“No, he didn’t,” she admitted. “I made him up.”
Marty smiled.
“What about Ben Gardner?”
“Now that’s a name I remember,” he said. “He retired a year before I came on.”
“So you drove all the way to Idaho just to see little old me, eh?”
“I sure did.”
“Well, I don’t know whether I can help you,” she said. “There have been so many discoveries since I retired, I’m not sure I even speak the language these days.”
“I’m sure you speak the language as well as ever, Mrs. Thorn. I’ve—”
“Call me Ester. Will Thorn died twenty-five years ago.”
“Okay, Ester,” he said, smiling. “So this might be a little hard to believe, but two months ago I spotted an asteroid that has turned out to be on a collision course with Earth. It’s—”
“Which class?”
“M-class, mostly iron.” He was glad she was still sharp-witted. “And after making sure that it was definitely going to hit us, I took my—”
“How big is it?”
“Three point two kilometers across at its widest point,” he said patiently. “And it’s tumbling on three different axes.”
“All three, eh? It must’ve hit something pretty hard,” she muttered. “When did you say it was due?”
“It’s due to hit North America in eighty-six days.”
“Velocity?”
“It’s fast,” he said. “Thirty miles a second.”
Ester made a face. “That’s pretty fast for an asteroid,” she said thoughtfully. “It can’t be coming from the belt.”
“No,” he said, shaking his head. “It’s coming from the high north, almost straight down from the pole, not quite, but close.”
“So it’s coming from the Great Beyond, then,” she said.
“I believe so,” he said, recalling the term Great Beyond from her book.
“I’m not surprised so few have seen it, nor that the government wants to keep it a secret. How do you know they know?”
“Because there are two agents parked up the block watching your house.”
Ester looked more taken aback over that than she had over the asteroid. “You’re kidding.”
“I wish I was. I took my findings over to JPL, and it turned out they already knew. Now they want to keep me quiet.”
“So what do you want from me?”
“Advice.”
“On what?”
“On how to take it public. The people have a right to know.”
She looked at him. “Boy, do you know how stupid the people are?”
“I suppose I do, but they deserve a chance, don’t they? I know it’s going to create chaos, but chaos is inevitable. At least if the world is told beforehand, some people will be able to prepare.”
“Oh, well, some people are preparing. You can safely believe that. The wealthiest passengers always get first crack at the lifeboats.”
“I guess that’s the part I don’t like,” he said. “The passengers in steerage deserve the same chance.”
Ester smiled. “You do know that it won’t much matter, don’t you? Mankind is only barely going to survive this—and only the most barbaric of us at that. It’s going to be a lot like starting over from the Bronze Age . . . only much less civilized.”
“But if we can get word out now,” he said in earnest, “there are people out there with the resources to manage civilized attempts.”
“And they’ll be hunted by the barbarians,” Ester persisted. “But you’re right. A few pockets of civilized people might make it through if they’re able to find a way to feed and defend themselves.”
Marty grimaced. He had conjured a number of repugnant scenarios in his imagination over the past few weeks, but hadn’t yet thought in terms of people hunting people.
“Do you know anyone we can go to?” he asked. “Someone with access to a telescope who can verify my findings and take them to the media? All of my personal colleagues are being watched.”
“I know one or two old-timers still in the business, but that’s not really the problem. The problem is how do I contact them without those government boys knowing about it? I’m an old woman, you know. If they see me suddenly driving off to the airport, they’re going to know something is cooking.”
“And they’re probably tapped into your phone so you can’t call anyone either. We need to think of a way to make them lose interest in you.”
“Well, that’s easy. Get caught.”
“Get caught?” Marty asked doubtfully.
“Sure. After they’ve got you, they’ll forget all about me, and I’ll be able to go wherever I need to without them knowing anything at all.”
“I wonder if they’d take me back to JPL or stick me in some secret government prison.”
“Regardless,” Ester said, “after the asteroid goes public, there won’t be any reason for them to hold you.”
“So you’ll do it, then? If I let them catch me, you’ll contact someone who can verify the story and take it to the media?”
“It’s been a long time since I’ve taken a trip. And if you’re right about this old rogue, it sounds like it might be now or never.”
“So then we have to figure out a way for you to know when I’ve been caught. I obviously can’t just walk up to their car out there and turn myself in.”
“It’s almost that simple, though,” she said. “I assume you’ve got a car around here someplace?”
Marty nodded.
She said, “Well, pull up to the curb across the street there and get out like you don’t have a care in the world. I’m sure they’ll put the old habeas grabbus on you before you can even make it to my front door.”
Twenty minutes later Marty drove past the Secret Service men and pulled to the curb in front of Ester’s house. He shut off the engine and stole a glance in the rearview mirror. Summoning his courage, he got out and started across the street. A few seconds later he heard a pair of car doors open and shut and knew they were coming.
“Chittenden!” a man said. “United States Secret Service. Stop where you are!”
Marty turned to see the same two agents he had escaped from back at JPL marching toward him. He spun and bolted, but didn’t make it more than a couple of steps before he felt a sharp sting between his shoulder blades and every muscle in his body was seized by a great electrical shock.
He crashed to the street, jerking spasmodically about on the asphalt. He was vaguely aware that he was screaming but couldn’t control that either, and after eighteen agonizing seconds he lay on his face with drool running from the corner of his mouth. He had been Tasered and pissed his pants.
“Remember me, dickhead?” Agent Paulis said, kicking his foot. “I’m the guy you jabbed in the fucking eye.” Paulis turned to his partner. “Juice him again, Bruce. He’s trying to escape.”
Agent Bruce pulled the trigger and subjected Marty to another eighteen agonizing seconds of electric shock. When it was finally over, Paulis knelt beside him on the walk and looked him in the face. “How do you like me now?”
Marty mumbled something unintelligible as the two men cuffed his hands behind his back and hauled him to his feet.
“You know, you might as well have drawn us a map,” Paulis said they dragged him off to the car. “You left the old lady’s book sitting right out on your desk. For a scientist, you’re pretty fucking stupid.”
Ester peered through the curtains and watched as they drove away. After she was fairly certain they wouldn’t be coming back for her, she went into the bedroom and packed a small bag, which she took into the garage and put into the backseat of her car. Then she went upstairs to bed, wondering if anybody now working at the Gemini Observatory would even remember her.
Five
Ver
onica sat up in bed and turned on the light. It was two o’clock in the morning. “Michael, wake up.”
Her boyfriend rolled over and squinted against the lamp light. “What’s wrong?”
“I need to talk to you about something.”
He twisted onto his side. “Okay,” he said sleepily.
“On the way back from Crissy’s I met this guy at a truck stop in Nebraska,” she said. “And he . . . well, long story short, he told me that an asteroid is going to hit the Earth in like eighty days or something and that he and some friends of his are going to try to save a bunch of women and children. I think they may’ve bought one of those old missile silos the government’s been selling.”
Michael’s face split into a grin. “Let me guess, he invited you to help him repopulate the Earth.”
“Something like that, yeah.”
He chuckled and rolled back over. “That story could have waited until breakfast. The man is obviously a paranoid delusional.”
She sat looking at him, a sinking feeling in her stomach. She wasn’t particularly close to her sister, but Michael had a large extended family and they were very close.
“You don’t want to hear what else he said?”
“Not particularly,” he mumbled. “I talk to crazy people all day, honey.”
“He was very convincing.”
“Paranoids often are.”
“He said that I could only bring you. No one else. Which means you’d have to leave your family.”
He turned back over. “Are you telling me you’re actually taking this goof seriously? Veronica, tell me you’re not.”
She sat looking at him, unblinking.
“Veronica, come on.”
“He said he had a friend at the Pentagon who broke a bunch of laws even telling him about it.”
“Now, hold on a second,” he said, popping himself up on an elbow. “Since when do you suffer fools so lightly?”
“I like to think I never do.”
“Then what’s different about this one?”
She shrugged. “Like I said, he was very convincing.”
Her body language was such that Michael had a sudden realization. “You were attracted to him.” His tone was not quite accusatory.
“I wouldn’t say that. But there was a very definite confidence about him.”
“Which is another way of saying what I just said.”
“I don’t think that’s fair, Michael. And so what if I was? You see women all the time you’re attracted to.”
“But it’s not the same,” he countered. “Men are chemically predisposed to chase after the opposite sex. For women it’s different, it’s cognitive.”
“Oh, I’m so tired of that bullshit argument! Every time I catch you looking at another woman, it’s the same crap.”
He frowned, feeling only slightly guilty for not being able to help himself. “All I’m saying is that you were affected on an intellectual level.”
“And don’t you dare psychoanalyze me. I hate it when you do that.”
He sighed and lay back, looking at the ceiling. “So have you talked to him since?”
“No. Are you going to listen to the story or not?”
He propped himself back up and smiled at her. “I’m all ears.”
When she was finished, he took her hand and held it. “You’re telling me you honestly believed all that?”
“I’m telling you that he was very convincing, and I don’t appreciate being patronized.”
“I’m not patronizing you. How’s this . . . In the morning we’ll Google the number and see what comes up.”
“I’ve already done that, as a matter of fact, and nothing came up on that specific number, but I did discover that it’s the same exact area code and prefix as the goddamn Pentagon.”
A shadow crossed his brow. “Okay, that’s odd,” he admitted, “but it doesn’t mean that’s really his number.”
“There’s only one way to find out,” she said, rolling out of bed.
“Honey, it’s two A.M.”
“He won’t care if he’s the sort of guy I read him to be,” she said. “And if he was lying, so what if I wake him up?”
“But suppose you get the Pentagon?”
“Oops, wrong number!”
She fished the receipt from her purse and punched the number into her cell phone.
Then she pressed the send button and put the phone on speaker so Michael could hear.
“Hello!” Forrest answered in a shout. There was some sort of drill motor grinding away in the background.
“Is this Jack?” she asked, almost ashamed of the relief she’d felt upon hearing his voice.
“Yeah, who’s speaking?”
“It’s the woman from the truck stop.”
“Veronica?”
“Yeah. How did you— Oh, you must’ve seen my plate.”
“Hey, Linus,” Forrest said to someone in the background. “Shut that fucking thing off a minute, I can’t hear this girl. It sounds like the meteor may have gone public. Okay, Veronica, go ahead. Have they gone public already?”
She gave Michael a gotcha look, and he sat up a little straighter in bed. “No, Jack. No, they haven’t gone public. At least not that I know of.”
“Is something wrong, then?”
“Well, sort of,” she replied. “I was wondering if you’d be willing to talk with Michael, my boyfriend. He doesn’t believe your story.”
Forrest laughed out loud. “Did you really expect him to? Put me on speaker.”
“You already are.”
“Okay, great. Mike, you there, man?”
“Yeah,” Michael said.
“Listen, I’m sorry. The story was bullshit. I was just trying to get in her pants. You know how guys are.”
“Yeah, I know how they are,” Michael muttered.
Veronica turned off the speaker and put the phone to her ear. “You son of a bitch! You tell him what you told me, goddamnit! Don’t make me look like an idiot!”
“Am I still on speaker?”
“No!”
“Veronica, listen to me.” She sat in bed and leaned over so Michael could listen in. “Put yourself in his situation. The story’s going to break soon enough. When it does, call me back.”
“What was that drilling sound when you first answered?” she asked, hoping to garner some more telling information.
“Oh, that . . . well, we’re busy with lots of arts and crafts right now.” They could hear laughter in the background. “Listen, Veronica, I gotta go. Call me if you hear something.”
“But wait!” she said. “What if it never goes public? What then?”
“Then I was obviously lying to you.”
“No! I’m sorry but you’ve all but convinced me, so you’re going to have to live up to the offer.”
Michael gave her a look.
She could hear the sound of Forrest’s Zippo lighter clicking open and then closed as he lit a cigarette.
“Okay,” he said. “Tell you what. If it never goes public, I’ll call you back at this number two days before the event, how’s that?”
“Do you promise?”
“What the hell would a promise mean, Veronica? You don’t even know me. Now try and get some sleep.”
Forrest broke the connection.
“See?” she said, throwing the phone down between them in the counterpane. “See what I was talking about? Does he sound remotely nuts to you?”
Michael sat looking at her, realizing with mixed emotions that she had already made some kind of a connection with this mysterious Jack, who very definitely had a certain unmistakable je ne sais quoi about him even over the phone. “I’ll admit that he seems to believe what he’s saying. Beyond that . . . all we can do is wait and see.”
&
nbsp; “What do you think they were drilling?” she wondered, settling beneath the blankets. “You have to admit it’s pretty late at night to be up working, and it’s an hour later in Nebraska.”
He chuckled as he reached across her to turn off the lamp. “For all we know, Ronny, the guy was drilling his way out of a prison cell in Guatemala.”
Six
After an exhausting round trip to northern Montana to visit his estranged wife, Monica, Forrest arrived back at the silo a day later, tense and strung out on amphetamines. He pulled up to a modest two-story house that had once been used to house Air Force personnel during the Cold War. The house had been built over the top of the silo entrance to better disguise it from Soviet satellites.
Ulrich stood on the porch of the house watching as a giant black German shepherd jumped out of the Humvee and ran across the yard to pee on a fifty gallon drum of diesel oil that was yet to be taken below.
“We running a kennel service now?”
Forrest gave no indication he’d heard Ulrich’s dig as he went about unloading the back of the Hummer, stacking fifty-foot bundles of NM-B type wire and five-gallon buckets of latex paint neatly off to the side. Ulrich came down the stairs and over to the truck.
“You expecting burglars or something? That’s another mouth to feed.”
Forrest stopped and looked at him in the light of the cab. “Are you intentionally being an asshole or do you really not recognize him?”
Ulrich turned for another look at the German shepherd. “You’ve been all the way to Montana and back? Jesus, you must’ve driven nonstop both ways.”
“Yeah, well, Benzedrine’s a wonderful thing,” Forrest muttered, grabbing up two buckets of paint as if they weighed little more than a pair of barracks bags and heading for the house.
Because of his prosthetic foot, Ulrich grabbed a single bucket and followed him. They set the buckets down in the hall and went into the kitchen, where Forrest took a couple of beers from the fridge, knocking the caps off against the edge of the counter and handing one to Ulrich.
Forrest gestured at the dog with the bottle. “He eats a fifty-pound bag of dog food a month.” He took a pull from the beer. “So we’ll need at least twenty-four bags. And be sure to get Purina. Don’t buy any of that generic shit. And get a bunch of those Milk Bones too. Fifty boxes or so.”
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