Chapters 14 through 19 Summary

The next chapters are in the second section of the book, entitled The Serapis. A delivery man with a Spanish accent enters the Executive Office Building, leaving a package for the US President. X-rays reveal that the package is a briefcase but the guard is unsure of its contents. He calls for a bomb dog, Sweetpea. Sweetpea doesn't indicate an explosive but growls. When a higher ranking security official, James Gerhart, is called, he decides to open the package and discovers that it's the flayed skin of Guy Rivas who had met with Topiltzin.

In the White House, Dale Nichols is studying Topiltzin and his movements in Mexico. The reports indicate that the self-proclaimed leader was born in a "cardboard shack" at the edge of a garbage dump, admits to no schooling and offers a philosophy that's a blend of political...