'Call an ambulance,' Robert ordered Ben. His gaze moved on to Woods, now finally getting out of the other car. 'Brad!' he called. 'Get over here! We have a man downl'
'He's dead,' Rossiter said.
The coroner ran up, knelt next to the body, placed his fingers to the man's wrist and neck, nodded. 'He's gone.'
'Get the irn-e truck,' Robert said. 'I don't know how much time we've got here, how long this is going to last, but we've got to get in there while we can.' He turned back toward Ben, who was calling the ambulance from his patrol car. 'Bring the weaponsl' he yelled. Ben nodded, started the car.
Buford ran back to the fire engine, while the rest of them walked slowly along the sidewalk toward the church. Robert, Rossiter, and Steve kept their guns drawn and ready, but no one made a move toward them, no one even seemed to notice that they were there.
A Jeep pulled behind the fire truck and patrol car as they turned the corner, and Robert saw Chief Simmons and Rand Black inside. The Jeep and truck pulled directly in front of the black church. All three men got out. Buford walked over to his fellow firemen, and they spoke for a moment, then started unrolling hose from the back of the fire engine.
Sue's grandmother had finally stopped chanting, and despite the sounds of crying, the air seemed strangely dead with the cessation of that quiet voice; Robert turned toward Sue. 'Can she stop like that? Are they going to revert? Or is that it? Did she cure them?'
Sue translated, listened, translated back. 'They will not attack us.' of 'Steve,' them. Lock Robert them ordered, in the trunk.' 'pick up those weapons. All
'What should we do with them?' He nodded toward the people milling about. 'We can't arrest them all. We don't have enough room in the jail.'
'Call Cash. Let the state police handle it. It'll make them feel useful.' They reached the steps of the church. He told Rich and Woods, Sue and her grandmother to remain with Ben at the foot of the steps, then walked down the sidewalk to where Buford was screwing the hose onto the side of the fire hydrant. Farther down the block,
Simmons and Rand were hooking another hose up to the hydrant in front of the old Big A building. 'How long's it going to take to set these up?' Robert asked.
'Five minutes,' Buford said. 'If Compton comes through on the water.
The chief 3id he already talked to him. We should be able to swing it.'
The ambulance came, sirens blaring, while Buford, Rossiter, Simmons, and Rand were positioning the mouths of the hoses at either side of the church, facing east. Rich stood next to Sue and her grandmother, holding on to the willow spears. Woods made sure that the baht g' leaning against the side of the patrol car did not fall.
Robert authorized removal of the body, helped the arty bulance men fill out a preliminary report, and by the time he finally turned back around, the hoses were secured and in place.
'We're ready,' Buford said.
Robert nodded. 'All right, then. Do iL'
Buford got into the truck, started the pump. Simmons and Rand, each manning a hose, opened the nozzles. Twin jets of pressurized water, with enough power for visible back-kicks that nearly knocked the firemen off their feet, exploded forth from the oversize hoses on each side of the church. Sand and dirt were blown instantly out of the ground as the concentrated water carved its own niche in the earth, uprooting weeds and small cacti that were immediately carried away in the newly formed streams.
Robert was impressed. He looked for Sue's grandmother, saw an expression of approval on her lined face, and felt good. He walked over to the fire truck, looked up at Buford. 'How long can these be kept up?' 'Don't know,' he admitted.
'We'd better get in now, then. We've wasted enough ii
Buford jumped down from the cab, and the two of them hurried with Rossiter to where the rest of the seven stood waiting. 'Ready?' Robert said.
They nodded.
Robert called Steve and Ben over. 'You stay out here,' he ordered the two policemen. 'We're going in. I don't know what's going to happen, but if things get hairy, call for backup. And make sure those state police get their lazy asses over here. We'll do what we have to and be out as soon as we can! 'Be careful,' Steve said.
'That's the plan.'
Rich passed out flashlights and the spears, and he and Wood carded the baht gwa between them across the side walk. The seven of them walked through the remnants of Wheeler's army, up the church steps, until they reached the door. Robert had expected the door to be locked, bolted from the inside, maybe with a huge bar of steel like those old cathedrals in the movies. But the black door opened easily when he turned the knob and pushed. The interior of the church was dark and smelled of paint and sawdust..' and blood.
Sue's grandmother said something.
'Is everyone wearing jade?' Sue asked.
They all nodded.
She and her grandmother pushed past Robert, walked into the church.
'Let's find the cup hugimgsi. ''
What had happened to her D/Lo Ling Gum
Sue walked into the black church, clutching her flash light and spear.
D/Lo Ling Gum was supposed to help her, to guide her, but the power lay silent, dormant within her. She received no images or intuitive flashes as she stepped across the church threshold.
She had thought Di Lo Ling Gum would be something she could control, something that obeyed her will, but instead it seemed to exist independently of her and to work only when it wanted to.
She found herself wondering what would happen if her grandmother was killed, either by the cup hu imgzi or by Pastor Wheeler, who was still around somewhere. She would be expected to take over, lead them, tell them what to do. Yet she had nothing but the vaguest idea of what was supposed to occur.
Why had her grandmother not told her more?
There was a hard knot of fear in the pit of her stomach that made her want to vomit and void her bladder at the same time. She thought she was doing a good job of main mining a calm outward appearance, but the truth was that she had to condnce herself to take each tiny step forward, that she was so terrified she could barely think straight
She glanced over at her grandmother, who smiled reassuringly at her.
They walked out of the entryway into the chapel.
The fear she'd experienced only seconds before was nothing compared to the powerful new emotion Sue felt now, this gradation of terror that had no name. Every fiber of her being was telling her to get out of here, to turn tail and run, and it took every ounce of courage she had to override that instinct.
The inside of the church looked like a taxidermist' paradise. The walls were festooned with the bodies of go cats and javelin as sucked dry and suspended from hooks. Dead hawks hung on wires from the high vaulted ceiling. There was no floor, only hard dirt, and there were three huge openings in the earth, each the size of a small room
Next to each opening were piles, of debris No, not debris. Plants and animals.
Sacrifices to the cup hugirngsi.
'esus '
Rich whispered behind her.
She turned her attention toward the front of that church. At the foot of the altar, a crowd of dead animals was arranged around Jesus' feet.
The figure of Jesus itsei impaled on a grossly oversize cross She sucked in her breath, took a step forward, shining her flashlight.
Jesus was the dead and mounted body of Jim Hollis. She stared at the figure. The ranch owner's dried and shriveled form was nailed to the cross with what looked like old railroad spikes, and the spikes had shattered and flattened the withered hands and feet through which they'd been pounded. Hollis's eyes were missing--black holes rimmed with wrinkled skin marking where they had been--and all of the teeth had been knocked out of his mouth. '
The martyred figure seemed blasphemous to Sue, and as she turned to look at her companions, she saw the
