There was an extensive shopping list in his head. His first stop would be the Government Printing Office Data Center. There he would purchase four sets of data disks containing the entire public-domain nonfiction records of the Library of Congress. Each set, on five hundred disks, occupied the space of a good-sized filing cabinet, and he did not know why four copies were necessary, but he would pay for them all in cash with about half of the money in the envelope.

He stood in line at the service counter of the Data Center for ten minutes, and then stepped up to the clerk, a young, balding man with a full red beard and a sharply appraising stare.

"Can I help you?" the clerk asked.

"I'd like four sets of number 15-692-421-3-A-G."

The clerk wrote the number down and consulted a terminal. "That's nonfiction, complete, L.C.," he said. "Including all reference guides and indices?"

Reuben nodded.

The clerk's stare became more intense. "That's fifteen thousand dollars a set," he said.

Reuben calmly unfolded a roll of money and counted out sixty thousand-dollar bills.

The clerk examined the bills carefully, rubbing them, holding them up close. "I'll have to call my supervisor," he said.

"Fine," Reuben said.

A half hour later, ail the formalities cleared away, Reuben wrote down where he wanted the sets sent—a mailing address in West Virginia.

"What will you do with them all?" the clerk asked as he handed Reuben the receipt.

"Read them," Reuben said. "Four times."

He regretted that flippancy as he walked south on Seventh Street toward the National Archives, but only for a moment. Instructions were pouring in rapidly, and he had little time to think for himself.

Chapter 48

48

January 5

Lieutenant Colonel Rogers came out of a sound sleep at four a.m., just minutes before his wristwatch alarm was set to go off. He deactivated the alarm and switched on the small lamp at the head of his narrow bunk. For a luxurious minute, he lay still in the bunk, listening. All was quiet. All calm. It was Sunday; most of the Forge of Godders had moved to Furnace Creek the night before for a huge rally planned this morning by the Reverend Edwina Ashberry.