‘Is it cool to hug you in here?’ Annalee said, her open hand pressing against the small of his back.
‘Probably not,’ Shamus grinned, ‘but please, please do it anyway.’ When he turned to look at her there were tears in his eyes.
She felt his arm under his jacket when they embraced.
‘What are we doing inside on a lovely spring day?’ Annalee murmured. ‘Let’s stroll, if that’s permitted.’
‘Everything’s permitted,’ Shamus said, ‘as long as we’re careful.’ He looked in her eyes when he said it, then glanced over her shoulder. ‘After you, milady.’
They walked two blocks to Swensen’s Burger Palace, ordered coffee, and took a table near the back.
‘All right,’ Annalee said, ‘what’s going on. The only news I heard was that you were off treasure-hunting.’
‘True. I holed up by sailing away. We were diving wrecks off Colombia. It was work, but it certainly had its moments. It has to be one of the most astonishing sensations in the universe to stand on deck with a bar of gold, still dripping sea water, raised in your hand. It’s not as wonderful as holding you, of course, but one takes what’s available.’
‘Talk that talk,’ Annalee said. ‘Daniel was asking me the other day why I liked you poets so much; I told him because they talked good.’
‘And how is Daniel?’
‘Thirteen going on thirty, and working hard to cut the apron strings.’
‘That shouldn’t prove difficult – you’re not the somthering type.’
‘You never gave me a chance.’
‘If there’s no other men in your life right now, maybe I will.’
‘Just Daniel, and it’s not clear whether he’s a young man or an old boy. But how about you? Can you come out and play?’ She idly ran a finger around the rim of her coffee mug.
‘My deal with Volta was that I’d be a good boy for two years. Cooperative was the term. I guess you didn’t hear that Gerhard von Trakl wandered back to work last week mumbling about sequential centers and the inextricable dance of particle and wave. He claimed he’d been out in the desert thinking things over. Probably true, according to AMO’s information – dressed in tatters with wild long hair and beard. No info on the debriefing, but evidently he told it like it happened, that I let him off and drove away in the night. It’s hard to believe they could cover his absence so long, but the old geezer doesn’t have any family, and the official word was that he was on special assignment.’
‘So now you’re cool?’
‘Well, not completely. They’re still looking, but the urgency has faded.’
With a thin smile and a definite weariness, Annalee said, ‘So you’re ready to try for the uranium again?’
‘No,’ Shamus said. ‘Plutonium – the dark, decadent queen herself. And this time for ransom: the dismantling of all nuclear facilities in the country. Not to mention the political embarrassment of having it stolen, the admission of vulnerability.’ He leaned forward across the table. ‘Nuclear weapons are madness. It has to be stopped. The knowledge and the technologies are always there before our ability to understand the consequences. Linear accelerators, breeder reactors – what do they do except speed everything up beyond comprehension while accumulating deadly materials in kinds and quantities nature never intended? It’s a sickness of greed and power, like amassing gold, and that much power in the hands of so few rots the heart. We’ve got to stop, stop and think hard about the consequences of possessing so much energy and what unleashing it might mean. I said the ransom would be the dismantling of all nuclear facilities, but that really isn’t it. The ransom is time. Time to consider, evaluate, judge. Time is the heart of tragedy. I reread Sophocles on the boat: ‘All understood too late.’ It takes time to come to understanding, and pride and ignorance and fear just grease the chute. We’re running out of time. It’s almost too late. That’s what my guts tell me: We have to buy time. And the only currency I can think of is plutonium.’
‘Gold doesn’t rust,’ Annalee reminded him, ‘but plutonium decays.’
‘Exactly. And it’s a deadly decay. Plutonium is man-made, the first transuranium creation. She is the real bride of Frankenstein: magical, entrancing, powerful – but without a soul. We don’t need her. I think that’s what Jacob Hind meant with his last breath: “Return to ninety-two.” If you steal fire, you’ll be burned.’
‘But isn’t that what you want to do?’
‘Yes, but with a crucial difference. I’m going to steal it from man and give it back to the gods. Or at least demand we give up our literal firepower until we’re wise enough not to use it.’
Annalee smiled sweetly. ‘I’d love to discuss the philosophical implications of firepower with you when we’re done fucking.’
For a moment she thought she had made a mistake, that she’d committed the female sacrilege of not taking men and their power seriously, of questioning their heroic passions, but the flash of anger in his eyes faded immediately and she felt his gloved hand on her thigh under the table.
‘I missed you, too,’ he said. ‘I have a place in Richmond, and I assume your print shop is busy.’
‘I wondered why I had the feeling our meeting in the library wasn’t mere coincidence. How did you know where to find me?’
‘I’m not without resources. And AMO, fittingly, is full of romantic souls who like to see young people get together even if it’s bad for security.’
‘I bet it wasn’t Elmo.’
‘Elmo wouldn’t tell me if I had an arrow in my back.’
As they stood to leave, Annalee said, ‘Do you think AMO will try to stop you?’
‘I think they’ll do what they think is right, just like I will. But first they have to find out what I’m going to do, which is unlikely, but not impossible. AMO has a genius for procuring high-quality information; it’s their real strength.’
‘Mine, too,’ Annalee said, slipping her arm around his waist, hooking a thumb in a belt loop. ‘Face to face, skin to skin, breath to breath.’
Annalee didn’t return to McKinley Street until late that evening. Daniel and Jason Wisk were at the kitchen table playing chess.
‘Hi Mom,’ Daniel greeted her, but his attention stayed on the board.
‘I used to be pretty good at this game,’ Jason said, ‘but Daniel is introducing me to reality.’
Daniel moved a rook behind his queen.
Jason dourly regarded the move. ‘Three more moves and only an act of God could save me. I concede.’ With elaborate formality, he toppled his king, nodding to Daniel. ‘You play well.’
Annalee, standing behind Daniel, ran her hand through his long brown hair as she said to Jason, ‘When I play him, he has to spot me a rook, two pawns, and three oversies. And he still beats me like a dumb dog.’
‘“Oversies,”’ Daniel repeated with disgust. ‘She says that’s girls’ rules. Do girls really have different rules?’
‘So they claim,’ Jason sighed.
‘Are they written down?’
Annalee gently pushed Daniel’s head down toward the board, answering, ‘Never. That’s the first rule.’
Jason laughed. He was bright, sweet, considerate, good-looking, and self-effacing without being wimpy. He treated Daniel like a real person instead of a kid. She liked him, had initially been attracted to him, but the fact that he had a solid marriage and three children at home had kept things comfortably uncomplicated. But it was unusual for him to be out so late, so she said, ‘Did Millie finally throw you out or do we have a rush order on the board?’
Jason cleared his throat. ‘None of the above. Millie and the kids are visiting her folks in Santa Monica so I’m allowed on the streets after dark, and other than the traveling papers for Mr Elwood the board is clean, and there’s no hurry on those. I only stopped by to learn some humility at Daniel’s hand and to relay some information that may or may not interest you – since it makes no particular sense to me, I wouldn’t presume to know. The message is that the wandering scientist has returned and you might expect a visit from an old friend named Malloy. I have a number for you to call if you want more information. Or have any.’ He handed her a folded slip of paper from his jacket pocket. ‘“Gone Fishing” is the access code.’