“So what are you doing, specifically?” Cade asked.
“Coordinating with the mission in Lakewood. They’re still operating, but not tied to the Washington office anymore—obviously.”
“I know—I talked to Wyvex.”
The first person Cade saw among the groups waiting on the far side of the doors was Marie, looking something like the way she had when he first saw her in Chattanooga; a lightweight patterned sweater, loose slacks, and suede hook-lace boots. He approached warily. They stared at each other. Even now, after everything, each seemed unsure of exactly what reaction would be appropriate. Her face was blotchy, still carrying angry black and red marks from the crash. None looked as if they would scar permanently. She was looking at him, seemingly equally unsure. . . .
And then she was pressed against him clinging, and his arms enveloped her, pulling her close. He smelled her hair, felt the slenderness of her body through the sweater. It was the first intimate contact they had experienced since their reunion. To his surprise, she was trembling. “I thought it was all over . . . before anything began,” she whispered, raising her face. “And then Luke told us. It was days after you called him.”
“He had reasons,” Cade murmured.
“Yes, I know.”
Luke was there too, Cade saw—waiting patiently, a faint and rare smile on his lips. And Yassem—whom Cade had barely met during the ill-fated helicopter flight. And Vrel and Dee were there too, clustering around Yassem and Hudro, who were hugging ecstatically, Yassem weeping. Just for a brief moment, the war was far away and forgotten.
They went out to one of the mission’s Hyadean flyers, parked at the rear of the building among an assortment of cars, trucks, and military vehicles, and within minutes were airborne over Riverside. The freeway traffic was thin compared to what used to be normal. Clara said the gasoline restrictions were having a big effect. Southern Californian oil installations had been hit, and a tanker from Asia had been sunk off Santa Rosa Island the previous day. Cade saw damage to some of the freeway intersections, in one case amounting to total demolition and causing a crush of diverted traffic in the surrounding streets. Aircraft flying sorties up the coast from Mexico had been trying to take out key nodes of the road system with offshore-launched missiles, but so far with limited success. Links through the Rockies were under constant attack, the southern I-10 route to Phoenix and El Paso being completely cut. It would get a lot worse if the carrier groups now moving north in the Pacific got within striking range. There had been a lot of air combat over the Gulf.
For Cade, only just returned, it was all a new experience. Even with the tensions that had been mounting for years and the more recent instances of open domestic violence, he was unable to conceive jets carrying the insignia that had always meant USAF swooping in from the Pacific to attack targets in places like Anaheim or Pasadena, Bakersfield or San Diego. He looked down at the wreckage of an interchange that they were passing over. A swath of devastation extended through the nearby houses. “How can this be happening?” he asked Clara. “Isn’t it obvious that there’s been a corrupt administration on the other side for years? How can anyone there support it?”
“They’re building a stronger America by allying with a superior power,” she said. “We’ve been duped into becoming tools of the Asians. If we’re not stopped, Chinese armies will be landing within a month and pouring through to make us a colony again.”
Cade stared at her. “They believe that?”
“It’s what they’re being told. I’ll run you some New York news clips and propaganda spiels when we get back.”
“This is Roland I’m listening to?” Marie checked, still holding on to his arm.
From Luke and Vrel, Cade learned the story of Julia’s untimely end. Marie had the grace not to say anything that might have sounded vengeful. Cade was dumbfounded. If he hadn’t warned Luke, every one of those around him, Clara excepted, wouldn’t have been there now.
Dee had moved out of travel agenting and was helping with school reorganization following separation from the federal system. It was only a small part, she told him, but everything counted. A contrast to the good-time-girl that he’d known, Cade reflected. The new feeling of dedication to something that mattered was affecting everybody.