked tentatively at the caches. Eventually, he grabbed a gun. "I'm with you, Jonas."
"Come on."
They returned to the chapel, where the people had meshed into one scared sea of bleaches white. "Brother Seth, guard the window."
Seth did.
"What's going on?" Esther asked Kris. "I don't understand. "What's happening?"
Jonas was at her in a second. "Was this you?" he spat. "Did you bring them here?"
Esther flinched in surprise. "I don't understand..."
Jonas slapped her across the face, hard, and Esther collapsed beside the pew, cheek burning. Jonas dragged her to her feet again. "Did you do this?" he snarled. "Did you bring the wolves to our door?"
Kris yanked at Jonas' sleeve. "Jonas, no, she's our sister..."
Jonas shoved her into the nearest person and whirled a disoriented Esther out of her reach. "Stop it." he ordered. He turned to Esther. "The truth this time, Sister."
He raised his hand, but Esther grabbed him by the wrist and held it steady. She looked at him and--
She looked at him. Right at him.
"It's a miracle." she breathed. "I can see..."
*
"This is the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms." A man called through a bullhorn. The compound residents sat huddled together on the floor of the house across from the chapel, listening. "The compound is completely surrounded. For your own safety, come out with your hands in the air."
Esther clung to Sister Kris as Jonas and Seth circled the chapel, holding rifles. "This is worse than Zion Ranch." Kris breathed. "Why does he have guns?"
Jonas sat on the ground. Seth joined him. "Jonas. You must speak to them... to your people. They're afraid."
Jonas looked at Esther as he spoke. "Do you believe it, Seth? Do you believe in her?"
"I don't know. I don't know what to believe. We took her into the dark; you put the light in her eyes. There was nothing: no physical reaction, no change. How do you fake that?"
"And yet she sees."
Jonas crouched and waddled below the windows to Esther. Kris was whispering soothing words in her ear as she dared at the bright colours. She saw Jonas approaching and shrank back.
"Esther." Jonas said softly. "Those men outside - I know you didn't bring them. I know you were telling me the truth. They have come to destroy us, to raze the garden and to salt the Earth... Esther, before I looked into your eyes, and I saw nothing, and so I believed. And I look into them now... and I need to know... was this a miracle?"
Esther considered this. "I was blind, but now I see." she said, simple and fragile.
Jonas stuck a supporting smile on his face. "Then you were brought here for this purpose: so that I might know what to do." He kissed her hand. And now I do."
He stood up. All eyes fell to him.
It is true." Jonas said. "Below us is a cache of weapons Brother Seth and I have hidden there in the event that this day should ever come. I prayed it would not, but I always knew that it would. The darkness cannot abide the light. And yet I now believe my prayers were answered. Esther was sent to us in advance of these men: a demonstration of God's power. So you will not take up arms. You will not have to. Come with me."
He held out his arm, leading the way back to the chapel.
*
Boyd stick to Lilly as they circled the words. The ATF Agents were owing in: Esther's camera had gone flat.
"You've got no way at all to communicate with her?" Lilly asked.
"No." Boyd said dryly. "I really don't."
"So my inside man is worthless is what you're telling me."
"She was never your inside man!" Boyd barked gruffly.
"Oh, she's just another one of them?" Lilly said. "Fine. That's how she'll be treated."
"Look, you do have someone on the inside: whoever sent up that cry for help. We should try to put a name to that, then at least maybe we can form a strategy."
"We are not going to do anything. You are not a part of this, not anymore--"
Lilly was cut off by the rumbling of engines. Boyd turned to see van upon can for news channels accompanying the newly-risen sun.
"Oh, great..."
*
Paul watched Ye clip at least 70 times before he emerged from the room. All other agents were crowded around the office TV, watching a news report.
"We now take you to our affiliate KPJK with this breaking news." A female reporter said, before the feed was transferred. A male reported appeared in a desert-looking area.
"A religious cult know as the Children of the Temple. This was the scene today in Pleasant, Arizona--"
"What's up?" Paul asked a nearby agent.
The agent shrugged. "Waco 2... maybe."
"--where agents from the Bureau of Alchol, Tobacco, and Firearms surrounded this remote compound. Attentions here are high with the presence of the armed agents. The cult leader was seen moving from one building to another. He's wanted by federal authorities on unspecified charges."
The footage cut to a few dozen people in bleach white clothes running from a chapel door, looking terrified. Then, a woman stopped, looked at the cameras.
Paul nearly fell into a chair. Brown hair, slightly frizzy but shiny. A pretty face. Dark brown eyes. Slightly older, but still beautiful. Still definitely her.
Definitely Caroline.
*
"I didn't see who wrote the note, now." the shopkeeper told Boyd. "It could have been any one of 'em. There was a bit of a mishegas going on up at the front of the store at the time."
"What kind of mishegas?" Boyd asked.
"Well. Jesse Dillard - he's a mechanic across the way there. He followed 'em in here and he tried to, uh, provoke a thing there."
"Why?"
The shopkeeper chuckled. "Well, I mean, they are kind of odd, you know. But, uh, you know, there's been a lot of rumours about what's going on up there at that compound. Now, I never believed any of 'em until I saw that note."
"Anyone check the security tape?"
"Well, nothing was stolen and nobody asked."
Boyd was perplexed.
*
"We think he's moved everyone into this outbuilding here." Doggett told Lilly.
"No, that's not where he's got the guns stored."
Boyd stormed up, interrupting, but Lilly continued. "Still, doesn't mean he can't get to them. There could be tunnels, underground access."
"If there were tunnels, why didn't he use them to move his people?" Boyd sad roughly. "Why herd them out in broad daylight?"
Lilly and Doggett exchanged a peeved off look. "Will you give us a moment, Carlos?"
"Yeah."
Doggett disappeared. Lilly turned to Boyd. "Okay. You want to go in there and get your girl? I'm open to letting you do that. Under a couple of conditions--"
Boyd slammed him against the car door. "How about these conditions? You stay the hell out of my way and maybe I won't tell anyone it was you! You knew he sent his people into town once a month!" He held up a grainy security camera picture of Lilly in the store. "You were waiting. You ginned up tempers. Started rumors in the town. Created a diversion, and then you wrote that note. That's how you got your warrant. Nobody ever asked to be saved. Not by you."
*
"You're witnessing the wonders of the most high, Brother Seth." Jonas told Seth. "Do not lose faith. Now go. Go."
Seth took a moment, ten left the chapel. Jonas approached Esther, bible in hand.
"Esther? Can you, uh, read? Sight-read?"
"It's been a long time.. I was nine... Yes." she decided, taking the bible.
"Read that for us." Jonas requested, pointing to a passage.
Esther screwed up her eyes. "Then... Nebuchadnezzar ordered the furnace heated seven times hotter than normal... and commanded the strongest soldiers in his army to throw Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego into the fiery furnace... the furnace was so hot that the flames of the fire killed the soldiers who took them up..." Esther paused. She was slowly realising something. "K-King Nebuchadnezzar leaped to his feet in amazement and asked his men 'Weren't there three men that we tied up...and threw into the fire?' And the King's men replied, 'Certainly, O King.' And the King said, 'Look! I see four men walking in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods.' Nebuchadnezzar then approached the opening of the blazing furnace and shouted 'Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the most high God, come out!' So Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came out of the fire, and the King saw that the fire had not harmed their bodies... nor was a hair on their heads singed... Their robes were not scorched and there was no smell of fire upon them." as Esther finished, Seth teetered the chapel, looking somber.
"We have witnessed more than one miracle these last days." Jonas announced. "Prepare yourselves for the next."
Esther smelled smoke. Seth had lit a fire.
*
Kris was the first uo.No, no, no! I-I want to leave--!"
"Kris!" Jonas said, stopping her. "Kris, wait! Everyone, wait. Lose your faith, and you will perish. Those flames can't hurt us. They'll protect us. Only the unrighteous will be consumed."
People began to cry. Jonas led Kris back to her seat. "It's okay. Come. Sit." he turned to Esther. "Thank you..."
Jonas returned to the Altar, sat down, and awaited the flames. People began furiously coughing. Esther rushed to the Altar. "Jonas. Jonas, you have to let them leave here. You have to tell them to!" she said frantically.
Jonas stood and took her aside. "Esther, where is your faith?"
"This isn't right. You can't force a miracle--"
"'And he saw that the flames did not harm their bodies, nor was a hair of their heads singed, and there was no smell of fire upon them.'" he quoted.
"These people are gonna die from smoke inhalation before the flames--"
Jonas slapped her again. She reeled, slipped, and fell at the foot of the Altar.
"If that's what God wants. You pray." He turned to the flock. "Let us pray."
Everyone knelt and closed their eyes. Jonas did the same. As they did, Esther scrambled to her feet and grabbed a nearby candlestick. She whipped it at Jonas' temple and he fell down, unconscious. "Go!" she ordered the people.
"Esther!" Seth exclaimed, shocked. No one moved.
"What is wrong with you?!" she yelled. "You people are dying!"
Seth ran to Jonas' side. "What have you done?!"
"Start taking these people out of here! He swore to protect them! If he won't, we have to. Seth..." She crouched down and looked him in the eye. The blind girl is looking you in the eye. Do you know what that means? It means God brought me here. He has a message for you. And that message... is MOVE YOUR ASS! Go! Come on!"
Finally, people started moving. Running. Escaping. Esther led them out the door but paused herself when she saw Iliya, praying, as the flames licked the tapestries. She ran to him. "Iliya, we have to go!"
"Where will we go?" he asked weakly.
I
"I don't know, but outside is life. In here..." she shook her head "No."
"How can you doubt after God restored your sight?"
Iliya", I don't think God let me see again so I could just watch."
Ilyia glared at her. Then he spat on her cheek. "Our home is gone."
Esther wiped her cheek with her sleeve, slowly. Then, she right hooked him, knocking his tooth out. Seth appeared in the doorway. He hooked his arm under Ilyia's torso.
"You got him?"
"Yeah. Come on, Iliya..."
Okay, go! Go!"
Seth and Ilyia exited as the flames spread to the pews. Esther was about to follow when she heard a gun cock behind her. She turned to see Jonas with a gun pointed at her head.
"'And he commanded them to purge the evil from their midst'..."
He raised the gun, reached for the trigger...
and half a dozen bullets pelted across his chest. He fell down, dead. Esther turned to see a masked figure clad in black, holding a gun. The man removed his mask.
It was Laurence Dominic.
He was not offering Esther a treatment.
Dominic grinned. "Our trouble ends here."
He knocked the butt of his gun forward, and everything went black.
*
"Of course we won't stop until we're sure we've found everyone." Agent Lilly told the reporter, as the chapel burned to the ground. "But... the grim fact is we don't think there are any more survivors..."
The reporter's mouth dropped open. Lilly frowned and turned to see Boyd, wearing an ATF uniform, carrying his girl Esther from the flames, mask on her face.
Lilly looked to the ground. He turned back to the camera awkwardly.
"Thank God..."
*
Paul pulled up to the wreckage the next morning. Several agents were analysing every scrap of burnt wood. Paul left the car and approached the first agent he found. His nametag said Lilly.
"You the AIC?" Paul asked.
"I was." Agent Lilly said flatly.
Paul stuck out his hand. "Special Agent Ballard. FBI."
Lilly didn't take the hand. "FBI. Little late to the party."
"I see that. The people you took out of here-where are they?"
"Being debriefed and then released."
"Where?
"Look, another agency has a problem how this went down, you can take it up with my superiors. I'm not gonna hand you the knife."
"What? No."
He pulled the picture of Caroline from his pocket. "I'm looking for this girl. She look familiar?"
Agent Lilly looked at the picture. "She could be anybody."
"Look, unofficially, before you release these folks, just let me talk to them."
"I don't do things unofficially. Get a warrant."
Agent Lilly vanished to the charred remains. Paul stood, watching as the last flame died.
*
"So, tell me, Mr. Dominic, how was Arizona?" Adelle asked as they strode from Topher's office. "I understand it's a dry heat. You requisitioned a company jet last night."
"Echo was glitching on a government job. I felt I should be on-site in case measures were called for."
Adelle smiled. "I see."
"As always, just trying to protect your interests."
She looked at him. "I'm touched."
She wasn't.
"If I may," Dominic said as they reached the elevator. "Echo has been exhibiting the same signs Alpha did before his composite event. Now, if you're not willing to send her to the Attic--"
Adelle blocked the door. "Don't gamble on what I'd be willing to do, Mr. Dominic. Take the stairs."
The doors closed, leaving Dominic alone.
*
"Hello, Echo." Topher said as the chair rose. "How are you feeling?"
"Did I fall asleep?" Echo asked dreamily.
"For a little while."
"Shall I go now?"
"If you'd like."
Echo stood. She walked out the door and began to make her way across the carpeted catwalk overlooking the Dollhouse--
"Echo?"
Echo turned. Doctor Saunders was there.
"How's your vision? Can you see okay?"
Echo looked over the railing. Mr. Dominic was walking across the Dollhouse. She stared at him.
"I see perfectly."