David Koresh must be the only author ever to have the FBI waiting to distribute his manuscript. As soon as the cult leader has finished decoding the symbolism of the seven seals in the Book of Revelation, FBI agents surrounding the compound near Waco, Texas, where Koresh and his Branch Davidian cult are holed up, will pick up the longhand manuscript and convey it to Koresh's lawyer, Dick DeGuerin, who will present it to two noted biblical experts for evaluation. Then, Koresh promises, he and 95 followers will finally surrender to federal authorities. That would end a siege that, as of Saturday night, had lasted 49 days -- five days longer than the Gulf War.
Alas, Koresh took four days to finish 30 handwritten pages about the first seal, and they still await editing by his top lieutenant, Steve Schneider. So, FBI men sourly note, a surrender may be months off, even if Koresh keeps his word -- and he has reneged on three previous promises to give up. "No one at our place is holding his breath," says FBI special agent Dick Swensen. Instead the FBI is continuing its psychological warfare. At all hours, agents blast harrowing noises out of loudspeakers -- the squeals of rabbits being slaughtered, the whine of a dentist's drill, the thunder of locomotives -- presumably in the hope that the Davidians might yield just to get some peace and quiet.
Both the FBI and the cultists' lawyers are making detailed preparations for a surrender. Koresh, accompanied by DeGuerin, would come out first and be whisked away, perhaps by helicopter. Others will walk up a dirt road about 100 yards, pass through metal detectors to make sure they are not carrying weapons, then board buses for a ride of several miles to a processing center already set up inside a cavernous airplane hangar on the grounds of Texas State Technical College. There they will be stripped, dressed in prison garb, photographed and sent to local jails.
DeGuerin and other lawyers meanwhile have begun planning a defense strategy for the ensuing trials. They will probably claim the protection of the First and Second Amendments for the Davidians' rights to practice even a bizarre religion and to bear even an arsenal of arms. Defense lawyers will also claim the Davidians fired only in self-defense when federal authorities stormed the compound. Four feds and, by Koresh's count, six cultists died.