The old man carried the water over, and although the woman complained that it was very little water, she had not lied about any of it.
Having taken it, she went straight to another old man's apartment, and he asked what had brought her.
"This is today's payment," Aunt Lily said.
What exactly she was paying for was not yet clear. The old man took the water.
Min, meanwhile, had received a message. There was almost no electricity in the district by now, but the internet and the phones went on working.
"He's cancelled the purchase," Min said.
"Cancelled? That's the third time in a row, isn't it?"
"It isn't only the cancellations." Min turned the phone over in his hand. "It feels like we're being picked out. Deliberately."
While they were still talking, footsteps came round the corner, and a group of men walked into the yard.
"It's here!"
"They're looking for me?" Shawn said.
"He cannot sell water in secret!" one of them shouted. "He is getting people hooked on this disgusting commercial water! His sins are grave!"
Another lot of them. They spoke about water as though it were a banned substance.
"Commercial water," Shawn repeated. "Disgusting. Then what do the gentlemen drink? Urine?"
The men did not get the joke. They only shouted that he had dared to say such a thing to them, and then one stepped forward and explained, with great patience, that they were followers of the Pure Water Sect. The water the masses hoard is a by-product. Only water purified by Mr Gerard can be drunk without adding to one's sins.
"He must hand all of his water over to Mr Gerard as an offering," the man said. "Only through abstinence can we pray for divine forgiveness. Mr Gerard is the viceroy of the gods."
The poor fellows must have got sunstroke, every one of them, to believe nonsense like that.
"I was wondering what was going on around here," Shawn said. "It turns out it's just a pack of cowards who've fallen into a cult."
"That's quite understandable," the man replied, unoffended. "He has not yet seen Mr Gerard perform his miracles. When he sees them with his own eyes, he will become exactly such a follower himself, kneeling and praying."
So Shawn decided to tease them.
He set a row of bottles on the crate and opened them one by one. "And if you drink the water, you incur the wrath of heaven," he said, and drank, ostentatiously, with his head back, and let a mouthful of it run down his chin.
"It's pure pleasure," he announced.
"Just think what he's doing!" the man screamed, because Shawn had begun to pour the rest of it onto the ground. "Retribution is waiting for him!"
It was noticeable that none of these men had objected to drinking supposedly dirty water at any point in their previous lives.
"Why should I enjoy it alone?" Shawn said. "The joy can be shared." And he held out a bottle to them. The condition was very simple. All any of them had to do was call Gerard a vile scumbag.
The lead man screamed. The others thought about it.
"Would he really give us the water? If we said it?"
"Of course."
The lead man started yelling at his own brothers — and then one of them said it anyway, loudly, exactly as asked, and was set upon by the rest for it. He was shouting back at them that he needed water, that he could not take any more of this.
Shawn watched all of it from three steps away and enjoyed every second, and gave the man his bottle, because he keeps his word. He is precisely as bad as the sectarians are, only more honest about it.
They frightened the man off and left, and Shawn decided that it would be better to pull this poisonous little sprout out by the roots. He followed them.
Before long he was standing in front of an enormous temple.
He came up close and looked in through the doorway. If he simply destroyed them all with brute force, it would produce an enormous negative reaction — which is, of course, exactly what Shawn wants.
Inside, an old man was pouring water over a girl lying on the floor, a few drops at a time. The girl opened her eyes and stood up.
The crowd screamed. Just a few drops, and the heat stroke had passed. Exactly what one expects of Mr Gerard.
Shawn watched her get to her feet. Either that woman is a fake, he thought — or Gerard himself has awakened.
Then Gerard raised his hands and ordered that all unclean water be brought to him, so that he might purify it for them.
Shawn walked up to the door, and one of the familiar men stopped him and demanded to know what he was doing there.
Bad actor Shawn began, immediately, to weave.
He had been blind, he said. Outside it was getting hotter every day and the water was running out, and who knows what this world will turn into? He was frightened. He was so frightened. He did not want to die like a dog in the road. He was ready to hand over every one of these unclean objects.
He lied as well as he could, which was badly, and he lied at very great length.
"I have heard about him," the old man said, coming down towards him. "His sins are indeed grave. But since he is ready to begin again, the gods are naturally willing to give a lost sheep another chance."
Shawn calculated it while he bowed. The old man would confiscate every drop these people had and hand back the barest minimum. It was difficult to say whether any of them would survive to the end of next month.