world smiled. it was the way the guys who ran the nukes smiled when they talked about atomicpower facilities.
'The word was consideration. You want to remember it. But smart guys can learn, yeah, Johnny? There's a dictionary back at the house. You need it, asshole?' He took a step toward Enders and had the distinct satisfaction of seeing the man fall back two steps, the contemptuous little smile disappearing. It was replaced with a look of nervy apprehension. 'Consideration, Johnny. You remember. All of you remember. If not for me, then for Bobbi.'
They were standing by the equipment lean-to now, Enders's eyes small and nervous, Gardener's large and bloodshot and still angry.
And if Bobbi dies, your idea of consideration may extend all the way to a quick and painless death. That's about the size of it, am I right? Would you say that just about describes the topography of this situation, you bald-headed little fuck?
'I - we - appreciate your plain speaking,' Enders said. His lips, with no teeth to back them up, pooched in and out nervously.
'I bet you do.'
'Perhaps a little plain speaking of our own is in order.' He took off his glasses, began to wipe them on the sweaty front of his shirt (an action which Gardener thought would only leave them more smeared than before), and Gardener saw a dirty, furious gleam in his eyes. 'You don't want to ... to strike out like that, Jim. I advise you - we all advise you - never to do it
again. There are ... uh ... changes ... yes, changes ... going on in Haven - '
'No shit.'
'And some of these changes have made people ... uh ... short-tempered. So striking out like that could be ... well, a bad mistake.'
'Do sudden noises bother you?' Gardener inquired.
Enders looked wary. 'I don't understand your p - '
'Because if the timer in that radio is jake, you're about to hear one.'
He stepped behind the lean-to, not quite running, but by no means lingering. Enders threw a startled glance toward the ship, and then ran after him. He tripped over a shovel and went sprawling in the dirt, grabbing at his shin and grimacing. A moment later a loud, crumping roar shook the earth. There was a series of those dull yet penetrating cludding sounds as chunks of rock flew against the ship's hull. Others sprayed into the air, then fell onto the edge of the cut or rattled back into it. Gardener saw one rebound from the ship's hull and bounce an amazing distance.
'You small-minded, practical joking son of a bitch!' Enders shouted. He was still lying on the ground, still clutching his shin.
'Small-minded, hell,' Gardener said. 'You left me down there.'
Enders glared at him.
Gardener stood where he was for a moment, then walked over to him and held out his hand. 'Come on, Johnny. Time to let bygones be bygones. If Stalin and Roosevelt could cooperate long enough to fight Hitler, I guess we ought to be able to cooperate long enough to unglue this sucker from the ground. What do you say?'
Enders would say nothing, but after a moment he took Gardener's hand and got up. He brushed sullenly at his clothes, occasionally favoring Gardener with an almost catlike expression of dislike.
'Want to go see if we brought in our well yet?' Gardener asked. He felt better than he had in days - months, actually, maybe even years. Blowing up at Enders had done him a world of good.
'What do you mean?'
'Never mind,' Gardener said, and went over to the cut alone. He peered down, looking for water, listening for gurgles and splashes. He saw nothing, heard nothing. It seemed they had lucked out again.
It suddenly occurred to him that he was standing here with his hands planted on his upper thighs, bent over a forty-foot drop with a man somewhere behind him to whom he had just administered a punch in the mouth. If Enders wanted to, he could run up behind me and tumble me into this hole with one hard push, he thought, and heard Enders saying: Striking out like that could be a very bad mistake.
But he didn't look around, and that sense of well-being, absurdly out of place or not, held. He was in a fix, and strapping a rearview mirror onto his head so he could see who was coming up behind him wasn't going to get him out of it.
When he turned around at last, Enders was still standing by