main building, followed by two dozen others chanting
a wordless dirge.
Graffius ran alongside and slapped my face teas–ingly.
Cackling with glee, he told me about the
party he’d planned in my honor.
“We’ve got a’new designer hallucinogen that makes
acid seem likebaby aspirin, Alex. I’1t shoot it right
into your veins vith a Methedrine chaser.’ Itq] be ‘
like being dipped in and out of hell.”
He had lots more to say but his oration was cut
short by a sudden, brief stutter of gunfire, punctuating
the silence like a symphofiy of giant bullfrogs.
The second burst was longer, the unmistakable belch
of heavy-duty firearms.
“What the fuck!” exclaimed Graffius, chin whisk-
ers trembling like charged filaments.
The procession stopped.
From that point on everything seemed to happen
in fast-forward.
The sky filled with thunder. Whirr blades
and blinking lights assaulted the gathering dusk. A
them boomed an amplSfied voice
“This is Agent Siegel .
forcement Agency. The shots were a
are surrounded. Belease
down on the ground.”
The message was repeated. Over and over.
Graffius started screaming unintelligiblY. The rest
of the cultists stood rooted in place, lking up to
the heavens, as baffled as primitives discovering a
new god.
The helicopters swooped tow, rustng: the trees.
Agent Siegel cont!nued to reiterate command.
The cultists didn t comPly–out of shock, ii°t
defiance.
One of the helicopters aimed a high-intensity
beacon on the group. The light was blinding. As the
cultists shielded their eyes, the invasion began.
Scores of men, flak-jackted and wielding automatic
weapons, converged on the grounds with the
silent-efficiency of soldier ants.
One group oi
the viaduct. Seconds
behind the main building
herd of Shackled cultists. A
fields and stormed the cathedral.
I tried to break loose but Blackbeard and Snaggle-‘
tooth held catatonically firm. Graffius pointed at
me and jibbered like a monkey on speed. He ran
over andraised his fist. I kicked out with my right
foot anffaught him hard in the center ofhis kneecap.
He yelped and did a one-legged rain dance. The big
men lOOked at each other idiotically, unsure of how
to .react. Within seconds the decision had been taken
out.of their.hands.
’34 Jothan Kelle;nan
We were surrounded. The raiders from the viaduct
had formed a concentric ring around the circle
of CUltists. They were a mixed group-.D.E.A.
agents, state police, county sheriffs, and ‘at least
one L.A. detective whom I recognizedbut functioned
with the smoothness of a seasoned unit.
A Hispanic officer with a Zapata mustache barked
the order to lie down. TFritime compliance was
immediate, The big men released my arms as if
they were electrified. I stepped away and observed
the action.
The raiders made the cultists spread their’legs
and frisked them, two officers for every captive.
Once searched, they were handcuffed, removed from.
the group one by one like beads pulled off a string,
read their rights, and taken into custody at gunpoint.
With the exception of Graffius, Who was dragged
away kicking and screaming, the men and women-of
the Touch offered no resistance. Numb with fear
and disorientation, they submitted passively to
lice procedure and shambled off to captivity in a
forlorn procession periodically spotlit by the circling
helicopters.
The heavy door to the main building swung open
and disgorged another parade of captors and cap-tires.
The last to exit was Matthias, guarded by a
phalanx of agents. He walked woodenly and his
mouth worked frantically. From a distance it looked
like ‘one hell of a closing statement but the din from
the copters blotted out the sound. Not that anyone
was listening.
I watched his departure and, when the grounds
were sl, became once more aware of the heat I
removed my jacket and tossed it to the sidei and
was unbuttoning my shir, when Milo came over in
BLOOD TEST 34t
the company of a hatchet-faced man wit
o’clock shadow. The man wore a gray Suit, white
shirt, and dark tie under his .flak jacket and Walked
with a military stride. This morning, I’d found him
humorless but reassuringly thorough. The boss
D.E.A. agent, Severin Fleming.
‘”Great’performance, Alex.” My friend patted my
back.
“Let me help you with that, Doctor,'” said Fleming,
untaping the Nagra body recorder from my