There was little more to be learned at this juncture. The officers had been among the first to arrive. None of them knew what had happened. One speculated that something had come down from orbit. They took details of the Hyadeans at Edwards and Anaheim and how they could be contacted, of Cade’s involvement with the mission, and relayed the information to headquarters. One reported to Cade that Clara Norburn had just heard the news and was on her way. Meanwhile, a helicopter had appeared and was circling overhead; more ambulances, a string of fire engines, and a truck filled with soldiers arrived. A police mobile command post began setting up to coordinate rescue and casualty-clearing operations among the surrounding city blocks. But it was already plain that nobody within the mission building itself or its close vicinity could have survived.
Cade called for Hudro and Dee to get over and gave the location. By the time they arrived in Dee’s car, the scene resembled a small war. Clara Norburn appeared with staff and military liaison people in a flotilla of cars and escorts; shortly afterward, a National Guard helicopter touched down, bringing Hudro, Yassem, and Nyarl from Edwards.
What they should do next was not obvious. Going back to the house wouldn’t address the immediate issue of four Hyadeans who no longer belonged anywhere. Clara arranged for them all, including Cade, Marie, and Luke, to be taken to her department at the municipal offices near the Civic Center. Vrel was still in shock and unable to communicate much that was coherent. So far, just he and five others who had been elsewhere for various reasons were all that was left of the Hyadean West Coast Trade and Cultural Mission.
CHAPTER FIFTY
THEY SAT DESPONDENTLY around a staff room that had been put at their disposal until something could be worked out. Luke had gone to call Henry and tell him to put a hold on clearing the house in case they were about to receive some unexpected house guests. A meal had been brought in but nobody had touched very much of it. Only now were the Hyadeans recovering their faculties to a degree anywhere within sight of normality.
“Just when we had achieved what Luodine was working for,” Nyarl said, staring at the carpet. “It was done to shut down the channel to Chryse. So we must have been having effect there. Now she will never know.”
“She should have lived long enough to have known,” Yassem agreed.
“Is Chryse that has problem, but missiles are from Terran submarine,” Hudro said. “So who commands this? These politics are all double faces.”
Vrel just sat, holding Dee’s hand. He had remarked several times that if he hadn’t decided to stop at her office on the spur of the moment on his way back to the mission, he would have been there too.
Cade sat to one side, saying little. Marie was with Clara in Clara’s office, following the reports coming in via Sacramento. For once, he didn’t know what to say. Despite the time he had spent with Hyadeans, he didn’t have any privileged insight into the inner workings of their the minds. And just at the moment, he was having enough trouble with the conflicting thoughts welling up from the deeper recesses of his own mind.
News that afternoon had been that the tide in Texas had turned, with Federation and turned-around Union tank columns reoccupying Forth Worth and Austin. The lines in front of Houston were declared open. Units defected from the Union cause were moving back toward the Mississippi, while growing agitation among the Southern states was rumored to be destabilizing the rear of the crumbling Union. Cade wondered if the Chinese in Beijing might have had it right all along when they insisted that the Union would cave in before the Hyadeans could intervene effectively. They had the professional military staffs, after all, and should know. Cade didn’t. In that case, his fears based on the things he had seen had been wrong. Okay, he could live with that. And Hudro’s convictions, based on his own direct experiences, were wrong too. With a slightly bigger push, Cade could accept that. But something still didn’t feel right about it.