Heat

Chapter 34

Jesse thought for several days about what he had seen before making any attempt to report it. In his mind he wandered through Coldwater’s redoubt, making new discoveries each time; he sat at his desk and used a calculator to translate his pacing into area; he tried to figure out what the hell it all meant, and he could not fathom it.

On Christmas Eve he and Jenny stayed up late arranging Carey’s gifts for the following morning, and, long after Jenny had fallen into an exhausted sleep, he crept from the bed, went to the garage and retrieved his scrambled telephone.

“Jesus Christ, what time is it?” Kip asked blearily.

“It’s very late, but it’s very important, too,” Jesse replied.

“Wait a minute while I go to another phone.”

Jesse waited on hold until Kip was away from his no-doubt sleeping wife.

Kip picked up another extension. “All right, what’s so important?” he demanded.

“I hardly know where to begin,” Jesse said. “The whole thing is so unbelievable.”

“What’s unbelievable?” Kip was awake, now.

“Last Sunday, I think I was finally fully accepted by Coldwater,” he said.

“That’s certainly good news, but couldn’t it wait until after the holidays?”

“I wanted you to have the holidays to think about what I’m going to tell you, Kip, because you’re going to have to figure out a way to make Barker and the attorney general believe you — or rather, me.”

“It sounds as though you’ve finally figured out what Coldwater is up to.”

“No, I haven’t. But I think I can safely say that, whatever it is, he expects to fail at it.”

“You’re not making any sense, Jesse.”

“I know, and I’m sorry; but what I saw on Sunday doesn’t make any sense unless Coldwater expects to go out in a blaze of glory.”

“What did you see on Sunday?”

“He invited me to lunch with Casey, and when we had finished, he drove me to the top of the mountain that rises above the town.”

“Did he show you all the earth and offer it to you on a platter?”

“No, I think what he offered me was the opportunity to die with him.”

“Go on.”

“Coldwater and his people have, over a period of years, I’m not sure how many, constructed a series of defensive positions on the sides and top of the mountain that probably isn’t like anything else on earth.”

“What sort of defensive positions?”

“A long list of various types of heavy weapon, well dug in and placed strategically to repel any invader — antitank weapons, probably anti-aircraft weapons — more hardware than exists anywhere in this country outside a military base.”

“What else?”

“He’s constructed what I can only describe as a cross between the White House Situation Room and Hitler’s Berlin bunker.”

“How big?”

“At a conservative estimate, something in excess of sixty thousand square feet.”

“What?”

“And that’s only the beginning of it. The exterior walls are a good eight feet of reinforced concrete.”

“Eight feet? What’s he expecting?”

“Armageddon, apparently. Let me go on. The place is on three levels, only one of which is above ground, and the thickness of the floors seems equal to the outside walls. There are weapon emplacements on the top, or ground, level on all four sides, and he has amassed an extraordinary amount of munitions to support them. There are living quarters for, I don’t know, in excess of a thousand people, maybe a lot more — kitchens, infirmaries, entertainment facilities, and food and medical supplies stacked to the ceilings. On the lower level, Coldwater has a suite of offices, completely equipped, and an apartment for himself. It looks as though he could take his people inside and remain for years, and I’m not exaggerating.”

“What sort of force do you think would be required to take it?” Kip asked, still sounding skeptical.

“Kip, I’m no military genius, but my guess is it couldn’t be taken — at least, not without wildly unacceptable losses on the part of the attacking force.”

“Jesse, there can’t be any such thing as a civilian installation that can’t be taken by a military force.”

“It isn’t a civilian installation, Kip; it’s an unbelievably fortified military defensive position. It sits on top of a mountain that has about a twelve hundred foot sheer wall on the south side and very steep sides on the other three. Mountain goats might be able to make it to the top, but infantry couldn’t and neither could tanks. There’s only one road to the top, and that must be heavily defended. They could simply blow the road and bar all access to the top of the mountain.”

“What about aircraft — helicopters with assault troops?”

“Any slow-flying aircraft would be shot to pieces before it could even land, and even if it could land, its troops would be cut up the minute they were on the ground. There’s simply no cover. You could bomb the site with high explosives, but you’d probably destroy the town in the process; you’d certainly have to evacuate thousands of people. Coldwater says only a nuclear weapon would have any effect, and he’s right when he says the government would never use it. I swear, you could spend a year attacking the place at a cost of thousands of casualties, and you might not even make a dent.”

“He’s got to have some sort of outside support,” Kip said. “He couldn’t exist inside a mountain without it. What about power, water and air?”

“He’s got it all, and in triplicate.”

“Jesse, this just doesn’t make any sense.”

“I know it doesn’t, but it’s real, I promise you that. And I’ll tell you this, I don’t think Coldwater would have built it if he didn’t intend to use it.”

There was a long silence from Kip’s end of the line. “I don’t know what to say,” he said finally.

“Neither do I, except you’d better report this as soon as you can, and you’d better see that all knowledge of it is absolutely secure. If Coldwater had the slightest notion that the government knew about it, he’d go in there right now and zip it up behind him. And God only knows what he’d do before he went inside.”

“When can you call again?”

“When do you want me to call?”

“I need to think about this before I spring it on my people. I’ll do that on the first day of business of the New Year. Try to call me around that time — during office hours, if possible. They may want to pass instructions to you.”

“All right, I’ll try to do that.”

“I’m certainly not going to sleep tonight,” Kip said forlornly.

Jesse laughed. “Well, if I can’t, why should you?”

“Oh, go to hell,” Kip grumbled, then hung up.

Jesse put away the phone and went back to the house. As he let himself in the back door, Jenny came out of the kitchen.

“Where on earth have you been?” she demanded.