My boyfriend at the time wanted to bury me. I was once hit by a bolt of lightning and spent the next three days recovering in a coffin. I suspect that if tripped they emit a paralyzing field. In addition to the towers and fence, there is a densely packed maze of three-foot high electronic devices- they resemble metal baseball bats-stretched along the perimeter. The compound is huge, at least a half mile across. Unfortunately, the place has manned towers equipped with machine guns and grenade launchers every two hundred feet. Ordinarily I could jump such a barrier without breaking a sweat. The surrounding fence is over a hundred feet high, topped with billowy coils of barbed wire. On foot, I scamper toward the installation, growing more amazed with every step at how complex and impenetrable it appears. I speed up and take my Bronco off the road, parking it behind a hill a mile from both the road and the camp.
Approximately fifty miles outside of Las Vegas, the armored vehicle carrying Joel disappears into an elaborately defended camp. My hunch is confirmed less than an hour later. Clapley whistled when she leaned over to set down the drinks. She was wearing a blood-red catalog-style teddy with lacy bra cups. One of the Barbies walked in carrying a tray with two cognacs and two large cigars. Danny Pogue, who had been talking in a low voice, became silent at the sight of his partner. When Bud Schwartz returned to Molly McNamara's room, he sensed he was interrupting something private. Sweeping the horizon and seeing no light for the tenth time that evening, he dropped off into his temporary dreamland. He soon developed a flair for catnapping, dozing off and then coming awake fifteen minutes later almost to the minute.
Giordino was on watch, leaning over the rim of the hatch tower. Twilight deepened from an orange sky in the west to the velvet blue of the east. The gray skies that had dogged them all day cleared at sunset. Most of the Jann guns and missiles diverted onto the drive tube as it arced up into the sky. He heard the heavy click as the pistol was cocked, then glanced round to see that the muzzle was pointing at his face. He began scooping the coins off the table into Torrance's pouch. You'll be dead in the blink of an eyelid.
I thought you were dead and gone, you know, he said.