Lucifer's Hammer - Larry Niven [269]
"Lay in supplies. No water shortage, and you've got the power to boil it. There's dried fish coming, and you can catch more. Get set for a siege. Our information is that the New Brotherhood is serious about taking over all of California, and very serious about wrecking this plant."
"If Alim Nassor is involved, they're serious," Mayor Allen said. "Brilliant man, and determined as hell. But I don't see his motive. He was never involved in any of the anti-industrial movements. Quite the opposite. 'We're just getting into the game, and now you say you're shutting it down'—that approach."
"You're forgetting Armitage," Baker said. "Nassor and Sergeant Hooker together probably couldn't hold this army together. Armitage can. It's Armitage who wants the plant destroyed."
The Mayor pondered. "The Los Angeles area used to be famous for funny religions … "
Tim was still hoping they wouldn't have to bring Hugo in. He spoke for Hugo: "If Islam was a funny religion, go ahead and laugh, Mayor. They're expanding that way. Join or get eaten, they assimilate everybody, one way or the other."
"If the plant goes, they'll never have another one," Barry Price said. "They must be crazy." Was he talking about the New Brotherhood or the Stronghold? Nobody asked.
But Baker stood up suddenly. "All right. We're here, with our guns and Dr. Forrester's notes. Tim, you go try on that wet suit. Maybe we can dig up some of what we need to fight with. I wish I knew how much time we've got."
The policeman went up the slanting ladder slowly, carefully, with a fat sandbag balanced on his shoulder. He was sandyhaired and square-jawed, and his uniform was wearing through. Mark followed him with another sandbag. They added the bags to the barricade atop the cooling tower. By now Tim's radio was nearly walled in.
The man turned to confront Mark. He was Mark's own size, and angry. "We did not desert our city," he said.
"That wasn't what I meant." Mark resisted the urge to back up. "I only said most of us—"
"We were on duty," the policeman said. "I know at least a couple of us were watching TV if we could get to one. The Mayor was. I wasn't. First I knew, one of the girls was yelling that the comet had hit us. I stayed at my post. Then the Mayor came through collecting us. He herded us all into elevators and down to the parking garage and packed the women and some of the men into half a dozen station wagons that were already loaded with stuff. He put us cops on motorcycles for an escort and we headed for Griffith Park."
"Did you have any—"
"I had no idea what was happening," Patrolman Wingate said. "We got up into the hills, and the Mayor told us the comet had done some damage and we could ride it out here and go clean up the mess afterward. Oh, boy."
"Did you see the tidal wave?"
"Oh, boy. Czescu, there just wasn't anything left to clean up. It was all foam and mist down there, and some of the buildings were still sticking up, and Johnny Kim and the Mayor were yelling at each other and I was almost next to them, but what with the thunder and lightning and the tidal wave I couldn't hear a word. Then they got us together and headed north."
The policeman stopped. Mark Czescu respected his silence. They watched four boats leaving with Robin Laumer and part of his construction crew. There had been a shouting match when Laumer tried to claim some of the supplies, but the men with guns—including Mark and the Mayor's police—had won their point.
"We went through the San Joaquin in four hours," the policeman said, "and let me tell you, that was tricky driving. We had the sirens, but we spent as much time off the road as on. We had to leave one of the wagons. We got here and it was already over the hubcaps, and that dike was a solid wall. We packed stuff from the wagons on our backs over the levees in the rain. When we'd done that, Price put us to work on the levees. He worked us like donkeys. Next morning it was an ocean out there, and it was six hours more before I got a shower."
"Shower."
The policeman turned to look at