"Charlie? What are you doing?"
He continued to stare out through the curved window. "Just designing the end of the world, honey."
"That's nice, Charlie. Real nice."
Carlisle
"Proverb's agreed to give himself up."
"Why should he give himself up? The warrants have been cancelled. He isn't a fugitive."
"He says, and I quote the statement, 'Although my own conscience is absolutely clear, I feel that unresolved questions remain that may prove an impediment to the normally cordial relations enjoyed between myself and the deacons of New York. Accordingly, I shall present myself at the main entrance of the CCC Astor Place complex at noon of Tuesday next, in the hope that any misunderstandings may be clarified.' "
"And he wants us to see that he gets in and out alive?"
"In a nutshell."
"He sounds like a very paranoid individual."
"He has every reason to be. The deacons want him dead."
Carlisle, Reeves, and Donahue were crowded in the captain's office: It was the latest in a series of grim meetings. Parnell was sitting behind his desk patiently fielding their questions. It was clear from the drift of the conversation that Carlisle and the others were less than happy about the situation.
"And we're expected to stand in the line of fire?"
"Where else should we be?"
Reeves grunted. "I don't recall signing on for some holy war."
Parnell was not amused. "Do you recall what you did sign on for?"
Reeves shrugged. "What I don't understand is why this has to be turned into a sideshow. Surely, whatever the problems are, they could all be settled in private? This high-noon grandstand seems like Proverb's just sticking it to the dekes one more time."
"It's not something that we were consulted about."
"Ours not to reason, right? "
The captain was starting to lose patience. "This is a delicate situation and there's pressure coming down on all sides. Washington feels that our deacons went too far with that mess at the Garden, and they want the appearance of reconciliation between them and Proverb. They've also put the block on their arresting any more Elvi, because that's making waves in the South. Proverb is obviously going to do his best to turn the whole thing into a media event, and that suits Washington because they need to do something to stop the rumors that are running loose in the rest of the country. When the real story of what happened at the Garden was censored out of existence, all kinds of weird tales started spreading. Half the country thinks that we're having nightly supernatural visitations.
"What about the deacons? Where do they stand in all this?"
Parnell half smiled. "They're madder than a bunch of wet cats."
"They're not crazy enough to try something against Proverb, are they?"
"Not officially, but we all know they've got their death squads."
"Yeah, but-"
"Yeah, but nothing. We can't afford to take any chances. There are deacons who might just be far enough over the edge to pull something. We also still have to take the Lefthand Path's death threat against Proverb seriously."
"So where do we figure in all this? Surely this is primarily a job for the uniforms."
"I want a large concentration of plainclothes officers in the crowd."
"Are we expecting a crowd?"
"There'll be TV cameras and the whole bit. I already told you that Proverb's going to make the biggest possible deal out of this. You can bet that he'll get his followers out on the street."
"So there's no way to screen everyone who's going to get close to him."
"None."
Carlisle shook his head. "I'm getting awfully tired of this nonsense."
Parnell had the look of a man who had heard it all too often. "We're all tired, Harry. It goes with the territory."
Parnell clearly wanted the meeting to move on and get down to details, but Carlisle was not ready to let it go.
"It does? It was only a couple of days ago that the deacons had a warrant out for me. Is that part of the territory? To get thrown in a camp for just doing your job?"
Parnell stared at him bleakly. "So what are you saying? You want to resign?"
Harry Carlisle sighed. "No, I don't want to resign."
Parnell nodded. He knew that Carlisle was not going to quit. The man was too damn stubborn.
"So, shall we get on with it?"
Winters
There was still an hour to go before Proverb was due to arrive, and the crowd was already causing traffic problems in the surrounding streets. Astor Place was completely closed off, but the mob that had turned out to see Alien Proverb had filled the square and was spilling out onto Broadway and Third Avenue. Winters could not imagine where they had all come from. Was Proverb's machine really that good? He would have thought that after the beating they took outside the Garden, Proverb's followers would have been content to lie low and lick their wounds. Like most of the junior deacons, Winters blamed it all on Washington. It was as if they were afraid of Proverb. As far as he and his colleagues were concerned, it was childishly simple. The STG had made the first move outside the Garden. All that had been needed was to follow it up with mass arrests. It had been done before, and there was no real question that Proverb was anything but a subversive. If Washington had not lost its nerve, the whole business would have been cleared up in a couple of weeks. As it was, Winters and the other disgruntled deacons had to content themselves with mixing in with the TV cnews and taping the faces of the crowd for future analysis. All they could tell themselves was that the day would come when they would be turned loose to round up Proverb's heretics, and they intended to be ready.
Winters' mood did not improve when he spotted Harry Carlisle in the middle of a group of plainclothes PDs. He had hoped that the man would be dead by now. Over a week had gone by, and he had heard nothing from the Magicians. He had wanted to say something to Rogers, but he had realized that any word would violate the oath that he had taken in the basement of the whorehouse. All he could do was wait and fume. It angered him to see Carlisle walking around safe and sound.
Winters raised the minicam to his eyes and ran tape on a bunch of Elvi who were holding a banner that read 'We Love You Aden'. The camera had the letters KGOD on its side. He was supposed to be a cameraman for the satellite feed, although everyone knew that KGOD was largely a deacon front. He was annoyed at the degree to which Proverb's arrival was being treated as some big-deal event. The four major networks had camera trucks there, as well as the local stations and two satellite news feeds. The PD was covering things as if it were the president arriving. He knew that there had to be Proverb sympathizers among the top brass who would have to be winkled out in the end. Uniforms in full helmets and armor stood three deep around the entrance to the CCC complex, and more manned the barricades blocking the roads that ran into and out of the square. Others were held in reserve, sitting in Pharaohs and armored buses parked at strategic points around the outside of the area. A podium and banks of speakers had been set up on the sidewalk in front of the main entrance to the building. It seemed that Proverb was going to be allowed to make some kind of speech – another example of how the people around the president were behaving like a bunch of gutless wimps, Winters thought.
There were fifteen minutes to go. Some teenagers in Aden Proverb sweatshirts and bowling jackets were climbing on the statue of John Wayne in the middle of the square. Winters pushed his way into the crowd to record them for posterity. They spotted the camera and the KGOD logo and started waving. Yeah, wave, you morons, you'll get yours in the end. He wished he were shooting a machine pistol and not a camcorder.