Jen returned and while they were drinking the coffee and brandy
Chase told them about the marine trials. "Up to the time of leaving the Tomb they seemed to be going well. I'm hoping Frank Hanamura's final report will be waiting for me when I get back."
"What if the trials aren't successful?" Jen asked.
"There are other methods we've been working on, but the problem with those is that it could take another twenty years to develop them sufficiently. Microorganisms with a high oxygen yield, seeding the deserts to make them net oxygen producers, and so on. But I'm not sure we've got twenty years--or even ten, the way things are going."
"Not even
"There's a negative feedback operating now, which means that adverse climatic conditions reinforce themselves to produce even more adverse conditions, and they in turn tighten the spiral. The climatic deterioration is happening a lot faster than anyone predicted. And there could be other factors we've overlooked or simply know nothing about, in which case we might already be too late to do anything about them."
"Because you don't know what they are?" Jen said.
"That's right. Like a man backing away from a rattlesnake and walking deeper into a quicksand he doesn't know is there. He's going to die anyway, and not much consolation to know it won't be by snake venom."
Ruth and Jo came in and helped themselves to coffee. Chase felt uncomfortable in the girl's presence, as if he bore some of the responsibility for what had happened to her. Rationally he knew this to be nonsense, and yet by association he felt that Dan's act had somehow soiled him and made him party to the guilt He searched Ruth's face anxiously. "Is she all right?"
"I've given her another injection. It should ease her breathing, but it won't help her overall condition. There's nothing more I can do till we get her back to Desert Range. Have you decided what you're going to do?"
"I don't know, have we?" Nick said to Chase.
Chase told them about Nick's idea for setting fire to the dispensary, which he didn't agree with, and Jo spoke up. "There's no need for that. Baz and most of the others will be over at Tom Brannigan's place watching blue movies on video. They do that every Friday night."
"Is today Friday?" Chase said. He hadn't the faintest notion.
"They'll leave two or three guys at the council hall," Jo said, "but if you time it for about eleven, they'll either be drugged or asleep or both. It's the ones on the road we'll have to watch out for."
"Are they posted there all through the night?"
Jo nodded. "Since they set up a refugee camp near Alturas we've had to watch the road all the time. We've always had immigrants from the south, but these are crazies; they'd loot the settlement and wipe it off the map if we didn't keep them out." She added grudgingly, "I guess that's one thing we have to be grateful to Baz for."
Chase smiled at Jo, finding her an attractive and spirited girl. He liked her. "Well, let's just hope Baz and his friends are too busy watching dirty movies and getting stoned to bother about us." He said to Nick, "I'll need to know a trail that will bring me back here, avoiding the road. You be ready to move by eleven. We'll get Dan out, take the pickup, load it up with your stuff, and get out fast, roadblock or no roadblock. If they want a fight we'll give them one. We're leaving tonight. All of us."
He stood up, his breathing tight in his chest. He hoped he looked more confident than he felt. "Right, let's get organized."
The lights of the settlement were a sparkling necklace of diamonds along the black oval curve of the lake. Beyond them the night rolled on into impenetrable forest darkness. Coming down the pale sandy trail, the sky ablaze with stars, Chase was struck by how vulnerable it looked. An attack by the "crazies" Jo had mentioned would leave the place desolate in a couple of hours. And if they found out that a bunch of youngsters was in charge--equally crazy in their own way--it would be an open invitation, too ripe and juicy to resist.
He and Nick had arranged to meet at the point where the trail dropped steeply through the trees, only a few hundred yards from the settlement. Nick was there, crouched with his back to a tree, the rifle balanced across his knees. He got up and without a word being exchanged they moved in single file down the last gentle slope, seeking the protection of the shadowy trees and bushes.
Chase had left the rifle with Ruth and carried the Browning. The night was warm and he was already perspiring from his three-mile hike. His stomach felt hollow with nervous anticipation.
As they approached the first lighted cabin Nick touched his arm and they skirted it, stealthily working their way around to the rear of the council hall. There was no sign of activity within; indeed, except for the cabin lights, the entire place might have been deserted.
