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Page 138 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html stations. They did what they could, but it got out of hand. I passed& so many& executions. Bodies hanging from high-voltage towers. Or tied up to fence posts. Or just shot in the ditches. It was like something out of the dark ages. You could tell the Army s work. They made a public display of it along the roadsides. That s going on? Not anymore. Not the Army. There s only so long a soldier will go without pay. And most of them had families. I-70 was the last sea-to-sea corridor. It was closed by the time I wanted to use it. The Army was falling apart. The generals have told told us nothing like that, she said. Have you ever read about the conquistadores? he said. First thing they did when they landed in the New World was to cut ties with the monarchy. This was back when kings got their authority straight from God, same as the pope. All of a sudden, the conquistadores found themselves in a world without a god. You re comparing the generals to warlords? I don t see anybody in charge of them. My father,she didn t say. And the President and Joint Chiefs, bunkered in NORAD in Cheyenne Mountain. And two hundred years of democracy. She did not consider herself a patriot. But democracy was their god. He was scaring her. They get their authority from the people, she insisted. Miranda. He murmured the chastisement. She tipped the bottle. It was empty. Not good. Too fast. I know it s grim, she stated. It s different, is what I m saying. It s not the way it was, he said, but also it s just the way it was. I came to some of these little towns, and it was surreal. Like the clock had stopped fifty years ago. They were untouched. Not a worry. Men cutting their lawns with hand mowers. Lemonade for a nickel. Boys painting white fences. You d think they d never heard of the plague. Out of sight, out of mind? A little bit of that, I m sure, he said. But also no one thinks they re next. It s not denial. It s belief. They all think they re destined to survive. I must have heard a hundred reasons why the plague is going to pass them over. Their family s genes are strong, or they lived more decently, or their food is healthier, or the jogging they do, or the praying. But that s so deluded. What about the blackout? The end of oil? The food riots? Distant thunder, he answered. Until it s right on you& . It is right on them. But they re Americans, he said. In their hearts and minds they re ready for anything. You wouldn t believe how ready. They re prepared. It s second nature to them. They ve been taking cover ever since Sputnik. And there s nothing the plague can throw at them that Hollywood hasn t already come up with. Hell, they ve survived the plague a dozen times. Think Stephen King.The Andromeda Strain. Camus.The Decameron. Thucydides. Life is just imitating art. Catastrophes are renewal. Out there, people still talk about the gas rationing in the seventies, and Mount St. Helens and the Yellowstone fire and Hurricane Mitch. The big power blackouts, the blizzard years, Waco, Oklahoma City, the World Trade Center, floods, the Depression, Vietnam. All those things are legends to them. Like parables. Lessons. Reasons to hope? she offered. Page 139 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html Sure. America always survives. People are excited. They can t wait to clean up the mess and start all over again. You make them sound foolish. They re not. You think we re making fools of them, she said. Our promise of a cure. I didn t say that. What if there is no cure? He looked at her. Is that what you re saying? She shut her mouth. There, he said, flapping the omelette shut. Our meal s ready and now I ve spoiled it. A FTER DINNER , they went outside to look at the stars. He asked about her life, but it sounded trite next to his stories. She had been raised among walls. She had already been ensconced at Los Alamos when the nation collapsed, beyond reach. The Lab or the Hill, or the Mesa, or Atomic City was an island above it all. Nathan Lee called it a citadel, a city within a city. He compared Los Alamos to the ziggaruts in Ur and the Acropolis above Athens and the Pentagon or Kremlin. Here was the keep of power, closed off from common people, the place of retreat in times of siege. He made it sound like a great landmark in history. He wanted to know how the town had grown into a city. She told him about the waves of international scientists arriving like immigrants with their suitcases and families, and the overthrow of the weaponeers. For over a half century, Los Alamos had been dedicated to nuclear weapons research and development and reduction. Almost overnight, the biosciences scorned as soft, or squishy, by physicists and engineers had reared up and taken the place over. There had been epic turf battles, but Elise had prevailed and brought order and honed their new mission, to find Corfu and contain it. For a time, the scientists had bonded. They had competed, but as a brotherhood. From virology to genetics and primate paleobiology, each of the specialties had its own esprit de corps, its own labs, its own pursuits. At first, discovery boomed. The structure of every protein in everything from worms to man had been captured on disc. Plasma rods were invented for detecting Corfu in the air. Satellites tracked the geographic progression of the disease. Once Corfu fell to them, a new golden age of medicine was going to be ushered in. In hunting the virus, they had found cures for TB, Alzheimer s, AIDS, and every type of cancer. Neural and optic fibers had been synthesized. People with cord injuries would stand up and walk. The blind would see. The deaf would hear. All of that awaited them. Then Elise had died, and Cavendish took over. One fence came to hold many fences. Its secrecy ate at them. It spawned distrust. Soon the fractures appeared. Now the older families lorded over the newer ones. Those who had been academics snubbed former industry researchers who snubbed former government scientists. Those who d hunted AIDS felt slighted by those who d gone after Ebola and other wild viruses. The internationals thought the Americans had it lucky. The Americans thought the internationals had blown it. The security guards many of whom held Ph.D. s in now-useless fields like nuclear weapons design resented the bio-scientists. The scientists viewed security as creeps. There was dissension between labs, dissension within them. Every bench Page 140 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html worker wanted his or her own lab. Reigning over it all was Cavendish, who encouraged their anarchy. Sometimes I think they ve discovered too much, she said. Maybe there s a limit to what we can know. I never thought I d be saying that. Don t be disappointed in them. I m disappointed in me. What more can you do? Yeah. You re only nineteen, Miranda. She pointed the wine bottle at him. She was a little drunk. Damn the Captain, she said. He didn t tell me. You see what I mean, though. Step back, little girl, let the ship sink? [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] |