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.Jeffrey, Cliff, and Clayton napped after they ate, and Will went and sat by himself at the top of the hill.Alethea was moved to see him up there, alone, gazing down at them with all the wisdom and courage of a long, hard life.She saw his mortality then, as if he were already dead and he had come back to watch over them.The thought did not depress her or seem improper.Will would die, just as they all would; the tragedy would have been for him to die before enjoying this one magnificent day with his family.For a time, Jeffrey took Devin aside and talked to him—interviewed him—while Ken filmed them with his portable camera.The others stayed a respectful distance away, granting them their privacy, except for Billy, who delighted in making faces at his father, poking gentle fun at the solemn tone of the interview.When the interview stopped, Devin chased the boy around a tree, pretending great ire at his disrespect.In truth, Alethea thought she had never seen a sweeter love flow between two people.In midafternoon, they set out walking again.People moved about, talking first to this person, then to another, but Alethea would have been blind not to see that Devin and Kimberly were often drawn together— he boyish and grinning, she blushing and nervous, in the first flush of their attraction.Alethea felt a sister’s unease at this flirtation, and something more than unease when Ken, the cameraman, let it drop thatKimberly had until recently been the mistress of Andrei Denisov.Ken went on to tell her how Kimberly had left the Russian and joined the underground and that her broadcast in Omaha had paved the way for Devin’s escape.A few minutes later, when they stopped by a stream for a drink of water, Aiethea walked up to Kimberly and hugged her.When she backed away, Kimberly smiled uncertainly.“That’s because I like you,” Aiethea told her.“And because maybe we’ve got more in common than you know.”They rested by the stream and, at Jeffrey’s insistence, Kimberly sang to them, a sad, haunting song from The Fantasticks.Everyone was touched by the song and applauded when she finished, even Will.Kimberly buried her face in her hands.“Please,” she whispered, “it’s nothing really.”On the way back, in the late afternoon, they stopped at the Milford family graveyard.An old iron fence surrounded the plot, where nearly a hundred headstones stood, many of them worn with age, their inscriptions almost unreadable.Will knelt beside his wife’s grave, absently brushing away snow and leaves.Devin knelt beside him, and dropped an arm across the old man’s shoulders.The old man tousled Devin’s hair, a gesture Devin often did with Billy.Standing a few feet away, Billy watched the rekindling of love between father and son.He ran over to them to be a part of it.Aiethea watched all this, feeling somehow detached, knowing only that life was fragile and these moments precious.As they returned to the camp, huge thunder-heads were blowing in from the west.No one else seemed to share her mood—they bustled about, busy with this chore or that—but to Aiethea the huge dark clouds seemed to dwarf them, to mock their human concerns; their little band, each with his or her loves and sorrows, courage and hope, seemed tiny and helpless, silhouetted against the great brooding sky.In the face of infinity, Alethea thought, all we have is our love.Chapter 16Andrei, in full uniform, paced his Virginian communications center impatiently while technicians prepared for his broadcast.He had much on his mind that afternoon.His intelligence reports showed continuing unrest across Heartland.Party loyalists in several cities had clashed with pro-Bradford partisans.The general strike had faltered but there had been outbreaks of sabotage—the public bus service in Cincinnati had been disrupted by slashed tires, power outages were caused by bombings in southern Illinois towns.A police station in St.Louis captured by the PPP had been retaken peacefully, but there were reports that Marion Andrews planned a new appeal to the party cadres.And since his dramatic television appearance, Peter Bradford had not returned Andrei’s phone calls.The need was for Peter to use the Heartland Defense Force to restore civic peace with minimal force ratherthan for Andrei to unleash the SSU.Of course, the next question was whether Andrei could then control Peter and his troops, but that was the risk inherent in his new policy.“Ready, sir,” the director called.Andrei straightened his coat and stepped before the cameras.Across America, a dozen SSU commanders awaited his instructions.“Gentlemen,” he said crisply, “your role in America is entering a new stage.Effective immediately, you will no longer be responsible to PPP officials.You will take no action that does not have the specific approval of this Command.As of this moment, you are on full readiness alert, but restricted to your barracks.You may defend yourselves, but you will not otherwise involve yourself in local conflicts.Any deviation from this order will result in immediate termination of command.”The cameras switched off and Andrei turned to Captain Selovich, who stood in the shadows.“Get me Major Gurtman on the telephone,” he ordered.The call was quickly placed.Andrei remembered Gurtman from their one meeting: a very tall, thin East German, cold and capable.“Major, I trust you saw my broadcast,” Andrei began.“Of course, sir.”“Good.I wished to speak with you directly because of the special conditions in your area.What is the situation now?”“The situation is serious, sir.The people of Milford are armed.They are protecting the two fugitives, Devin Milford and his son.I urgently request permission to retake the town and capture the fugitives.”“Permission denied.”Helmut Gurtman struggled to hold back his anger.“May I ask why, Colonel?”“The townspeople may be armed, but at the moment they have no one to shoot, except perhaps each other.As for the Milford boy, it is not the role of the SSU to pursue missing children, no matter how impassioned their mothers may be.As for Milford himself, I will ask Peter Bradford to see to his recapture, using the defense force if necessary.”Helmut Gurtman was beside himself.To be confined to his base while the occupied townspeople ran rampant was an outrage to everything he believed as a military man.And to have his former mistress’s family leading this rebellion added insult to injury; it was almost more than he could bear.“Sir, one further question,” he said stiffly [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]