'I believe you about the vampire,' Rossiter said. 'I'm willing to support you on this. The FBI's behind you.' He looked toward Sue, her father, and grandmother. 'I'd like to talk to the Chinese girl.'
'Sue Wing,' Robert said.
'What?' 'She has a name. Her name is Sue Wing.'
'Right.' Rossiter looked at his watch. 'Finish this up and meet me in your office in ten minutes.' He turned to leave without waiting for a response.
'Make it twenty,' Robert said.
Rossiter did not turn, did not seem to have heard him but continued walking.
Rich grinned. 'I guess he'll just have to wait an extra ten minutes.'
Robert grinned back. 'I have a sneaking suspicion it'll be closer to fifteen.' He turned back to the excited men and women in front of him ..... Rich leaned against the front counter next to Woods. The coroner was tired, and more than once had announced he was going home, but he continued to tough it out.
This was too important to miss.
Sue sat at Lee Anne desk, her father and grandmother in borrowed chairs next to her. Robert and Rossiter leaned against the desk opposite them. The FBI had been asking questions for over an hour, of all of them, but mostly of Sue and her grandmother.
'How much firepower are you going to need?' he asked Sue. 'How many men should I have assigned to this case?'
She shook her head. 'I told you. We don't need any of that.'
'It can't hurt.' ,
'Human weapons are of no use against the cup hugirng,s/. And, yes, it can hurt. We need seven men. Seven men to be chosen by my grandmother.' 'Because seven is a lucky number.' 'Right.'
'But it just seems to me that it would be prudent to have some backup.'
'Do you understand what I'm telling you? You can have nuclear weapons, and it won't make any difference.'
A flicker of interest crossed the agent's features. 'Now that would be interesting.'
'Jesus.'
'I think we've had enough here tonight,' Robert said. 'We're all tired; we're all a little cranky. Let's just go home and get some sleep.' 'No,' Rossiter said. 'I'm not finished here.'
'We are.' Sue stood. She said something in Cantonese to her grandmother and father, and the three of them rose. They walked around the desk and toward the gate in the front counter. She turned, looking over her shoulder, and smiled at the agent. 'Keep in touch.'
Rich grinned at her as she passed by on her way out:
Pastor Wheeler looked at his watch. It was midnight Exactly. He walked onto the makeshift platform and faced his congregation. They were seated before him on chairs, benches, boulders, and the hard ground of the vacant lot. Behind them, in its exquisite blackness, was the Church of the Living Christ.
In three days it would be completed.
In three days, the Second Coming would be upon them. Wheeler looked out upon his flock. There were easily two hundred people here tonight.
In the first row, he saw Bill Covey seated next to the Methodist pastor.
They were all coming around. Just as Jesus had said they would.
It was too bad that only forty of them would be chosen by the Lord to live, but, as the Savior liked to say, those were the rules of the room, love 'em or leave 'em. And, of course, those of the faithful who voluntarily sacrificed themselves on the altar or in the pits would be rewarded in Heaven and would not perish but would have everlasting life. The rest... The rest would get what they deserved, He felt exhilarated, and he breathed deeply, taking in the cold desert air.
After Jesus' rebirth, the Word would spread, and soon people from all over the state, all over the country, all over the world, would come to pay horn age to the Living Christ. And Jesus would pass judgment on them.
The preacher smiled upon his congregation. He began to speak. He spoke of the wickedness of the world and the goodness of God, and then he said what Jesus had told him to say. 'Chinksl' he said, grinning fiercely. 'The heathen Chinee! The Lord Jesus Christ has foreseen that the yellow race will try to prevent Him from accomplishing His goals and bringing to light a brave new worldl It is up to us, the servants of God, the Christian soldiers, to prove our love for Him by stopping this pagan plotI'
Wheeler looked upon the sea of rapt faces before him, pale blurs in the night. He lowered his voice, but it could still be heard clearly in the hushed stillness. 'They will try to attack the church. They must be stopped. Go home tonight and get your guns, your knives, your axes, your hatchets. Anything that can be used to defend the house of the Lord. Bring them here to me.' He grinned. 'When they attack, we will be ready. And we shall overcome. We will hurt them and torture them and feed their bleeding yellow bodies to Jesus, and He will pick his teeth with their bones.'
Heartfelt murmurs of 'Amen' echoed throughout the crowd of men and women gathered in the darkness.
The preacher looked toward the church where, faintly, he could hear the sound of hammering.
Three more days.
It was going to be glorious.
Sue sat on the floor of her grandmother's room, her nostrils filled with the mingled scents of ginseng and chrysanthemum. It was nearly dawn. John and her parents would be up soon. Although she and her grandmother had been talking since they'd returned from the police station, Sue did not feel the least bit tired. In many ways, she felt more awake than she ever had.
She'd learned a lot this night. Legends and facts and the connective bridges between the two. The tales and truths her grandmother told her she would have dismissed two months ago, cringing with embarrassment at the old woman's uneducated backwardness. But, since then, her attitudes had changed, her mind was not as closed as it had been, and she knew that there was nothing her grandmother could say that she would not believe.
For the past two hours, the old woman had been lying on her bed, eyes closed, but now she sat up, turning to look at Sue. 'Are you a virgin?' she asked.
Sue stared at the carpet, at her toes, anywhere but into the eyes of her grandmother. Her face burned with the heat of embarrassment, and she found that she could not answer the question.
'Have you had sex?' her grandmother asked gently.
Sue knew her answer must be important, knew that it had to have some relevance to the cup hugirngsi, but still she could not meet her grandmother's eyes. 'Not really,' she said.
'You have not accepted or tasted the seed of a male?' Tasted? Was this her grandmother speaking? Sue shook her head quickly, not looking up, wishing she was anywhere but here.
'Good,' her grandmother said, touching her head.
'You are the second of the seven.' 'Who is the first?' Sue asked. 'I am.'
'And the others?
'I do not know. Perhaps the mirror man, perhaps the policemam' 'Pee Wee and Robert? What about Rich, my editor?' Her grandmother's gaze darkened. 'No.'
A wave of cold washed over her. Sue nodded, wanting to ask why but not daring to question her grandmother's wisdom. 'What about Father?' she asked. She felt guilty for the way her parents, her father in particular, had been pushed aside during this whole affair. It did not seem right, and she felt that despite the communication problems her parents had, both in their family and among other people, it was only right that they should share center stage with her grandmother and herself.
'No,' her grandmother said.
Sue stared again at her feet, licked her lips. 'Why is it important that I am... a virgin?' She had a tough time even saying the word.
'What if I had not been?'
'It would make no difference.'
Now Sue looked up at her. 'Then why did you ask?'
Her grandmother smiled slightly. 'I just wanted to know.'
Sue blinked dumbly, then started to grin. Tasted? In the midst of all the horror, in the middle of the craziness,
