Inside the mission, Father Chavez and Elena whispered in the deep shadows of the wall. “He must be warned, mi hermana,” Chavez murmured. “Tell him there can be no delay. He must go at once.” Elena nodded, and after wrapping a shawl around her head and shoulders, she slipped through the gate and was swallowed by the night. Father Chavez returned to the rectory and stole quietly across the floor. First the O’Grady couple, and now the arrival of Garth Fraser. It could all lead to disaster. He frowned in thought. Are not we told that what we sow, we reap? The walls of Jericho had begun to tumble. “Mountain of the Devil,” Garth murmured as he lay with his hands tucked under his head. “What kind of bullshit is that?” Having accepted Father Chavez’s offer to spend the night, he was unable to sleep as the priest’s ominous warning played on his mind. Never one to dwell on superstitions, he now found himself at odds with a tenet he’d always lived by: when it was your time to go, it would happen whether you were in your bed or the middle of a battlefield.
