Morgan had been thinking about the same thing since he found those papers in Murphy's research room. In the original timeline, he was too late to stop the church from forming and he didn't understand what Murphy was building until it was too late.
But now he knew ahead of time who the main players who Murphy used as pawns would be and how the organization would work before it even existed. That gave him choices he didn't have before.
"We need to get close to his target," Morgan said, thinking about what could happen. "The people he manipulated so that they can be leaders for his own plan."
"If we can figure out what makes them open to his influence, we might be able to stop that connection before it gets stronger."
Claire said, "You're talking about David Chen and Margaret," which indicated that she was paying more attention than most people thought she was. "I've seen how your dad talks to them."
"It's not the same way he talks to everyone else. It felt like it was... more personal. Like he's testing them for something."
"He is."
"He wants people who are so desperate that they will follow him without asking questions, smart enough to lead others, and broken enough that his vision feels like salvation instead of madness." Morgan saw David Chen walk up to Murphy again and saw his father put a hand on the young man's shoulder in a way that looked supportive but was really about establishing dominance through casual touch.
"Chen lost his job last month. His girlfriend broke up with him, he has student loans he can't pay, and he has parents who think he's a loser. Murphy sees that weakness and knows exactly how to take advantage of it to manipulate him."
"And what about Margaret?"
"Her husband died of cancer six months ago. She used up all their savings to try to save him, but it didn't work."
"Now she's alone, poor, and trying to find meaning in a world that seems to want to take everything she loves away." Morgan felt a pang of something that might have been sympathy as she thought about how Sister Margaret had died in the original timeline with Murphy's name on her lips like a prayer.
"Murphy will tell her that her husband's death was a way to prepare her, that she needed to be empty so she could be filled with something better. And she'll believe him because the only other option is to accept that her pain was pointless."
Claire was quiet for a moment, thinking. "How can we compete with that? We can't give them what your dad is giving them."
""We can't make their pain mean something."
"No, but we can give them the truth about the real thing, not Murphy's." Morgan pushed off the wall and stood up straight.
"Chen is now working at the Fifth Street coffee shop as a part-timer, it's not enough money to pay for his rent."
"I'm going to start there, talking to him and showing him that there are other ways to find meaning in life besides following someone who is using him."
"On the weekends, Margaret helps out at the library. You could do the same thing by getting to know her and showing her that community doesn't have to come with strings attached."
"You want us to fight your father for their souls?" Claire's voice was somewhere between amusing and scared. "This is what this is, isn't it?"
"We're arguing over who gets to make these people's futures."
Morgan looked her in the eye, letting her see the cold calculation he usually kept hidden. "Murphy is going to turn them into weapons that will destroy the world piece by piece."
"Maybe they'll just be people with problems instead of generals in an army of fanatics if we can get to them first."
Claire nodded slowly, agreeing with the reasoning even though she didn't like it. "Okay. This weekend, I'll start working at the library as a volunteer."
"But what if we don't make it in time, for example they are already too far gone?"
Morgan had been avoiding the question because he didn't have a logical answer for it. In the original timeline, he had never been able to turn any of Murphy's close friends because he was too late.
He had never found the right words or arguments to get through the layers of belief and conditioning. They all died fighting for God, believing until the end that they were serving something bigger than themselves.
But this timeline was different, and because of the regression, he was different too. He had more knowledge and a different perspective than he did before, and he had Claire, a friend who knew what it was like to lose someone and could talk about that pain in ways he couldn't. It wasn't a big deal, but it was something.
"Then we find new people to reach," Morgan said at last. "Murphy is hiring people who are weak and scared."
"But for us, we can find someone who's stronger so the difference is that we're giving them a chance to stay human instead of changing into something else."
Murphy's voice rose above the noise of the crowd, getting everyone's attention one last time. "Before you all go home tonight, I want to remind you that we're starting a new program this week."
"Small group meetings for people who are keen to learn more about these ideas and how we can help each other through this."
"Please come see me after if you're interested, and I'll help you stay in touch."
Morgan saw at least fifty people walk toward Murphy, eager to be a part of what he was making. David Chen and Margaret were two of them. They both looked like they had found what they had been looking for without even knowing they were looking.
Murphy smiled at Morgan from across the room. His smile said he knew exactly what Morgan had been doing and that he wasn't worried about it at all. A small church on a Wednesday night was the site of the battle for the future of humanity, and Morgan wasn't sure he was winning.