Lucifer's Hammer

“Fifty years.” Tim thought about that. In fifty years the United States had gone from a horse-and-buggy to an automobile civilization; had opened mines, built cities, built industries; discovered electronics and computers, taken space flight from comic books to the Moon. And this one plant could put out more power than the whole United States generated in the Twenties… “That’s exciting. My God, it was worth coming here! Forrester was right, letting anything happen to this plant wouldn’t be an optimum solution.”

“Uh?” Weigley gave Tim a puzzled look.

Tim gri

To enter the conference room was like walking into the past, straight into a Board of Directors meeting. It was all there, the long table with comfortable chairs, pads of paper, blackboards, chalk and erasers, even wooden pointers. Tim was jolted. He wondered what Al Hardy would give for a well-equipped conference room, and bulletin boards to hang maps and lists on, file cabinets…

There was an argument in progress. Joh

They looked like human scarecrows, diversely dressed, most of them armed, pale as ghosts except for Mayor Allen and a black Detective-Investigator. Their clothes were old, their shoes were worn. A few months ago they would have looked wildly out of place here. Now it was the room that was strange. The people were normal, except that they were so clean.

Tim wriggled inside his clothes. His hand patted his smoothshaven cheek. Clean! There was hot water for bathing, and working electric razors. The washer-dryer hadn’t stopped since the Stronghold party arrived. His shirt and shorts and socks were clean and dry. Tim wriggled and tried to listen. He was hearing the same sentence over and over again: “I didn’t know there was going to be a goddam army after us.”

Barry Price wasn’t as large as the construction crew chief who confronted him, but there was no question who was in charge. Price wore khaki field clothing, bush jacket and a shirt bulging with pens; a pocket calculator hung from his belt; an assistant with a clipboard hovered nearby. His brush haircut and precisely trimmed pencil mustache made him look almost finicky. He said, “So what’s changed? We were never popular.”

“No, dammit, but a ca

“There’s nowhere to go.”

“Nuts. West side of the sea. Anyplace. But we can’t stay here! We ca

“We have to,” Price said. “How can we let all this go down the drain? Robin, you worked as hard as anybody! We’ve got allies now—”

“Some allies. A dozen men.” Robin Laumer leaned across the table toward Barry Price. They might have been alone in the room; certainly nobody was interrupting. “Look. Everything’s got to work or nothing does, right?”

“Right.”

“So they get one hit on the turbines, the switchyard, the cable rooms, the control rooms, and that’s it! We’re underwater, and nothing ever works again!”

“I know all that,” Price said. “So we don’t let them get one hit.”

“Bullshit. Barry, I’m pulling out. Any of my people want to come with me, I’ll take. We’ll give ’em back, but we’re borrowing your boats—”

“Not mine you don’t,” Joh

Laumer seemed about to argue; then he shrugged. “So I take the boats that were already here. One of ’em’s mine anyway, that one I keep. But we’re leaving.”

He stalked out of the room. As he passed Tim Hamner, Tim told him, “You’ll never be clean again.” Laumer broke stride, then kept going.

Baker asked, “Shouldn’t we stop him?”

“How?” Price demanded.

Baker dropped it. None of them were ready to use the only way they had of stopping Laumer. “So how many will go with him?”

“I don’t know. Maybe twenty or thirty of the construction crew. Maybe not so many. We worked like slaves to save this plant. I don’t think any of my operating people will leave.”

“So you can still run the plant.”

“I’m sure of that much,” said Price.

Joh

“I doubt any will go,” Bentley Allen said. “We had too damned much trouble getting here.”

“That’s good,” Baker said. He saw the look on the Mayor’s face. “That they won’t run. And of course you’re staying, Barry…”

The effect on Price was disturbing. He didn’t look nonchalant, or proud; he looked like a man in agony. “I have to stay,” he said. “That ticket’s already been paid for. No, you wouldn’t know. When that goddam Hammer hit, I could go look for somebody in Los Angeles, or stay here and try to save the plant. I stayed.” His jaw clenched. “So what do we do now?”

“I can’t give you orders,” Joh

Price shrugged. “By me you can.” He looked to Mayor Allen and got a nod. “Far as I’m concerned, Senator Jellison is in charge of this state. Maybe he’s President. Makes more sense than the others.”

“You too?” Joh

“Five. Colorado Springs; Moose Jaw, Montana; Casper, Wyoming… anyway, I’ll take the Senator. Give us all the orders you want.”

Joh

Price looked uncomfortable and confused. Mayor Allen and an assistant whispered together, then Allen said, “Doesn’t want the obligation?”

“Precisely,” Baker said. “Look, I’m on your side. We’ve got to keep this plant going. But I don’t control the Stronghold.”

Mayor Allen said, “You may be the highest-ranking—”

“Try to give the Senator orders? Me? Bullshit!”

“Just a thought, General. All right, feudal obligations work both ways,” Mayor Allen said. “At least they do if the King is Senator Jellison. So he wants to limit his obligations to us. So what suggestions do you have for us, General Baker?”

“I’ve given you some. Ways to build exotic weapons…”

Price nodded. “We’re working on them. Actually, it only took thinking of them. You know, we’ve worked on defenses here, not enough, I guess, but none of us ever thought of poison gas. Incendiaries we knew about, but we didn’t make enough. Or enough muzzle-loader ca

“Lay in supplies. No water shortage, and you’ve got the power to boil it. There’s dried fish coming, and you can catch more. Get set for a siege. Our information is that the New Brotherhood is serious about taking over all of California, and very serious about wrecking this plant.”

“If Alim Nassor is involved, they’re serious,” Mayor Allen said. “Brilliant man, and determined as hell. But I don’t see his motive. He was never involved in any of the anti-industrial movements. Quite the opposite. ‘We’re just getting into the game, and now you say you’re shutting it down’ — that approach.”

“You’re forgetting Armitage,” Baker said. “Nassor and Sergeant Hooker together probably couldn’t hold this army together. Armitage can. It’s Armitage who wants the plant destroyed.”

The Mayor pondered. “The Los Angeles area used to be famous for fu

Tim was still hoping they wouldn’t have to bring Hugo in. He spoke for Hugo: “If Islam was a fu

“If the plant goes, they’ll never have another one,” Barry Price said. “They must be crazy.” Was he talking about the New Brotherhood or the Stronghold? Nobody asked.