29
Where can I go
That I might live forever?
—Omaha poem
“Testing, one, two,” said Andrea.
“That’s good.” Keith sounded excited. “Listen, we aren’t going to lose you up there tonight, are we?”
“I hope not.” Andrea thought she sounded confident. Completely in charge.
“Okay,” said Keith. “We’re doing a special lead-in, and we’ll be cutting away to the network before we actually go over to you. So you’ll be on right from the top.”
“Good.”
“As far as we can tell, you’ll be the entire media show. No one’s being allowed up the road.”
“Well, I guess this is my night to become famous.”
“I hope so. And listen, Hawk, take care of—” Static erupted.
Andrea switched to her alternate frequency. Same problem. The sons of bitches were jamming her. Unbelievable.
She picked up a telephone. And waited for a dial tone that never came.
Joe Rescouli had been driving for almost twelve hours when he and Amy and his sister-in-law Teresa turned north onto Route 32 to travel the last few miles to the Roundhouse. They had come from Sacramento and had covered the ground in three days. Teresa was a particle physicist. Although Joe wasn’t sure precisely what that meant, he knew she had a good job and did not have to work hard. He admired that. “She gets paid for what she knows,” he’d told his friends down at the bottling plant. Joe, on the other hand, had never seen a day when he did not have to slave for every nickel.
Teresa had talked for months about nothing but the Roundhouse, and her enthusiasm had so overwhelmed Joe and Amy that when she started thinking about flying up here to visit the site, they’d all wanted to come, and it was a lot cheaper to drive.
So they were here, and Teresa was saying how she thought they should stay on the ridge until it got dark so they could see the structure glow. Amy was all for it. Amy was always in favor of anything her sister wanted to do. Joe understood that his wife entertained more than a few regrets about her marriage. She never said anything, but he could see it in her eyes. Had she not married Joe, she might also have been working at a place like Triangle Labs, with her own office and a doctorate and a sense of really going somewhere in the world.
It was already getting dark in the shadow of the ridge, and a fierce wind beat against the ancient Buick. He knew about the hairpin access road and didn’t much like having to navigate at dusk with this kind of wind blowing. But the sisters were excited, so there would be no peace until they’d seen what they’d come to see.
“There,” said Amy.
A board had been erected by the side of the highway. It had a big yellow arrow on it, and it said The Roundhouse. But someone had drawn a line through the middle of the sign and printed Closed on it.
“That can’t be,” said Teresa. “It’s supposed to be open until sundown.”
Just around the bend they came across the access road, but it was blocked by a barrier. A police cruiser was parked to one side, and a line of cars was being waved on. Joe eased in and rolled down the window. A policeman gestured impatiently at them.
“What’s wrong, Officer?” Joe asked.
“Please keep moving, folks. It’s shut down.”
“Okay,” said Joe, trying to hide his gratification. “What time does it open in the morning?”
“It won’t. It’s closed permanently.”
“Closed permanently?” said Teresa. Joe could hear the disbelief in her voice. “Why? Officer, we’ve come a long way.” Her voice was getting shrill.
“They don’t tell us much, ma’am. The courts have ordered it shut down. Safety hazard.”
“You can’t be serious.”
“I’m sorry. I’ll have to ask you to move on.” He stepped away, waiting for them to pull out. Another car drifted in behind them. The policeman sighed.
At that moment a black 1988 Ford, coming from the north, pulled up to the barrier. The driver was alone. An elderly Indian, Joe thought. Then he watched indignantly as they opened up. The Ford went in, and the roadblock was replaced.
“Hey,” said Teresa. “What’s going on? How come he got in?”
“Official vehicle,” said the cop.
Joe glared, but the cop didn’t seem to care. He looked at Joe and pointed to the highway. “Somebody’s going to get a letter,” Joe said, then rolled up the window and hit the gas.
Walker had anticipated trouble at the blockade. All the way over from the reservation, he had been certain they would deny him entrance. Maybe even arrest him. But they had let him through. And as he started up the access road he understood. He was old, and they were hoping he could rein in the more aggressive spirits at the Roundhouse. In any case, wherever he was, they did not see him as a threat.
Cautiously he negotiated the curves, noting a liberal supply of police scattered along the road. The trees thinned out after a while, and he emerged finally on top of the ridge. There were only a half-dozen cars parked in the lot.
The Roundhouse glistened in the fading light. It spoke somehow to the spirit. Its lines were curved and uncluttered, and he knew that its designers had loved the world as it was then, as it still was on the other side of the port. He would have liked to speak with those who had traveled so far to sail virgin seas. It seemed almost as if they had known what the condition of the Sioux would be and had left the woodland as a gift.
Adam stepped from the security hut and waved.
Walker parked the car and got out. “Good to see you, Adam,” he said.
“And you, Chairman.” Adam started to say something but hesitated.
“What is it?” asked Walker.
“The site is not easily defensible. Not with a handful of people.”
“Would you prefer to withdraw?”
“No,” he said. “I am not suggesting that.”
A helicopter drifted in low and kicked up dust from the excavation ditches. “Photo recon,” said Adam.
Walker nodded. “They’ve sealed off the access road. What are you suggesting?”
“That we take the initiative. That we not wait for them to hit us.”
“And how would you do that?”
They’d reached the security station and hesitated by the door. “We could start by dropping a few trees on the access road. That’ll at least slow them down.”
“There are police stationed along the road.”
“I know,” said Adam.
And Walker understood. The police did not look as if they believed any serious deployment by the defenders would take place. This was, after all, an area where people traditionally did not shoot each other. A simultaneous series of ambushes could clear the road. And a couple of well-positioned snipers might hold it if some trees were dropped. It might work. “No,” he said.
“Chairman, we cannot sit here and simply wait for the attack to come.”
“And if you kill a few policemen, do you think the end will be any different?”
Anger rose in Adam’s dark eyes. “If we are to travel beyond the great river, we should not go unescorted.”
“No,” Walker said again. “Spill blood once, and there will be no end to it until we are all dead. I prefer a better outcome.”
“And how do you hope to arrange a better outcome?”
“I’ve been in touch with well-placed friends. Help is on the way.”
“Well-placed friends?” Adam smiled. “When have the Sioux known such friends?”
“Possibly longer than you think, Adam. It may be that you have simply not recognized them.”
They went into the security station. Little Ghost and Sandra Whitewing got to their feet. Both looked calm. Little Ghost was in his late twenties. The chairman knew him, had always worried about his future, because Little Ghost had a wife and two sons but no job. Today it looked as if that would no longer be a matter for concern.
And Sandra, who had once come to him for help when her father drove his car into a gas pump. Her dark eyes shone, and it struck him that she was extraordinarily lovely. Somehow, over the years, he had failed to notice. Too busy negotiating his own narrow track through the world. Pity.
She worked in a restaurant that catered to reservation visitors. He had heard that she was engaged to a white man, a carpenter or an electrician or something, who lived in Devil’s Lake. She was not yet twenty-one. He considered ordering her off the ridge but knew that would be unfair, both to her and to her brothers. She had chosen to make her stand, and he could not deprive her of that privilege.
Weapons were stacked around the room. M—16s. At least they had some firepower.
“We also have a hand-held rocket launcher,” said Adam. “They will not take us without paying a price.”
“Who else is here?” asked Walker.
“Will Pipe, George Freewater, and Andrea are in the Roundhouse. Max and Dr. Cannon haven’t left yet, but I’m sure they will do so shortly. They’re with visitors.”
“There are still visitors?” asked Walker, surprised.
“Three from the last tour.”
He lowered himself into a chair. “We need to talk about the defense.”
The door opened, and Max came in. “I wouldn’t have believed this was possible,” he said apologetically. “I’ve been trying to call Senator Wykowski, but it looks as if the lines are down.”
Walker smiled. “They don’t want us talking to anyone,” he said. “But I don’t think it matters. We are way beyond senatorial intervention.” The chairman felt sorry for Max, who seemed to be a man uncertain of purpose. Courage is not easy to summon when one is at war with oneself.
He looked through the window at the sunset. It saddened him to realize he might not see another.
April was talking with the departing researchers, wondering whether they would be the last to have crossed to Eden. They were Cecil Morin, an overweight, softlooking middle-aged bacteriologist from the University of Colorado; Agatha Greene, a Harvard astrophysicist who had been overcome by the wonders of the Horsehead; and Dmitri Rushenko, a biologist from SmithKline Beecham Pharmaceuticals.
“I’d like to move over there,” said Greene.
“Is it true,” asked Morin, “that the government is about to take this place?”
April nodded. “Apparently so.”
Morin shook his head sadly. “God help us all.”
Rushenko opened the door to his car. “You’re in the right, you know.” His accent was New York. Long Island, she thought.
“We know.”
“I hate to think of the port in the hands of the government,” he continued. “Damned shame. I wish I could help.” He got into his car and started the engine.
“Well, I’ll tell you something,” said Greene. “If the decision were mine, they’d have to take it from me.”
April held the door while she got in. “We intend to stay,” she said, using the pronoun figuratively, for she had no intention of staying. But it felt good to say so. “And you’re welcome to stay with us, Agatha, if you wish.” She intended it as a joke or bravado or something and immediately felt embarrassed by the woman’s confusion.
“I would like to, April,” the astrophysicist said. “I really would. But I have a husband and a little girl.” She blushed.
The others said nothing.
April watched for her chance to talk privately with the chairman. He was out with Adam and the others, bent into a severe wind, touring the mounds of earth that rose around the rim of the excavation pit. Those mounds, she gathered, would constitute the first line of defense.
“Max,” she said, “why are they doing this? What’s the point?”
Max was coming to hate the Roundhouse and everything associated with it. “I don’t know,” he said. “Maybe it’s a cultural thing.”
She knew Max was waiting anxiously for her to agree to leave. He’d warned her that going down the access road in the dark past nervous police entailed risks.
It was dark now.
“I hate to leave them here,” she said, initiating another cycle of the conversation they’d been having over and over for the last hour.
“So do I.”
“I wish there were something we could do.”
“Why do they insist on doing this? There’s nothing to gain.”
At eight o’clock they killed the security lights, but the churned-up ground was still visible in the glow from the Roundhouse. “Too bad they can’t throw a tarp over that thing,” said Max.
When the chairman left Adam and retreated to the security station, she judged the time was right. “Max,” she said, “let’s go talk to him.”
Max had lost all hope of making anybody see reason. To him, Adam Sky and his people, who had once seemed so rational, had been transformed into a band of fanatics who were ruled by ghosts of lost battles and ancient hatreds. The prospect of telling a federal court and a police force to kiss off was utterly foreign to Max’s nature.
Walker seemed cheerful enough when they caught up with him.
“Chairman,” April said with her voice fluttering, “don’t do this. You can stop it.”
Walker smiled warmly at her. “Are you still here?” he asked.
The wind ripped across the escarpment and hammered against the building. “We don’t want to leave you here.”
“I’m pleased to hear that,” he said. “But you can’t stay.” The exchange caused Max’s pulse to miss a beat. He had no intention of getting caught in the crossfire.
“There’s no reason to do this,” April said. “It won’t change the result.”
Walker stared at her. “Don’t be too sure.” He looked away, up at the moon, which was in its third quarter, and then out over the river valley, dark except for the distant pools of light at Fort Moxie and its border station.
“You can fight this in the courts,” said Max. “I would think you’d have a good chance of getting it back. But if you put up an armed resistance—”
Something in the old man’s eyes brought Max to a stop.
“What?” said April. “What aren’t you telling us?”
“I have no idea what you mean, young lady.” But he couldn’t quite get the coyness out of his voice.
“What?” she said. “You’ve got the place mined? What is it?”
The helicopter was back. It rolled across the center of the escarpment.
Walker looked at his watch.
“The rational way is through the courts,” she said. “Why aren’t you going through the courts?”
The question hit home, and Walker simply waved it away. He didn’t want to talk anymore. Wanted her to leave.
“Why?” she asked. “Why won’t the courts work? You think the fix is in? Something else?”
“Please go, April,” he said. “I wish there were a better way.”
April’s eyes widened. “You think they’re going to destroy it, don’t you? You don’t think the courts would be able to hand it back.”
The chairman stared past her, his eyes fixed on the sky. Then he turned on his heel and walked out the door.
“My God,” she said. “That can’t be right. They wouldn’t do that.”
But they would have to. As long as people believed the advanced technologies existed, that they could eventually surface, they would continue to work their baleful effects on the world at large. There was only one way to neutralize the Roundhouse.
“I think,” said Max, “he’s right. It’s time for us to clear out.”
April stood hesitating, dismayed. Terrified. “No,” she said. “I don’t think it is.”
Max’s heart sank.
“I’m not going,” she said. “I’m not going to let it happen.”
Brian Kautter was the commissioner of the Environmental Protection Agency. At eight-thirty, tracked by TV cameras, he walked into the agency’s press room. There was more tension in the air and more reporters present than he had ever seen. That meant there had been a leak.
Kautter was a tall, congenial African-American. He hated what was happening right now, and he resented being part of it. He saw the necessity of the president’s action. But he knew this was one of those events that would dog him through the years. He suspected a time would come, and very soon, when he would wish with all his heart for the capability to come back and relive these next few minutes.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” he said, “I have an announcement to make, after which I will be happy to take questions. We have become increasingly concerned with the dangers inherent in the Roundhouse. Your government, as you know, has taken no official position on whether there actually is a bridge to the stars. But enough evidence is in to allow us to conclude that the land on the other side is most certainly not terrestrial.
“That brings up a number of disquieting possibilities. There are already stories that something has passed into our world. We do not know what this something might be, nor do we believe there is any truth to the account. But we cannot rule it out. Nor can we be certain that such an event might not happen in the future. There are other potential hazards. Viruses, for example. Or contaminants.
“In order to ensure the general public’s safety, EPA has requested and received a court order requiring the owners of the artifact to submit it to government inspection and control. I repeat, this is only a temporary measure and is designed purely to avert local hazards.” Kautter looked like a man in pain. “I’ll take questions now.”
Maris Quimby from the Post: “Mr. Commissioner, have the Sioux agreed to this arrangement?”
Kautter shook his head. “Maris, a federal court order does not require anyone’s consent. But to answer your question, I’m sure they’ll see the wisdom of the action.” He pointed at Hank Miller, from Fox.
“Isn’t it a little late to worry about bugs? I mean, if there’s anything dangerous over there, we can be reasonably sure that by now it’s over here.”
“We don’t think there’s any real reason to worry, Hank. Our action in this regard is purely precautionary.”
When he was finished, he went back upstairs to his office and opened the bottle of rum he kept stashed in his supply cabinet.