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... they had wild ideas, reckless, but if we're smart, and very careful, we might use that kind of radical potential sensibly. There's a world of hurt to be put right first ... maybe a lot more if these bastards bomb us...ut someday ..."

"Someday what?" Laura said.

"I don't really know what to call it.... Some kind of genuine, basic improvement in the human condition.'.'

"It could do with some," Laura said. She smiled at him.

She liked the sound of it. She liked him, for having brought up the long term, in the very middle of hell breaking loose.

The very best time for it, really. "I like it," she said.

"Sounds like interesting work. We could talk about it to- gether. Network a little."

"I'd like that. When I'm back in the swing of things," he said. He looked embarrassed. "I don't mind being out of it a while. I didn't handle it 'well. The power... . You should know that, Laura. Better than anyone."

"You did very well-everyone says so. You're not respon- sible for what happened to me. I went into it with my eyes open."

"Jesus, it's really good of you to say that." He looked at the floor. "I dreaded this meeting.... I mean, you were nice enough the few times we've met, but I didn't know how you'd take it."

"Well, it's our work! It's what we do, what we are."

"You really believe in that, don't you? The community."

"I have to. It's all I have left."

"Yeah," he said. "Me too." He smiled. "Can't be such a bad thing. I mean, we're both in it. Here we are. Solidarity,

Laura. "

"Solidarity." They clicked glasses and drank the last

Drambuie.

"It's good," he said. He looked around. "Nice place."

"Yeah... they keep the journos out.... Got a nice bal- cony, too. You like heights?"

"Yeah, what is this, fortieth floor? I can never tell these big Atlanta digs apart. " He stood up. "I could use some air. "

"Okay." She walked toward the balcony; the double doors flung themselves open. They stood on the balcony looking down to the distant street.

"Impressive," he said. Across the street they could see another high-rise, floor after floor, curtains open here and there, glow of television news. The balcony was open above them and they could hear it muttering out. The tone rising.

"It's good to be here," he said. "I'll remember this mo- ment. Where I was, what I was doing. Hell, everyone will.

Years from now. For the rest of our lives."

"I think you're right. I know you are."

"It's either gonna be the absolute worst, or the final end of something. "

"Yeah... I should have brought the sake bottle." She leaned on the railing. "You wouldn't blame me, Charlie, would you? If it was the worst? Because I did have a part in it. I did it."

"Never even occurred to me."

"I mean, I'm only one person, but I did what one person can do."

"Can't ask for more than that."

There was a bestial scream from upstairs. Joy, rage, pain, hard to tell. "That was it," he said.

People were pouring into the streets. They were jumping out of vans. Running headlong. Running for one another.

Distant leaping bits of anonymity: -the crowd.

Horns were honking. People were embracing each other.

Strangers, kissing. A mob flinging itself into its own arms.

Windows began flying open across the street.

"They got 'em," he said.

Laura looked down at the crowd. "Everybody's so happy,"

she said.

He had the sense not to say anything. He just held out his hand.