Robert Tanenbaum - Absolute rage

"What are they rioting about?"

"Oh, the cops arrested some union fella for killing his folks, and his buddies think it's a frame-up. What it is, is a damn pain in the butt. I should've been in Williamson half an hour ago."

"Is there any way to get to 119 east of town without going through the junction?"

"Well, yeah, if you want to go over the top of the mountain. You hang a U-ey right here and drive on back till you get just outside of Logan, hang a right, and follow the signs to Gilbert Corner. Shoot on through there and in four, five miles you hit the highway. I'd do it myself but the bridges won't hold my weight."

She did as the trucker suggested. Twenty minutes later she was in first gear, four-wheel drive, climbing a dirt road. Zak had a road map spread out on his lap, complaining that the road they seemed to be on did not exist and that they were lost. Giancarlo was spinning a tale about them getting permanently lost, wandering through the desolate mountains until they ran out of gas and then having to eat human flesh. Lucy paid attention to neither of her brothers. The news about the riot was good; it meant that substantial numbers of people thought the charges absurd.

"There's the highway, smarty-pants," she said as their wheels rolled onto the blacktop. "Intuitive driving once again triumphs over map-bound patriarchical worrywarts."

"Dumb luck," said Zak. "And I have to pee again."

Several cars, a police cruiser, and a couple of news vans were parked at the turnoff to the Heeney house.

"Sorry, miss," said the trooper. "You can't go through there."

"Why not?"

"Family's having some trouble. We've been asked to protect their privacy. There's a wide place just ahead where you can turn around."

"I know about the trouble. We came all the way from New York."

"And you are…?"

"Lucy Karp. I'm Dan Heeney's, um, fiancee."

The trooper looked the car over, saw the boys, the dog slavering in the window. He said, "Why don't you follow me in."

He got in the cruiser and turned down the drive, Lucy following. She watched him knock on the front door, saw Dan come out and talk to the trooper, saw the smile break out on his face, his vigorous nod. Lucy got out of the Toyota. Dan came running down the steps, threw his arms around her, and planted a kiss on her mouth.

"Darling," he sighed. "I've longed for this moment."

The trooper was observing them from his cruiser. Satisfied, he drove off.

"He's gone," she said. "You can let go of me now."

"What if I don't want to?"

"Oh, stop it! I had to say that or he wouldn't let me in. The road is full of reporters. Will you just tell me what is going on?"

The boys and the dog jumped out. Dan, releasing Lucy, made much of them and Magog, after which he said, "We better go in unless you want to be on TV. I think they've got a crew up on the mountain there."

Dan played host, to Lucy's great impatience. He poured drinks, showed them the house, settled the boys in front of his computer with Quake II. When he and Lucy were alone on the living room sofa, he said, "Relax, it's a scam."

"What do you mean, a scam?"

He explained. She listened, her face still, not interrupting. When he had finished, she asked, "This was whose idea? My mother's?"

"I don't know. Your dad was pitching it pretty hard. Why?"

"I don't know. It just sounds like something she would think up. So I seem to be the prize schmuck of the Western Hemisphere. Why didn't he just tell me on the phone?"

"I think because they're keeping it really close. The desk clerk at Four Oaks likes to listen in, it's well-known. In fact, your dad made a big point about not discussing the deal on the phone at all." He met her eyes. "You're sorry you came, right?"

"Of course I am!" she cried, and then seeing his face, she said, "No, of course, I didn't mean that. Oh, I don't know. When I heard the news, all I could think about was how awful it must be for both of you, and I dumped what little logical process I have and just tossed the twins into the car and drove. My mother will go crazy. She's the only one allowed spontaneous excesses in the family."

"It was a nice kiss, though," he said. "You have to admit that. Maybe not worth an eight-hundred-and-sixty-mile drive, but…"

"Oh, stop it!" Then a grin broke out on her face. "Yes, it was. My feet sweated."

"That's supposed to be an infallible sign." He moved closer on the sofa and dropped an arm around her. "We could try it again. Then it would only be a four-hundred-and-thirty-mile kiss."

She found herself on her feet. "Maybe later. I have to get in touch with my folks before they find out from someone else and go nuts." This was not the real reason, though.

"What's the situation now?" asked Karp. "Is it as bad as it looks on the TV?"

They were in the Karps' cabin at Four Oaks: Karp, Marlene, Hendricks, and Oggert, all of them looking grim and flicking eyes toward the live coverage on the room's television.

"Well, it's a mess," said Hendricks. "The local troop is trying to straighten out the traffic tangle, rerouting and all, but what I'm worried about is the mob down at the courthouse. That's Willie Pogue up on a D8 in front of the courthouse demanding they release Emmett right now or he's going to take the jailhouse down and pull him out."

"Who's Willie Pogue?" Karp looked at the screen. A fiftyish man with a mane of white hair and a florid face was haranguing the crowd through a bullhorn from the nose of an immense yellow earthmover.

"One of Red Heeney's pals. I guess he's the head of the dissident faction now. There's about eight hundred miners out, with wives and kids. Some of them're armed. The sheriff's in full combat mode, and there's a bunch of security guys from the company standing around, also armed. Deputizing mine security is kind of a tradition in Robbens County. That happens, all bets are off."

"Can't you do anything?" asked Marlene.

Hendricks shook his head. "I don't believe I have a horse in this race unless the governor tells me different. The local troopers are pretty much tied up, and I don't have enough men to get between that mob and a bunch of scared cops."

"And we have no idea where the Cades are right now?" asked Karp.

"No. I pulled my cars back so it'd look like we weren't interested in them anymore." He stared briefly at the TV. "We didn't count on this."

"No," said Oggert. "And if this keeps up, someone's going to get hurt, and if that happens, we will get absolutely no support from the governor. He'll repudiate the bunch of us. Maybe it's time to pull the plug."

"Pull the plug?" said Karp.

"Yeah. Release the kid, say we have new evidence that exonerates him. Take a breather and then play it straight against the Cades."

"That gets us back to the siege business, Cheryl. I thought we all agreed that was the worst case."

"Yeah, but that was before this happened. Even if it comes to a siege, at least we'll be the good guys. I'll tell you right now, no one is going to take responsibility for cops or miners killed pursuant to a fraudulent arrest. The lead will be 'Cops Too Chicken to Go after Cades, Four Dead in Phony Arrest Riot.' Uh-uh."

"No. We're hanging tough," said Karp. "And you can tell the governor I said so."

Oggert glared at him and seemed about to say something when Hendricks cleared his throat. "Uh, also, Butch? You ought to know this, too. We had a call from Murchison, the trooper who's watching the Heeney place? Do you know a Lucy Karp?"

Karp felt a hammer descend on his diaphragm. "Yes, she's my daughter. What about her?"

"Well, she showed up at the Heeney place a little while ago, in a car with two little kids and a big dog. She said she was Dan's fiancee, so Murchison let them through. He said they looked like they knew each other pretty good."