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“Everything is,” Eddie said.
Ted turned to him, unsmiling. “But not fastenough, Mr. Dean. This fiddling with the remaining two Beams must stop, andvery soon, or it will make no difference. Dinky, Stanley, and I will help youif we can, even if it means killing the rest of them.”
“Sure,” Dinky said with a hollow smile. “Ifthe Rev. Jim Jones could do it, why not us?”
Ted gave him a disapproving glance, thenlooked back at Roland’s ka-tet. “Perhaps it won’t come to that. But if itdoes…” He stood up suddenly and seized Roland’s arm. “Are we ca
Roland was silent.
Ted turned to Eddie. “I want to know.”
Eddie made no reply.
“Madam-sai?” Ted asked, looking at thewoman who sat astride Eddie’s hip. “We’re prepared to help you. Will you nothelp me by telling me what I ask?”
“Would knowing change anything?” Susa
Ted looked at her for a moment longer, thenturned to Jake. “You really could be my young friend’s twin,” he said. “Do youknow that, son?”
“No, but it doesn’t surprise me,” Jakesaid. “It’s the way things work over here, somehow. Everything… um… fits.”
“Will you tell me what I want to know?Bobby would.”
So you can eat yourself alive? Jakethought. Eat yourself instead of them?
He shook his head. “I’m not Bobby,” hesaid. “No matter how much I might look like him.”
Ted sighed and nodded. “You stick together,and why would that surprise me? You’re ka-tet, after all.”
“We gotta go,” Dink told Ted. “We’vealready been here too long. It isn’t just a question of getting back forroom-check; me n Stanley’ve got to trig their fucking telemetery so whenPrentiss and The Wease check it they’ll say ‘Teddy B was there all the time. Sowas Dinky Earnshaw and Stanley Ruiz, no problem with those boys.’”
“Yes,” Ted agreed. “I suppose you’re right.Five more minutes?”
Dinky nodded reluctantly. The sound of a siren,made faint by distance, came on the wind, and the young man’s teeth showed in asmile of genuine amusement. “They get so upset when the sun goes in,” hesaid. “When they have to face up to what’s really around them, which is somefucked-up version of nuclear winter.”
Ted put his hands in his pockets for amoment, looking down at his feet, then up at Roland. “It’s time that this… thisgrotesque comedy came to an end. We three will be back tomorrow, if all goeswell. Meanwhile, there’s a bigger cave about forty yards down the slope, and onthe side away from Thunderclap Station and Algul Siento. There’s food andsleeping bags and a stove that runs on propane gas. There’s a map, very crude,of the Algul. I’ve also left you a tape recorder and a number of tapes. Theyprobably don’t explain everything you’d like to know, but they’ll fill in manyof the blank spots. For now, just realize that Blue Heaven isn’t as nice as itlooks. The ivy towers are watchtowers. There are three runs of fence around thewhole place. If you’re trying to get out from the inside, the first run youstrike gives you a sting—”
“Like barbwire,” Dink said.
“The second one packs enough of a wallop toknock you out,” Ted went on. “And the third—”
“I think we get the picture,” Susa
“What about the Children of Roderick?”Roland asked. “They have something to do with the Devar, for we met one on ourway here who said so.”
Susa
“Those wanks,” Dinky said, but notwithout sympathy. “They’re… what do they call em in the old movies? Trusties, Iguess. They’ve got a little village about two miles beyond the station in thatdirection.” He pointed. “They do groundskeeping work at the Algul, and theremight be three or four skilled enough to do roofwork… replacing shingles andsuch. Whatever contaminants there are in the air here, those poor shmucks areespecially vulnerable to em. Only on them it comes out looking like radiationsickness instead of just pimples and eczema.”
“Tell me about it,” Eddie said, rememberingpoor old Chevin of Chayven: his sore-eaten face and urine-soaked robe.
“They’re wandering folken,” Ted putin. “Bedouins. I think they follow the railroad tracks, for the most part.There are catacombs under the station and Algul Siento. The Rods know their wayaround them. There’s tons of food down there, and twice a week they’ll bring itinto the Devar on sledges. Mostly now that’s what we eat. It’s still good,but…” He shrugged.
“Things are falling down fast,” Dinky saidin a tone of uncharacteristic gloom. “But like the man said, the wine’s great.”
“If I asked you to bring one of theChildren of Roderick with you tomorrow,” Roland said, “could you do that?”
Ted and Dinky exchanged a startled glance.Then both of them looked at Stanley. Stanley nodded, shrugged, and spread hishands before him, palms down: Why, gunslinger?
Roland stood for a moment lost in thought.Then he turned to Ted. “Bring one with half a brain left in his head,” Rolandinstructed. “Tell him ‘Dan sur, dan tur, dan Roland, dan Gilead.’ Tell itback.”
Without hesitation, Ted repeated it.
Roland nodded. “If he still hesitates, tellhim Chevin of Chayven says he must come. They speak a little plain, do theynot?”
“Sure,” Dinky said. “But mister… youcouldn’t let a Rod come up here and see you and then turn him free again. Theirmouths are hung in the middle and run on both ends.”
“Bring one,” Roland said, “and we’ll seewhat we see. I have what my ka-mai Eddie calls a hunch. Do you kenhunch-think?”
Ted and Dinky nodded.
“If it works out, fine. If not… be assuredthat the fellow you bring will never tell what he saw here.”
“You’d kill him if your hunch doesn’t panout?” Ted asked.
Roland nodded.
Ted gave a bitter laugh. “Of course youwould. It reminds me of the part in Huckleberry Fi
Roland gave him a cold smile, one that wasu
Ted met his gaze for a moment, then lookeddown at the ground. His mouth was working.
During this, Dinky appeared to be engagedin silent palaver with Stanley. Now he said: “If you want a Rod, we’ll get youone. It’s not much of a problem. The problem may be getting here at all. If wedon’t…”
Roland waited patiently for the young manto finish. When he didn’t, the gunslinger asked: “If you don’t, what would youhave us do?”
Ted shrugged. The gesture was such aperfect imitation of Dinky’s that it was fu
“One of them’s some kind of sci-fi raygunlike in a movie,” Dinky said. “I think it’s supposed to disintegrate things,but either I’m too dumb to turn it on or the battery’s dead.” He turnedanxiously to the white-haired man. “Five minutes are up, and more. We have toput an egg in our shoe and beat it, Tedster. Let’s chug.”
“Yes. Well, we’ll be back tomorrow. Perhapsby then you’ll have a plan.”
“You don’t?” Eddie asked, surprised.
“My plan was to run, young man. Itseemed like a terribly bright idea at the time. I ran all the way to the springof 1960. They caught me and brought me back, with a little help from my youngfriend Bobby’s mother. And now, we really must—”