Footfall

She’s colder than a witch’s tits. Jeez — “Linda, you’re actually scaring me!”

“I hope so.”

He’d never heard her speak in that tone of voice. “What do you think I’ll do, reveal the dark secret of the captured Invaders?

Don’t you think I’ve figured it out?”

She looked thoughtful. “I never thought you were stupid, Roger.”

“Look, Linda, for God’s sake, maybe I should just wait for Ed to come home—”

“You won’t be here that late.”

“Linda, I give up. What do you want me to do?”

“I want you to go away and not come back.”

“You sure made that plain enough!”

“If it’s plain, why haven’t you left?”

“Linda, damn all, I came thousands of miles to see you—”

“Uninvited.”

“Uninvited, but I haven’t always been unwelcome. I know you don’t love me, but you can at least be friendly—”

“That’s all over, Roger.”

“It isn’t what I meant by friendly, either.” Roger sighed. It was coming home to him with an impact he hadn’t expected: It’s over.

But there’s something else here — “Look, I wanted to see you again. But I’ve got a girl back in Colorado Springs. I think I’m going to marry her. I don’t know why I wanted to see you first, but I did. Does that make sense?” That got her!

“I-who is she?”

“Her name is Rosalee. Linda, you won’t believe it, I picked her up in a parking structure in Kansas.”

She laughed. “No, I don’t think I do believe that.”

“It’s true, though, and she’s wonderful.” Goddam, she really is. Roger told her about Kansas. She’s listening, just like the Enclave people listen. Not much news gets to Bellingham. Roger told it long, but paced the story so Linda wouldn’t get bored. “So that’s Rosalee, and I guess I’m in love.”

“Does she see through you, Roger?”

“Better than you do.”

“I think you really should marry the girl,” Linda said. “No, the problem is to get you out of here. I’ll call the gate.”

Roger fingered his beard. With Linda’s call, he could pass if Reddington, seated in a truck, in the dark, with a new shift guards. No. Best wait for Harry. Maybe Harry would be outside already? He glanced at his watch. No. Not time enough. Have stall.

“Tell them Reddington.”

“What?”

“Couldn’t give my right name. And share a drink with me, for old times sake?”—

“Maybe I’m a little ashamed of our old times, Roger.”

“Maybe I am, too. Some of them. But not the real old times Linda. You didn’t know Ed then. Goddam, I wish I’d married you. Would you, if I’d asked?”

“Yes.”

“You say that quickly.”

“I thought about it a lot.”

“Are you sorry I didn’t?”

“Let me get you a drink, Roger.”

“Good night, Linda.”

“Good-bye, Roger.”

“This is final, isn’t it?”

“It is final. Don’t come back, Roger. Next time I’ll call the guards.”

“Speaking of that—”

“Sure. I’ll see they let you out. Reddington.” “One kiss.-Old times.”

“I didn’t give you that much whiskey. Even if I did, I didn’t have that much myself. Good-bye, Roger.”

Roger went down the wooden stairs to the truck. “She sure was glad to see you.”

“Harry. I was hoping you’d be back.”

“Yeah. Let’s get out of here.”

“Sure. Learn anything?” His voice sounds thick. Can he drive? “Naw.”

Damn! He did get something/ What? “Too bad. I hoped you’d be smart enough to pick up a clue. I struck out. She wasn’t glad to see me.”

“Yeah. I saw. Here, you pile in back behind the seat and we’ll get going. Did she call the guards to get us out?”

“Yes. Damn. We’re both too stupid to get anything.”

“Well, maybe I got something,” Harry said. “For one thing, this is no prison.”

“Really?”

“Nope. No guards. — Lots of welders, plumbers, construction people, but no guards. You know what most of those guys are doing? Welding up a big hemispheric steel plate. I mean big. That was a piece of it we saw on the docks. Know something else? There’s a thousand atom bombs in this town.”

“Bullshit.”

“No shit, Roger. A thousand motherfucking atom bombs, all identical. They got special crews to work with them. Call them atomjacks.”

A thousand atom bombs. Why? Atom bombs, welders, big steel plate — Atom bombs. Big hemispheric steel plate. Long-buried memories surfaced. Freeman Dyson and Ted Taylor. Lectures at a meeting of the L-5 Society, that bunch of fanatics who wanted to put colonies into space. Steel plates and atom bombs and a whole moon colony comes down in one piece. Don’t worry about the landing spot because it’ll be flat when you get down. Christ on a crutch.”

“What?” Harry took the keys from his pocket and climbed into the driver’s seat.

“Nothing.” They let people in, but if they search on the way out…

Roger waited until Harry’s attention was fully on the truck. Then he took the big jack handle from the floor of the cab and rose silently.

“Reddington,” the guard said. Roger sighed in relief. As he’d thought, this was a new one, not the one who’d passed Harry into Bellingham. The guard shined his flashlight onto Roger’s face. Roger clenched his eyes against the light. . distorting his face.

“Sorry. Mind moving that blanket?”

“Sure.” Roger turned from the light, twisting to lift the blanket from over the space behind the seat. I’d have been just there…