Free The Gates of Babylon by Michael Wallace

the real fight at the end, the one that would really get them steamed.
    “Go ahead, brother,” Elder Griggs said.
    “I want to reduce the herds by half.”
    Smoot banged the tip of his cane. “What?” He gave a dismissive wave of the hand. “Oh, I see. This is your revenge. Fine, then forget I said anything about the gentile girls. Let them traipse around in their altogether for all I care.”
    “Keep it civil,” Stephen Paul growled.
    “This is not directed to you,” Jacob told Smoot. “My herd is just as big as yours.”
    “Your father’s herd, you mean. That he spent decades building.”
    “It doesn’t matter if he spent two lifetimes, they’ve got to go. We’re selling half the cattle in the valley and we’re turning over the grazing land to the draft animals we’ll buy with the proceeds.”
    “And what about that Ag guy?” Smoot said.
    “I cleared it with Chip Malloy. All we have to do is get the cattle to Green River and he’ll call in an authorization to liquidate farm assets.”
    “It’s a good time to sell,” Stephen Paul said. “Beef is up another twenty percent.”
    “So wait until spring,” Smoot said. “The price will be even higher.”
    “Maybe,” Jacob said, “but you can be darn sure horses will be too, once people realize they’re not getting tractor fuel.”
    “I call for a sustaining vote,” Elder Johnson said.
    Garrison Johnson was in his mid-seventies and looking frail these days. That branch of the Johnsons had once been a dominant force in Blister Creek, behind only the Christiansons and the Kimballs, and at one time three Johnson brothers had served on the quorum simultaneously. With the death of the two older brothers—one of whom Jacob’s father had tried to foist onto Eliza when she was only seventeen—the Johnson family had lost much of its influence. But as Elder Smoot’s father-in-law, Garrison Johnson still had a good deal of influence within the quorum.
    Before Jacob could object, Smoot said, “Now hold on, I want to make my case.”
    “You made your case,” Johnson said. “You don’t want to sell your cattle. That’s what it comes down to.”
    Jacob realized with some surprise that the older man was on his side, and not the side of his cousin and son-in-law, Elder Smoot. And why? Because Jacob was forceful and Johnson respected the office and a man strong enough to wield it. That was the bind. They would follow a patriarch and prophet. A man whoclaimed the authority and power of God. Jacob was none of these things, and he hated the pretense.
    Jacob stood. “All in favor of selling half the herd, say ‘aye.’ ”
    Seven ayes, including Jacob and his two counselors, David and Stephen Paul.
    “And nays?”
    Elder Smoot and Elder Potts voted to the negative. The others abstained.
    Jacob outlined his plan for a cattle drive to Green River, a trip that would take several days. Stephen Paul Young would lead the drive, together with Anderson, Griggs, Phipps, Coombs, and Pratt.
    “And they’re leaving when?” Smoot asked. “Tomorrow?”
    “That’s right.”
    “So it was all arranged ahead of time. You’ve lined up federal permission, arranged buyers, figured out the logistics of the cattle drive—the vote was to rubber stamp the decision
you’d
already made.”
    “Elder Smoot,” Stephen Paul said. “Have or have you not sustained Brother Jacob as your prophet, seer, and revelator?”
    “Are you questioning my loyalty?”
    “Maybe I am.”
    “Let me tell you something,” Smoot said, his voice strained.
    But Jacob cut him off. “Brethren, that’s enough.”
    Both men fell silent.
    Time to toss out the second grenade? No, Jacob should cover the minor business first.
    He shared his other plans. These boys would be training with David to learn electrical work, and these wives and daughters leatherwork. One old man would teach two others the nearly lost art of blacksmithing, and this other man’s daughter would get training from Jacob in