The emergency evacuation point was the reservation where Lisa and Brigitte had gotten married. It turned out to be a false alarm, but the four families spent three days there in total panic.

Four weeks before Christmas, the trial of Harry and Prudence Anderson began. Both pleaded not guilty to all charges. To expedite the process, the child abuse charges were transferred to the federal court as civil rights violations. The fetal homicide charges were delayed, as they proved to be the most difficult to prosecute.

Hope was two months pregnant after her third insemination attempt. Felicity was pregnant as well, to the joy of her and Peter. Hope didn't know yet what she was carrying, but Felicity knew her baby was a boy.

The first witness for the prosecution was Shelby.

"Do you swear that the testimony you are to give shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?" said the bailiff, a forty-something woman.

"Yes I do," said Shelby. She was dressed in a smart business suit with a brown bow tie. As she took her seat, she knew there was a lot riding on what she had to say.

"Reverend Connor, have you ever met the defendants?" asked the District Attorney, who decided to handle this case herself rather than assign it to one of her assistants.

"Not personally," said Shelby. "But the church I co-pastor in Saint Louis, Missouri, received anonymous donations from a numbered company over the last five years. About a year and a half ago, I decided to use my tools as an agent for the Defense Intelligence Agency and ran a trace. It turned out to be a front company for the defendants' ministry."

"How much money?"

"Twenty million dollars. A deacon at the church was the runner. She will confirm this later in the trial."

"What did you do with the money once you found out the money had been laundered?"

"What choice did I have? I turned it over to the IRS." Shelby looked frustrated.

"You said you were with the DIA. Does that mean you were in the military?" continued the district attorney with her interrogation.

"Major, United States Marine Corps. Recently discharged on medical grounds, as was my husband, Rod Parker, who is my Senior Co-Pastor."

"In your time as pastor of the Saint Louis Community Church, did anything else untoward happen at the church?"

"No. Not as far as I know, anyway. This was a shock to the entire pastoral team. We have always tried to be as ethical as possible."

The prosecutor paused. Then she asked a question deliberately to ensure the defense couldn't ask it.

"Have you been faithful to your husband during your marriage? By that, I mean completely faithful?"

"Technically, no," conceded Shelby. "We have never sought comfort in the arms of a third party outside of the intelligence community. But in the course of intelligence gathering, I had sex with five men and three women who are also spies. One was an American, the others nationals of countries friendly to our interests. The sole purpose was to get data. Was the sex great? Sure it was.

"But there's a difference between having sex and making love. I only make love to my husband, Rod Parker. He gave his permission, as I did for him for his escapades. So technically, it really wasn't cheating in my opinion. We were just doing our jobs."

"What information did you get?"

"Without compromising national security," said Shelby, "it was information on defense and other installations that posed a risk to us and our allies. I can't say much more than that. My security clearance, which is still active, won't allow it. Nor can I say if any threats we encountered were thwarted."

The interrogation went on for twenty minutes, where Shelby detailed the roles Peter, Felicity, Ruthie, Hope and Patrick each had at the church. She also talked about the speaking children and their roles, which she said she and Rod were very proud of. Finally the DA asked, "Have you ever laundered money for your personal purposes?"

"Never," Shelby said flatly. "The Marines are about honor. I am a woman of honor, both as a Marine and as a minister. The Uniform Code of Military Justice doesn't deal kindly with infractions outside of the scope of the services. Any conduct unbecoming an officer and gentleman - or in my case, 'gentlewoman' - could result in a dishonorable discharge, not to mention time in a stockade. I love my country, and my family, too much for that."

"Your witness," the DA said to the defense attorney for Harry, one of the most famous lawyers in Los Angeles. He was rumored to be charging a thousand dollars per hour to represent Harry. The lawyer for Prudence was said to be charging her nearly as much.

"In your duties for the DIA," the defense said, "did you participate in any targeted assassinations?"

During pre-trial motions, the DA had strongly objected to this line of questioning, as had Shelby and Rod. This portion of the case took a week to argue. Finally, the judge said Shelby, but not Rod, would have to disclose one instance where she was an assassin for the government, as well as the total number of whackings.

Reluctantly, Shelby replied, "I have killed eight people on behalf of the Defense Department. At the Court's instructions, I will detail one of them for you. But only one."

"Go ahead," the lawyer said. He leaned forward on the podium.

"In one of my intimate contacts, a spy from Country Seven -" this country was Canada, a fact known only to the lawyers and the jury, " - told me there was a rogue power plant worker in Country Twenty-Three -" meaning Qatar "- who had procured twenty tons of ammonium nitrate. His intent was to blow up an ammunition stockpile just outside of the country's capital. It turns out the arsenal was right next door to several embassies, including ours and that of Country Seven."

"How was this information obtained?"

"A home improvement store who made the delivery, realized they had made a mistake and they called the embassy of my contact."

"How did you get this information from the other spy?"

"Pillow talk." Shelby rolled her eyes but knew she couldn't hide that fact.

"And did you pass this information to your superior officer?"

"Yes."

"Who provided the funding for the fertilizer?" asked the defense.

"Your client," said Shelby, presenting a sheaf of paper detailing a wire transfer notification.

"This could have come from anyone in Grace is Yours Ministries," pointed out the lawyer.

Shelby shook her head. "I doubt very much the underlings would want to commit an act of terrorism. Quite a few of them have friends who died or were injured in 9/11. I know, because my colleague Felicity Foster Hunter had received letters to that effect, even before she joined my ministry."

"Hearsay," said the lawyer.

"Sustained," said the judge. "Reverend Connor, I know you're trying to be helpful, but please be careful how you answer counsel's questions."

"Yes, Your Honor," said Shelby.

"So how did you go about killing this person you suspected?"

Shelby sighed and closed her eyes for about one minute.

"I flew to Country Twenty-three and got a job working for the local cable company, at their call centre," she finally said. "I'm fluent in Arabic, and I worked my way through the customer lists till I got to the person in question. I called him up one night asking him if he wanted an upgrade to the premium package. He said no, it was against Islam to subscribe to those channels - like the Discovery Channel and CNBC. Seriously. Facts and science are offensive to some Muslims ... strange, I thought, for a civilization that honored knowledge and learning for centuries.

"But he did say that he didn't like his hardwire phone service and wanted to switch to a cable phone. And I knew why instantly. Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP, is a lot harder to run a trace on than traditional phones. He could use it to run any terrorist operations without too much fuss or worry he would be pursued. So I offered to set up an appointment. I installed a new modem for both internet and phone service the next day.

"While I was there, I staked his residence and found his bedside phone. Without going into too many details, I replaced the circuitry in the handset with a different set of circuits, packed inside a palm sized amount of C4."

"Plastic explosives," said the lawyer.

"Yeah," said Shelby. "I set it up in such a way that the phone was still usable, but that it was also set to trigger when I called the number and entered a pre-determined code."

"How longer after this did you ignite the bomb?"

"A week later. Please understand, counselor, when I agreed to become a hired assassin for the Defense Department, I said I would only ever attack a single, unmarried person. If there was a relationship of any kind or if there were children, that was off limits to me. I held off for that week to run a background check on him and determine he was not burdened in any way. I called him on the appointed day to verify that he was getting good service and to discuss any bugs. He said there were none. The call ended. I then called back from my cell phone. He picked up the phone. And I entered the code."

"What was the code?"

"The most famous phone number of all. 212-867-5309."

The spectators snickered.

"That lit the fuse," continued Shelby. "Ten seconds later, the phone blew up - as did the entire house. By that time, I had jumped into a taxi for the airport. By the time they realized who I really was and went looking for me, I was already on a flight to Geneva."

"Was this your first hit?" asked the lawyer.

"Fourth."

"How did you feel about killing a fellow human being?"

"Man ... if you want to know, I had as much inner discomfort as when I gave birth to my two sets of twins. It hurt for a few minutes, then it disappeared and I totally forgot about it. You have to go in there and kill our enemies, from the top down, including a country's President if need be."

"You do realize a long standing executive order forbids a government employee from killing a head of state."

"Yean," snorted Shelby. "But we got rid of Diem. We got rid of Allende. It wouldn't be anything new for America. I would have gladly done that, if I had been asked."

"Do you understand how this impacts your credibility?" asked the lawyer.

"Sure I do. But I have done nothing but serve God, my family and my country, in that order, for the last twelve years. I have been as honest as I can. I got no danger or extra pay for all those hits. It's just part of my job. I had the right to say no, but I took it on because I believe my country is right."

"Do you really believe that? My country, right or wrong?"

"No," said Shelby. "As a former Senator said, 'My country, always right or wrong ... when right keep it right, and when wrong make it right.'"

"You have had a lot on your plate."

"Tell me about it!" Shelby managed to laugh. "I'm actually glad I'm out of the Corps. I found I couldn't serve God the way I want to with the extra pressure. Now I have no worries. My sole loves are my family and my church."

"Last question," said the lawyer. "How is you got Hope and Patrick Anderson to come to your church?"

"They came to us, separately," said Shelby. "They had troubled histories, but they made a clean enough break that I was persuaded they belonged on my and Rod's team."

"No further questions."

The next witnesses would be Hope and Patrick.