Lucifer's Hammer

“Jesus,” Al Hardy said. “Harvey, have you got anything that would measure radiation?”

“No.”

They all looked alarmed. Harvey nodded agreement. “We’re right in the fallout pattern,” he said. “But I don’t know what we should do about it.”

“Is there anything we can do about it?” Hardy asked.

“I think it’s safe,” Joh

“You mentioned communications,” Jellison prompted.

“Yes. Sorry. Well, we talked to Colorado Springs, but it was very short, not much more than exchanging IDs. We got a SAC base, once. In Montana. They hadn’t any communications with anyone. And that’s all in the U.S.” He paused to let that sink in.

“As for the rest of the world, South Africa and Australia are probably in good shape. We don’t know about Latin America. None of us knew enough Spanish, and when we did get contact with somebody down there, it didn’t last long. We got some commercial radio broadcasts, though, and as near as we can make out they’re having a revolution a week in Venezuela, and the rest of the continent’s got political problems too.”

Jellison nodded. “Hardly surprising. And of course their most important cities were on the coasts. I don’t suppose you know how high the tsunamis got in the Southern Hemisphere?”

“No, sir, but I’d guess they were big,” Joh

He went on, and as he spoke they realized just how alone they were. The Imperial Valley of California: gone, with a Hammerstrike in the Sea of Cortez that sent, had to have sent, waves washing clear up to the Joshua Tree National Monument in the mountains west of Los Angeles. Scratch Palm Springs and Palm Desert and Indio and Twentynine Palms, forget about the valley of the Colorado River.

“And something must have hit in Lake Huron,’-’ Baker said. “We saw the usual spiral pattern of cloud with a hole in the center, just before everything turned white.”

“Is there anything left of this country outside Colorado?” Al Hardy asked.

“Don’t know again,” Baker said. “With all that rain, I’d think the Midwest is drowned out — no crops, no transportation, lots of people starving—”

“And killing each other for what’s left,” Al Hardy said. He looked at each of the others in turn, and they all nodded agreement: The Stronghold was lucky. More than luck, because they had the Senator, and they had order, a tiny island of safety in a world that had very nearly been killed.

Why us? Harvey Randall wondered. Joh

But it was different to know they were one of the few pockets of survivors.

What had happened to the world? A revolution a week in Latin America. Maybe that was the answer everywhere. What the Hammer and the Sino-Soviet war hadn’t done, people were busily doing to themselves.

Al Hardy broke the silence. “It doesn’t look as if the U.S. Cavalry will come charging over the hill to rescue us.”

Deke Wilson’s laugh was bitter. “The Army’s turned ca

“We’ll have to fight,” George Christopher said. “That goddam Montross—”

“George, you can’t be sure he’s in charge,” Al Hardy said.

“Who cares? If he’s not, it’s worse, it’s the fucking ca

“I’ll go for that,” Deke Wilson said. “Unless…”

“Unless what?” Christopher asked, his voice suddenly suspicious.

Wilson spread his hands. Harvey couldn’t help noticing. Wilson had been a big man, who was now two sizes too small for his body and clothes. And he was scared.

“Unless you’ll let us in,” Wilson said. “We can hold that gang off. You’ve got hills to defend. I don’t. All I’ve got is what I can build, no ridgelines, no natural boundaries, nothing. But in here we can hold the bastards off until they starve to death. Maybe we can help that along. Go on raids and burn out what they’ve stored up.”

“That’s obscene,” Harvey Randall said. “Aren’t there enough people starving without burning crops and food? Jesus! All over the world, what the Hammer didn’t get, we’re doing to ourselves! Does it have to happen here, too?”

“We couldn’t feed all of your people for the winter, Deke,” Al Hardy said. “Sorry, but I know. The margin’s just too thin. We can’t do it.”

“We don’t know enough, not yet,” Jellison said. “Maybe it’s possible to come to terms with the New Brotherhood.”

“Bullshit,” George Christopher said.

“It is not bullshit,” Harvey Randall said. “I knew Montross, and dammit, he is not crazy, he is not a ca

“That will do,” Jellison said. He was very firm about it. “George, I suggest that we wait for Harry. We have to know more about conditions out there. I gather that Deke knows almost nothing he hasn’t told us. Harvey, have you time to help, or do you have other work?” Jellison’s tone made it plain that Harvey Randall wouldn’t be needed in the library just now.

“If you can spare me, there are a few things…” Harvey got up and went to the door. He almost chuckled when he heard George Christopher coming behind him.

“I’ll see the maps when they’re done,” Christopher was saying. “I have some work too. Nice to meet you, General Baker.” He followed Harvey out. “Just a minute.”

Harvey walked slowly, wondering what would happen now. The Senator had obviously been unhappy about Harvey’s outburst. As well he might have been, Harvey thought. And he tried to separate us, and it didn’t work…

“So what do we do now?” Christopher was saying.

Harvey shrugged. “We just don’t know enough. Besides, we do have a few days. Maybe if we went out with Deke we could come up with enough fertilizer and greenhouse materials to keep all of Deke’s people going through the winter—”

“That wasn’t what I was talking about,” Christopher said. “We’re going to have to fight those damned ca

Or run like hell. Or talk a lot, Harvey thought, but he didn’t say anything.

“I used to get nervous about you and Maureen,” George said.

“I want her too,” Harv said. He stopped short of the closed kitchen door and stood facing Christopher in the narrow hallway. “If you knock me down and stomp on me a lot, we’re all going to be terribly embarrassed. Your move.”

“Not yet. When you get me mad enough, you’ll be for the road. Right now we’ve both got a problem.”

“Yah. I noticed that too,” said Harvey. “Are you going to put him on the road?”