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- FORTY-FIVE - “Get to Zarahemla to pick up Baurak Ale,” said the voice. “It’s urgent.” “Who the “F” is this?” said Sam. “You know better than to ask that,” said the voice, and the line went dead. Sam stood there holding the big, bulky mobile phone that Bennett had given him, and he tried the place ...

- FORTY-FOUR - Elder Jarod B. Kreditor got off I-80 on the Virginia Street exit and turned right, in the direction of the university. His companion in the car was Elder Donald Higbee. “What’s this guy’s name again?” “Mahfouz,” said Higbee. “This is probably a dead end, but we’ll take a look nonethel...

- FORTY-THREE - As Sam pulled up into the long driveway at Gary McMurrin’s house, it occurred to him briefly that he had stepped into a world that merely paralleled his life as a Mormon—at least the part involving all the meetings. He had left the Church and yet he hadn’t. How could he? When he had ...

- FORTY-TWO - There were twelve of them seated around the long table. They were all dressed in dark suits, white shirts, and simple, monochromatic silk ties. They ranged in age from 29 to 59, and all of them were in excellent physical shape. Two of them were bald; five of them had very short buzz-cu...

- FORTY-ONE - The elevator bell dinged and Sam stepped out into the hallway on the top floor of the Eldorado and made his way down to the suite at the end of the hall. There was a faint odor of cigarette smoke on the air. When he reached the door he could hear voices—the sound of intoxicated people ...

Part FIVE Blood Atonement “I could refer you to plenty of instances where men, have been righteously slain, in order to atone for their sins. I have seen scores and hundreds of people for whom there would have been a chance (in the last resurrection there will be) if their lives had been taken and ...

- THIRTY-NINE - It was a cold, bleak afternoon in mid-November, and tiny, icy flakes of snow were falling as Elder Brotherton’s black Towncar pulled up beside the curb at 749 East 500 South. The Security man in the passenger seat climbed out and went around to the back to hold the door open for the ...

- THIRTY-EIGHT - Day two of the conference unfolded in much the same way as the first one. Ray and Sam met up with Cathy and a man named Christian for breakfast, and then they spent the day chatting with various people, sitting in on the talks, and just generally enjoying themselves. There was quite...

- THIRTY-SEVEN - Once again, Elder Talmadge Steele made his way through the hospital, just as he’d done scarcely a month prior. There had been two major developments in the past 24 hours, the first being the arrest of a man who was believed to have been behind the car bombing. Steele hadn’t yet been...

- THIRTY-SIX - Sam had never before attended a conference of any kind. The closest thing to it was the “graduation” he and his fellow mixology students went through at the end of their coursework. It had been a very small, lightly catered affair in one of the rooms at Circus Circus—nothing special b...