Lindquist recognized Laurie Cavaracca, who owned the Northstar Motel. Laurie had lived in Fort Moxie all her life. The motel had been built by her father in 1945, after he came back from the Pacific. Laurie was now sole owner and manager. “We have eight units at the Northstar,” she said. “Until two weeks ago, we never had consecutive days in which I could turn on the NO VACANCY sign. Now there is never an empty room. We are booming. Do I like the problems that we are currently having in Fort Moxie? No, of course not. None of us does. But the solution isn’t to close down and crawl back in our holes.” Her voice sounded a little fluttery at first, but she gained confidence quickly. “Listen, people,” she said. “Most of us have stayed in Fort Moxie because we were born here. We love this town. But the economy has always been touch and go. Now, for the first time in anyone’s memory, we have a chance to make some real money. And not just the store owners. Everyone will profit. Healthy businesses are good for everybody. For God’s sake, don’t kill the golden calf.”
“Goose,” someone said. “It’s a golden goose.”
“Whatever,” said Laurie. “This won’t last forever. We should milk it while we can.”
“Meantime,” said Josh Averill, rising with his usual dignity, “they’re going to kill somebody, the way they race around the streets. What happens then?”
“This town has never had two dimes to rub together,” said Jake Thoraldson, whose airport had suddenly become a hub. “What’s the matter with you people? Can’t you stand a little prosperity?”
“Prosperity?” howled Mamie Burke, a transplanted Canadian who worked for the railroad. “What kind of prosperity is it to have all these people running wild? Joe’s right. Close it down.”
Arnold Whitaker, the self-effacing owner of the Lock ‘n’ Bolt Hardware, argued against the proposal. “I can’t see,” he said, “where anyone is being hurt by current conditions.”
That remark infuriated Morris Jones, a ninety-year-old postal retiree known around town primarily for his interest in electric trains. Two inebriated Canadians had driven a pickup into Jones’s den, demolishing a forty-year-old HO layout. Jones sputtered and shook his finger accusingly at Whitaker. “Attaboy, Arnie,” he said, “take care of yourself. Don’t worry about anybody else.”
The vote to demand a shutdown passed by a majority of eighty—seven. Floyd Rickett volunteered to head up the committee that would write the draft.
Lindquist took him aside when opportunity offered. “Keep it reasonable, Floyd,” he said. “Okay? We don’t want to offend anybody.”
The rain beat incessantly against the windows of the Oval Office. It was a sound that tended to heighten whatever emotion the president was feeling. Today he didn’t feel good.
A copy of the Washington Post lay on his desk. The headlines reported civil war in India and famine in the Transvaal. They also revealed the results of a new polclass="underline" “60% Think Roundhouse Is Related to UFOs.” An additional twenty percent thought it was a government project. Eight percent believed it was of divine origin. The rest didn’t know or hadn’t heard of Johnson’s Ridge.
Tony Peters sat disconsolately in his chair, one leg crossed over the other. “Almost everybody thinks there’s a government cover-up,” he said. “But that’s inevitable. We might as well get used to it.”
“Did you see the signs outside?” There were roughly six hundred pickets on the circle. Come Clean on Johnson’s Ridge, the posters read. And Tell the Truth About the Roundhouse. “So what is the truth? What do we know?”
Peters uncrossed his legs and got up. “We’ve talked to a dozen people in as many fields who have either been there or had access to the test results. They’re all having a hard time accepting the notion that it’s extraterrestrial, but there’s nobody who can provide a satisfactory alternative explanation.”
“I don’t think we care about where it came from or how it got there.” Taylor took a deep breath. “My concern is, where do we go from here? What kind of power does the place use?”
“No one’s had a chance to look. All they’re letting people do now is walk around inside. Guided tours.”
“Okay.” Taylor pushed back in his chair and folded his arms across his chest. Crunch time. “Prospects, Tony. What are we facing?”
“Hard to say, Mr. President.” Peters scrunched his face up, and pockets of lines showed at the corners of his mouth and eyes. “The experts do not agree about our ability to reproduce the new element. But they do agree that if we can, any products made from it will not decay.”
“Will they wear out?”
“Yes. Although most of these people think they’ll be a lot tougher than anything we have now.”
Taylor sighed. He would talk to his economists, but he knew what that would mean to the manufacturing interests.
“Something else, sir. Did you know someone saw the Virgin Mary out there last night?”
The president’s eyes rolled toward the ceiling. “What next?” he asked.
“Seriously.” Peters grinned, a welcome shift in the tension. “It was on CNN ten minutes ago. Woman saw a face in the lights.”
The president shook his head. “Goddamn, Tony,” he said. “What about the market? What’s going to happen today?”
“The Nikkei got blasted again. And I’m sure the slide will continue on Wall Street.”
Taylor pushed himself wearily to his feet and looked out the window. The grass was green and cool. Days like this, he wished he were a kid again. “We have to get a handle on this, Tony.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Before it gets out of control. I want to take it over. There should be a national security provision or something. Find it.”
“That might be tricky,” he said.
“Why?”
“My God, Mr. President, it’s Indian land. If it were just some farmer, yeah, we could declare a health hazard or something. But this is Sioux property. We try to move in, there’ll be a heavy political price. Your own people won’t like it, and the media will beat you to death with it.”
Taylor could feel the walls closing in. “I don’t mean we should simply seize it. We can recompense them. Buy them off.”
“Sir, I think our best strategy is to wait it out. Not get stampeded into doing something that’ll come back to haunt us.”
Taylor was by nature inclined to act at the first sign of trouble. But he’d been around politics long enough to know the value of patience. And anyway, he wasn’t sure of the right course. He didn’t like the idea of maneuvering Native Americans off their land. That had a bad taste. And it was bad politics. But so were collapsing markets.
“It’ll blow over,” Peters assured him soothingly. “Give it time. We may not really have a problem. Let’s not create one. What we need to do is concentrate on Pakistan.”
“Pakistan?”
“No voters in Pakistan. But a lot of people are getting killed. Make another statement. Deplore the violence. Maybe offer to act as an arbitrator. It looks as if it’s going to play out soon anyway. Both sides are exhausted. We might even be able to get credit for arranging a settlement.”
The president sighed. Peters was a hopeless cynic, and it would have been easy to dislike him. It was a pity that American politics degenerated so easily to such blatant opportunism. Even where good people were concerned.
Arky Redfern grew up near Fort Totten on the Devil’s Lake reservation. He was the youngest of five, the first to collect a degree. That his siblings had pursued early marriages and dead-end jobs had broken the heart of his father, who’d promised to do what he could to support any of his children seeking a higher education. Redfern was given his father’s bow to mark the occasion of his graduation from the law school at George Mason University.