heat of some sort of enchantment. I took it as a good faith offering.
“Of course, when I managed to corner Dave in the HQ they’d set up at the Justice Center, he looked at me as if I were nuts. There were a few moments that morning when I was convinced that we’d finally parted company.
“Then I gave him the chain, which was still warm.
“I told you about the moment when everything clicks? I think that was the point where Dave had his click. He handled that chain for a few moments, and he must have felt something I couldn’t, because right then was when he told the U.S. Army to go to hell.
“That had been the decision he’d been struggling with the past week or so. The federal government was moving into position to cap this Portal thing; they were just waiting for the mayor. He handled the chain, looked out the window at the stadium, and called in his aides.
“He gave them the first notice that David Rayburn wasn’t going to play ball. Instead, he told them to request the governor to send in every available National Guard unit to, in his words, ‘help hold the city.’ It was as much to hold it against the Army, as the Portal.
“That evening, a motorcade came down here. We had Dave, about six police cars, and two Hummers carrying National Guardsmen. Dave didn’t talk on the way out here, he just kept staring out the window and fondling that chain. He was looking out at what had happened to the city already. Even on the outbound Shoreway, you could see the damage. Boarded-up storefronts, boarded-up banks . National Guard on patrol through the streets of Cleveland—and once we crossed the border we saw some of the Army units, tanks and all.
“When we left 271, we passed through three blackout zones.
“I know he was thinking about the city. At that point I don’t think he was sure that keeping the Feds out was the right thing. You must remember what it was like the first two months. Everyone—I mean everyone —was calling for Dave’s head. The President was calling him an insane autocrat for trying to retain control of the Portal. I mean, in the third week of the crisis, Dave had to go as far as to get a federal judge to issue a restraining order to keep the Army from taking over.
“For two months he had been resisting. And it looked, then, like he had committed political suicide. I was close to the only ally he had left—and frankly that was because I had some vested interest in keeping the Feds from taking over the stadium. It was getting to the point where I felt that we were going to need to let the Feds in just to get the city under control. I mean, it wasn’t money anymore, it was getting to be things like food—
“Yeah? I know about those rumors. I’m not going to venture an opinion. I have no direct knowledge that the Army was blocking aid into the city to put pressure on Dave. I know that shipments were making it into the suburbs, but not over the border. That could just as well have been the jurisdictional chaos the Army blamed it on. The Senate hearings found no wrongdoing, so I’m not going out on a limb to say there was any.
“Anyway, what I was saying was that Dave was taking a hell of an unpopular position at that point. People were starting to go hungry, and it was his fault. No one saw the Portal as anything other than a bizarre natural disaster. The federal government wanted to take it over, and he was the only one who saw any reason not to let them.
“Aloeus had stayed, as promised, and when the motorcade rounded the driveway, I was worried that the Guard, or the police escort, would start shooting. This huge lizard hadn’t become any less intimidating while I’d been gone. Fortunately, Aloeus didn’t make any sudden moves, and I doubt he considered the threat from the Guardsmen or the police as significant. Or, more likely, considering where he came from, he considered it only appropriate that the local baron have an honor guard.
“The security people didn’t
“Of course, when I managed to corner Dave in the HQ they’d set up at the Justice Center, he looked at me as if I were nuts. There were a few moments that morning when I was convinced that we’d finally parted company.
“Then I gave him the chain, which was still warm.
“I told you about the moment when everything clicks? I think that was the point where Dave had his click. He handled that chain for a few moments, and he must have felt something I couldn’t, because right then was when he told the U.S. Army to go to hell.
“That had been the decision he’d been struggling with the past week or so. The federal government was moving into position to cap this Portal thing; they were just waiting for the mayor. He handled the chain, looked out the window at the stadium, and called in his aides.
“He gave them the first notice that David Rayburn wasn’t going to play ball. Instead, he told them to request the governor to send in every available National Guard unit to, in his words, ‘help hold the city.’ It was as much to hold it against the Army, as the Portal.
“That evening, a motorcade came down here. We had Dave, about six police cars, and two Hummers carrying National Guardsmen. Dave didn’t talk on the way out here, he just kept staring out the window and fondling that chain. He was looking out at what had happened to the city already. Even on the outbound Shoreway, you could see the damage. Boarded-up storefronts, boarded-up banks . National Guard on patrol through the streets of Cleveland—and once we crossed the border we saw some of the Army units, tanks and all.
“When we left 271, we passed through three blackout zones.
“I know he was thinking about the city. At that point I don’t think he was sure that keeping the Feds out was the right thing. You must remember what it was like the first two months. Everyone—I mean everyone —was calling for Dave’s head. The President was calling him an insane autocrat for trying to retain control of the Portal. I mean, in the third week of the crisis, Dave had to go as far as to get a federal judge to issue a restraining order to keep the Army from taking over.
“For two months he had been resisting. And it looked, then, like he had committed political suicide. I was close to the only ally he had left—and frankly that was because I had some vested interest in keeping the Feds from taking over the stadium. It was getting to the point where I felt that we were going to need to let the Feds in just to get the city under control. I mean, it wasn’t money anymore, it was getting to be things like food—
“Yeah? I know about those rumors. I’m not going to venture an opinion. I have no direct knowledge that the Army was blocking aid into the city to put pressure on Dave. I know that shipments were making it into the suburbs, but not over the border. That could just as well have been the jurisdictional chaos the Army blamed it on. The Senate hearings found no wrongdoing, so I’m not going out on a limb to say there was any.
“Anyway, what I was saying was that Dave was taking a hell of an unpopular position at that point. People were starting to go hungry, and it was his fault. No one saw the Portal as anything other than a bizarre natural disaster. The federal government wanted to take it over, and he was the only one who saw any reason not to let them.
“Aloeus had stayed, as promised, and when the motorcade rounded the driveway, I was worried that the Guard, or the police escort, would start shooting. This huge lizard hadn’t become any less intimidating while I’d been gone. Fortunately, Aloeus didn’t make any sudden moves, and I doubt he considered the threat from the Guardsmen or the police as significant. Or, more likely, considering where he came from, he considered it only appropriate that the local baron have an honor guard.
“The security people didn’t
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