Sharp and Dangerous Virtues: A Novel

Talking to Howard

265 talking to howard Lila imagined a cartoon of herself sucking on a lemon (of course), trails of smoke coming out the top of her head. What do you mean there are Alliance troops heading for Dayton? How dare they head for Dayton? Down I-75, the media said, their armored personnel carriers and trucks and tanks greeted by the Gridians with shouts and food and flowers. (No one in America would call those traitors Esslandians.) Suds and Africans were heading straight through the Grid toward the American border and the Consort nuclear power plant beyond it! A brazen show of force! But what could the U.S. do until the Alliance troops crossed into the U.S.? The Gridians, it seemed, had somehow gotten control of the “defensive shield” missile sites protecting the Grid. Yes, but how? How? It was a scandal. Where the hell do the Alliance people think they’ll get water for their power plant in Dayton? Lila thought. Out of a goddamn faucet? Out of a giant green hose? She smiled at herself in the mirror. Something funny, sometimes, about an angry person. She started ranting out loud, raising her voice when Janie approached. “Have you purged yourself yet?” Janie would ask, raising her eyebrows. A joke of theirs. 266 s ha r p a n d d a n g e r ou s v i r t u e s There were almost no cars on the streets; people were moving as far from the Grid as possible within the quarantined area, calling up friends in the south suburbs asking about empty rooms. Lila couldn’t take it seriously. She imagined a hundred stick figures running to one side of a raft and sinking it. Pilots riding their planes like wild ponies. Tanks shooting balls of flame that bounced off other tanks and ricocheted back to their throwers. Lila carried her bottle of brandy by its neck and set it down on whatever surface she was next to. Snap out of it, she’d think. Be adult. You’re a threat. You know water. “Come here, Aunt Lila!” Janie was on Lila’s perc. “Look at the chervil. Isn’t it char, Aunt Lila? Things are growing like crazy.” She grinned. “You can see why people love it.” You can see why people love children, Lila thought. Their clear voices and thoughts. Their shoulders that were happy and unburdened. Janie moved the bottle from beside Lila’s perc to the floor. “Can we talk to your friend there, Aunt Lila? Please? Can we meet Allyssa?” For a change, the police had some information. “We’re not sure, but we’re thinking that the guys who got your Webelos could be Taconoutes.” Detective Kettlebaum gnawed at his thumbnail and frowned. “That mean anything to you?” Chad shook his head no. “Remember that guy from the nature center, declared it part of Esslandia, got himself shot? Taconoute.” “He was Taco-noot? How do you spell that?” “Taconoute. Not him, the shooters.” The detective spelled the word. “They’re young, they’re male, they’re demons. They travel in packs and they kill people. We think they got a woman from Consort out doing a reading at a power station , and a guy from water visiting a monitoring shed. Right up there along the Grid border, that’s a hotbed. They’ve hit around the Grid in Indiana and Illinois, too.” 267 talking to howard “Are they Gridians?” Detective Kettlebaum stopped his gnawing. “Yes.” “How’d they get that weird name?” “Who knows? Thought it sounded scary, maybe.” He hesitated. “Ed Meisner—he’s retired now—said the name reminded him of Tonton Macoutes, which was the name of the secret police some old dictator had. Rumor has it the Gridians have been keeping their problem children in encampments, and these Taconoutes are kids they’ve let out to cause trouble.” A message on Sharis’s perc from Mrs. Schneider in Texas. Of course we’re reading the news and we’re beside ourselves with worry. If you and your family can get out of Dayton and get to Houston you could stay with us. I know that’s easy to say but . . . And the closing: You’re phenomenal. Before we only had our life, but you turned us into a movie. Sharis sat for a moment staring at the holo-screen. One of...