Robert motioned him over, then gave the high sign to Rich and Woods.
The four of them walked through the crowded room to Stu's desk, where Sue and her grandmother waited. He looked at the grandmother, and though he knew she couldn't understand English, he spoke to her.
"Okay," he said. "We're all here. Let's go into my office and talk."
"It sounds like there's a whole gang of them," Buford said after he had been briefed on last night's events. "An army."
"That's what some of the survivors are saying."
Sue looked at her grandmother, shook her head. "There is only one."
Steve and Ben were in the room with them, had come in because Robert had asked them to. Maybe only seven of them could go into the church, but he wanted some backup just in case something happened to them.
"I didn't know there really were vampires," Ben said. His voice was shaky. "I thought it was all made up for the movies."
"Now you know," Robert said.
"But why is the vampire afraid of jade?"
"You don't have to know how a television works to turn it on," Sue said. "You don't have to know what a microchip is to use a computer, You don't have to know why the cup hugirngs/is afraid of jade. All you need to know is that it is."
"So everything we think we know about vampires is wrong," Buford said.
"They can't be stopped with crosses or holy water or garlic or silver bullets "
"I think some of our legends have a basis in truth Robert said. "But it's like Sue explained at the meeting, they got distorted over the years." He cleared his' throat. "I think it's also a shape-shifter.
That's something you all should be aware of. I know we're entering science fiction territory here " He trailed off, grinned. "What the hell am I talking about? We're discussing a damn vampire, and I'm thinking you won't believe that it can change its appearance?" He shook his head. "From what I've heard and been able to gather, the vampire appears as different things to different people. Jesus, obviously. Elvis, according to Emily Frye. La Verona." He paused, looked at Rich. "The Laughing Man. I think maybe it appears to people as their fears. You always hear that in the movies--"It knows what scares you'--but I think it's true here. I think it does know what scares you, and I think it plays on that weakness. We all better be prepared for that."
They were silent.
"I think it can't show up in amirror," Robert said, "because it a mirror. It's a reflection of our own fears."
"No," Sue said. "It's not. And it can show up in a mirror, in the baht gwa. That is why we are bringing the baht gwa with us. The cup hugirngsi is afraid of its own reflection."
"Maybe it jeds off our fears," Buford suggested. Woods snorted. "Get off this fear kick. You guys've all been watching too many Twilight Zones. It's not feeding off our fear. It's not draining our emotions.
It doesn't give a damn whether we fear it or hate it or love it. It feeds off our blood and our semen and our urine and our saliva. The fluids of life. Period."
Sue translated, and her grandmother nodded enthusiastically.
"See?" Woods said.
"Then why does it appear as different things to different people?"
Robert asked.
"Because," Rich said. It was the first time he'd spoken, and they all turned to look at him. "Because there obviously is a connection between the cup had g/rags/and who ever sees it. It does take its form from an image buried in the viewer's mind, but it doesn't appear as a manifestation of a person's fears. It appears as a figure that that person believes can be resurrected" He looked around the room, at each of them. "Think about it. Jesus? Dracula? La Verona? Elvis? I can see people being afraid of Dracula or La Verona. Even Jesus, although that's slretching it, But Elvis? Come on. What I think is happening is that the monster appears not as our fears but as figures who, in our minds, can be resurrected--or cannot be killed. I mean, that's really the only thing these figures have in common: the fact that they have survived death. I think these figures can be from cultural or even personal mythologies, but that's what ties them together. That's what ties together Dracula and the cp hugirngsi. I think that's why there's al way been such an interest in vampires, why the myths are found in all countries and throughout history. That's what attracts people to them-the idea of everlasting life."
"That's great," Rossiter said. "But I don't give a shit if the vampire represents your repressed homosexual desire for your father or my need to crawl back into my mama's womb. As far as I'm concerned, vampires are creatures that have always been here and always existed. Like sharks. And instead of sitting around chatting about it, we ought to be out there tracking it down and killing it."
"We will," Sue said. "But it's not going outside of the church in the daytime, and we can spend ten minutes talking about it to prepare everyone for what they're going to see, to let everyone know what we're up against.
This isn't a movie. We can't just walk in there, find a coffin, drive a stake through its heart, and live happily ever after. There's more to it than that."
Her grandmother said something in Cantonese. She spoke slowly, and Sue translated slowly, mirroring her." grandmother's deliberate speech.
"My grandmother says that we don't know the extent of the cup hugirngsi's powers. We don't know if it can read minds or control thoughts. But there are a few things we do know: it is afraid of the daylight, it is afraid of jade and willow and mirrors and water. And it can be killed."
"Water?" Robert said. : ' "The cup hugirngsi cannot cross running water," Sue said, but there was no conviction in her voice.
"I hate to burst your grandma's bubble, but Cheri Stevens and Aaron Payne were killed in running water. In the river."
"I know. But my grandmother says it cannot cross running water."
A silence settled over them, and it was not a comfortable silence.
"If she's wrong about that Buford said. He left the thought unfinished.
"Wait a minute," Rich said. "Don't rivers in China flow in a different direction? Don't they flow north instead of
" south or something.
Sue's head snapped up. She nodded. "You're right," she said excitedly. "They do. They flow east." She spoke rapidly in Chinese to her grandmother, and the old woman's frown smoothed out, her wrinkled face returning to its normal placidity.
"I dreamed last week of a river of blood that flowed uphill," Sue said.
"We can use this," Buford said thoughtfully. "We can use this information to help us."
"How?" Robert asked. "Drag the vampire to the river?
"No. We make a fake river. Give ourselves some extra
[ Yes, Wood said, catching on. We di ditches round the church. We channel water or get some hoses. We make our own fake river and p he vmpire between the strearfls."
"That's just dumb," Robert said.
Rich shook his head. "We don't have time to dig ditches."
"We may not have to," Buford said. He looked at Robert. "I have access to hoses, the fire truck I say we hook those suckers up, point 'em east and let her rip. If worst comes to worst, at least it'll trap him in the church." "Until the water runs out," Rich said.
"Or until we can think of something else." .
Robert nodded slowly. "It just might work. Steve, Ben, you get to work on this."
"Call the water department," Buford said. "Ask for Compton, and tell him to tap off the main valves so we can get some pressure on the hill.
The church is on the slope, and pressure's sometimes a problem."
"How long can we keep these streams running?" Robert asked. "How big a reserve do we have to draw from?"