Samuel Thorn checked to see if his room had a shower or a bath. It had a bath. Kirsten had been found dead in a hotel bath. Drowned. It would give him nightmares if he stayed.

He’d better get the room changed.

738

Edward rang The Penny Lock Show from a pay phone and got through to Tamy.

“I fell in love on one of your shows,” he said.

“With Penny?”

“Not Penny, a caller. Who could fall in love with Penny?”

“Some people do.”

“Not me.”

“What show was it?”

“ ‘Fight the Good Fight.’ Will you put me on?”

Tamy thought about fast-tracking Edward. “Fight the Good Fight” had been a goodie.

737

I didn’t think it was a goodie. I thought it was a baddie. I listened to it in my kitchen. It was supposed to be about consumers winning small battles against faceless corporations: “I bought a washing machine which spun out of control and I kicked up such a stink I got a holiday in Yosemite . . . ,” but then a woman came on who claimed to be part of a small but dangerous underground outfit that had pledged to commit acts of violence against anyone owning shares in pharmaceutical companies. She called herself Activist 345 and said that major drug manufacturers were guilty of grotesque market protection. Millions in the Third World were consequently suffering needlessly, agonizingly, and since this was being done in order to gratify shareholders, shareholders were going to have to face up to what was being perpetrated for their benefit.

Tamy had sat in her booth and chewed her fingernails and didn’t know whether she wanted her CEO father to be listening or not.

Penny Lock asked what the organization’s name was; Activist 345 said it was called TWA. Third World Army. Penny said wouldn’t it get confused with Trans World Airlines? Activist 345 said only a corporate whore would say something so flippant.

I gasped and dropped a plate. To my knowledge, no one had ever called Penny a whore before.

Penny got hard-line and pushed Activist 345 about the kinds of acts this organization committed. Activist 345 became emotional and said that she herself hadn’t physically attacked anyone, simply filled up shareholders’ cars with pig’s blood, or sent pictures of disease-wracked Africans to their children with the note “This is what Daddy and Mummy are doing.” But the organization was getting stronger and more dangerous, and it would only be a matter of time before extremists joined the struggle and less targeted violence would occur.

Like?

Bombs, replied Activist 345. Kidnapping. Hijacking.

She said she was suffering an ethical crisis, which was why she was calling the station. To urge any shareholders listening to either transfer their shares to fairer-trading companies, or else keep a very, very careful lookout. She didn’t want anyone’s death on her conscience.

Penny said the phone lines were going crazy.

“I denounce Activist 345’s insane practices,” said a caller.