Strangers

to move on the Tranquility in spite of the risks.
        The other news from Chicago was that operatives had discreetly investigated Emmeline Halbourg and Winton Tolk and had found reasons to believe their amazing recoveries could not be adequately explained by current medical knowledge. And a reconstruction of Father Stefan Wycazik's activities on Christmas Day - including visits to Halbourg and Tolk, and a stop at the Metropolitan Police Laboratory to consult a ballistics expert - confirmed that the priest had been convinced that his curate, Brendan Cronin, had been responsible for those miraculous cures.
        Leland had first become aware of Cronin's healing powers just yesterday, Sunday, when he had monitored a telephone call between Dominick Corvaisis at the Tranquility and Father Wycazik in Chicago. That conversation would have been a real shocker if the events of Saturday night had not prepared him for the unexpected.
        Saturday night, when Corvaisis had arrived at the Tranquility, Leland Falkirk and his surveillance experts had monitored the first conversations between the Blocks and the writer with growing disbelief. The outlandish tale of moon photographs animated by a poltergeist in Lomack's Reno house had sounded like the product of a fevered mind no longer able to distinguish between fiction and reality.
        Later, however, after Corvaisis and the Blocks had eaten dinner at the Grille, the writer had attempted to relive the minutes just before the trouble had started on the night of July 6. What happened then was astonishing, confirmed both by the hidden surveillance team watching the Tranquility from a point south of the interstate and by the infinity transmitter tap on the diner's payphone. Everything in the Grille had begun to shake, and a strange rumble had filled the place, then an eerie electronic ululation, culminating in the implosion of all the windows.
        These phenomena came as a total - and nasty - surprise to Leland and to everyone involved in the cover-up, especially the scientists, who were electrified. The following day's discovery of Cronin's healing power added voltage to the excitement. At first, these developments seemed inexplicable. But after only a little thought, Leland arrived at an explanation that made his blood cold. The scientists had come to similar conclusions. Some of them were as scared as Leland was.
        Suddenly, no one knew what to expect. Anything might happen now.
        We believed we were in control of the situation that night in July, Leland thought somberly, but perhaps it had escalated beyond our control even before we arrived on the scene.
        The single consolation was that, thus far, only Corvaisis and the priest appeared to be… infected. Maybe "infected" wasn't exactly the right word. Maybe "possessed" was better. Or maybe there wasn't a word for what had happened to them, because what had happened to them had never happened to anyone else in history, so a specific word for it had not heretofore been required.
        Even if the siege at Sharkle's house ended tomorrow, even if that possibility of media exposure was eliminated, Leland would not be able to strike at the group at the motel with full confidence. Corvaisis and Cronin - and perhaps the others - might be more difficult to apprehend and incarcerate than they'd been two summers ago. If Corvaisis and Cronin weren't entirely themselves any more, if they were now someone else -or something else - dealing with them might prove downright impossible.
        Leland's headache was worse.
        Feed on it, he told himself, getting up from the desk. Feed on the pain. You've been doing that for years, you dumb son of a bitch, so you can feed on it for another day or two, until you've dealt with this mess or until you're dead, whichever comes first.
        He left the windowless office, crossed a windowless outer chamber, walked a windowless hall, and entered the windowless communications center, where Lieutenant Horner and Sergeant Fiw sat at a table in one corner. "Tell the men they can hit the sack," Leland said. "It's off for tonight. I'll risk another day to see if the situation at Sharkle's house gets resolved."
        "I was just coming to you," Horner said. "There's a development at the motel. They finally left the diner. After they came out, Twist brought a Jeep Cherokee in from the hills behind the motel. He, Jorja Monatella, and the priest piled in it