that easy. We're not talking about a space habitat you can strap booster rockets to."
"No, trajectory of people is harder to change. So. What do we do now? Do you believe in this Phoenix?"
Alex worked his lips. "No, but-—if there's even the slightest chance."
"Why?"
"Why not? We have to go somewhere. Steve said California was our best chance for going underground, anyway."
"And when Phoenix fails to rise from her ashes, you will chase after the next rumor and the next."
"At least I'll still be trying. What else is there to do?"
* * *
Ron Cole sat in a large stuffed chair in the oversized living room. He looked somehow out of place, and kept casting nervous glances left and right. Jerky movements, like a bird's. Then he sprang from the chair and shoved it into a corner of the wall. After that he sat slightly more at ease, though he still seemed to twitch nervously.
"Is it still paranoia," Thor whispered to Alex, "when they really are out to get you?"
Cole's eyes danced from face to face around the room, lingering briefly on each. He frowned slightly when he locked gazes with Alex; and nibbled on his lower lip over Harry. "Oliver," he said plaintively, "there are too many."
Helga and Violetta had already returned with several bags of snack foods that they had bartered from the grocery store for the Wisconsin cheese. They broke open bags of chips and trail mix into large bowls and hand them out. Alex raised his eyebrows.
"So much in trade?" he asked her.
"Oh, people will pay far more for the cheese than it is worth," Helga explained. "I suppose that, as long as a single slice can make it out of 'America's Dairyland,' people can tell themselves that things, aren't all that bad and they'll return to normal someday."
"Nostalgia has value, doesn't it?" said Sherrine. "Don't we have our own nostalgia? For the way the future was."
" 'A Fire in the Sky'. . ." said Bob.
"And we all want a slice of that future, too," said Mike with a grin.
"The Phoenix," said Bruce.
Cole jerked and looked at him. "You're not supposed to know about that. What do you