He was rescued by Hooper. “We aren’t here to discuss philosophy. Your job is to open the Gateway.” Sweeting nodded. He went over to the glass wall. For the first time, Jennifer noticed it had a glass door. He touched a darker area of the darkened glass, and lights came on to show what lay beyond. For the most part, it was an empty space. The only equipment visible was a glass tube, perhaps eight feet high and three across. It stood on a black platform, and had a spaghetti of wires connecting its top to the ceiling. But Jennifer didn’t see this at first. What she did see the American insurance agent. She’d last seen him ranting away in Harewood Place. She hadn’t thought about him since. If she had, it would have been to assume he was dead or slaving away somewhere in Ireland. There was almost a moment of doubt as she looked at the still, orange-clad figure who, at one end of a small metal bench, must have been there since before Sweeting had brought everyone in. But, if his face had the vacant stare of one who’s been stunned by some dreadful shock, or drugged, and if there was a semi-healed gash to his forehead, there was no mistaking his general appearance. It was the American—the one who’d been full of his conversations with God at the time of The Break.
Sweeting went in and helped him to his feet, and led him out into the main room. The American stared at Rockville. Still not speaking, he managed a stiff salute and stood to attention. Sweeting stepped behind the American and stroked his shoulder. Still looking at Rockville, he seemed not to notice. “The immediate problem we faced,” Sweeting explained, “was how to make physical contact across the Gateway. Movement between two terminals in one universe requires only a great deal of electromagnetic energy. Between universes, as I’ve said, it took about half the power available to the National Grid to maintain voice contact. Just keeping this lot turned on needs its own power station.”
“So that explains all the power cuts,” Radleigh laughed. “Might it also be connected with the sudden fuel shortages last year?”
Sweeting ignored him. “You might call our solution a stroke of genius,” he said proudly. “Never let it be said British science isn’t the best in the world.” He looked at Rockville and nodded.
“Private Ezra Q. Jones,” the General said in a rough, military voice, “I hereby call you back into the Army, and promote you to the rank of Lieutenant. Are you ready to do your duty to America, and to Jesus?” The reply was a further straightening up and another stiff salute. Unable to say why, Jennifer felt a sweat breaking out all down her back. She looked at Jones the lunatic insurance agent. She looked at Hooper, who was staring at Michael, delight openly on her face.
Robert ended the silence. “I don’t know what I’m supposed to be doing here. I don’t understand a word of what’s been said to me.” He walked over to stand close by Jennifer. “If I’m not to walk out of this place, I want to know what relevance these proceedings have to the agreement made with Duke William.” He pulled a sour face and reached up to tug at the brooch securing his cloak.
Tarquin put this to Hooper. She looked at the two guards, who’d been brought along to keep order. She smiled reassuringly at Robert. “Do tell him,” she said to Tarquin, “that he will have a privileged role as ambassador to the Normans.”
“And don’t tell him there’s to be nothing for his stupid lord!” Wapping added. He came forward from where he’d been skulking, and grinned knowingly at Jennifer. “Now we’ve got the Greek Outsider, every other deal is off—especially deals not made by us. He’s lucky not to be a prisoner.”
Radleigh looked up from where he was sitting. “If I were you, Francis, I’d not go into one of your long speeches. You’ve seen that the Greek boy understands a little English. Don’t assume less of our Norman friend.” He reached into his jacket and took out a fresh pack of Marlboro. He stripped off the cellophane and opened it. He cupped it in his hand breathed in the smell of new tobacco with a long and appreciative groan. He offered one to Robert, who’d walked back to him. Radleigh smiled at Jennifer. “For the avoidance of all doubt,” he said in the voice of someone who’s telling a joke, “that oilman outside gets his low-hanging fruit in Arabia. State and big business, after all, still need each other like the two sides of an arch. It will just be on different terms. Our backing for a certain people to conquer Western Europe, however, is quite off the menu. Now, Jennifer, breathe a word of this to our friend, and he’ll never get out of here alive.” He lit his cigarette and paused. “Leave everything to Abigail. This really is her show.”
Chapter Forty Four
Rockville cleared his throat for attention. When everyone was looking at him, he stared ostentatiously at his watch. He nodded to Sweeting, who played with the volume knob on the speaker. On the other side, Hagen was explaining a point of physics to someone else. “I think we’d better get on with testing and recalibrating the physical connection,” Rockville said. The President fell silent, only speaking again to shut up a man called O’Halloran, who was asking what all this meant for the “folks back home” in Milwaukee. Rockville looked at the American insurance agent, who was still standing to attention, and who gave a third salute. “Lieutenant Jones,” he said in his military voice, “once you do as we ask—and do it of your own free will—the President of the U.S of A. will step into this room. And Jesus will be standing right beside him. Are you prepared to smooth the Coming of the Lord?”
“That’s right, Lieutenant Jones,” Hagen called soothingly across the Gateway. “I’ve got the Lord Jesus sitting here on my right hand side. You’re doing all this for God’s own Son and God’s own country. Are you ready to do your duty?”
“Yes, Mr President, Sir!” Lieutenant Jones barked, going into an almost permanent salute.
Jennifer watched Sweeting and Rockville lead the man back through the glass door, and open a door into the glass tube. With much encouragement and talk of “Jesus” and “America,” they got him inside. What looked like a wreath attached by many wires was put about his head and tied in place with leather straps. He was shut in, and Sweeting and Rockville came back inside the main room and closed the door. Before the entrance to the tube was sealed, Jennifer was sure she’d heard Jones singing the American National Anthem.
“There is some as yet unlocated quality about certain human bodies,” Sweeting said, speaking fast again, “that can be made to resonate at a certain frequency, and that will—though briefly—produce an energy great enough to punch holes between different universes. This particular specimen was arrested a month or so back, and spared transportation when he was found to possess the right qualities.” He stopped and caressed a lever in a glass box that he’d unlocked. “When I depress this, I think everyone here—excepting, of course, General Rockville, who’s already seen it in action—will be astonished.” He raised his voice. “Are you ready, Washington, to proceed?” When he got his answer, he and someone on the other side counted slowly down from ten. Sweeting took the lever in both hands and pressed it down. There was a momentary flickering of all the lights, and a loud sputtering of arc lights that could be heard from far off through the open door, as the mirror coating on the panel began to glow softly.
Jennifer dodged past the guards and caught Michael before he could hit the floor. Though her body had been going weak from the horror dawning in her mind, she’d seen how, as the background hum and chatter of electrical circuits swelled to a roar, his face had drained of colour. Now, while the noise was falling back to normal, she tried to keep him from striking his head on the floor. Eyes turned up and flickering, he’d stopped breathing in. His back was arching further and further. His lips were beginning to move in what may have been words from one of the Far Eastern languages. Robert had thrown his cigarette down, and was trying to help keep the boy steady in Jennifer’s arms. The two guards were backing quietly away.