The Dark Tower

“Hey,” Susa

“Check out the crate-lid,” Jake said whenthey joined her. Susa

PROPERTY 449thSQUADRON

24 “SNEETCHES”

HARRY POTTER MODEL

SERIAL #465-17-CCNDJKR

“Don’t Mess with the449!”

We’ll Kick the“Slytherin” Out of You!

There were two dozen sneetches in the crate,packed like eggs in little nests of plastic excelsior. None of Roland’s bandhad had the opportunity to study live ones closely during their battle with theWolves, but now they had a good swatch of time during which they could indulgetheir most natural interests and curiosities. Each took up a sneetch. They wereabout the size of te

There was an ID-plate on each sneetch and abutton beside it. “That wakes it up,” Eddie murmured, and Jake nodded. Therewas also a small depressed area in the curved surface, just the right size fora finger. Jake pushed it without the slightest worry that the thing wouldexplode, or maybe extrude a mini-buzzsaw that would cut off his fingers. Youused the button at the bottom of the depression to access the programming. Hedidn’t know how he knew that, but he most certainly did.

A curved section of the sneetch’s surfaceslid away with a faint Auowwm! sound. Revealed were four tiny lights,three of them dark and one flashing slow amber pulses. There were sevenwindows, now showing 0 00 00 00. Beneath each was a button so small thatyou’d need something like the end of a straightened paperclip to push it. “Thesize of a bug’s asshole,” as Eddie grumbled later on, while trying to programone. To the right of the windows were another two buttons, these marked Sand W.

Jake showed it to Roland. “This one’s SETand the other one’s WAIT. Do you think so? I think so.”

Roland nodded. He’d never seen such aweapon before—not close up, at any rate—but, coupled with thewindows, he thought the use of the buttons was obvious. And he thought thesneetches might be useful in a way the long-shooters with their atom-shellswould not be. SET and WAIT.

SET… and WAIT.

“Did Ted and his two pals leave all thisstuff for us here?” Susa

Roland hardly thought it mattered who’dleft it—it was here and that was enough—but he nodded.

“How? And where’d they get it?”

Roland didn’t know. What he did know wasthat the cave was a ma’sun—a war-chest. Below them, men were making waron the Tower which the line of Eld was sworn to protect. He and his tet wouldfall upon them by surprise, and with these tools they would smite and smiteuntil their enemies lay with their boots pointed to the sky.

Or until theirs did.

“Maybe he explains on one of the tapes heleft us,” Jake said. He had engaged the safety of his new Cobra automatic andtucked it away in the shoulder-bag with the remaining Orizas. Susa

“Maybe he does,” she said, and gave Jake asmile. It had been a long time since Susa

Eddie was holding up a piece of cloth thathad been rolled into a tube and tied with three hanks of string. “That guy Tedsaid he was leaving us a map of the prison-camp. Bet this is it. Anyone ‘sidesme want a look?”

They all did. Jake helped Eddie to unrollthe map. Brautigan had warned them it was rough, and it surely was: really nomore than a series of circles and squares. Susa

While they were studying this hastilyrendered example of cartography, a long and wavering cry rose in the murkoutside. Eddie, Susa

“What is it?” Eddie asked. “A coyote? Ajackal?”

“Some kind of desert dog,” Roland agreedabsently. He was squatted on his hunkers (which suggested his hip was better,at least temporarily) with his arms wrapped around his shins. He never took hiseyes from the crude circles and squares drawn on the cloth. “Can-toi-tete.”

“Is that like Dan-Tete?” Jake asked.

Roland ignored him. He scooped up the mapand left the cave with it, not looking back. The others shared a glance andthen followed him, once more wrapping their blankets about them like shawls.

Three

Roland returned to where Sheemie (with alittle help from his friends) had brought them through. This time thegunslinger used the binoculars, looking down at Blue Heaven long and long.Somewhere behind them, the desert dog howled again, a lonely sound in thegloom.

And, Jake thought, the gloom was gloomiernow. Your eyes adjusted as the day dialed itself down, but that brilliantspotlight of sun seemed brighter than ever by contrast. He was pretty sure thedeal with the sun-machine was that you got your full-on, your full-off, andnothing in between. Maybe they even let it shine all night, but Jake doubtedit. People’s nervous systems were set up for an orderly progression of dark andday, he’d learned that in science class. You could make do with long periods oflow light—people did it every year in the Arctic countries—but itcould really mess with your head. Jake didn’t think the guys in charge downthere would want to goof up their Breakers if they could help it. Also, they’dwant to save their “sun” for as long as they could; everything here was old andprone to breakdowns.

At last Roland gave the binoculars toSusa

Susa

Damli House was much bigger, and as shelooked, she saw several people going in and out. Some had the carefree look ofcivilians. Others seemed much more—oh, call it watchful. And she saw twoor three slumping along under loads of stuff. She handed the glasses to Eddieand asked him if those were Children of Roderick.

“I think so,” he said, “but I can’t becompletely—”

“Never mind the Rods,” Roland said, “notnow. What do you think of those two buildings, Susa

“Well,” she said, proceeding carefully (shedid not, in fact, have the slightest idea what it was he wanted from her),“they’re both beautifully maintained, especially compared to some of thefalling-down wrecks we’ve seen on our travels. The one they call Damli House isespecially handsome. It’s a style we call Queen A