'I'm sure it wasn't. What did he say?'
That you were the most astute member of the committee. You were the brilliant one whom everyone looked up to and listened to.'
'Bullshit! I talked some and asked a few questions but never that much, and in the second place I don't think Mason and I ever said more than “hello” to each other! It's bullshit!'
'It's also all over the country—'
The sound of one, then two cars screeching to a stop in front of the house broke through the silence of the enclosed garage.
'Good Christ!' whispered Evan. 'I'm cornered!'
'Not yet,' said Dr Hassan. 'Kashi knows what to do. She will admit the early arrivals, speaking Hebrew, incidentally, and usher them into the solarium. She will pretend not to understand them and thus will stall them—for only a few minutes, of course. Go, Evan, take the pasture road south until you reach the highway. In an hour I'll replace the phone. Call us. Kashi will bring you whatever you need.'
Kendrick kept dialling repeatedly, punching the button down with each repeated busy signal until finally, to his relief, he heard the sound of a ring.
'Congressman Kendrick's residence—’
'It's me, Sabri.'
'Now I am truly astonished you got through. I'm also delighted for I can once again take the telephone off the hook.'
'How are things going?'
'Calamitously, my friend. Also at your office and at your home in Colorado. All are under siege.'
'How do you know?'
'Here no one will leave and, like you, Emmanuel finally reached us with a great deal of profanity. He claimed to have been trying for nearly half an hour—'
'I've got ten minutes on him. What did he say?'
'The house is surrounded, crowds everywhere. Apparently the newspaper and television people all flew into Mesa Verde, where most were stranded, as three taxis could hardly accommodate such numbers.'
'All this must blow Manny's mind.'
'What blows his mind, as you phrase it, is the lack of sanitary facilities.'
'What?'
'He refused to offer them and then observed acts of necessity on all sides of the house that caused him to rush to your shotgun rack.'
'Oh, my God, they're pissing all over the lawn—his landscaping!.'
'I've heard Emmanuel's tirades many times in the past, but never anything like this. During his outburst, however, he did manage to tell me to call Mrs. O'Reilly at your office, as she was not able to get through here.'
'What did Annie say?'
'For you to stay out of sight for a while but—in her words—“for God's sake” call her.'
'I don't think so,' said Evan thoughtfully. 'The less she knows, the better at this point.'
'Where are you?' asked the professor.
'At a motel outside Woodbridge off Route Ninety-five. It's called The Three Bears and I'm in Cabin 23. It's the last one on the left nearest the woods.'
'By which description I assume you need things. Food, no doubt; you cannot go outside and be seen, and there can't be room service at a motel with cabins—'
'No, not food. I stopped at a diner on the way down.'
'No one recognized you?'
'There were cartoons on the television set.'
