“You clean up nice, Thomas,” Calan said with a smile as he pointed to Thomas's expensive business suit and polished Italian loafers.
Oddly, that morning, Thomas found he actually preferred jeans and a t-shirt, but if he was to convince everyone of his loyalty, he had to dress the part. One glance at the camera in the corner reminded him that he had to choose his words carefully.
“Listen Calan, they…weare going to kill you, even torture you, if you don’t tell us the location of UnderHisWings.” He might as well start out strong. No sense in playing good cop with a man who knew he’d betrayed them.
“You knew Daniel Cain well, didn’t you? Weren’t you his assistant pastor?” Calan asked as if they were having coffee at a local shop.
Thomas blinked. At the mention of Daniel, all his harsh questions flew out the window. “He was my best friend growing up. We went to seminary together. Started a church that grew to be one of the largest in Fort Lauderdale.” For some reason the memory made his shoulders rise a little higher. Those were good times, happy times. “Wait, you knew him, too.” Of course he had. Calan had been part of Daniel’s first underground church.
“I was his bodyguard for a time,” Calan answered. “After the Rapture.”
“The disappearance, you mean.”
Calan shifted his feet, jangling the chains around his ankles. “What was he like before…?”
“Daniel?” Thomas smiled. “Strong-willed, passionate, driven, honest to a fault.”
“Yeah. He was pretty amazing, even more so after he got truly saved.”
He betrayed you. He abandoned you. A voice slithered through Thomas's thoughts. He frowned. “He wasn’t who I thought he was,” he shot back. “As soon as his girlfriend and son were taken, he started preaching nonsense. We lost the church, all the money and fame we worked so hard to achieve. After the NWU formed and they arrested Deviants, he started an underground church. Wanted me to join him, begged me.” Thomas could still see the pain in his friend’s eyes as he pleaded with him to become a Deviant. And when Thomas refused, Daniel had just walked away, out of his life forever.
“I know that must have hurt,” Calan said.
“Don’t patronize me.” Thomas seethed, trying to control his temper. “I’m not here to talk about Daniel Cain.”
“Fine. What do you want to talk about? Tori?”
At the sound of her name, Thomas's heart wilted. “Why would I want to talk about a woman who also betrayed me? No, we are here to talk about your impending execution.Ifyou don’t talk.”
“I could tell she loves you.”
“Enough!” Growling inwardly, Thomas stood and shoved his face just inches from Calan’s. “Do you want to see your wife and child again?”
Despite Thomas's outburst, Calan remained calm, unflinching. “I will see them again. And Daniel too.” He smiled. “I know your father was rough on you, Thomas. He was high up in the Lutheran church, right? Strict, unloving, demanding?”
Thomas sank back down, stunned at the man’s knowledge of him. But of course, he must have heard it from Daniel.
“I know you felt abandoned by him,” he continued, “then by Daniel, and by others since, even Tori. But I’m here to tell you that Jesus will never abandon you. People let us down, but God never will. He loves you with an everlasting, overwhelming love.”
Thomas knew he should put a halt to this garbage right away, knew Landry and others watching would be furious at him for allowing this man to spew his Deviant crap. But the look of love in Calan’s eyes was like nothing Thomas had every witnessed. Pure concern…for him! No one, except Tori, had ever looked at him like that. No one.
“You came to my rescue in the forest even when it meant you would get caught, too. Why?”
Calan shrugged. “Because that’s what we saints do. We lay down our lives for each other and for God.”
Confusion spun through Thomas. “But I’m not a sain—Deviant.”
Calan smiled. “Not yet.”
Not ever. Don’t listen to him! The voices started up again.Do you wish to die alongside him?
“Don’t listen to them,” Calan said.
“Who?”
“The demons speaking to you right now.”
Thomas shifted in his seat.How did he know?
