Instead, he helped her struggle out of the parka. She folded it neatly and slipped it beneath her rump. Jake did the same with his coat. It made a lumpy cushion but it was better than the hard bench.

“How’s Tim doing?” he asked.

She shook her head. “I haven’t seen him in a week. He’s ensconced himself up there in Lignite, working on the electrode problem. I think he sleeps with that stupid generator.”

And not with you, Jake added silently.

“Uh…” He tried to focus on the moment. “What brings you out here on a freezing night like this?”

“Professor Sinclair asked me to come to the debate and tell him how it went.”

“He’s feeling better?”

Glynis tilted her head slightly to one side. “He’s still pretty much a recluse. But he wants to know how Tomlinson does in this debate.”

“And you have no idea of what’s bugging him?” Jake probed.

“Tomlinson, of course. For some reason he’s terribly upset about Tomlinson making MHD such an issue.”

Jake looked into her dark, troubled eyes. This is my fault, he thought. But she doesn’t seem to blame me for it.

“Oh, look!” Glynis said. “Here they come.”

The auditorium was only half filled. Who wants to come out and freeze their butt on a night like this? Jake asked himself.

Tomlinson came striding out of a side door, all smiles, with a platinum-haired woman that Jake recognized as one of the anchors on the local PBS news station. Behind her came Harmon Dant, a bulky figure with thinning hair and a slightly uneasy expression on his apple-cheeked face. Tomlinson was wearing a perfectly tailored three-piece suit, as usual; Dant was in casual slacks and a navy blue blazer, unbuttoned and flapping around his ample middle.

The audience—such as it was—rose to its feet and applauded tepidly. Then Jake saw Amy Wexler hurry across the polished oak floor and take a seat on the front row of benches.

As the two candidates stood at the lecterns, the TV woman sat daintily at the little desk and looked directly into the camera with the red light glowing.

“Good evening,” she said, “and welcome to the first of what we hope will be a series of debates between the two candidates for the Republican Party’s nomination to run for the U.S. Senate.”

She introduced Tomlinson and Dant, then told the audience that Tomlinson had won a coin toss and would speak first. Of course Tomlinson won the toss, Jake thought. The rich always get their way.

“Dant doesn’t look like much, does he?” Glynis whispered.