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Converted? Froious about this conspiracy? Soe cult? Or maybe "converted" was used in soave him the creeps

Sah the list or access it in alphabetized chunks He looked up the names of residents whom he either knew of or had met Loman Watkins was on the converted list So was Reese Dorn Burt Peckha the converted, but the entire Perez family, surely the same that operated the restaurant, was on that roster

He checked Harold Talbot, the disabled vet ho Talbot was not on the converted list

Puzzled as to theof it all, Sam closed out that file, returned to the ht another list of names and addresses to the VDT, and the column was headed by the words 1104 PENDING CONVERSION On this roster he found Burt Peckham and Harold Talbot

He tried C SCHEDULE OF CONVERSION - LOCAL, and a subs appeared:

A MONDAY, OCTOBER 13, 6:00 PM

THROUGH

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 14, 6:00 AM

B TUESDAY, OCTOBER 14, 6:00 AM

THROUGH

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 14, 6:00 PM

C TUESDAY, OCTOBER 14, 6:00 PM

THROUGH

MIDNIGHT

It was now 12:39 AM Wednesday, about halfway between the times noted in choice A, so he punched that one another list of names headed by the notation 380 CONVERSIONS SCHEDULED

The fine hairs were bristling on the back of Sam’s neck, and he didn’t knohy except that the word "conversions" unsettled him It made him think of that old movie with Kevin McCarthy, Invasion of the Body Snatchers

He also thought of the pack that had pursued hiht Had they been … converted?

When he looked up Burt Peckham, he found the tavern owner on the schedule for conversion before 6:00 AM However, Harry Talbot was not listed

The car shook

Sam snapped his head up and reached for the revolver holstered under his jacket

Wind It was only wind A series of hard gusts shredded holes in the fog and lightly rocked the car After a ain, and the torn fabric of fogpainfully

32

As Tessa put down the useless telephone, the doorknob stopped rattling She stood by the bed for a while, listening, then ventured warily into the foyer to press her ear against the door

She heard voices but not immediately beyond that portal They were farther down the hallway, peculiar voices that spoke in urgent, raspy whispers She could notthey said

She was sure they were the saone for ice and a Diet Coke Now they were back And somehow they had knocked out the phones, so she couldn’t call for help It was crazy, but it was happening

Such persistence on their part indicated to Tessa that they were not ordinary rapists or ers, that they had focused on her because she was Janice’s sister, because she was there to look into Janice’s death However, she wondered how they had become aware of her arrival in town and why they had chosen toto see if she was just going to settle Janice’s affairs and leave Only she and her ation of her own

Gooseflesh prickled her bare legs, and she felt vulnerable in just a T-shirt and panties She went quickly to the closet, pulled on jeans and a sweater

She wasn’t alone in the uests Mr Quinn had said so Maybe not many, perhaps only another two or three But if worse cauests would hear her, and her would-be assailants would have to flee

She picked up her Rockports, in which she had stuffed the white athletic socks she’d been wearing, and returned to the door

Low, hoarse voices hissed andcrash sla her cry out and twitch in surprise Another crash followed at once She heard a door give way at another room

A woman screaht a chill of horror to Tessa There were several of thely savage The public corridor beyond her door was filled with harsh wolflike growls,that was the essence of blood hunger, and other less describable sounds, but worst of all was that those sa to beasts not nizable words: "… need, need … get her, get … get, get … blood, bitch, blood…"

Leaning against the door, holding on to it for support, Tessa tried to tell herself that the words she heard were from the man and woman whose room had been broken into, but she knew that was not true, because she also heard both aTheir screaony, as if they were being beaten to death or worse, utted

A couple of years ago Tessa had been in Northern Ireland,a documentary about the pointlessness of the needless violence there, and she’d been unfortunate enough to be at a cemetery, at the funeral of one of the endless series of "martyrs"--Catholic or Protestant, it didn’t matter any more, both had a surfeit of them--when the crowd of es They had strea for those of a different faith, and soon they’d co the area in an unmarked car By its sheer size, the mob blocked the car’s advance, encircled it, sed the would-be peacekeepers out onto the pavement Tessa’s two technical assistants had fled, but she had waded into the h the lens she had see beyond the reality of this world into hell itself Eyes wild, faces distorted with hatred and rage, grief forgotten and bloodlust embraced, the mourners had tirelessly kicked the fallen Britons, then pulled them to their feet only to puainst the car until their spines broke and their skulls cracked, then dropped theain, though by that ti, chanting slogans that degenerated into less chains of sounds,birds, they plucked at the shattered bodies, though they weren’t like earthly birds, neither buzzards nor vultures, but like de at the deadtheir flesh but with the hot desire to rip out and steal their souls Two of those frenzied men had noticed Tessa, had seized her caround For one terrible moment she was sure that they would dis at her clothes Their faces were so wrenched with hatred that they no longer looked huoyles that had come to life and had climbed down from the roofs of cathedrals They had surrendered all that was huhosts of the primitives from whom they were descended "For God’s sake, no!" she had cried "For God’s sake, please!" Perhaps it was the mention of God or just the sound of a hunarl of a beast, but for soo and hesitated She seized that reprieve to scra, blood-crazed mob to safety

What she heard now, at the other end of theto sweat even though the patrol car’s heater was not on, still spooked by every sudden gust of wind, Sam called up submenu item B, which showed the conversions scheduled fro Those na 450 CONVERSIONS SCHEDULED Harry Talbot’s name was not on that list either

Choice C, six o’clock Thursday evening through ht the same day, indicated that 274 conversions were scheduled Harry Talbot’s name and address were on that third and final list

Sam mentally added the numbers mentioned in each of the three conversion periods--380, 450, and 274--and realized they totaled 1104, which was the sa conversions Add that nurand total, 3071, was probably the population of Moonlight Cove By the next tiht, a little less than twenty-three hours from now, the entire toould be converted--whatever the hell that meant

He keyed out of the subet out of there when the word ALERT appeared on the VDT and began to flash Fear thrilled through hi around in their systera a run for it, however, he watched the screen for a few more seconds, held by curiosity

TELEPHONE SWEEP INDICATES FBI

AGENT IN MOONLIGHT COVE

POINT OF CALL:

PAY PHONE SHELL STATION,

OCEAN AVENUE

The alert was related to hi in one of their patrol cars and probing the New Wave/Moonhawk conspiracy Evidently the bastards were tied into the phone company’s data banks and periodically swept those records to see who had made calls from what numbers to what numbers--even from all of the town’s pay telephones, which in ordinary circumstances could have been counted on to provide secure coent They were paranoid and security conscious and electronically connected to an extent and degree that proved increasingly astounding with each revelation

TIME OF CALL:

7:31 PM, MONDAY,