Her eyes got very wide. “Adam,” she said, “the Chairman would not ask you to do any such thing. There’s a misunderstanding here somewhere.”
Adam showed no emotion. “You can ask him when he comes,” he said.
Max could not believe he was listening to this conversation. “What do you think this is,” he demanded, “some sort of kids’ game? You can’t tell the federal government to take a hike.”
“We’ve had some experience doing just that,” said Adam.
“Like hell. Your grandfather, maybe. Not you.” He looked through the window at Dale Tree, who was talking with a group of visitors. “Or anybody else here, for that matter.”
Adam looked directly at Max. “We are now at a point where we have to ask ourselves what we really stand for. Everything is about to happen again, Max. We’re not going to allow that. If we have to stand our ground and make them kill us, then that is what we will do.”
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.”