There were nodded heads and murmurs of agreement.
“He’s co-opting you,” Astrid whispered. “He knows you’re his competition.”
“You don’t trust him,” Sam whispered back. It was not a question.
“He’s a manipulator,” Astrid said. “Doesn’t mean he’s bad. He may be okay.”
Mary said, “Sam saved the hardware store and the day care. And he almost saved that little girl. Speaking of which, someone needs to bury her.”
“Exactly,” Caine said. “God willing, we won’t have to face that need again, but someone has to bury the dead. Just as someone needs to help people who get sick or hurt. And someone needs to take care of the little children.”
Dahra Baidoo spoke up and said, “Mary has totally been taking care of the prees—I mean, preschoolers,” she explained. “Her and her brother, John.”
“But we need help,” Mary said quickly. “We’re not getting any sleep. We’re out of diapers and food and”—she sighed—“everything. John and I know the kids now, and we can keep running things, but we need help. We need a lot of help.”
Caine seemed to mist up, almost as if he might shed a tear. He walked quickly to Mary, drew her to her feet, and put his arm around her. “What a noble person you are, Mary. You and your brother will be given the power to draft…. How many people will it take to care for the prees?”
Mary calculated in her head. “The two of us and four others, maybe,” she said. Then, gaining confidence, she said, “Actually, we need four in the morning and four in the afternoon and four at night. And we need diapers and formula. And we need to be able to ask people to get us stuff, like food.”
Caine nodded. “The young ones are our greatest responsibility. Mary and John, you have absolute authority to draft whatever people you need, and demand whatever supplies you need. If anyone argues, Drake and his people, including Captain Orc, will make sure you get what you need.”
Mary looked overwhelmed and grateful.
Howard did not.
“Say what, now? I let it go by before, but are you saying Orc works for this guy?” He jerked a thumb at Drake, who just smiled like a shark. “We don’t work for anyone. Captain Orc doesn’t work for anyone, or under anyone, or follow anyone’s orders.”
Sam saw a coldly furious expression appear on Caine’s handsome face, then disappear as swiftly as it had come.
Orc must have seen it too, because he stood up, and Cookie along with him. Both clutched bats. Drake, still smiling, stepped between them and Caine. A fight was coming, sudden as a tornado.
Diana Ladris, oddly, was eyeing Sam closely, as if unconcerned by Orc.
Caine sighed, raised his hands, and used both palms to smooth back his hair.
There came a rumble, up through the floor and the pews. A small earthquake, minor, nothing that Sam, like most Californians, hadn’t felt before.
Everyone jumped to their feet, everyone knew what you did in an earthquake.
But then came a rending sound, steel and wood twisting, and the crucifix separated from the wall. It ripped free of the bolts holding it in place, like an invisible giant had yanked it away.
No one moved.
A shower of plaster and pebbles fell on the altar.
The crucifix toppled forward. It fell like a chainsawed tree.
As it fell, Caine dropped his hands to his sides. His face was grim, hard, and angry.
The crucifix, at least a dozen feet tall, slammed with shocking force down onto the front-row pew. The impact was as loud and sudden as a car wreck.
Orc and Howard jumped aside. Cookie was too slow. The horizontal bar of the cross caught his right shoulder.
He was on the ground and a red stain was spreading.
It all happened in the space of a few heartbeats. So fast that the kids who’d leaped to their feet didn’t have the chance to bolt.
“Help me, help me!” Cookie cried.
He lay bellowing on the floor. Blood was seeping through the fabric of his T-shirt. It pooled on the tile floor.
Elwood shoved the cross off him, and Cookie screamed.
Caine had not moved. Drake Merwin kept his cold gaze on Orc, his arms still crossed, seemingly indifferent.
Diana Ladris maintained her focus on Sam. The knowing smirk on her face didn’t waver.
Astrid grabbed Sam’s arm and whispered, “Let’s get out of here. We have to talk.”
Diana saw that as well.
“Ahhh, ahhhh, help me, oh man, I’m hurt!” Cookie cried.
Orc and Howard made no move to help their fallen comrade.
Caine, perfectly calm, said, “This is terrible. Does anyone know first aid? Sam? Your mother was a nurse.”
Little Pete, who had sat silent and still as a stone, began to rock faster and faster. His hands flapped as if he were warding off an attack of bees.
“I have to get him out of here, he’s spiraling,” Astrid said, and bundled Little Pete away. “Window seat, Petey, window seat.”
“I’m not a nurse,” Sam blurted. “I don’t know…”
It was Dahra Baidoo who broke from her stunned trance to kneel beside the thrashing, bellowing Cookie. “I know some first aid. Elwood, help me.”
“I guess we have our new nurse,” Caine said, sounding no more agitated or concerned than the school principal announcing a name for the honor roll.
Diana turned away, drifted past Caine, and whispered something in his ear. Caine’s dark eyes swept across the shocked kids, seeming to size them up in turn. He formed a bare smile, and nodded imperceptibly to Diana.