Lucifer's Hammer - Larry Niven [167]
"Crummy pictures," Jack Turner said.
"Grandpa will get us good ones," Jennifer Turner, nine, told her father. She'd found that her grandfather could get photographs and pins and things that made a big hit in her school classes, and she'd read all about comets.
"Hammerlab, this is Houston, we do not copy," the telephone speaker said.
"Grandpa—"
"Hush, Jenny," Maureen said. The tension in her voice quieted the room. The TV picture became a crazy pattern of blurs, then sharpened to show a myriad of rocks enveloped in vapor and fog rushing toward them out of the screen.
"Jesus, it's coming closer"
"That's Johnny—"
"Like it's going to hit—"
The TV image vanished. The phone line continued to chatter. "FIREBALL OVERHEAD!" "HOUSTON, HOUSTON, THERE IS A LARGE STRIKE IN THE GULF OF MEXICO … "
"Good Lord!"
"Shut up, Jack," Jellison said quietly.
". .. REQUEST YOU SEND A HELICOPTER FOR OUR FAMILIES … THE HAMMER HAS FALLEN."
"You shouldn't talk to Jack that way—"
Jellison ignored Charlotte. "Al!" he shouted.
"Yes, sir," Hardy answered from the next room. He came in quickly.
"Round up all the ranch-hands. Quick. Any that have trucks should bring them. And rifles. Get moving."
"Right." Hardy vanished.
The others seemed stunned. Jennifer asked, plaintively, "What happened, Grandpa?"
"Don't know," Jellison said. "Don't know how bad it was. Damned phone's dead. Maureen, see if you can get anything, anybody, at JPL on that phone. Move."
"Right."
Then he looked at Jack Turner. Turner wasn't known in the valley. No one would take orders from him. And what use was he? "Jack, get one of the Scouts started. You'll drive me into town. I want to see the Chief of Police. And the Mayor."
Turner almost said something, but the look on Jellison's face stopped that.
"Can't get through to L.A. at all, Dad," Maureen said. "The phone's working but—"
She was interrupted by the earthquake. It wasn't very strong, this far from California's major faults, but it was enough to shake the house. The children looked afraid, and Charlotte gathered them to her and took them to a bedroom.
"I can get the local phone numbers," Maureen finished.
"Good. Get the local police and tell them I'm coming to town to talk to their Chief, and the Mayor. It's important, and tell them I'm already on the way. Let's go, Jack. Maureen, when Al gets the ranch-hands together, you and Al talk to them. What we'll need is every friend they've got, all their trucks, rifles, everything. There's a lot to do. Send about half the troops into town to find me, and have the rest secure for rainstorms, mudslides … " He thought for a moment. "And snow, if Charlie Sharps knows what he's talking about. Snow within a week."
"Snow? That's stupid," Jack Turner protested.
"Right," Maureen said. "Anything else, Dad?"
The City Hall doubled as library, jail and police station. The local Chief commanded two full-time patrolmen and several unpaid volunteer auxiliaries. The Mayor owned the local feedstore. Government in Silver Valley was not a large or important activity.
The rain started before Jellison arrived at City Hall. Sheet lightning played over the High Sierra to the east. Rain fell like the outpouring of a warm bathtub, filling the streets and running over the low bridges over the creeks. Mayor Gil Seitz looked worried. He seemed very glad to see Senator Jellison.
There were a dozen others in the large library room. Chief of Police Randy Hartman, a retired cop from one of the large eastern cities; three city councilmen; a couple of local store owners. Jellison recognized the bullnecked man sitting toward the rear of the group, and waved. He didn't see his neighbor George Christopher very often.
Jellison introduced his son-in-law and shook hands around. The room fell silent.
"What's happened, Senator?" the Mayor asked. "Did … that thing really did hit us,