“The truth of it is,” the pastor rasped, “marriage is a simple process. When you find the right person, the proper arrangements can be made in an hour or two. That is why I’m here, along with Pastors Sandor, ­Elsworth, and Biggins. You can find us at any hour of the day—or night—to bless your unions once God shows you to your wives. And there are more pastors at the House of Jacob near the square. I urge you to go out into the Kingdom in search of love and make use of us. Our chief job, and our chief joy, is to help our noble Martyrs find the love and bliss God promises every faithful man. Wives are his blessing to us. Children are our duty to him. Now,” the man said with a rakish grin, “go forth, and multiply the flock.”

The line for the buses was extra long that day. By the time Roland and Manny actually made it to the square, they were nearly an hour later than usual. Manny rushed right off to find Sasha. Roland made his way to an alley and then darted across town and toward the jail once again.

They’d already confirmed the location of their targets, so Roland’s last job was to mark out a good exit route from the city. He didn’t expect it’d be a quiet prison break. That would draw attention, and fighters. The good news was that nothing within the Heavenly Kingdom looked particularly well organized. A ton of fighters patrolled the streets, but most of Plano was still pretty war-torn. Their camera grid was far from comprehensive. If they had a sizable drone force it was kept nearer to the front than here.

The quickest route seemed to be to head straight north from the jail, up K Avenue and past an old housing development filled with crumbling mansions. That route would take them past two fortified bases. There’d be a couple hundred infantry to deal with, along with their attendant APCs and a handful of drones. Roland felt confident he could punched a hole through all that on his own, but he expected to have four or five civilians in tow. The odds of one of them taking a stray round were just too high.