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Yokohama on business.”
    I scanned their minds for suspicion. I was safe.
    The fisherman lit a cigarette. “What was it like the day after?”
    “It certainly took a lot of people by surprise.”
    Dungaree-woman nodded and folded her arms. “Looks like it’s the beginning of the end for that bunch of lunatics, however.”
    “How do you mean?” Keeping my voice steady.
    The fisherman looked surprised. “You haven’t heard? The police have raided them. About time, too. The Fellowship’s assets have been frozen. Their so-called minister of defense is being charged with murder of ex-cult members, and five people have been arrested in connection with the gas. Two of those five hanged themselves in their detention cells. Their suicide notes provided enough evidence for a new round of arrests. Would you like to see my newspaper?”
    I flinched from the shuffling sheets of lies. “No, it’s all right. But how about the Guru?”
The branches may burn in the forest fire, but new growth sprouts from the pure heart
.
    “The who?” Wartman blubbulled his rubbery nose. I wanted to kneel on his neck and cut that abomination off with a sharp pair of scissors.
    “The Leader of the Fellowship.”
    “Oh, that maggot! He’s hiding, like the coward he is!” Wart-man choked on the hatred in his voice! What a sick zoo the worldhas become, where angels are despised. “He’s a true devil, is that one. A devil from hell.”
    “Walking evil, he is! Here you are, Mr. Tokunaga.” The old woman poured me a cup of green tea. I needed to escape to my room to think, but I wanted more news. “He fleeces the poor fools who run along to him. Then he acts like their father, orders them to do his dirty work, plays out his wicked dreams, then scurries away from the consequences.”
    Their ignorance made me gasp! If only I could make these vermin
understand!
    “It’s beyond my comprehension,” said Dungaree-woman, “how such things can happen. It wasn’t just him, was it? There were bright people in the Fellowship, from good universities and good families. Policemen, scientists, teachers, and lawyers. Respectable people. How could they go along with that alpha Fellowship nonsense, and choose to become killers? Is there so much evil in the world?”
    “Brainwashing,” said Wartman, pointing to everybody. “Brainwashing.”
    The thin woman examined the dragon curled around her cup. “They did not specifically choose to become killers. They had chosen to abdicate their inner selves.” I didn’t like her. Her voice seemed to come not from her, but from a nearby room.
    “I don’t altogether follow you,” said Dungaree-woman.
    “Society,” and from the way the thin woman said the word I knew she was a teacher, “is an
outer
abdication. We abdicate certain freedoms, and in return we get civilization. We get protection from death by starvation, bandits, and cholera. It’s a fair deal. Signed on our behalf by our educational system on the day we are born. However, we all have an
inner
self that decides to what degree we honor this contract. This inner self is our own responsibility. I fear that many of the young men and women in the Fellowship handed this inner responsibility to their Guru, to do with as he pleased. And that,” she flicked the newspaper, “is what he did with it.”
    “You sound like you have fairly entrenched opinions,” I remarked.
    The thin woman looked at me straight in the eye. I looked straight back. Our sisters at Sanctuary are taught humility.
    “But why?” The fisherman lit his pipe and bulged his cheeks in and out. “Why did his followers want to give him their will?”
    The thin woman looked at me as she spoke. “You’d have to ask them yourself. Maybe there are many answers. Some get a kick out of self-abasement and servitude. Some are afraid or lonely. Some crave the camaraderie of the persecuted. Some want to be big fish in a small pond. Some want magic. Some want revenge on teachers and parents