Mrs. Brown was bundled up against the cold so that she looked larger than her husband. She looked at the crowd sprawled around her living room and smiled thinly. "More of your godfather's friends?" she asked Violetta. "Glad to meet you, but I'm afraid I can't feed you all. We--!" She hesitated.
"Helga works at the university clinic," Oliver Brown said. "And I write science fiction. She doesn't get paid much but it's more than I make. What she's too embarrassed to say is that we can't afford to feed you."
"Will this help?" Sherrine handed her bag of cheese to Helga Brown.
"Cheese? Wisconsin cheese? Ollie! It's real, the real thing-But there's too much! I can trade this for a lot--"
"Go see what you can get for half of it," Oliver said. "Violetta, go with your mother."
"Maybe I better go, too," Harry said. "Tough neighborhood--"
"You have to tell your story," Violetta said. "IT get Roland. My boyfriend, he lives next door. He'll come with us."
"Fan?" Bob asked.
Violetta laughed. "My father is Oliver Brown, my mother is Helga Brown, my godfather is Wade Curtis. You figure it out."
"All right," Thor said. "Just what the hell is going on? We've chased all across Wisconsin. Lived through a blizzard, almost got enslaved by a crazy alderman, damn near caught by the cops, just so we can find out that Ron Cole is mad as a hatter and his rocket never was any good. Now you tell us--what in hell is it you want to tell us, Harry Czescu?"
"If you'll shut up for a minute, maybe he can say it," Jenny said.
Thor glared at her.
"Wade says--"
"Wade says," Thor said. "Look, Wade Curtis hasn't been sober in ten years. Maybe he's not raving like Cole, but he sent us here! He believed in Cole's rocket, just like you did, and I did and--Oh, God, Damn, It."
"Got a letter," Harry said.
Bruce asked, "Letter for whom?"
"Maybe you." Harry took off his left boot. "Wade said I should give it to--I should give it to somebody I thought he'd trust." The inner lining wasn't properly sewn to the boot shell. Harry reached between the two leathers and took out a dirty envelope.
"What does it say."
Harry said, "It's sealed." The hurt barely showed. "Wade said I should burn this if nobody from Minicon showed up looking for Cole, but if anybody did, give it to somebody with judgment." He looked around the group. Finally he held the paper out to Oliver Brown. "Reckon he trusts you."
Oliver took the paper. "What Harry is carefully not saying is that Wade and I are still collaborating on a book. Harry brought me two new chapters yesterday."
He went over to his desk and got a letter opener. He was maddeningly slow, and Sherrine wanted to scream as he smoothed out the envelope's wrinkles, then carefully inserted the letter opener and slit the paper. There was a single sheet inside, and he took it out slowly.
I haven't seen Wade, haven't seen Wade for years," Oliver muttered. "Afraid it will cost Helga her job. If they knew. But they do know. They have to. May be they don't, though." He spread the paper out and began to read. "Ah. Hmm. Mmmh hmmmh. Yes. Yes."
"For God's sake!" Bob shouted. "What?"
"I'll read it," Oliver said. He cleared his throat. " 'King David is in the high desert. It's a Doherty project. My wings are made of tungsten, my flesh of glass and steel.
Explorers--' "
"That's a song," Sherrine said.
Brown looked up. In the silence Harry sang, "I am the joy of Terra for the power that I wield-"
Sherrine and Jenny were with him. "Once upon a lifetime, I died a pioneer. Now I sing within a space-ships's heart, does anybody hear?"
" 'The Phoenix,' " Harry said with just the trace of a bow. "Julia Ecklar."
"Damn drunk," Thor said. "Told you he's just a drunk. Doesn't make any sense at all."
" 'Explorers in the desert keep bottle shops,' " Roland read. " 'Skim milk masquerades as cream. It is time for the merry soul to move on, to see what free men can do. What man has done, man can aspire to. Love and plenty kisses. W. ' "
"That's it?" Sherrine asked.
Oliver nodded. "I hope it means something to you."
"We were hoping it would mean something to you," Mike said. "Harry, he thought we'd understand this"
"Thought it was important enough to send me here with it," Harry said.
Which might mean he wanted you out of the way? Sherrine rejected that with a violent headshake. "Start with what we know. He thought someone from the Con would be here. Why? Nobody's come here for years. Because--because he'd talked about Ron Cole's Titan at the Con."
Mike: "Someone might have overheard--"
Bruce: "--and told the Angels!"
"So it's a message for us," Sherrine said. "Why in code?"
"Drunk," Thor said.
"What if Harry got picked up?" Fang suggested.
"No, I was carrying a manuscript for Oliver," Harry said. His big shoulders rolled, free of that weight. "They'd have sent me to mental health for that, letter or no."
"He wasn't protecting Harry and me," Jenny said. "What, then?"
"Who the hell cares what he thinks?" Thor demanded. He looked to Fang. "Maybe it's time to move on."
"No, it's time for the merry soul to move on," Mike said. "That's Cole, of course. Not that it would be so obvious if we hadn't just seen him."
"Skim milk--Cole said that, too," Sherrine said. "Harry, you had a message for Cole!"
"And what were you supposed to do once you'd found us all and delivered the messages?" Bruce asked.
"I can tell you exactly what he said," Harry said. He looked uncomfortable.
"What?" Bruce said.
Harry looked out the window.
"Want me to tell them?" Jenny asked.
"No. No, I'll do it." Harry stuffed his hands deep into his jeans pockets. "Wade said, 'Harry, I trust your honor with my life, but I don't trust your judgment to go buy the beer. If nobody shows up, forget all this and meet me in--well, where we meet, next month. If anybody from Minicon shows up, go tell Oliver Brown, then deliver the messages, and stand by to help people. I think they'll want help.' "
"And that's all?"
Harry shrugged. "That's all."
"Where is Curtis now?" Mike asked.
Harry shook his head. "I don't know, and I guess I wouldn't tell you if I did."
"Great," Thor said. "So we have this nonsense from a drunk writer, and a messenger he doesn't trust with his drunken ravings, and we're supposed to get all excited."
Fang said, "Thor, it's a puzzle."
"Wade always did drink a lot," Oliver Brown said. "But he turned out the stories. He used to be in the space program you know. Other things. Were you ever in his study before they burned it down? Big place. Books. And a signed picture of Voyager--Hey!"
"What?" Bruce demanded.
" 'See what free men can do.' That was the inscription on the photo. By, by the man who built it-Dick Rhutan! Who flew Voyager around the world on one tank of gas. That Voyager."
"Rhutan. Voyager. King David in the desert!" Mike said.
"Mike?"
"King David's Spaceship! It's a book title. And the Rhutan brothers were working on a spaceship. A spaceship called--" He paused dramatically, holding a wide grin. "Wait for it. It was called Phoenix. They were working on it in the Mojave desert."