flumes had become busy highways. Maybe keeping silent about Halla was actually giving the green light to Naymeer. If his people knew the truth, why shouldn’t everyone?
It was a bold step, but I decided that Haig was handing us the one tool we didn’t think we had. He was offering us a platform to speak to the world. I had told Alder that world opinion was much too vast and complicated for us to influence. I told him we had to think small. I was wrong. With Haig, we were able to think as big as Earth. That was worth the risk. We had to take the chance. Besides, we had nothing to lose.
“All right,” I said. “I don’t know what I’ll say, but I’ll try.”
Haig reached out and gave me a friendly slap on the knee. “Good man,” he exclaimed. “Who knows? Perhaps your mission as a Traveler was always about this one moment. Seize it, Pendragon. Your words to the world might be the deciding factor in saving Halla.”
I looked to Alder. He smiled, but uncertainly.
“If we’re not arrested first,” I said, half joking.
“You won’t be,” Haig answered. “You’ll be my guests tonight. Sleep here. Order pizza… or whatever it is you eat on-what’s the name of your home, Alder? Denderoon?”
“Close enough,” Alder answered, actually having fun with it.
Haig jumped up. He was excited. “Boys,” he said, “for the first time in a very long while, I’m thinking we might actually stand a chance.”
Alder and I did exactly as instructed. We ordered pizza. Pepperoni. It was delicious. Alder drank Coke for the first time and didn’t like it. I didn’t know why. Maybe he’s a Pepsi guy. Haig set us up in his guest room, where there were twin beds. It was a luxury compared to the places we’d been crashing lately. Ispent a few hours writing this journal, to try and get my thoughts down. Writing this one has been tougher than most, becauseIdon’t know if Mark and Courtney will ever get the chance to read it.
You know what? Lose that. I have to be positive. Mark, Courtney, you will read this someday. Since day number one, writing these journals as ifI’m talking to you has helped keep me sane. I’m not going to stop now. When you read this, know that I’m worried as all hell about you right now, but I have faith that you’re all right, and someday we’ll see one another again. Count on it.
Alder and I went to sleep that night with the faint hope that in spite of all that had happened and all that had gone wrong, there was still a slim chance that the people of this territory, of Second Earth, would see reason. We had to find hope somewhere. As someone once said, without hope, you have nothing.
It took a while for me to get to sleep. As exhausted asIwas, I couldn’t get the image out of my head of those poor people being thrown into the flume. Of Courtney. Of Mark. I tried to think ahead to what we would do if Haig’s rally failed and the UN passed its resolution, but I couldn’t. It was too much. One major hurdle at a time.
Once I finally conked out, I slept like the dead. I think we both did. We didn’t wake up until almost noon. Haig had breakfast waiting for us. Or maybe it was lunch. Whatever. It was a delicious feast of bacon and eggs and pancakes and so many other delights I hadn’t had since I lived at the Manhattan Tower Hotel. Haig was off making preparations, so Alder and I watched TV. We saw news reports of the members of the General Assembly arriving in New York for the vote. Those images were countered by footage of people arriving from all over the world for the Foundation’s rally. It was like Super Bowl Sunday, with planeloads of people flooding out of the airport. It was a welcome change to see the other side of this drama. There were people out there who cared. Who didn’t buy into Naymeer’s elitist cult. They were regular people who feared what their lives would become under this new and frightening way of thinking.
We also saw news bulletins about the hunt for the terrorists. Us. There were stories about the strange disappearance of Bobby Pendragon and his family. The newscasters actually speculated that since my disappearance, I had been training in terrorist camps in Asia. Unbelievable. Naymeer’s propaganda machine was in high gear. I took it as a good sign. People were being reminded about Bobby Pendragon. That could only help when I went before the world that night to tell my true story.
Yikes.
Finally, at around three o’clock, Haig returned to his apartment.
“Ahh!” he exclaimed with a smile. “I see that you were not arrested.”
“So far so good,” I replied.
“It’s time to go. I have two cars waiting outside. You will follow me.”
Alder and I got up and grabbed our sweatshirts. “Hey, you never told us where this rally is going to be,” I said.
Haig smiled proudly. “I managed to secure one of the most hallowed venues in all of New York. Arguably in the entire world.”
“Really? Where?” I asked.
“Yankee Stadium,” he announced with a sly wink.
“We’re going to the Bronx! Tell me that won’t get noticed!”
With a spring in his step, Haig left the apartment.
Alder and I didn’t move. Haig’s words were like a shot to the gut.
“What is a Yankee Stadium?” Alder asked uneasily.
“A sports arena,” I answered, numb. “Home of the most famous team in baseball.”
“It is a large venue?” Alder asked.
“Huge. Think of the battle arena that was part of the Bedoowan castle. You could fit ten of them inside Yankee Stadium.”
“And it is in the Bronx?”
I nodded. “Seventy thousand people. All together in the same place. All enemies of Ravinia.”
The two of us stood there; we were both thinking the worst.
“Pendragon,” Alder finally said with caution, “is it possible that the horror we witnessed last night at the Ravinian conclave…was not the Bronx Massacre?”
JOURNAL #36
(CONTINUED)
Alder’s fear was the same as mine. Twelve people had been thrown into the flume the night before. The jury was still out as to their actual fate, but even if they had been executed, did that constitute a legendary massacre that would be spoken about in dreaded whispers for centuries? Would the disappearance of twelve people create such fear of the Ravinians that the entire world would tremble and fall to its knees?
It suddenly seemed unlikely. The loss of twelve people, though tragic, wouldn’t have that kind of impact. The loss of seventy thousand people would. “We must stop it,” Alder declared. “How?” I shot back. “Thousands of people are showing up from all over the world. You think they’re going to cancel the whole show just because we said so?”
“Think of the alternative,” Alder said with a lot more calm than I was feeling. “Seventy thousand people may be in danger. That truly is a massacre.”
“May be!” I repeated. “We don’t know for sure. What if we’re wrong? Haig said it himself. This is the last best hope to try to stop Naymeer. To stop Saint Dane. If we somehow pull off a miracle and abort this rally, we’d be killing our last chance of saving Halla.”
“If we do not stop it, it may be the turning point of Second Earth and the beginning of Naymeer’s dominance. Stopping it would save thousands of lives and alter the course of Earth’s history. This might truly be our chance to stop Naymeer.”
“Unless we’re wrong,” I argued again.
Alder and I stared at each other. Neither of us knew what to do. I grabbed my sweatshirt and headed for the door. “We won’t solve anything by hanging around here.”
We blasted out the door and ran down the stairs to the front entrance of the brownstone. Two black SUVs were waiting outside, along with several of Haig’s bodyguards.
“We’ve got to ride with Haig,” I said to the first guy I came to as we ran down the outside steps.
Before he could answer, the first SUV took off. Haig was on his way north. The guard shrugged an apology. I
