“Maybe we could try anyway?”
“It’ll explode this whole place if it’s tampered with,” Lorimer said emotionlessly.
Elliot tried slowing down his heart. There went his surprise advantage. He bent down and picked up Chin’s gun. “Okay, Lor, listen to me. That door is going to open in a minute. More than anything else, I’ve got to try getting a friend of mine out. But there are three babies in there, and you’ve got to get them out of here with you. Can you do that for me?”
“But—”
“Can you do that for me?”
Lorimer stood up and nodded. “I do love you, Ell,” she said. Elliot stroked her hair. “I love you, too.”
He did not say that he would not expect to live long enough to enjoy it.
Elliot stood, poised for his assault. He stood there well over a minute. Then he realized that he would not get his chance. Alongside Night
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The door would not have to open.
An alarm on the exchange chute to the compound signaled refuse on its way out. Elliot listened dumbly for a few moments, then understood what it meant. The first infant was already in it, crying its eyes out. All that’s left is the future, he thought, handing the three-month-old boy to Lorimer. The second was a girl, perhaps only five weeks old. The third, another boy, looked to be six months old. Elliot carrying two, Lorimer holding the third, they made a dash out to the now daylit parking lot where Guardian Angel spotted Lorimer’s waving and began alighting to meet them. Utopia began exploding. No, that wasn’t right, Elliot thought. It had never existed and never would.
They were far enough away not to be hit by the blast; the explosion was efficient, its rubble being contained in the immediate area. As Stokowski and Workman took them aboard, Guerdon shouted into the radio for Friendly Sky to abort, repeat, abort its landing.
The last survivor in, Guardian Angel mournfully rose into the morning sky.
It was a few minutes later, as Sergeant Workman replayed Utopia’s final transmission on his monitor, that Elliot saw Phillip Gross spelling out “laissez faire” with his ring after he had passed the last infant out.
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Chapter 24
The revolution came the same day.
At a little past noon, they were awakened by persistent knocking at their apartment door. After a few series of knocks, a sleep-deprived Elliot unwrapped himself from Lorimer, pulled on undershorts, and managed to pad into the living room. He opened the door a crack. It was Mr. Ferrer with a sealed envelope for him. Elliot took the envelope and thanked him.
Elliot broke the seal. Inside was a note reading: Merce Rampart wishes to meet both of you today. Please be at my Ansonia office at 2 P.M. Important. Benjamin Harper
Elliot read the note twice, then returned to his bedroom and handed it to Lorimer.
An hour later, showered and dressed, Elliot and Lorimer ate a quick brunch while, on television, a pair of network anchors brought them up to date. The EUCOMTO rejection of the New Dollar—fueled by news of the Utopia prison atrocity—had brought about the feared chaos. The Federal Reserve Board had ordered all affiliated banks closed “for duration of the emergency.” The Securities and Exchange Commission had suspended all trading—also “for the duration.” The FBI had been disbanded, and the President had ordered the arrest of Lawrence Powers. The President, backed up by Congress, had declared martial law. It mattered little. Lawrence Powers had gone into hiding. Three quarters of enlisted military personnel from all services had begun wildcat strikes, two thirds of the strikers deserting 232
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bases and heading home. The Revolutionary Agorist Cadre had surfaced, with no effective opposition. The objective conditions for a revolution having arisen, the revolution was in progress.
For some, business went on as usual. A filmed commercial came up on the television. The same TV-series actor and actress whom Elliot had seen in a public-service announcement were now dressed in conservative attire walking staidly through a bank, camera dollying backward before them. Elgar’s fourth “Pomp and Circumstance” march began rising slowly in the background.
The actor began sincerely, “Fellow Americans. We at AnarchoBank are doing everything we can to end this emergency. Most of you right now are without any money; no money means no trade, no business.”
“Our immediate aim,” said the actress, “is to get a new money into your hands. Within forty-eight hours, we will have fully operational offices serving major financial and employment centers to begin exchanging AnarchoBank gold coins and gold certificates for a number of readily available commodities, and making short-term loans to those who cannot—”