Most of Roland’s reason for agreeing to help came down to Topaz. He hated to admit that, even to himself, but it was true. The thought of her in pain twisted something in the center of his heart. He wasn’t used to pain there and his tolerance was pretty low. This is so dumb, he told himself, you couldn’t even remember her name this morning.

He and Jim and the old woman shook hands on the deal. Then they let him loose in their city, to imbibe and fornicate and test the limits of his wetware.

“We have things to plan,” she said.

Chapter 12

Sasha.

The Lord did not mean for Sasha to be a cleaner. That was her first big lesson as a citizen of the Heavenly Kingdom. She was good enough at it, and she had too much self-respect to complain, but the work felt so unrewarding that she knew it must not be what God wanted for her.

She’d spent her first night in the Kingdom being pampered and provided for by her fellow Sisters in the Faith. They’d fed her, cleaned her, found her fresh clothes and given her all the emotional reward she could have ever wanted. And then the next day Helen had woken her up at seven in the morning to help clean out an old Republic barracks that was being transitioned over to housing for soldiers of the Heavenly Kingdom.

She knew it was honorable work, she knew it was necessary work, and she knew from the issues of Revelator she’d read that establishing the Kingdom of Heaven was a job that would not be accomplished easily or without pain. She’d accepted this when she’d made the choice to venture down here. But by the time she’d scrubbed her twelfth toilet of the day, Sasha had decided that her mind and her loyalty were better used elsewhere.

Oddly enough, something her father had told her about the corporate world stopped her from whining.

“Never complain, never speak ill of your colleagues, and always ask if there’s more work you can do.”

It had been his advice to survive and thrive in business. But she took it to heart here, and by the end of her first full day in the Kingdom she’d scrubbed more toilets than any other girl. She hated the work, but she also took a perverse sort of pride in it. That brought a little guilt, because she wasn’t here to serve her pride. But also, wouldn’t the Lord God be happy to see her commitment?

I’ll ask Helen about that, Sasha told herself. She’ll tell me how much of my pride is justified, and how much isn’t.