Abdullah led Sarsour in prayer in his parents' living room, with them kneeling beside each other at the couch, like the night before. They were still crying, of course, but it would be the last tears they'd shed for a long time.

"Are you going to stay here for a while?"

"I've been helping Mudawar coordinate the relief supply effort to Eg- I mean Osaze, and I'd like to continue doing so, just with you rather than against you."

"Relief effort?"

The four sat down after Sarsour's mother brought her husband, her son and her guest refreshments in the form of cold tea from the plants just outside - it was made in the Moroccan tradition, thick and with some of the leaves floating free in it.

"Yeah, that was part of our job, coordinating supplies going into Osaze and making sure they wouldn't get intercepted at the border."

"What sort of supplies?" Abdullah imagined drugs or weapons coming into a country already afflicted by Divine drought.

"Oh, you know. Pumps, solar panels, desalinators modules. One of the things we were trying to do was making sure that a The Only Light wing that had an idea for a windtrap, you know, like in Dune, got enough resources to develop it..."

"We kept all your books, you know" Sarsour's father interjected "even those really long sci-fi ones. I'm sorry I told you to stop reading them before you left."

Sarsour bowed his head at his father, and the two smiled to each other. "Thank you." Pre-Rapture books were fairly rare, and Sarsour had been proud of his small collection, enough so to consider stealing it from his former home, although he never could bring himself to do it.

Abdullah raised an eyebrow. "For what?"

Sarsour's face brightened up, and his mom smiled to herself - her son still did that little head shake movement that he did when he used to launch into a long geeky dissertation on a topic. She'd got her youngest back on one piece. "Water! One of the reasons why it hasn't been that hard on the people of, Osaze, is that various TOL cells brought in and set up water extraction equipment in their territories. The idea was to provide immediate relief to the people and paint God as the bad guy, obviously."

Abdullah nodded gravely. "I hear reports out of Captain Steele's missionary team, they will soon reach Siwa, and they are certain that God will lift His punishment after people in that city respond to the call. But I have to praise your efforts, however misguided."

Sarsour shrugged. "The veggie-maniacs won't be happy to lose their experimental playground..." At three puzzled pairs of eyes looking at him, he explained. "Oh. It's another TOL subgroup. Tree Of Life. They've been working on all sort of botanical projects. Having a desert environment to experiment with was something they were looking forward to. They're trying to bring back spicy peppers, yellow raspberries, all the varieties that were lost under Carpathia, basically. Also, drought-resistant plants. And stranger things. TOL people are... well, we - they - take what they can get, so you get some weirdos. There's a whole team that is working on combustible lemons that can be used to burn houses down. In this case Tree Of Life was working on growing a wind-wall of desert-adapted succulents to trap moisture with."

"Hmm. Did you know that the reason why Kenny had the trouble I mentioned, is that Qasim smuggled out an org chart for COT and blamed Kenny?"

"No, but that's not surprising. Especially The Only Light guys, they want a war, so they've been pushing everybody to do misdirection like that. Maskirovka. It's Russian, I think."

Sarsour's dad agreed. "Sounds like your former friends got a bit too much into Cold War literature. Well, we know how that one ended."

"So who's The Only Light?" asked his wife.

"They're kind of The Other Light's army, I guess. They say that they flat out don't believe in God. Frankly most of the rest of TOL think they're idiots, but, can't be picky with recruits. And some people like the authoritarian mindset." Sarsour shrugged again.

Abdullah leaned forward, interested. "How'd you like to draw me an org chart?"

"Sure, I was about to offer, actually! Heh, that'd drive Qasim up a wall, wouldn't it?"

The four shared a laugh, Sarsour's father telling him to go into his room and get graph paper and a pen. On opening the door to his bedroom, Sarsour fell on his knees, and again prayed in thanks. Everything was exactly how he had left it, save for the bed, which had been made. A closer look told him that his mother had lovingly dusted the desk and posters on the wall, even taking care to not straighten them up. Coming back with pen and drafting paper, he bowed to her, asking her for forgiveness.

Amidst assurance that God already had forgiven Sarsour, the gesture turned into a maternal hug that neither of the two adult men wanted to interrupt.

"...So! Orgchart!" Sarsour said after clearing his throat, trying to sound professional for both Abdullah and his father's benefit. Sarsour drew boxes and lines with a draftsman's precision, without having to use a ruler, on the large piece of paper that had been hastily pinned to the far wall from the couch, and explained as he filled.

"The Other Light - The umbrella organization for all that follow. They handle most of the recruiting, and then shunt recruits with specialized skills towards the relevant sub-organization. Notably, any relief and relocation efforts are handled by The Other Light directly, for propaganda purposes. I guess they're about to find out that all the effort to bring water and pumps into Osaze was for nothing."

"The Only Light - The military arm. Considered fanatics by pretty much everyone else. Their focus is on weapons production, since they haven't had a chance to fight a war just yet. They're working on building underground weapons factories. I know of two of them, we can get them shut down without hurting anyone if we're clever about it."

"The Outer Light - The space program. Chronically underfunded but enthusiastic. They are also in charge of deploying and operating the unmanned canopy-boats that substitute for a satellite network, although The Only Light keeps trying to take over that function. These are really decent folk overall, I think they've even got some collaboration with Christian rocketry hobbyists."

"Tree Of Life - The biotech program. They work to come up with a biological solution for life extension past 100 years and have been attempting to back-breed carnivory into animals. Their botany efforts are towards reviving extinct spices, optimizing weed and opium varieties, and maintaining habitats for plant species that require particular climates that no longer exist in the Millennial Kingdom. They can be really creepy sometimes, especially the medics. They're working on the desert vegetation project, although I guess that's obsolete now."

"Thousand Oaks Library - Responsible for recovering and curating pre-Rapture literature and providing verbatim (non-ideological) translation of it into Standard Hebrew. They also act as a clearinghouse for peer review scientific and philosophical papers that are not accepted by official publications, and perform copy-on-demand services when they can. They're working on setting up a Net-based university, although I don't know how that will work for being accredited."

"Tunnel Of Love - A modern incarnation of the Underground Railroad, operating more or less in the same way and geared towards LGBT individuals who want to find somewhere safe to live, love, and work. That's their pitch anyway. I think they shut down the Kids on Fire School of Ministry a couple years ago."

"Transfer Online, Inc. - The IT arm of the organization. Their portfolio is keeping the data lines open no matter what. They also do most of the day to day numerical analysis for other sub-organizations. They're working on something called the Omega, but it's very hush hush. They're also nice guys, I know for a fact that they actually worked alongside missionaries in the Philippines and a couple of other places, to get Net nodes set up."

"Thinking Out Loud - A sort of academic society that organizes lectures and debates on various topics including secularism, art and music appreciation, and the like. They are especially geared towards debating believers, if it can be done safely. Cynics note that they're basically a lightning-rod org. I was actually scouted by them, but it wasn't my thing."

"Transport Operations Logistics - The truckers, sailors, and smugglers that make sure that resources are available where they are needed. TTI was actually mostly about doing their fake paperwork, although we did have a couple of theology meetings. This one I can't tell you much about, because of the last rite oath."

"Teachers On Loan - Contrary to Thinking Out Loud, this sub-org focuses on making sure that TOL personnel receives career-long training. They also support disaster relief teams by providing educational services to areas subject to Divine blight. Their job in Osaze was interviewing older folks about water conservation culture, adapting it, and then spreading the message to younger folks so as to better cope with the drought."

"Tourism and Outdoor Leadership - The closest thing TOL has to Boy and Girl Scouts. With the world flattened, there isn't much call for fieldcraft skills in normal situations, but kids growing up outside of believing areas are more than likely to encounter abnormal situations. The "tourism" part is used to promote youth travel that isn't tied to mission trips, although the world is a lot more uniform than it used to be, they believe that there is still something to learn through travel. The Only Light tries to recruit from these guys a lot. They also run some day care centers."

"Transcranial Oblique Lateral - I'm not sure what they do, it's a very new thing, they split off from Tree Of Life recently. All I know is that they do brain surgeries and work out of a ship somewhere. Super creepy if you ask me."

Sarsour took a big breath, and folded up the graph paper like a scroll, then handed it off to Abdullah. His mom urged him to finish his tea.

"Well... I don't know what to say. It looks like you're still the hard working kid I raised" Sarsour's dad said. "This is pretty serious material, especially the weapons factories and the brain surgery."

Abdullah took the scroll, and stood up, rather towering over Sarsour. "Your father is right - I should take this to the authorities. I know that you want to work at COT, but why don't you take a few days of rest with your family first? You'll have to do a formal interview of course..."

Sarsour's parents hugged him and smiled at Abdullah as he was leaving. "Of course!"

Abdullah Smith looked back at Sarsour's home, and let himself see the light coming from within it as warmer than it had been just half a hour ago. The first thing he would have to do was fax this org chart to Rayford, with a copy to Cameron and Chloe. As for TOL... it seemed to him that they were trying to build a culture, not just an army. He smiled to himself - universities and factories and hospitals staffed by children. The parts that weren't genuinely worrying felt silly, like the world's biggest game of pretend; if it wasn't orchestrated for the benefit of the Pretender, it would have been endearing. What next, a treehouse on the moon?