Audrey sighed. "How much do you know about Christianity?"
"I've read the Bible," he told her. "The good parts."
"Let me guess, the ones with wars and rich kings and women?"
He gave her an innocent look. "We've barely met, and yet you know me so well."
"The New Testament, that's the one with Jesus, in case you didn't know, doesn't care for rich people. There is a story in the Gospel of Matthew, where a rich prince visits Jesus and asks him how he could get into Heaven. And Jesus tells him to keep the Commandments, and if he really wants to ensure his place in Heaven, to give away all his possessions to the poor. That's where that famous verse comes from, 'It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.' There are more things in the same vein. Mark and Luke and James, all of them basically said that the richer you are, the harder it is to go to Heaven because rich people fall into temptation and surrender to their greed."
" 'The love of money is the root of all evil.'" He had read the Bible, and the quote had stuck with him. He took it as a warning.
"Timothy 6:10." Audrey shrugged.
"From the way I'm looking at it, poverty doesn't lead to love and happiness, either."
She waved her hand at him. "Bottom line is, Christians are supposed to be rich in spirit, not in money. Well, if you're doing well for yourself and you're a Christian, that kind of leaves you with two choices: either you can keep giving away your money to get into Heaven, or you can pretend that everything will be okay anyway and hope you won't go to Hell. Prosperity preachers prey on that fear: they preach that God wants us all to be rich and happy, and it's okay to have extra money and live a good life full of luxuries."
"It's a good gig," Kaldar reflected. "Nobody wants to go to church and be condemned every Sunday, and the congregation is either rich already or - "
"Hoping to get rich," Audrey finished.
"Good works aren't necessary - besides giving generously to the church, of course."
"Of course." Audrey wrinkled her nose. "The church needs money."
Indeed. "All that guilt and all those assets, wrapped in a lovely package."
"Delicious, like a chocolate truffle." Audrey licked her lips, and he had to yank his thoughts out of the gutter and back on target. "Outside a hard shell of moral decency, inside creamy, decadent bank accounts."
Kaldar tapped the wheel. "Sign the check, send it to the business office."
"Better yet, give us your account number, we'll do the heavy lifting of withdrawing funds for you."
"Easy money."
"Yep. The whole church full of suckers."
They looked at each other and grinned.
"If we joined forces, how quick do you think we could clean out this town?" Audrey asked.
Kaldar calculated in his head. "We'd be millionaires in six months. Faster if you did your Southern bit."
They both looked at the church and the children in front of it. "So does the Mirror pay you well?" Audrey asked.
"Not enough to buy any mansions," he said.
They looked at the church some more. "Being good guys sucks sometimes," Audrey said.
"Would you really go through with it?" he asked.
She shook her head. "No. A church should be a place of solace. For some people, that's all they have to lean on when tragedy happens. You'd have to be a special kind of scumbag to prey on that."
There was an echo of something personal there; but he knew if he probed, she'd slam all her doors shut.
"Plenty of scumbags out there." Kaldar started the car. A plan had formed in his head.
"Yes, we never seem to have a shortage of those."
"We need someone on the inside to figure out how this whole Yonker dog and pony show works."
"You want to pull off a Night and Day scam and use the boys for the Night team, don't you?"
The way she picked up his train of thought was uncanny. The two kids were the perfect age to blend in with the runaways.
"They can handle it."
"And if they can't?"
"Those kids have been through more than most adults. I ran cons at their age. Don't tell me you didn't."
"You and I had no choice," she told him.
"I will ask them. I won't order."
"Right, what fourteen-year-old would turn that adventure down?"
He understood exactly where that worry was coming from. Audrey felt used by her family. It had left scars, and she was trying to make sure the boys weren't exploited. She didn't realize both kids had been in combat training for the past four or five years. She didn't know that Jack killed game on a regular basis, and George could sever a body in half with a burst of his flash. To her, they were children, and she looked at them through the prism of her own experience.
"Don't underestimate them," Kaldar said. "George looks fragile, but he is well trained. Gaston put them through their paces, and George can hold his own. The kid is brilliant. He is truly, all jokes aside, brilliant. He's an Edger, and the bluebloods never let him forget it. Things other children of his social status take for granted are out of his reach."
"It's not enough to be good," Audrey said. "He has to be the best. But George doesn't worry me. Jack does."
Kaldar shrugged. "Jack is a teenager with a chip on his shoulder. I was one, you were one, I'm sure everyone has been there at one time or another. Once he snaps out of his 'the world is against me' rut, he's a resourceful, smart kid. And unlike most changelings, he's pretty sharp when it comes to figuring out what drives other people. He likes to pretend he understands less than he does."
"Why?"
"He's a cat," Kaldar said. "It's in his nature, I suppose. Don't worry. He will hold his own."
"You seem awfully sure of that. George said you barely know the two of them."
"I know William," Kaldar said. "He's married to my cousin, Cerise, who is more like my baby sister. If her life and happiness were at stake, William would burn the world just to see her smile. Jack is a changeling like William. He would move the earth and the moon to protect his brother.
"So you're using one child to manipulate another." Audrey shook her head. "Do you have any conscience at all?"
"No. I didn't ask them to come with me. They want this, and they're old enough to understand the risks."
Audrey looked away from him and through the window. He studied her profile out of the corner of his eye. Pouting? No, calculating.