S Stirling - The Council of Shadows

"And it's going to work!" Farmer said with quiet vehemence. "We're going to win!"

"There are over a million human beings in Tblisi, you…you fanatic!" Ellen began.

Adrian held up his hand. Both of them fell silent, and he stared at the wall. Ellen's hand stole into his and he squeezed it, drawing strength.

"You don't understand," he said. "Either of you. Adrienne is alive. She's been moving behind the scenes all year, and we didn't know she was alive. She must know about the bomb. She's been playing us like a violin!"

"God," Farmer said, half a grunt, as if he'd been struck.

Ellen made a wordless sound.

" Harvey doesn't know she's alive. He has to be told."

Farmer backed up three steps. "He can't be."

"What do you mean?"

"He went into Istanbul and picked it up, and he was going to deliver it under deep cover. I think he was afraid the Brotherhood would change its mind. I don't know how to contact him-and with that thing of Boase's we can't even use the Power to trace him."

The three looked at one another. A moment later, Adrian spoke:

"What have we done?"

The dun plain of Anatolia stretched out before Harvey Ledbetter, dark and immense, rising to snowcapped mountains in the far distance as the big truck rumbled through the shadows. He whistled tunelessly in the blue glow of the control screen and sipped at a cup of tepid, acrid-strong coffee; his eyelids felt as if sand had been forced underneath, but keeping going through fatigue was the oldest of his skills. Then he began to sing along with the sound system that filled the bubble of warmth. The tune was an old favorite, Cory Morrow:

This is some kind of crazy

You're my favorite kind of lonesome…

Behind him, the bomb was invisible to the eye of the Power. But he knew it was there.

Singing, he drove eastward through the night.