'There's no such thing as a 'Chinese' vampire,' Sue said. 'There are only cup hugirngsis. They're the same everywhere.'
'Then how come your stuff works against him, and ours doesn't?' a man called out.
'I don't know,' Sue said patiently. 'Information gets changed over the years, over the miles. Somehow you got the information wrong. It's like that kid's game where you start a message at one end of a room and whisper it to the person next to you, and by the time it gets to the other end of the room, it's screwed up.' She looked down at her grandmother, placed a hand on the old woman's shoulder. 'We know about these things because our culture is thousands of years old. And continuous. We've learned a few things over the centuries. America is only a couple of hundred years old.'
'Maybe we could burn the vampire,' Mayor Tillis interrupted. 'Find out where he lives and torch it. Or we could douse him with liquid nitrogen, freeze him.'
'You're thinking of scientific solutions,' Rich said, looking exasperatedly at Sue. 'Listen to what she is saying. This is not something that obeys the laws of science. This thing has nothing to do with logic or reason. We need... I don't know, magic to right him. Sue just told you what you need to do to protect yourselves
'We can just drag him out into sunlight,' a young man said. ''Let him fry and turn to dust.'
'Whatever we do, we need to catch him firstl' Will Overbeck shouted. 'I think we should set a trap. I'll donate a cow, Lem could kick in a goat, maybe some of the other ranchers would be willing to fork over some chickens. We could slaughter them all, spread the blood around, like they do for sharks, and then wait. When he comes to eat! you got him! got him.'
Robert looked over Rich's shoulder at Sue, shook his head disgustedly.
'They're not listening to us,' Rich whispered.
Dozens of people were speaking at once now, their competing voices worriedly anxious and, at the same time, defensively belligerent.
'This demon can only be fought with prayer,' Pastor Wilkerson from the Lutheran Church was saying from his seat.
Mrs. Church, the librarian, vehemently shook her head. 'I cannot sit idly by, praying for God to do something when I can do it myself. God gave us brains and free will so we could make our own decisions, so we could right our own fights. The Chinese girl said the vampire's afraid of jade instead of crosses, and I believe her. God has al lowed this information to be placed in front of us; now he is waiting to see what we do with it.'
'Exactly,' Robert said.
The mayor banged on his desk with a gavel. He stood and continued to bang until the room was silent. He looked slowly around the room. 'I don't know if we've Succeeded in reaching an agreement on anything yet, but I do suggest that we proceed in a logical and orderly fashion. I am proposing that we adopt an emergency curfew, that we ban all children and adults from being on the street after dark until such time as this situation is resolved. Once the proposal is seconded, I will open the floor for discussion.'
'Basha's is open twenty-four hours,' Jim Kness, the manager of the grocery store said. 'That's corporate policy. I can't change that.
I'm going to be arrested for doing my job and keeping the store open?'
'What about the movie theater?' someone said.
'I can't go shopping until after I get off work, and I don't get off until it's dark.'
Robert raised his hands for silence. 'We won't enforce any curfew.' He looked over at the mayor. 'Sorry, Al. But we do need to decide how we're going to deal with this.'
Tom Moore, the Baptist preacher, jumped up from his seat and rushed into the center of the council chambers.
'Vampires,' Moore announced loudly, 'are the spawn of Satan. They are among us because we asked them here with our wickedness and our sinfulness. But Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour, has returned to protect us, has offered us sanctuary from the adversary if only we dedicate ourselves to obeying the word of God.' He turned slowly on his heel and raised his arm until he was pointing at Sue. 'This heathen has asked us to adopt the ways of evil, to forsake the holy word of God--'
'Shut up,' Robert said, facing Moore. 'Just shut the hell up. This isn't your church, this is a town council meeting We're here as citizens of Rio Verde, not as individuals. We're here to draft a civil defense plan for our town, not to promote our own interests. If you have nothing to contribute beyond your racist bullshit, then stop taking up our time. We have work to do.'
There was the sound of two hands clapping from the back of the now silent audience, and Buford stood, grinning hugely, hands high over his head, applauding. To the side of him, someone else began to clap. The applause grew. It by no means included most of the assembled people, but it was definitely close to half, and Rich felt proud as he looked at his brother, standing tall and proud against the preacher.
Moore turned without a word and walked out of the room, the crowd parting before him to let him through. Some people watched his departure with concern, still others hurried to join him, but most remained where they were,
Robert did not even wait until the preacher left the chambers. 'We don't have time to play games here to night,' he said. He looked around the room, and to Rich it seemed as though he had gained a stature he hadn't had a few moments before.
What a difference the perception of power made. 'The important thing right now is that we get the word out and make people aware that there's a vampire loose in Rio Verde. He's already killed four people, maybe more, and God knows how many animals. He'll kill again. You can believe in the Chinese stuff or not, but make sure that you and your families and your friends and your coworkers stay indoors after dark.
If you have to go someplace, run to your car, run from your car, stay inside locked buildings as much as possible. All of the murders so far have taken place outside, in the open air. I don't know if it's true that a vampire has to be invited before he can come in'--he looked at Sue, who shook her headm'but he's not going into people's homes or places of business. So far. If we take precautions and don't act stupidly, we'll get through this.'
The questions were again shouted chaotically, but they were more serious, more thoughtful, more specific. Many of them were addressed to Sue, and she and her father tried to answer them carefully and thoroughly.
'I am going to need volunteers!' Robert announced. 'I want to establish patrol teams to watch for the vampire each night, and I don't have the manpower for it. You'll be in pairs, either patrolling the streets or stationed in appropriate locations, and you'll be outfitted with two-way communications devices. If that thing makes a move against anyone in this town, I want to know about it. We'll be on him so fast, he won't know what hit him. If anyone's interested, come up to me afterward. I have a sign up sheet here, and I'd be glad to have you aboard.'
This time the applause was unanimous, erupting simultaneously throughout the members of the crowd.
'We got to them,' Rich said to Sue. 'They heard us.' 'Maybe.'
'Maybe?'
She frowned. 'Your brother made it sound as though jade is an option, like they can use jade or a cross; that it doesn't matter as long as they believe in the cup hugirngs's existence. But the creature doesn't care whether you believe in it or not. It exists, and jade and willow can ward it off. Crosses and garlic and the rest of those movie things do nothing.'
'But they know that now. They heard you. They listened.' 'Maybe,' she said again.
Robert had moved to the center of the council chambers and was surrounded by a clamoring group of men and women trying to talk to him.
Rich could see that a clipboard was being passed around. Apparently, there was no shortage of volunteers.
It was late, and it was dark outside--a fact that seemed to be just below the surface of everyone's mind. People kept glancing toward the door, toward the blackness beyond the exterior lights of the building.
The crowd outside had virtually disappeared, and it was not too long before the inside crowd began to thin out. Rich sidled up next to his brother. He saw the FBI agent, who had remained unmoving in his seat until now, stand and approach. Rossiter stopped in front of Robert.
'I need to talk to you,' he said. 'Where's Cash?'
'Cash is an asshole.'
'You're noLW'
