"Why did I have to listen to that creep?" Mercy grumbled, already trying to think of some way to get back at Qasim.

"I'm just glad we got you out of there when we did," Sergei replied. "Imagine what would have happened if they'd called your parents."

Mercy rolled her eyes. "I don't even want to think about it!"

At last the car was pulling up in front of the Hassid house. "Thanks again, guys!" Mercy called as she got out of the car.

Annie and David were at the door waiting for her. "What's the meaning of this?" David demanded. "We trust you enough to let you go to a rally in Paris, then we get a call from the police saying you've been arrested, and now suddenly you're here. What's going on?"

"Sergei and Elianto bailed us out," Mercy told her parents. "Qasim set us up. We were marching in the rally and a riot broke out. He led me into this neighborhood where there were these kids in a house that had contraband magazines. The cops came and arrested us and took us to jail."

Annie embraced her daughter. "I'm just so glad you're all right!"

David frowned. "What do you mean about Qasim setting you up?"

"I think he tipped the police off. It's just too big a coincidence that the cops showed up right after I got there. I'm never having anything to do with that jerk again!"

"Where are Zaki and Wendy?" asked Annie.

Mercy shrugged. "Still at the rally, I guess. It was supposed to last all weekend."

"Well, I'm glad you learned your lesson about Qasim Marid," David remarked.

At COT, Qasim, Zaki, and Wendy were celebrities. "We won over several dozen Other Light devotees to the Lord!" Wendy exclaimed. Like her father, she had pastoral aspirations. The face that she was female didn't matter, as women pastors were allowed in the Millennial Kingdom.

"Praise God!" all the others cheered, but it looked to Mercy as if Qasim was just mouthing the words.

"I was personally responsible for helping clean up one of Paris's trashiest neighborhoods," he bragged. Mercy noticed he was staring straight at Ekaterina, who stood holding hands with Kenny. "Drug and pornography busts, subversive literature round ups - thanks to me, Paris is a much cleaner city now!"

"Good for you!" Zaki clapped his friend on the shoulder.

Mercy saw how intently Qasim watched Kat for signs of approval, saw the disappointment in his eyes when she only continued to gaze at Kenny in adoration. Suddenly she couldn't stand it anymore.

"Liar!" she shouted at Qasim.

He gaped at her for a moment, then began to stammer. "It's true! You know it is!"

Mercy began to advance toward him, and he backpedaled. "Why don't you tell everyone here how you know it's true, Qasim?"

Qasim turned beet red and stared at the ground.

"Supervisors, co-workers, students, friends - the reason this young man here can boast about 'cleaning up' Paris is that he's a phony. He deliberately set me up to be in a house where there was contraband literature and then called the cops on us, and he did it just to impress Ekaterina Risto."

Everyone looked from Qasim to Kat, who was hiding her face in the front of Kenny's shirt. Kenny's eyes shot daggers in Qasim's direction. Qasim continued to stare at the ground, not saying a word.

From that moment on, things began to go downhill at COT. First, false allegations of misbehavior at work were brought against Ekaterina. Then while on a trip to Paris, Kenny was framed and accused of joining The Other Light himself. Only his mother remained sympathetic to him.

When the truth eventually came out that Qasim was behind all the mischief, he was fired. Mercy was there listening in while pretending not to with a couple of her friends. Qasim at first denied everything, but when presented with incontrovertible evidence, he whined, pleaded, begged forgiveness, and in the end stormed and raged as he stalked away.

Cameron watched him leave, remembering mass shootings by former post office employees and the like in the pre-Rapture United States. "I really hated to have to let him go." He'd always thought of himself as a nice guy and wanted all his employees to think the same.

"I don't think I can ever forgive him for what he did to our son." Chloe's voice was ice cold. Although Glorified, she still retained some very human emotions.

Cameron saw the agony in the eyes of the woman who'd once been his wife. He put his arms around her and held her as if she was his kid sister who'd just been dumped by her boyfriend.

"It's all over now, Chlo'."

"Yeah, I know." For a fleeting moment, she thought of what such an encounter might have led to before. She knew she probably wouldn't get much rest during what now passed for night.