The burning rain had closed in again, early in the evening. The army’s weather guys told him it was down to an isolated pocket of toxins caused by a series of fires that had ripped through Portland two days earlier.
Kipper was glad of the weather in one way. It meant he couldn’t see the glow from the Wave. It was visible at night, high up in the tower, as if the devil had thrown open a furnace door on the far side of the mountains to the south. It was a good thing most people couldn’t see it – that Barb in particular couldn’t see it. He was supposed to go out with some of Blackstone’s people tomorrow to inspect the thing ‘from a safe distance’. Whatever the hell that meant. He didn’t think he’d be telling Barb about that little day trip. Her idea of a safe distance probably meant Guam.
‘I’ll be going now, Kip, if that’s okay with you? I’ll take Heather back to my place. She can sleep on our couch for a while. Poor child, she don’t need to be alone.’
He turned fractionally and smiled at Ronnie. ‘Thanks for staying and helping out, Ron. It was kind of a madhouse here today, wasn’t it?’
‘It surely was,’ she agreed. ‘And are you okay now, boss? Should I be pushing you out this door to your beautiful wife and child?’
‘I’ll be leaving soon, don’t worry. I got no appetite for hanging around here at the moment. It’s just that I have no choice.’
Ronnie frowned at him. ‘Don’t talk like that, Kip. There’s always choices.’
‘Yeah, but sometimes they all suck.’
‘Ha!’ she laughed. ‘You sure you ain’t a black man?’
Kipper pressed his face against the cool glass of the window pane, beaded with millions of starry droplets of poison. ‘Barney won’t be the last one, you know.’
‘How’s that?’ asked Ronnie.
‘A town like Seattle, people aren’t going to stand for this takeover. And that’s what it is, Ronnie. A military takeover, pure and simple. And I’m helping them do it. I should be stopping them.’
‘Oh, horse hockey! All you’re doing is keeping people warm and safe and fed and watered.’
‘Keeping the trains running on time?’
‘What trains?’
‘Sorry. I was being obtuse. What I mean, Ronnie, is that I don’t know if I can hold this place together. The council, let alone the city. I wonder if we shouldn’t be planning to get the hell out of Dodge. I mean, look at that thing…’
She kept her eyes on him, rather than looking at the eldritch glow coming from just over the horizon.
‘It took everyone, Ronnie.
‘Nothing,’ she replied quietly. ‘Nothing but my faith in the Lord. I know you’re not a praying man, Kip. But I say some extra prayers on your behalf every Sunday to make up. And what the good Lord tells me is that nothing he does is without meaning. It all serves a purpose in the end. His purpose. And I do not believe his purpose would be served by laying another tribulation upon us. What is,
‘I wish I was, Ronnie,’ he said. ‘I wish I was.’
‘So does Jesus, Kipper.’
From anyone else, he’d have taken offence. But Ronnie and he went way back and he knew she meant only the best.
‘You coming in tomorrow?’ he asked.
‘As if you need to ask.’
‘I’m sorry. I’m on the edge of a decision here. I think I’m going to front Blackstone. Demand he release the councillors and ease off the restrictions on people.’
‘Set my people free?’ Ronnie smiled.
‘Something like that.’
‘And what if he throws you in the clink, too?’
‘Well, we all have our choices to make, don’t we?’
‘We do. And I’m sure you’ll make the right ones.’
Kipper didn’t reply at first, instead looking out the window at the largely empty city centre. ‘You look after Heather,’ he said at last. ‘She’s a good girl, but she’s lost.’
‘She wouldn’t be the first stray we took under our care. Or the last, I’ll wager. And you look after yourself, Kip. Don’t sit here all night. Get yourself home. Your family need you too.’
‘I will, Ronnie. Good night.’
He turned back to the window as she left, staring out into the rain. The city was dark, with only a few lights burning here and there in offices where he could see other people moving around working. As he watched, a few of the lights flickered out too. He tried to pick out the smouldering red light of the Wave but failed. The weather was really closing in.
Ronnie was right. Time to go home.
