CASS: Did they eat the man’s heart?

SALAZAR: It’s not important.

CASS: Then you don’t know the first thing about telling a story.

SALAZAR: Yes, they ate his heart! It was still warm, it went down like candy, blood dripping off their beards! They laughed and laughed because they hated him so much, but even eating his heart couldn’t quench their hatred, and they died wishing they could kill him again! And then they brought out the ancient Scrolls that have taught us so much, so much—

Pause.

CASS: And so these people. Your people.

SALAZAR: You wanna know who.

CASS: I know already.

SALAZAR: What. Did you see the van?

CASS: Just tell me who.

SALAZAR: My people? The people who can get to you anywhere. Any time, any place. Here. Now. (Pause.) They can call you on that phone.

He points to the phone.

CASS: All right…Come on…Come on…We’re waiting. They’re busy. Blabbing in the ear of the President.

SALAZAR stays focused on the boring spectacle of the telephone. But CASS looks away. Wanders around. Stands at the sink. Rubs his face. Looks at the faucet. Puts his hand out to the spigot. Just as he grips the handle, the phone rings. He jumps a mile. He stalls; lunges for it, reaches out; stalls dead. After the third ring, it quits.

Pause. The two men stare at one another until:

CASS: HA! HA! You think I don’t know who you are? You think I wasn’t waiting for you all along? (Pause.) When I stand on the plain up there in the middle of the state? And it’s dark night and not a breath of wind? Oh, you’re moving, moving, moving. You’ve got your nose in my tracks and your lust is like a knife just cutting through, and cutting through, and it’ll cut through everything to find my heart. I been waiting for you…(Shakes himself.) Aah. It can’t be. You’re the Law. Government people gone rotten. Who are you? The DEA? The FDA?…The D of A.

SALAZAR: The D of A? No way. The C of J.

CASS: The C of J? The C of J?

SALAZAR: I thought you saw the van. With the logo.

CASS: I didn’t see a van. If I did, I wouldn’t take notes. The C of J?

SALAZAR: Yeah. The Children of Jehovah.

CASS: Like—“Jehovah.” (Pause.) You…are a Jehovah’s Witness.

SALAZAR: Absolutely—no no no! Far from it. Let me tell you about those folks. The Jehovah’s Witnesses? (While speaking he rummages around and finds the Gideon Bible and expertly locates a page.) The JWs are false prophets, friend. Simply consider this verse—“How shall we know the word which the Lord hath not spoken?…When a prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him.” Dooteronomy eighteen: twenty-one…and twenty-two.

CASS: You know what? That sounds like a nightmare hand of blackjack. Somebody hit twenty-one!