Chapter 54 Summary

Before midnight that evening, the first group of NSA agents arrive. Odd isn't sure how Romanovich contacted them. The NSA create cover stories for the deaths of Brothers Maxwell and Timothy, and decide to put Brother John's body on ice for a year until he wouldn't be linked and then announce that he'd had a massive heart attack. The icy monsters disappeared into tiny cubes when John had been shot, so there were no more casualties. Brother John's array of computers are impounded by the NSA. Everyone was sworn to secrecy, under threat of lifelong imprisonment, and Abbot Bernard decides to leave his position between Christmas and New Years. He had supported John Heineman and embraced his idea that God could be found through science.

Three days later, Rodion comes to Odd's suite with wine, and everything necessary to make sandwiches. Elvis hung...