New Gods of North America

Compared to Black Rock Town,

The schedule of believers in Georgeberg Church on sermon days is relatively close to "noon".

There are two sessions a day, the first session starts at 10 am and the second session starts at 1 pm.

This may be due to the special situation in Georgeburg.

For example, many believers live in various estates outside the "urban area", and the time they spend commuting needs to be taken into consideration.

If we consider it purely from the perspective of solving the case,

So the more reasonable approach now should be to quickly arrange a group of people to interrogate and investigate those "accomplices" to find out the intersections and common connections between them.

Then, while the murderer may still be within Georgeberg's range, arrest him as soon as possible.

But the people at the church—at least Tom Hagen—didn’t seem to think so.

Anyway, when Wayne and his companions escorted Pastor Bazzini to the church, there was already a large group of people waiting in line.

These people were all wearing black robes of church monks. Judging from the trouser legs and boots exposed from under the black robes, they were probably wearing standard uniforms underneath.

Then everyone, including Wayne and his detective agency, were assigned to the church to provide security.

In a room next to the pulpit,

David Mills put on his altar robes while reminding Tom Hagen:

"Tom, I still stick to my opinion. Compared to risking our lives to preach, we should suspend the preaching and investigate the people working in the church in batches to find out the hidden dangers or find the murderer as soon as possible."

"This is Pastor Bazzini's opinion, and I am just cooperating."

Tom Hagen spread his hands nearby. "Also, we have temporarily replaced all the people inside the church and are conducting a comprehensive inspection. The safety risk should not be too great."

"But what if the murderer has other plans? Even if the murderer no longer attempts to attack, if he takes the opportunity to escape, it will become a big hidden danger. This is a big problem," said David Mills.

"Big problem?"

Tom Hagen sighed, and his expression became a little more serious:

"David, do you know what a special forces captain should understand as a 'big problem'? For people, darkness is not a problem, a solar eclipse is not a problem, but if the sun does not rise and set as usual every day, that is a big problem.

"There have been murders in George Berg for several days in a row. Although the news has not been made public, there should be many people who have received the news. So you see Pastor Bazzini, you know that in such a situation, you must preach normally, otherwise related rumors will ferment and eventually shake the believers' trust in the church.

"People in certain positions can be incompetent, hypocritical, and arrogant, but they cannot be cowardly. So for Pastor Bazzini, if the sermon cannot be carried out normally, it is his big problem. And if the pastor gets into trouble on the altar in front of the believers, it is our big problem."

Seeing that David Mills seemed to want to refute,

Tom Hagen added:

"Even if we let a fallen person who is hostile to the church escape, will it really have a big impact on the church? When we hold a large-scale event, will there be no hostile elements trying to sabotage it in secret? Do we have to assign people to investigate criminals every time?

"The purpose of the special forces team is like a sheepdog in a sheepfold. First, they protect the sheep, and second, they drive away the hungry wolves. As for chasing and exterminating the wild beasts in the forest, that is something that needs to be considered in leisure time.

"You can't stop sheep from going to the pasture just because there are wild wolves on the grassland. And don't regard the work of hunting dogs as the main job of sheepdogs."

Hmm...

Wayne remained silent. This topic was a bit too "internal" and a bit too "high-end" and he didn't want to get involved.

But Wayne understood Tom Hagen's choice.

As Tom Hagen said when he came over, he was ordered to assist in handling the "incident" rather than the "case".

…

After the hour hand on the table clock passes the 9 o'clock position,

Believers began to arrive at the church one after another.

Some of the clergy who had been preliminarily screened in the church, accompanied by guards in black monk robes, greeted and guided the believers outside the church. There were also two rows of monks standing at the door of the church.

After entering the church, all the staff were replaced by unfamiliar monks.

Although their attitudes also seemed cordial and friendly, many perceptive believers had put away their usual casualness and even seemed to talk less to each other.

Most of the detective agency members were in plain clothes at this time, and were dispersed among the seats of the believers according to their areas.

Then there were some monks who stood in a circle around the seats of the believers at regular intervals, against the wall of the church's prayer hall.

The church had already been carefully inspected by then, and even the cleaning tools in the lockers had been temporarily moved somewhere else. It was so clean that it seemed like a student dormitory during an inspection - not only was there no garbage in the trash cans, you couldn't even see the trash cans for the time being.

Inesa was carrying a guitar case and sitting in the far corner of the back row, while Lina was sitting at the other end of the back row, and Wayne was given a "standing position" by the door.

They were relatively lucky. Willy, for example, was now wearing a priest's vestment and became the "way-opening child" who walked at the front of the sermon line, carrying the holy oil censer.

David Mills became the priest and altar boy closest to Pastor Bazzini during his sermons.

Even the choir was replaced, and several of them were temporarily transferred from the guards to fill in the gaps.

If we leave these places aside,

Then perhaps this sermon is no different from usual sermons.

First, the choir opened the choir, then the priest followed the deacons and finally walked to the altar alone.

Then there was collective silent prayer, the reading of scriptures from the Bible under the guidance of the pastor, and the choir singing hymns.

Then the pastor will give the formal sermon.

After the final prayer, there are procedures such as distributing communion, saying goodbye to the pastor in turn, and donating money.

Some of the believers who participated in the sermon today may have an illusion that they have walked into a restaurant with an overly enthusiastic waiter.

If you behave a little differently from normal believers, a friendly monk will come over and ask if you need help. Even if your nose itches and you want to take out a handkerchief to sneeze, you will attract a lot of kind looks.

Pastor Bazini also specially selected a scripture about "firm faith and fighting against evil" to explain today.

If someone wants to interpret it, they can probably come up with different understandings from various angles.

Wayne didn't know whether to be thankful or regretful.

Anyway, the "big scene" he imagined never appeared.

This harmonious atmosphere lasted until the end of the sermon in the afternoon.

After smiling and sending off the last believer, a smooth transition was completed.

The people in the church stopped smiling, and their work changed from "spring cleaning" and "keeping clean" to finding out "who is throwing the garbage".