When Tizzie saw Skyler, she looked at him closely. She had been examining him lately every time she saw him, trying to see if he looked older in any way. She couldn't tell.
Skyler entered, spotted them, waved and came over and sat down. He was carrying a copy of the Mirror, and he wore a self-satisfied smile.
"I got something," he announced.
"What?" asked Tizzie.
"First things first."
He ordered a cup of coffee, and when it came, he took a big sip.
"I can see how you get used to this stuff. They never let us have it on the island."
"Okay, wise guy," said Jude. "What's up?"
"Have you seen your paper today?"
"No, and I hate it when people call it 'my paper.' What's the big deal?"
"Page sixty-four. Check it out."
Skyler handed the paper across the table. The front-page headline was about a pornography shop that had opened two blocks from Gracie Mansion. It read: PORN MAKES MAYOR HOT.
He turned to page sixty-four and quickly found the item sandwiched inside a gossip column:
EGGHEADS TO MEET
New York — Young Leaders for Science and Technology in the New Millennium said yesterday it was going to hold its first meeting ever. The group of big-think heavyweights is going to hold forth at the DeSoto Hilton in Savannah, Georgia, next Tuesday. If you've made your vacation plans there and your IQ is below 150, you may want to rethink.
"Holy shit," exclaimed Jude. "That's it."
The young man across the way looked up at them, startled at his outburst. "They've called a meeting and used Tibbett's newspaper to do it."
"Let's go up to your place," said Tizzie.
As they squeezed past the tables, the young man caught Jude's arm and looked at him through bleary eyes.
"Hey, man, you dudes look just the same," he said, slurring his words slightly. He seemed to be trying to focus on a question. "You in a band?"
"Yeah," replied Jude.
"What's the name?"
"Xerox."
In Jude's room on the Chelsea's fourth floor, Tizzie and Skyler sat on the bed, while he worked the laptop at the desk. In the mirror on the wall above his head, he could see them, their lower halves, headless, side by side on the bedspread. He heard the musical sign-on, typed in his password, and connected to Nexis. The search box popped up.
First he tried to link Savannah and Young Leaders. Then DeSoto Hilton and Young Leaders. Nothing. The group had not met there before, or if it had, it hadn't made the papers. Anyway, the Mirror article said it was the first meeting.
For the next twenty minutes, he tried various combinations, but without success.
"So what's the problem?" asked Skyler. "We know where they'll be on Tuesday. We just go down there."
"Of course," said Jude. "But then what? We're looking for their headquarters, for the whole nest of vipers. We're looking for a colony of clones, for Christ's sake. We're not going to find that at the Hilton."
"And you think it's somewhere near Savannah. We'll follow them."
"But which ones? There're three of us and two dozen of them. They're coming from all over the country. We won't be able to keep tabs on them. And they know what we look like — remember the judge. So we can't let them see us. We have to spy on them without being seen."
Jude went back to the computer. He tried various combinations of words for another half hour, then began cursing as the computer answered each time the same way: zero files.
He turned in exasperation, and as he looked at Tizzie, he could see an idea take shape, the inspiration dancing into her eyes.
"I've got one," she said. "Try Savannah and Samuel Billington."
He knew it made sense even before he punched it in, but he still cheered when he saw the file come up. It was a single short article from the Atlanta Journal and Constitution dated September 12, 1992. It was about the sale of an old army base sixty miles from Savannah. A Georgia congressman, P.J. Clarkson, had put through a special bill permitting the base, which had been abandoned for years, to be sold into private hands. The buyer was Samuel T. Billington.
"Clarkson, he's that guy you spotted on the floor of Congress," said Jude. "He's a member of the Group. And once again, Billington is putting up the money. He gave it to the Lab."
"It all fits," said Tizzie. "We've found your nest of vipers."
Jude's excitement was mitigated somewhat, though not too much, by a sight that he saw in the mirror overhead. Lifting his eyes to the headless bodies, he saw that Tizzie had placed her hand on Skyler's knee. Not his knee, really — closer to his thigh.
In fact, thought Jude, her hand was probably resting just over his Gemini tattoo.
Chapter 30
Tizzie rented a car at the Savannah airport, and they headed out of town, threading their way through a countryside of military bases. They took Ogeechee Road across the wetlands that skirted Hunter Army Air Field. Twenty miles later, they picked up Route 144 past Wright Army Air Field. At Route 119, they turned right, toward Fort Stewart.
"Roads may be closed," the map warned, and it was correct. Twice, they passed barricades. They were aiming for the base annex, known during its army lifetime as Stewart II, a secret area that for years was not to be found on any document available to the public. Since the base had been decommissioned and sold into private hands, however, the plans were available through the Army Corps of Engineers. Earlier that morning, Jude had obtained a set, as thick as a village phone book, and he sat up front, guiding Tizzie.
They had to drive twenty more miles north to 280, then west through the small towns of Pembroke, Groveland and Daisy, and finally south toward Midway. They were coming into the military region through the back door.
"Turn here," said Jude.
There were no signs, but the sharp left angle of the turn was a giveaway — and so was the slightly elevated tarmac, suggestive of solid design and good drainage: a road built to carry weight, like military trucks. It was straight as a gun barrel. After a mile and a half, the road entered a grove of tall pines. A dirt road cut off to the left and disappeared into the trees. They took it, hid the car and walked through the pines, until they came to a vast field of foothigh grass.
In the center stood the army base. They could barely see the buildings themselves, because the perimeter was protected with a cyclone fence topped by an angled overhang that was ringed with concertina wire.
"Now what?" said Tizzie. "If they have any kind of security, we won't even make it as far as the fence."
Jude grunted. He pulled out a pair of binoculars and peered through them, moving slowly, left to right and back again, up and down.
"From the little I can see, it doesn't look like there's much activity," he said. "There's a guardhouse at the front gate, but I can't tell if it's manned."
He focused on the razor-sharp teeth of the concertina wire.
"The fence looks strong. No holes."
"Are there lights?" asked Skyler.
"Not sure. There are no lamp posts. But there could be spotlights on the ground. For that matter, maybe the fence is wired to an alarm. I saw a security center on the plans, and it said something about an alarm."
"Great," said Tizzie. "Any ideas?"
"There's a back gate marked on the plans. And if I remember right, a control panel for it about twenty feet in from the fence. That's on the far side, so I can't see it from here. But if we could just get one person inside, he could open it up."