by Ken Follett
He opened the car door and got out. "Let's go," he said to Star. "I've got a lot to do."
She got out slowly. "You won't run away with me?" she said sadly.
"Hell, no." He slammed the door and walked away.
She followed him across the vineyard and back to the settlement. She went to her cabin without saying good night.
Priest went to Melanie's cabin. She was asleep. He shook her roughly to wake her. "Get up," he said. "We have to go. Quickly."
*
Judy watched and waited while Stella Higgins cried her heart out.
She was a big woman, and though she might have been attractive in different circumstances, she now looked destroyed. Her face was contorted with grief, her old-fashioned eye makeup was running down her cheeks, and her heavy shoulders shook with sobs.
They sat in the tiny cabin that was her home. All around were medical supplies: boxes of bandages, cartons of aspirin and Rolaids, Tylenol and Trojans, bottles of colic water, cough syrup, and iodine. The walls were decorated with kids' drawings of Star taking care of sick children. It was a primitive building, without electric power or running water, but it had a happy feel.
Judy went to the door and looked out, giving Star a minute to recover her composure. The place was beautiful in the pale sunlight of early morning. The last ribbons of a light mist were vanishing from the trees on the steep hillsides, and the river flashed and glittered in the fork of the valley. On the lower slopes was a neat vineyard, the ordered rows of vines with their shoots tied to wooden trellises. For a moment Judy was taken by a sense of spiritual peace, a feeling that here in this place things were as they should be, and it was the rest of the world that was weird. She shook herself to get rid of the spooky sensation.
Michael appeared. Once again he had wanted to be here to take care of Dusty, and Judy had told Stuart Cleever that he should be indulged because his expertise was so important to the investigation. He was leading Dusty by the hand. "How is he?" Judy asked.
"He's just fine," Michael said.
"Have you found Melanie?"
"She's not here. Dusty says there's a big girl called Flower who's been looking after him."
"Any idea where Melanie went?"
"No." He nodded toward Star. "What does she say?"
"Nothing, yet." Judy went back inside and sat on the edge of the bed. "Tell me about Ricky Granger," she said.
"There's good in him as well as bad," Star said as her weeping subsided. "He was a hoodlum before, I know, he's even killed people, but in all the time we were together, more than twenty-five years, he didn't once hurt anyone, until now, until someone thought up the idea of this stupid fucking dam."
"All I want to do," Judy said gently, "is find him before he hurts any more people."
Star nodded. "I know."
Judy made Star look at her. "Where did he go?"
"I'd tell you if I knew," Star said. "But I don't."
21
Priest and Melanie drove to San Francisco in the commune's pickup truck. Priest figured the dented Cadillac was too conspicuous, and the police might be looking for Melanie's orange Subaru.
All the traffic was heading in the opposite direction, so they were not much delayed. They reached the city a little after five on Sunday morning. A few people were on the streets: a teenage couple embracing at a bus stop, two nervy crackheads buying one last rock from a dealer in a long coat, a helpless drunk zigzagging across the road. However, the waterfront district was deserted. The derelict industrial landscape looked bleak and eerie in the early-morning light. They found the Perpetua Diaries warehouse, and Priest unlocked the door. The real-estate agent had kept his promise: the electric power was on, and there was water in the rest room.
Melanie drove the pickup inside, and Priest checked the seismic vibrator. He started the engine, then lowered and raised the plate. Everything worked.
They lay down to sleep on the couch in the small office, close together. Priest stayed awake, running over his position again and again. No matter how he looked at it, the only smart thing for Governor Robson to do was give in. Priest found himself making imaginary speeches on the John Truth show, pointing out how dumb the governor was being. He could stop the earthquakes with one word! After an hour of this he realized it was pointless. Lying on his back, he went through the relaxation ritual he used for meditation. His body became still, his heartbeat calmed, his mind emptied, and he went to sleep.
When he woke it was ten o'clock in the morning.
He put a pan of water on the hot plate. He had brought from the commune a can of organic ground coffee and some cups.
Melanie turned on the TV. "I miss the news, living at the commune," she said. "I used to watch it all the time."
"I hate the news, normally," Priest said. "It gets you worried about a million things you can't do nothing about." But he watched with her, to see if there was anything about him.
It was all about him.
"Authorities in California are taking seriously the threat of an earthquake today as the terrorist deadline looms closer," said the anchor, and there was footage of city employees erecting a tent hospital in Golden Gate Park.
The sight made Priest angry. "Why don't you just give us what we want?" he said to the TV.
The next clip showed FBI agents raiding log cabins in the mountains. After a moment Melanie said: "My God, it's our commune!"
They saw Star, wrapped in her old purple silk robe, her face a picture of grief, being walked out of her cabin by two men in bulletproof vests.
Priest cursed. He was not surprised--it was the possibility of a raid that had led him to leave so hastily last night--but all the same he found himself plunged into rage and despair by the sight. His home had been violated by these self-righteous bastards.
You should have left us alone. Now it's too late.
He saw Judy Maddox, looking grim. You were hoping to catch me in your net, weren't you? She was not so pretty today. She had two black eyes and a large Band-Aid across her nose. You lied to me and tried to trap me, and you got a bloody nose for it.
But in his heart he was daunted. All along he had underestimated the FBI. When he started out he had never dreamed that he would see agents invade the sanctuary of the valley that had been a secret place for so many years. Judy Maddox was smarter than he had imagined.
Melanie gasped. There was a shot of her husband, Michael, carrying Dusty. "Oh, no!" she said.
"They're not arresting Dusty," Priest said impatiently.
"But where will Michael take him?"
"Does it matter?"
"It does if there's going to be an earthquake!"
"Michael knows better than anyone where the fault lines are! He won't be anywhere dangerous."
"Oh, God, I hope not, especially if he has Dusty with him."
Priest had watched enough TV. "Let's go out," he said. "Bring your phone."
Melanie drove the pickup out, and Priest locked the warehouse behind them. "Head for the airport," he told her as he got in.
Avoiding the freeways, they got close to the airport before they were stuck in traffic. Priest figured there had to be thousands of people using phones in the vicinity--trying to get flights, calling their families, checking how big the traffic jam was. He called the John Truth show.
John Truth himself answered. Priest figured he was hoping for this call. "I have a new demand, so listen carefully," Priest said.
"Don't worry, I'm taping this," Truth said.
"I guess I'll be on your show tonight, huh, John?" Priest said with a smile.
"I hope you'll be in goddamn jail," Truth said nastily.
"Well, fuck you, too." There was no need for the guy to get pissy. "My new demand is a presidential pardon for everyone in the Hammer of Eden."
"I'll let the president know."
Now it was like he was being sarcastic. Didn't he understand how important this was? "That's as well as the freeze on new power plants."
"W
ait a minute," Truth said. "Now that everyone knows where your commune is, you don't need a statewide freeze. You just want to stop your valley from being flooded, don't you?"
Priest considered. He had not thought of this, but Truth was right. Still, he decided not to agree. "Hell, no," he said. "I've got principles. California needs less electric power, not more, if it's going to be a decent place for my grandchildren to live in. Our original demand stands. There will be another earthquake if the governor doesn't agree."
"How can you do this?"
The question took Priest by surprise. "What?"
"How can you do this? How can you bring such suffering and misery to so many people--killing, wounding, damaging property, making people flee their homes in fear.... How will you ever sleep?"
The question angered Priest. "Don't make like you're the ethical one," he said. "I'm trying to save California."
"By killing people."
Priest lost patience. "Shut the fuck up and listen," he said. "I'm going to tell you about the next earthquake." According to Melanie, the seismic window would open at six-forty P.M. "Seven o'clock," Priest said. "It will hit at seven tonight."
"Can you tell me--"
Priest broke the connection.
He was silent for a while. The conversation left him with an uneasy feeling. Truth should have been scared to death, but he had almost bantered with Priest. He had treated Priest like a loser, that was it.
They came to a junction. "We could turn here and head back," Melanie said. "No traffic the other way."
"Okay."
She made the turn. She was thoughtful. "Will we ever go back to the valley?" she said. "Now that the FBI and everyone knows about it?"
"Yes!" he said.
"Don't shout!"
"Yes, we will," he said more quietly. "I know it looks bad, and we may have to stay away for a while. I'm sure we'll lose this year's vintage. The media will crawl all over the place for weeks. But they will forget about us, eventually. There'll be a war, or an election, or a sex scandal, and we'll be old news. Then we can slip quietly back, and move into our homes, and get the vines back in shape, and grow a new crop."
Melanie smiled. "Yeah," she said.
She believes it. I'm not sure I do. But I'm not going to think about it anymore. Fretting will sap my will. No doubts now. Just action.
Melanie said: "You want to go back to the warehouse?"
"No. I'll go crazy shut up in that hole all day. Head for the city and see if we can find a restaurant that's serving brunch. I'm starving."
*
Judy and Michael took Dusty to Stockton, where Michael's parents lived. They went in a helicopter. Dusty was thrilled. It landed on the football field of a high school in the suburbs.
Michael's father was a retired accountant, and they had a neat suburban house that backed onto a golf course. Judy drank coffee in the kitchen while Michael settled Dusty in. Mrs. Quercus said worriedly: "Maybe this dreadful affair will give the business a boost, anyway--it's an ill wind that blows nobody any good." Judy recalled that they had put money into Michael's consultancy, and he was worried about paying them back. But Mrs. Quercus was right--his being the FBI's earthquake expert might help.
Judy's mind was on the seismic vibrator. It was not in Silver River Valley. It had not been sighted since Friday evening, though the panels that made it look like a carnival ride had been found at the roadside by one of the hundreds of rescue workers still clearing up the mess at Felicitas.
She knew what Granger was driving. She had found out by asking the commune members what cars they had and checking which was missing. He was using a pickup truck, and she had put out an all-points bulletin on it. In theory every cop in California should be looking for it, although most of them would be too busy coping with the emergency.
She was tantalized unbearably by the thought that she might have caught Granger at the commune if she had fought harder and persuaded Cleever to raid the place last night instead of this morning. But she had just been too tired. She felt better today--the raid had pumped adrenaline into her system and given her energy. But she was bruised physically and mentally, running on empty.
A small TV set on the kitchen counter was on with the sound muted. The news came on, and Judy asked Mrs. Quercus to turn up the volume. There was an interview with John Truth, who had spoken on the phone to Granger. He played an extract from his tape of the conversation. "Seven o'clock," Granger said on the tape. "It will hit at seven tonight."
Judy shivered. He meant it. There was no regret or remorse in his voice, no sign that he hesitated to risk the lives of so many people. He sounded rational, but there was a flaw in his humanity. He did not really care about the suffering of others. It was the characteristic of psychopaths.
She wondered what Simon Sparrow would make of the voice. But it was too late now for psycholinguistics. She went to the kitchen door and called: "Michael! We have to go!"
She would have liked to leave Michael here with Dusty, where they would both be safe. But she needed him at the command post. His expertise might be crucial.
He came in with Dusty. "I'm about ready," he said. The phone rang and Mrs. Quercus picked it up. After a moment she held out the receiver to Dusty. "Someone for you," she said.
Dusty took the phone and said tentatively: "Hello?" Then his face brightened. "Hi, Mom!"
Judy froze.
It was Melanie.
Dusty said: "I woke up this morning and you were gone! Then Daddy came to get me!"
Melanie was with Priest and the seismic vibrator, almost certainly. Judy grabbed her mobile and dialed the command post. She got Raja and said quietly: "Trace a call. Melanie Quercus is calling a number in Stockton." She read the number off the instrument Dusty was using. "Call started a minute ago, still in progress."
"I'm on it," Raja said.
Judy broke the connection.
Dusty was listening, nodding and shaking his head occasionally, forgetting that his mother could not see his movements.
Then he abruptly offered the phone to his father. "She wants you."
Judy whispered to Michael: "For God's sake, find out where she is!"
He took the phone from Dusty and held it against his chest, muffling it. "Pick up the bedroom extension."
"Where?"
Mrs. Quercus said: "Just across the hall, dear."
Judy darted into the bedroom, threw herself across the flowered bedspread, and grabbed the phone from the bedside table, covering the mouthpiece with her hand.
She heard Michael say: "Melanie--where the hell are you?"
"Never mind," Melanie replied. "I saw you and Dusty on TV. Is he okay?"
So she's been watching TV, wherever she is.
"Dusty's fine," Michael said. "We just got here."
"I was hoping you'd be there."
Her voice was low, and Michael said: "Can you speak up?"
"No, I can't, so just listen harder, okay?"
She doesn't want Granger to hear her. That's good--it may be a sign that they're beginning to disagree.
"Okay, okay," Michael said.
"You're going to stay there with Dusty, right?"
"No," Michael said. "I'm going into the city."
"What? For God's sake, Michael, it's dangerous!"
"Is that where the earthquake will be--in San Francisco?"
"I can't tell you."
"Will it be on the peninsula?"
"Yes, on the peninsula, so keep Dusty away!"
Judy's cell phone beeped. Keeping the mouthpiece of the bedroom phone tightly covered, she put the cell phone to her other ear and said: "Yeah."
It was Raja. "She's calling on her mobile. It's in downtown San Francisco. They can't do better than that for a digital phone."
"Get some people out in the streets looking for that pickup!"
"You got it."
Judy broke the connection.
Michael was saying: "If you're so worried, why don't you just tell me wher
e the seismic vibrator is?"
"I can't do that!" Melanie hissed. "You're out of your mind!"
"Come on. I'm out of my mind? You're the one who's causing earthquakes!"
"I can't talk anymore." There was a click.
Judy replaced the handset on the bedside phone and rolled over onto her back, her mind racing. Melanie had given away a great deal of information. She was somewhere in downtown San Francisco, and although that did not make her easy to find, it was a smaller haystack than the whole of California. She had said the earthquake would be triggered somewhere on the San Francisco peninsula, the broad neck of land between the Pacific Ocean and the San Francisco Bay. The seismic vibrator had to be somewhere in that area. But most intriguing, to Judy, had been the hint of some division between Melanie and Granger. She had obviously been making the call without telling him, and she had seemed to be afraid he might overhear. That was hopeful. There might be a way Judy could take advantage of a split.
She closed her eyes, concentrating. Melanie was worried about Dusty. That was her weakness. How could it be used against her?
She heard footsteps and opened her eyes. Michael came into the room. He gave her a strange look.
"What?" she said.
"This may seem inappropriate, but you look great lying on a bed."
She remembered she was in his parents' house. She stood up.
He wrapped his arms around her. It felt good. "How's your face?" he said.
She looked up at him. "If you're very gentle ..."
He kissed her lips softly.
If he wants to kiss me when I look this bad, he must really like me.
"Mm," she said. "When this is all over ..."
"Yes."
She closed her eyes for a moment.
Then she started thinking about Melanie again.
"Michael ..."
"Still here."
She detached herself from his embrace. "Melanie is worried that Dusty might be in the earthquake zone."
"He's going to be here."
"But you didn't confirm that. She asked you, but you said if she was worried, she should tell you where the seismic vibrator is, and you never answered her question properly."
"Still, the implication ... I mean, why would I take him into danger?"
"I'm just saying, she may have a nagging doubt. And, wherever she is, there's a TV."
"She leaves the news on all day sometimes--it relaxes her."
Judy felt a stab of jealousy. He knows her so well. "What if we had a reporter interview you, at the emergency operations center in San Francisco, about what you're doing to help the Bureau ... and Dusty was, like, just in the background somewhere?"
