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LA0: In 1937 Kim, Sofie,  and  Dory were in that wonderful last year of their tweens when their bodies  were gathering power for the big changes soon to come. They talked about boys in abstract terms that had little to do with the little barbarians  that were actual boys.

LA1: In slumber parties  the  girls practiced necking with each other so long as it was understood that  one of the neckers had to be a  boy  in theory. Sofie Krause 'at great per- sonal sacrifice' played the role of beau  nine times out of  ten,  espe- cially when Doriel was up.

LA2: At  the  Green  Dome   private school the  tight  group  of  girl- friends passed flowery love letters to each  other. Girl-love at  age twelve is of such a high order that it knows  no  jealousy. Share and share alike, everything from  lunch to little masterpieces  of  amorous soliloquy.

LA3: Doriel. No last name. Black eyes, long jet black hair  tied  in the obligatory Church pony tail  but with the  cutest  bangs  ever. The first of the three to start growing knockers, Dory was already, at just age twelve, a full six  feet  tall. Sha was going to be a giantess.

LA4: Dory loved books like The Hob- bit and  aimed for straight  Bs  to please har father, who was very  of- ten absent, while not appearing too bookish. Dory heard voices. When sha was younger, it was a fun game, but over time Dory came to dislike being a telephone switchboard.

LA5: Eventually, Dory insisted  the Voices keep it limited to important calls. Sha enforced this by threat- ening to keep the Voices up at night with voices of har own. Over time sha learned sha was a member of the B'nei Elohim and sha  learned  what that really meant.

LA6: Sofie Krause: A tomboy who kept her ash-blond hair short,  with  no Church-mandated pony tail. When she grew older she was the only girl on the  football  team. Like Kim  and Dory, Sofie  was required  to  wear woolen skirts to class rather  than trousers, which always annoyed her.

LA7: One Halloween morning Dory came dressed as a pirate's wench. Sha had ripped har dress into long strips so har pinup-model legs could poke out when sha walked. When Sofie saw that she felt a sweet electric shock and knew she had graduated to full-serv- ice tribade.

LA8: Kim wasn't ready to  let  down her father. So she  gritted   her teeth, wore the  damned  pony-tail, and when  she ventured  outside  of Headwater  she tried to  ignore  the comments at the edge of her hearing like, 'Oh hey, there  goes  another Bunner, look at her hair.'

LA9: For science class the  teacher paired everyone off as lab partners. Kim ended up with Sofie,  and  Dory ended up  with har  cousin  Gabriel Shybear. Everyone assumed those two would gravitate together and do the usual Church of Green  Dome  thing, but that was never to be.

LAK: Sofie kicked Gabriel out of hez seat with  'no offense  pally'  and sent hem shambling towards Kim,  an adjustment in the teacher's  choice. Che could tell Sofie and Dory were a unit so che grew close to Kim, even holding her hand skating at Lake 13 when it was frozen over.

LAL: By the springtime in 1939 Sofie and Dory were asking if Kim and Ga- briel had pitched woo and  what  it was like. 'We did indeed pitch woo,' Kim said. 'He feels like a  rubber wet suit stretched over a  suit  of armor. Soft on the surface but with a hard core underneath. I like it.' LAM: In the summer of '39 the  same Lake 13 was for skinny-dipping  and there was no more keeping one of the oldest Red Wing family secrets. Dory already knew, but now Kim and Sofie knew as well that  Gabriel  Shybear was both  a boy and a girl  at  the same time. And che wasn't unique. LAN: The four of them stood naked in a square, ten yards out into Lake 13 up to  their thighs in  cool  water with no body modesty at all because they were good friends  and  nobody else was there. The boy part of Ga- briel was doing what fourteen  year old boy parts do around girls. LAO: Kim asked about the one  ball, so Gabriel lifted it and showed hez labia majora behind it. 'The other ball is inside me, Kim, it's a real ovary. I could get pregnant.'  Kim glanced at  hez small  breasts  and nipples, which didn't look like they were just for decoration either. LAP: 'Gabriel  is what  we  call  a jen,' Dory said. 'Now take my momma, che's an ambi. The genitals are the other way around. If you told hem to fuck hemself che could literally do it.'  Gabriel, who heard  that  joke before, still cracked up. But Kim and Sofie were stunned to silence. LAR: When Gabriel saw their unbelief che said, 'Recall  your  scripture. Genesis six four. There were giants in the earth in those days. When the sons of God came in unto the daugh- ters of men they bore  children  to them. The same became the mighty men of old, men of renown.' LAS: Kim processed this, put it to- gether with Gabriel's height of six feet seven, then said, incredulous- ly, 'You're saying you're  actually one of the nephilim?' Dory came  to the  defense  of  har cousin. 'Che's saying we both have copies of our grandparents'  Z  sex chromosomes. LAT: 'What about you?' Sophie asked, looking at Dory. 'You're Gabriel's cousin so why didn't you end up with a dangler?' 'I'm not  a nephil, I'm  an  angel. That's why I'm even taller than Ga- briel and I've got two girly bits. A little bit harder to see, but that's why we're here.' LAU: Sha  reached  down  to  spread things open  for their  view. They were not perfectly identical,  only the lower set had a  urethra. Then Dory looked askance at both of  har friends. 'None of this should be new to you, Kim. Sofie? Don't you  two believe the Book of Green Dome?' LAV: 'Of course I believe all  that stuff in the Green Book and the Bi- ble,' Kim answered. 'God, heaven, miracles, the empty tomb,  everyone believes it happened then. But no- body believes it happens now.' 'She's right,' Sofie said. 'Nobody admits it,  but  she's   absolutely right.' LAW: 'If you were just talking about the Bible you'd have a point,'  Ga- briel said. 'Half the Green Book is corrections  to the stories  in  the Bible. But the new claims  in  the Book of Green Dome? Everything in there really happened. It's like no other holy text ever written.' LAX: Kim and Sophie  accepted  this rebuke and nodded their  heads  si- lently, unprepared  to  call  their best friends  liars. Besides, the evidence was there for them to  see between the legs of their  friends. Kim turned  to Gabriel  and  asked, 'The archangel Gabriel, you're that Gabriel?' LAY: Dory and Gabriel  locked  eyes briefly, and Dory chose to speak. 'I hate to  say there  are  things  we can't tell you, at least not now. I think later you'll understand why we couldn't talk. But I can teach you the proper  pronouns for  ambe  and jan, yen and yeng, men and women.' LAZ: Gabriel, Kim, Sofie  and  Dory were all firmly middle-class,  evi- denced by their attendance  at  the Church's private school. Their par- ents were sufficiently well-off  to provide  instruments when they  took band class, except Kim's  only  in- strument was her own voice. HBA: As the 1940s began Kim  Zinter was a member of the Green Dome Tem- ple Girl's Choir. She was an expres- sive mezzo-soprano with a voice that belied her fifteen years and verged on being too breathy  and  sensuous for spiritual music. Listeners com- pared her favorably to Peggy Lee. HBB:  Dory  played  a   double-bass standing on  an  end-pin  sha   had lengthened to be more  comfortable. Sometimes sha set down  har  French bow and plucked the strings pizzica- to with  meandering bass  lines,  a soundtrack  to daydreams sha  was  a black cat slinking around at night. HBC: Sofie Krause pounded the skins with all the power that made her  a formidable offensive guard, yet  sha ran  effortlessly  in  and   around Dory's machine-like bass,  averting expectations and  punctuating   her licks with sixteenth-note drum fills as endlessly unique as snowflakes. HBD: Gabriel Shybear had no  innate musical talent but che figured that was the reason che was taking  band class, after all. After a semester learning scales on a recorder Gabri- el took up the saxophone, Kim start- ed dabbling on piano and  the  kids had a  basic jazz  combo  on  their hands. HBE: Many who knew the details said that Robyn replacing Kim Zinter  on keys and vocals in 1943 didn't real- ly count as a change in the  band's line-up. Later some even said that when Rebekah Redstar replaced Gabri- el Shybear in 1947 that wasn't real- ly a change as well. HBF: Sophie  Krause and  Dory  Two- feathers formed the constant pulsing heart of the act and performed until the early 21st Century. After Sophie changed her name to just  Hunky  in 1942  the  band would, in  fact,  be named  Hunky-Dory after  the  rhythm section, much like Fleetwood Mac. HBG: Beginning in 1945,  for  every year ending  in a 0 or a  5,  which they called a Lustrum, the  members of Hunky-Dory would  drop  whatever they were doing, get together,  jam in the winter, record in the spring, and tour  in the summer. It was  a ritual they never allowed to lapse. HBH: As the 20th Century rolled  on Hunky-Dory  dabbled  with  and  even gave birth to an astonishing  array of musical styles, but not even the Mick Jagger / Keith Richards / Ron- nie Wood / Charlie Watts lineup  of The Rolling Stones would come  close them in terms of sheer longevity. HBI: Early on the four most powerful B'nei Elohim came to be called sim- ply the  Band. The less  powerful B'nei  Elohim   styled   themselves Roadies. And the ones who fell under the sway of Rebekah, or  the  loyal opposition  as   Robyn   charitably called them,  were  known  as   the Groupies. HBJ: In April 1942 word arrived  of the Doolittle Raid after five months of unrelenting bad  news  following Pearl Harbor. In celebration,  the conductor of the Green Dome  Temple School band class led a recital  of patriotic John Philip Sousa marches, attended by half of Headwater. HBK: For an encore the  class  tore into a  cover of the  classic  Duke Ellington standard 'It Don't Mean A Thing (If It Ain't Got That  Swing)' with Kim soloing on vocals, Rebekah Redstar on trombone, and Gabriel on sax. It was the first real triumph of the future Hunky-Dory. HBL: For Kim the only  downside  in all  this was how her father  didn't make the recital despite his  solemn promise to do so. She could see her mother sitting out there in the gym and how she kept a seat  saved  for him, but even to the end of the en- core the seat was never filled. HBM: Erik Zinter didn't  come  home all that  night and even  the  next morning. In the middle of the school day Kim was pulled out of class  by Deacon Paul Bergin and driven  home. Paul said nothing but Kim began  to cry. He found his way to 1301  'V' Street but Kim didn't get out. HBN: 'Home sweet home,' Paul  said. Kimberly stared at him through blur- ry eyes, wondering if he was  being callous. Then she did get out of his car and proceeded to walk a block to 1301 'U' Street. Sloppy temple re- cords. And that was how Bergin found out where she really lived. HBO: Paul choose not to follow. At home  Clara  paced  silently. Kim started crying again  in  sympathy, pleading for her Mom to speak. After a time Clara looked directly at her daughter, building up the willpower to blurt it out to her, and finally she did: 'Your father is dead!' HBP: They both cried until there was nothing more to give, and even when Kim's eyes  were bone dry  she  was still wracked with sobs that trailed off at length to silent grief. Fi- nally Kim started repeatedly asking her mother  why and  when  she  was ready to speak Clara had answers. HBQ: According to Prophet Peter Two Feathers, Erik Zinter was killed by an  ancient relic called the  Golden Gift, something Kim and  Clara  as- sumed was merely an allegorical lit- erary device to move the plot of the Green Book along, perhaps like  the whale in the book of Jonah. HBR: In the scripture of the Church of Green  Dome heaven  was  a  real place with walled cities  ruled  by angelic kings. One time Michael sent Prince Melchizedek, the son of Mel- chiyahu and  grandson  of  Gordiel, down to Earth to set aside a people who would  receive the  oracles  of God. HBS: Peter Twofeathers revealed that for ten years he had lent Erik Zint- er the Golden Gift, the very  relic wielded by Melchizedek in the story, to honeycomb Green Dome with tunnels to access isolated pockets of coal. This had allowed Headwater to pros- per through the Depression. HBT: But overnight there was a cave- in that smashed Erik's helmet  lan- tern and  plunged  him  into  total darkness. He couldn't dig his  way out, even with the Golden Gift, be- cause he got turned around and bored deeper into the mountain rather than back out towards the way he came. HBU: As Erik created a greater vol- ume of  space to walk  through  the remaining oxygen was stretched  too thin and  there were  also  suction losses through the Golden Gift  it- self. It wasn't until dawn that men with picks and spades broke through the cave-in and reached Erik's body. HBV: Peter assured Clara  that  her husband died without any  pain. He simply fell asleep and never woke up again. Also he praised the memory of Erik for never violating  a  sacred trust that some in the Church  were saying was more than even the Proph- et had the authority to grant. HBW: But Clara admitted she  had  a hard  time  taking all of  this  in. Peter was asking her to  accept  at face value that the Golden Gift  was real, and the scriptures were liter- ally true. Shared beliefs were for binding a faith community,  not  to actually...believe. HBX: 'When you attend the Final Rite you will come to see see the wisdom of it,' said Peter Twofeathers. 'But try to be strong, Clara. In the days to come there will be those who will tell you that God punished your hus- band with  death for  misusing  his holy gift to the Church.' HCA: In  the aftermath of  her  fa- ther's death Kim stopped  going  to school. Sofie and Dory  came  over after a  couple of days to  see  if their friend was well. She was not, but their visit elevated  Kim  from her grief a microscopic bit and her mother Clara noticed that. HCB: After Sophie's mother came  to pick her daughter up Clara asked her to wait until Dory's parents arrived as well, because she had a  request to make of all of them. When every- one was together Clara  said,  'I'd like  Sofie and Dory to be with  Kim for her father's funeral.' HCC: Susan Krause shook her head. 'I don't think so. They're just school girls and a funeral is a very solemn thing.' Dory's  father   Ithuriel   agreed. 'Clara, this  should be  a  private family time for you and Kim.' 'But we have no family here,' Clara said. 'My folks are back east.' HCD: Dory's mother Anael pointed out that Clara still had  in-laws,  but she shook her head. 'They're Bunner Incarnate. They always held me  at arm's  length. Kim is  taking  the death of Erik very hard but when the girls came over today I saw how they were like a family to her.' HCE: Ithuriel said, 'I'm not worried about Dory. I'm worried more about Sofie and Kim. When you are on the other side of the Final Rite, Clara, you will no longer have the  child- like faith that our Lord  said  was more blessed than the faith of  who believe because they have seen.' HCF: It was a  gentle  negotiation. Clara  got  permission  for   Kim's friends  to be with her for the  fu- neral. Ithuriel persuaded Clara to have  Kim sit out the  actual  Final Rite, and rarely in history have so many  future  lives been  so  deeply affected by so trivial a choice. HCG: It would have been unseemly to run around playing while the body of Kim's  father was sent to  his  long home along with three other Greendo- mites from around the  country,  so they sat around in the Temple  base- ment. Volunteers prepared dinner for the families of the dead. HCH: Gabriel  Shybear  joined  them after breaking away from a group of boys smoking outside. Che seemed to know a lot of secrets about the Tem- ple. Gabriel led the girls into  a supply  room  which  wasn't  locked. Kim, Sofie, and Dory  tagged  along because there was nothing  else  to do. HCI: There was no electric light in the temple attic, only a window with blinds and it was a gloomy  January day outside. There was an old piano which  was  probably  broken. Kim avoided the urge to play it. There was a map of Headwater and many  of the usual church odds and ends. HCJ: The kids found unused hymnals, stacks of old temple bulletins, emp- ty mason jars, and dozens of stacked folding chairs. Sofie found a cane carved from gnarled wood and shifted it from hand to hand to get the feel of it. Gabriel stopped moving  and went, 'Shhh! What's that?' HCK: The children froze but the only thing they heard was organ music and the choir bleeding through the ceil- ing from  the  main  sanctuary  up- stairs. 'Very funny,' Sofie  said, giving Gabriel a friendly shove. One of the walls was unfinished. Gabriel moved aside a piece of plywood. HCL:  The  plywood  had   concealed another dark space beyond. It was so black inside it drank their  vision like a sponge. 'I've never been in there,'  Gabriel admitted. None of the girls wanted to go in there  but Gabriel dared them to go. Naturally Sofie was the first one through. HCM: Gabriel  immediately  followed Sofie to  show che  wasn't  afraid. Dory and Kim were afraid of the dark hole and unafraid to admit it,  but they didn't want to be left alone so they  squeezed  in  also. Gabriel burned through ten  matches  before Dory brought a candle from the  at- tic. HCN: The kids found they were in  a space  that  was  about  four  times larger than the attic but there was no wooden floor, just natural stone and dirt rising halfway to the ceil- ing. Something like a rocky  igloo reached nearly to the ceiling  from the center of a circle of stones. HCO: The ceiling creaked as someone walked to and fro overhead. Gabriel did a complete circuit of the space, then said to Dory, 'This is part of our family history!' She said,  'This must be  the  very summit of Green Dome. Wanica built that cairn, and the altar right over it.' HCP: When  Gabriel  saw  the  blank faces of Sofie and Kim che was  as- tonished. 'Did you forget what they taught us in Sunday school? This is the Island in the Sky where God gave Chief Wanica the Golden Gift.' 'And God gave Moses the stone  tablets,' answered Kim. 'I read that too.' HCQ: Dory pointed to  the  ceiling. 'What do you think is happening  up there right now?' Kim considered her answer,  because she  didn't  wish  to  offend   her friends. Then: 'It's a simple crema- tion of  my father's body  and  the bodies of three other Greendomites, spiced with ritual.' HCR: Dory said, 'Kim, you saw Gabri- el when  we went swimming  once  at Lake 13 and you still think the  Bu- ron is just a bunch of stories they invented?' 'I went to the library  and  looked that up,' Kim replied. 'Gabriel's a hermaphrodite. It's not a big deal. Sometimes it happens.' HCS: Gabriel rolled up hez  sleeves and approached Kim,  flipping  both hands over a few times to show they were empty. Che said, 'Hold out your hand.' Gabriel clasped her hand, and when che took it away  again  there was a stack of 1942 silver half-dol- lars. 'Explain that, if you can.' HCT: Kimberly put the coins in  her purse because money was money and if Gabriel wanted to give her ten bucks so be it. She said, 'Magic tricks, Gabriel, just  like  what   they're showing  Momma upstairs  right  now. Why can't people just be amazed  at God for what he really did do?' HCU: Dory threw up har hands in mock despair at  har  heathen   friends. 'White Wingers,' sha muttered. Ga- briel moved toward the cairn. 'We'll never have the chance to be in here again,' che said. 'I want to see if it's  really there.' 'And you'll  go straight to hell,' warned Sofie. HCV: 'There's no hell in  Greendom- ism,'  Gabriel  snorted,  and   che picked the boulder most likely to be easily moved. As soon as it did  a mouse escaped. Dory and Kim screamed together when they saw it. Without a word Sofie let her cane fly  in  an arc over her head upon the creature. HCW: Sofie was just hoping to scare the mouse away but she ended up hit- ting the  critter  instead  with  a lucky shot. 'This is a church right? So there's your church mouse.' Dory shifted immediately  from  fear  to maternal concern. The animal was in obvious pain. 'You crippled it!' HCX: 'I didn't mean to actually hit it!' They all took a closer look at the creature. The head of the mouse was misshapen with a huge white bump on the back that was nearly as large as the mouse's head  itself. 'Look what you  did,  Sofie!'  Dory  com- plained. 'Look at that bump!' HCY: 'That isn't from anything  she did,' Gabriel said. 'He didn't go in the cairn like that. He must  have waited for someone to crack a gap in the rocks wider so he could get out, the poor little guy.' Sofie finished him off with the end of  her  cane. 'This is better for him.' HCZ: Its head was now a flat  furry coin. Nobody knew what  the  white bump meant. Sophie scratched  the dirt with her cane and dug a little grave for the dead mouse  'Rest  in pieces,' she said, then  remembered, too late, that they were at the fu- neral of Kimberly's father. 'Sorry.' HDA: Gabriel returned to the  cairn and tugged on the stone once  more. Sophie gave  him a  hand,  and  the boulder slowly  swung open  like  a hinged  door, just enough that  they could squeeze inside the stone igloo one at a time. Dory brought light. A plain white dome lay inside. HDB: 'So that's God,' said Kim. Ga- briel shook hez head. 'No, but God made this. And don't say God  made everything, Sofie,  even  you  know better.' The skin of the  dome  was dotted with  thousands  of   little holes. Some of these sported  nee- dles, like a cactus. Kim touched it. HDC: That was something  Kim  ought not to have done. With a sound like a tiny squirt of steam her fingertip was instantly skewered. Kim pulled her hand away involuntarily  before the pain even registered. After that the white dome sported another  ex- truded spine from its surface. HDD: Dory was a little  more  wise. Sha grabbed  a pencil  out  of  har purse and leaned over the  artifact with the eraser tip prudently stand- ing in for har finger. Sha verified it was ready to defend itself at any time. Gabriel thought about kicking it but che was wearing moccasins. HDE: Sofie was not afraid. She al- lowed her own finger to be skewered by the white dome and doesn't  even wince. 'Here we go, Kim. Whatever trouble you're in for getting stung by this thing, I'm in the same trou- ble.' So she has the final  victory over Gabriel in the test of courage. HDF: After that they began to slide back out  of the  cairn,  but  they heard footsteps in the storage room next door. Dory put out the candle as everyone held their  breath  and tried not to make a  sound. Deacon Paul looked into the dark  gap  and could just make out two silhouettes. HDG: Bergin screamed at them to get out. Blushing, Gabriel, Kim, Sofie and Dory scrambled out from beneath the altar, then out of  the  supply room. They sat together in the base- ment lunchroom. The deacon  locked the supply room, and true to Gabri- el's words they never returned. HDH: Dory's only casualty was a pen- cil with a soggy eraser. Sha said, 'Thanks for that little  adventure, Gabriel. I always knew the avatar of Chokhmah was real, but actually see- ing it is something I'll never for- get.' Just then the attendees began to filter in from upstairs. HDI: During the meal after the Final Rite Kim thought her mother  seemed very different. The grief was gone. Clara said,  'It's all  true,  Kim. Everything in  the  Green  Book  is really true!' She no longer needed a leap of faith to give her assent  to the things taught by the Church. HDJ: Kim knew her mother had been a nurse in the First World War and had seen things in France  so  terrible she refused to even talk about them, things which would crush the  faith of anyone  who believed in  a  good God. It was good to see some  sem- blance of hope restored in her. HDI: But Kim and Sophie needed more convincing. Over the next few days they grew bumps at the back of their head just  like  that  poor  church mouse. Dr. Wahkan said not to worry but Clara disagreed to the point of quitting her job at the little  hos- pital and taking Kim to Lusk. HDJ: Two days later Sofie's parents brought her to Lusk as well but the doctors there could do little  more than watch the girls get worse. The bumps opened up like flowers to re- veal stiff black hairs  inside. By June 1942 the girls were under fed- eral quarantine in  parts  unknown. HEA: Kim and Sofie had no idea where they had been taken, but it  was  a new place. There was no use mincing terms, they were in prison, but  it doubled  as a clinic. It was an odd combination  of   almost    magical science and shabby construction with nails sticking through the walls. HEB: There were no windows  in  the clinic where  they were  held,  but from June  to August  of  1942  the girls could hear furious  construc- tion outside  that only  ceased  at night. During those  months  their captor, Dr. Ian Trochmann,  learned maddeningly few things about  their condition. HEC: The white D-shaped cup emerging from their scalp was made of  bone. The cups  had  exactly   fifty-five graphite bristles growing out of  a floor. If the bristles were crushed or snapped off they grew back  like the lead in a mechanical pencil. Dr. Trochmann had two cables made. HED: The  b'nei elohim  would  call them Purple Cables, even after many copies were made that weren't actu- ally purple. But for Dr. Trochmann's purposes the  cables proved  to  be useless. He would print  squiggles from the girls on a fat roll of pa- per but didn't know what they meant. HEE: When Trochmann put a 15 milli- volt level on the pins both Kim and Sofie reported  strange  total-body sandpapery sensations  they   found very /unpleasant and refused to en- dure again. Hooking the girls  to- gether with  the Purple  Cable  was thought too risky in the early eval- uation. HEF: One  time Kim and  Sofie  were playing Eights, and Kim heard a si- lent shout in her head that, despite its silence, sounded  exactly  like Dory. She said, 'DISCARD THE QUEEN!' Kim replied to the voice with a men- tal shout of her own. 'IT'S NOT EVEN THE RIGHT SUIT!' 'DO IT!' HEG: Kim obeyed the voice,  dropped the queen,  and Sofie's  eyes  went much wider than it should have done from a bad play. Dory's voice  now told Kim, 'SOFIE WILL DISCARD A SIX OF HEARTS, WATCH!' And that's exact- ly what she did. Now they both knew their friend's voice was real. HEH: Lest watchers suspected  some- thing meaningful  in  their  mutual glances  (and   they   were   being watched)  Sofie covered  by  saying, 'You don't  even know how  to  play this simple game.' She retreated to one  corner  of the clinic,  Kim  to another,  and  they  both  conversed through Dory. HEI: Dory had to smooth  over  some hard feelings  about  keeping  this strange talent  a secret. She did this by  calmly pointing  out  that both  Kim  and  Sofie  would   have thought her plain nuts if she  said she could hear voices, plant voices, and even ride behind  another  per- son's eyes. HEJ: When Sofie asked about  Jerry, and what his talent was,  Dory  re- plied, 'DO YOU REMEMBER THAT  TRICK YESHUA DID WITH THE LOAVES AND FISH- ES? JERRY COULD PULL THAT OFF!' It didn't  sound  like  something  that would help them get out of the win- dowless clinic that was their pris- on. HEK: Kim suggested  punching  every number on the lock until  the  door opened. Dory relayed that to Sofie, who shook her head. They were being watched. One time she  killed  the lights in their space and saw a glow coming  from  the   'mirror'   that stopped soon after. It was a window. HEL: Kim came up with an idea to end the surveillance. They had to embar- rass Doc Troch by making him  think that two girls, ages seventeen  and confined together for months  in  a small space, had fallen in love with each other. Sofie thought she could swing it. Dory said behave. HEM: Kim and Sofie went  on  strike and did  not cooperate  with  their captors at all. They said no words, but just sat in the clinic all  day doing nothing. There were two ways of dealing with all the  dead  time that were newly available  to  them after the Change. HEN: Kim let the clock  appear,  to her, to race and let her  heartbeats seem, to her, to become a low  hum. Kim sped up, cruised for  a  while, then slowed back down. Her muscles got sore from staying in one  posi- tion but four hours were burned  up in as many minutes. HEO: Sofie tried that too, but  she thought the time-lapse  method  was gross because  she could  feel  her bladder fill up and food moving in- side. She preferred to take a series of hour-long jumps in time with her consciousness simply  turned   off. This was the cat nap method. HEP: After four meals, two showers, and many  other stops  to  use  the restroom or drink some water Kim and Sofie had  a rather busy  day  that compressed a full week of real time. Another three weeks and the lunatics won. The asylum-keepers brought in their biggest gun. HEQ: This was the self-styled  Con- troller of what he styled DECON. It was the only time Clyde Tolson ever met Kim Zinter and Sofie Krause  in person. He said, 'Ladies, time for a heart-to-heart.' 'Fine,' said Sofie. 'Start by tell- ing us who the hell you are.' HER: 'My name is Clyde Tolson. You and Kim are under the  jurisdiction of a branch of the US Department of Justice called DECON, which is short for Domestic  Enemies  Containment, Observation, and Neutralization.' HES: Kim was pissed off. 'Domestic enemies? You must be joking. My fa- ther lost an arm fighting the Hun in W.W. One. My mother was a Red Cross nurse Over There. Every Sunday morn- ing after Temple I lead  the  whole congregation in a rip-roaring rendi- tion of God Bless America.' HET: 'You and Sofie have contracted an unknown contagion in a time  be- fore there is a proper federal  re- sponse for that. Bad luck for you, bad luck for everyone. But there are certain Presidential executive  or- ders which  could  be  read,   very loosely, as  offering  such  a  re- sponse.' HEU: 'You don't seem afraid to talk to us  face-to-face,'  Kim  pointed out. 'Doc Troch and  Nurse  Ramsey ain't scared either.' 'If we thought it was transmitted by sneezing you'd be totally isolated. Telling us how you got sick would do much toward getting you home.' HEV: 'Alright Mr. Tolson of DECON,' Sofie said, 'you've  explained  why you won't  unlock  the  door,   now please tell us where we are.' 'You're   not   very    far    from Headwater,' he said. 'Just one state over, in fact, near Cody. This is called the Heart Mountain Relocation Center.' HEW: 'Relocation  center? I don't understand. Who's being relocated?' 'It's easy  to  understand,  Sofie. Last December after Pearl Harbor FDR authorized the incarceration of Nips living on the West Coast. In January DECON stood up. Last February  the first camps were built.' HEX: Kim said, 'When you say 'Nips' I presume you really mean  American citizens with  a  Japanese   ethnic background.' When Tolson had nothing to  say  to that  Sofie  said,  'Hey  Kimmie,  I think  I'm  in the  wrong  camp. My great-great-great-great-great-great- granddaddy was a German.' HEY: Tolson wagged a finger. 'This camp is the third biggest  city  in Wyoming but only seven  undesirables out of  every  ten  are  Nips. The President's executive order was the kind of gift that comes around only once in  a generation,  but  strike while the iron is hot, they say.' HEZ: Sofie said, 'So I'm one of your 'undesirables' but I don't even feel sick.' 'Sofie, your brain isn't even alive anymore!' 'Then how could we even  be  having this conversation?' Tolson turned to Dr. Ian Trochmann. 'Please tell the young ladies  what we've learned so far.' HFA: 'It spreads like a virus,' the doctor said, 'but I've  never  seen anything like it before. It literal- ly remodels nerve and brain  cells. No more potassium and  sodium  ions pumped by ATP through  a  membrane. Your neurons are now little gadgets with sliding levers and the like.' HFB: 'What do you mean by gadgets?' asked Kim. 'Both of you girls have been hooked up to  an Offner Dynograph  and  it shows   nothing. You're  literally brain dead. Special Agent in Charge Tolson thinks you may be the  first victims of a nasty Nazi weapon we've never seen before.' HFC: 'I don't like you very  much,' Sofie said, directing her glance at both men in turn, 'But I can see you want something. Well, we want some- thing first. We want the  windows disguised as mirrors  removed  from our living space.' Dr. Trochmann tried to play  dumb. 'What mirrors?' HFD: 'Come now, Doctor,' said Sofie, 'you must think we're  just  stupid girls. But we've had a lot of time on our hands locked up in here. Nat- urally we  found  your  two  filthy peeping-Tom mirrors and people look- ing in on us.' 'I see there's no fooling you,  So- fie,' Tolson said. HFE: 'Sometimes  I  call  Sofie   a scrub,' Kim said, 'and she knows I'm only  kidding. But Mr. Tolson, I'll match a scrub at Green Dome  against any B student among the publics any- where.' 'It damn well better be  that  way, Kimmie, the amount of  money  daddy shells out for tuition.' HFF: 'The one-way mirrors  are  not used for what you think they are.' Kim said, 'Look, Clyde, yeah  maybe we're infected  and you  have  some order that says you can hold us  in this  quarantine  of yours,  but  we still have one fundamental right.' 'What do you mean? What right?' HFG:  'Like   plain   old-fashioned privacy!' For the first time Tolson and Trochmann became aware that Kim and Sofie were holding  hands. The doctor blushed. Sofie saw  the  opening  and  moved tighter up against Kim. 'What did you expect? We're seventeen   and cooped up together.' HFH: 'I hope you get what we're try- ing to say here fellas,' Sofie said, fluttering her fingers. 'I hope we don't have to spell it out.' 'I know exactly what you mean,' said Tolson, and  he truly  did. 'We've started out on the wrong foot.' 'Let's begin  once  more,'  offered Kim. HFI: The mood of the men brightened visibly at this breakthrough. Tolson said, 'I need to tighten up security a bit  but I'll let you  have  your privacy. Curtains on your side  of the mirrors.' When Tolson left the clinic he never saw the  girls again, but  not  for lack of trying. HFJ: The girls were attentive to the tighter security arrangements Tolson mentioned, but the only real change seemed to be how  their  tormentors would look at a scrap of paper from their pocket  before  punching  the buttons that  would let  them  out, which meant a daily code change. HFK: Sofie almost despaired but Kim explained (via Dory to maintain se- crecy) that the change did not  make their task any harder at all. They just had to pick a range and try all the combos in it night after  night until the daily shifting combo hap- pened to fall into that range. HFL: Next to the door  leaving  the clinic was a square keypad with the digits 0 through 9, and the letters A through F, and Kim knew from lis- tening that the combo was only four keystrokes. But as  soon  as   she started trying  them a  very  vivid daydream of  time appeared  in  her mind. HFM: To Kim her future was  like  a self-assembling house of cards. She could see the top, ten nights later, when doing the range from  7000  to 7FFF  she punched 7BC6 and the  door clicked open. But Kim wanted  out that very night, so she started try- ing the range from 1000 to 1FFF. HFN: The house of  cards  collapsed and assembled  itself  again. This time the answer was four days away. Kim began trying higher ranges, and got jackpots ranging from two  days to two weeks. Then in her mind she saw the number that was their ticket home that very night: D1FC. HFO: But it was November  and  they were wearing nothing  but  slippers and hospital gowns. That in itself was part of Tolson's security. Kim told Sofie to gather  blankets  and towels and whatever else she  could find  to  create  makeshift   extra clothing to  shield them  from  the cold. HFP: 'This  is  going  to  frighten Agent Tolson to no end,' said Kim as they both  bundled up. 'This, and especially what we do after this.' She could visualize the events lead- ing to their escape from  the  camp stacking up  in her  mind. 'Good,' said  Sofie,  'let  him  shit   his pants.' HFQ: Sofie Krause and Kimberly Zint- er saw the two Purple Cables hanging in a rack on their way out  of  the clinic and  requisitioned  them  as belts to make their ad hoc  ensemble of blankets almost sort of hang to- gether. Then they stepped out into Wyoming on a cold November night. HGA: After crossing L street,  11th rises from the flats  of  Headwater and dead-ends at the home  of  Dory Twofeathers almost a  hundred  feet higher. From her backyard the hill rises another sixty feet, bald  and scraped raw  by the wind,  but  the summit has a stand of three birches. HGB: No  one owned the top  of  the nameless hill owing to the difficul- ty of building a house  there,  but for generations a ramshackle cluster of tree forts was built between the three birch trees. When Kim and So- fie were taken away Dory and Gabriel spent much of their time up there. HGC: From this vantage Dory and Ga- briel could  see all  of  Headwater spread out to the north and east. To the south the railroad looped around Mt. Motorcycle to form the  end  of the  line. West over an 'S'- shaped bend in the Squaw River was Lake 13 lying at the foot of Green Dome. HGD: Looking down, Dory and Gabriel saw Special  Agent  Bill   Sullivan toiling up the mossy bald and  when he was closer he called from them to come down to have a chat. Dory in- vited him to come up into her  tree fort instead,  and after  a  moment considering this, he decided to try it. HGE: Agent Sullivan managed to reach the high railed platform where Dory and Gabriel were sitting. He opened his mouth to introduce himself  but Dory spoke first. 'You are Special Agent William Sullivan of  the  FBI and you came up here to ask us about Kim Zinter and Sofie Krause.' HGF: 'How  did you know  all  that, Dory?' She said, 'You've asking peo- ple all  over  Headwater  about  my friends and some of those people are on my wavelength.' He seemed puzzled by that answer. 'Where are Kim and Sofie now, Agent  Sullivan?'  asked Gabriel. 'No one seems to know.' HGG: 'I'm  not at  liberty  to  say where they are right now,  Gabriel, but I can say they are  very  sick, and their doctors still don't  know how the girls came down  with  what they have. That's where the two of you can help. We know the last time they were together was at the funer- al.' HGH: 'If you've been  asking  about us,' Gabriel said, 'then you already know we didn't actually attend  the Last Rite for Erik Zinter. We were downstairs the whole time, the four of us.' 'Yes and Paul Bergin said he found the four of you in the storage room where you oughtn't be.' HGI: 'It  was  unlocked,'  shrugged Dory. 'We were bored, so we had  a look.' 'Did you find anything unusu- al?' 'No sir, unless maybe a piano.' 'After Paul chewed our ass and boot- ed us  out,' Gabriel  put  in,  'he locked  it back up. Maybe he'll let you look if you flash your badge.' HGJ: 'I  did go up  to  the  Temple flashing my badge, Gabriel, but Paul Bergin's boss, Peter Twofeathers, is a little too old-fashioned  for  my taste. He's of a mind that I need to get a judge to sign a warrant before I can  go snooping  around  in  the basement of the holy precincts.' HGK: 'He  can be like  that,'  Dory said. Gabriel nodded his  head  in agreement. 'I'm very sorry we can't tell you anything more.' Agent  Sul- livan reached into his  jacket  and pulled out  an  envelope. 'Anyway here's a belated  birthday  present for you, young Gabriel Skybear.' HGL: What  Gabriel  thought  was  a birthday  card  turned out to  be  a notice for the draft. Agent Sullivan pointed over the railing. 'See down there over Dory's house? I know it's not your school,  that's  Headwater High. In the gym you'll  find  Dr. Wahkan and two other fellows.' HGM: 'I  don't  understand,   sir.' 'There's not much to  it,  Gabriel. You tell me how Kim and  Sofie  got sick and I make this draft notice go away. You say nothing, and down the hill you go to see who gets you, the Army or the Navy.' 'Honestly,  sir, I've told you everything I know.' HGN: 'Dory will you help the  young man out? War is hell. You might not ever see cousin Gabriel again after he reports to Boot.' Dory shook her head, refusing to even mention  the mouse. Sullivan said, 'Last chance, Gabriel. No? OK, suit yourself, son. Go kill yourself some Japs.' HGO: After  Sullivan  left  Gabriel suggested a game of  Cartel,  which was the  least  likely  thing  Dory thought could come out of his mouth after what just happened. 'And by Cartel   I  mean  strip  Cartel   of course.'  That raised the  stakes  a notch from losing little pink pieces of paper. HGP: The  dice flew and  round  and round the board they went. Gabriel bought up 42nd Street, Broadway, and Park Avenue. All he needed was Wall Street for  a  full  Cartel. Dory scooped up the Appian Way, the Burma Road, and Easy Street, and all  she needed was the Yellow Brick Road. HGQ: Dory thought it strange Gabriel wanted to play a game when he'd just been handed a draft notice and  she didn't have her heart in it. Gabriel got another half-Cartel going  with Mulholland Drive and Sunset  Boule- vard but  Dory blocked  by  getting Bourbon Street and Main Street. HGR: Gabriel had some  lucky  rolls and avoided landing on any of Dory's properties, while Dory kept landing on Gabriel's stuff and  started  to have  a serious cash  flow  problem. She auctioned off her belt and  ny- lons for a little  breathing  space but then the dice really turned  on her. HGS: Dory started landing on Gabri- el's Cartels  repeatedly. She was methodically stripped of most of her cash and started showing  more  and more skin to stay in the game. Soon Gabriel owned  Dory's  dark  yellow dress with  white polka  dots,  and after that her knit rayon undies and bra. HGT: But Dory rallied a little  bit near the end. The properties associ- ated with her knee socks and little black Mary Jane shoes, which Gabriel didn't want, were enough to complete a second Cartel, creating a kind of death row on one side of the  board. Soon Gabriel was shirtless. HGU: Another round. Dory demanded his pants. But Gabriel simply put on Dory's bra and dress, and when  che was  sufficiently   covered,    che dropped trou and handed them  over. 'A man  shalt not wear  that  which pertains to a woman,' Dory preached, 'for it is an abomination to God!' HGV: 'That verse doesn't  apply  to me,  cuz,' said Gabriel. 'I'm not a man  or a woman.' Gabriel landed  on the  next half of Dory's death  row. With insufficient cash to pay  Dory she demanded his  underwear,  which che promptly handed over. The game was over but che was fine with that. HGW: Under the cover of Dory's yel- low dress Gabriel slipped into  her panties and together with  her  bra che had everything che was  looking for. Gabriel bid his cousin adieu, left the  tree fort,  and  flounced down the hill to the high school gym to face the local draft board music. HGX: 'You want to tell me about it, son?' the NCO representing the Army drawled after Gabriel showed up. Che looked down at hemself, then caught the sergeant's eye. 'I guess I'm a waddyacallitt, homosexual.' But  the Navy first class petty officer  had heard this dodge before. HGY: 'You slackers think that's the easy way out,' he  growled. 'Who's your boyfriend?' Gabriel blurted out the name of the only male  homosexual  he  actually knew: 'Aaron Anton.' 'We  had  that Anton fellow in here  last  month,' the Army NCO said. 'He's queer as a football bat.' HGZ: Dr. Wahkan knew  what  Gabriel was trying to do, and he also  knew Gabriel wasn't actually going to get drafted. He decided to hurry things along. 'Gabriel! About face! Hike up that skirt! Panties at half mast!' Gabriel complied and both  military men drew closer to take a look. HHA: 'I  was present  at  Gabriel's birth,'  said the doctor, 'and  I've seen hem many times since. Che has a very rare birth defect  that  gives hem both male and female genitalia. Imagine what they would do to  poor Gabriel on a destroyer after  three months  at  sea  hunting   Japanese subs.' HHB: The Army and Navy  representa- tives looked at Gabriel and realized the doctor wasn't pulling their leg, looked at  each other,  and  nodded agreement. Petty Officer   Watson typed up a card classifying Gabriel IV-F: registrant not qualified  for military service for physical  rea- sons. HHC: 'Hang on to that  card,  son,' Watson said. 'Get it   laminated. That's gold. Starting next  month you'll have to present proof of your Selective Service status on demand. And Doc, I don't think we'll be back next month. I think we're scraping rock bottom of Headwater now.' HIA:: The girls could see the clinic was one of hundreds of long single- story sixplexes with tarpaper walls, each one  surrounded  by   drainage ditches crossed by gangplanks. Some had their interiors lit. Sofie want- ed to knock on a door  begging  for help but Kim shook her head. HIB: Instead Kim chose a greenhouse that was empty but locked. She qui- etly told her friend, 'We have spe- cial talents now just like Jerry and Dory do. You can break anything you touch. So break that padlock.' Sofie didn't believe  her, but  the  lock broke in her hands anyway. HIC: 'How do you like them apples?' Sofie husked. 'If I knew I could do that  we'd a left that hellhole  any time we wanted.' Kim shook her head again. 'No. It was an electric lock, right? So if you  broke  it,  we'd still be in the clinic.' 'So how did you get us out of there?' HID: 'I'll explain when we get  in- side.' Sofie was disappointed  that the greenhouse was cold. There was a vegetable garden  inside,  but  the glass only kept away the  snow  and wind. Kim seated herself,  plugged one end of the Purple Cable into her head, and offered Sofie the other. HIE: The D shape of  the  connector ends ensured they could only go to- gether in the correct way. In the first Sharing by two of  the  B'nei Elohim, Sofie replayed Kim's  memo- ries and  learned how  the  winning door combination appeared in  Kim's mind as soon as she started punching out. HIF: After that, Kim's mind latched onto a much more elaborate scenario for getting out of  the  internment camp. Sofie could see that also, in all  its absurd glory. In just  one half hour they would be  discovered by the fellow who  maintained  this greenhouse, one George Kaneko. HIG: Mr. Kaneko's initial anger  at finding Kim and Sofie hiding in  his garden would fade to pity when they told him  that they had  been  held prisoner in the clinic since  June. Not even the first wartime internees arrived until August. And the girls would learn three new words. HIH: Mr. Kaneko's parents were  is- sei. They had been born in  Japan, but immigrated to America. Mr. Kane- ko himself was nisei. The US was the only country  he  had  known,   yet George, his parents, his  wife  and even his three sansei (or third gen- eration) daughters were in the camp. HII: The extended family of  George Kaneko, through hard work, had made a good  life  on  their  Washington State strawberry farm. But in  the confusing legal  tangle  after  the internment was announced they  were tricked into selling their land  to whites for pennies on the dollar. HIJ: Now  the  Kaneko  family   was forced to crowd into a  single-room in the  barracks, lit by  a  single bulb. They had to shit, shower and shave with other families in commu- nity facilities with no  partitions for privacy,  and eat in  a  common mess hall  that  served  the  whole block. HIK: This happened out of  fear  in the  wake of Pearl Harbor,  and  Kim would  remind  Sofie   how   Tolson bragged of  making it come  to  be. Sofie would ask Mr. Kaneko  if  his daughters had any clothing to spare, but he would say they were too young to have anything that would fit her. HIL: Instead Mr. Kaneko would  give them spare garments of his own, even shoes and  jackets, and  when  they were captured,  as he  was  certain they would be, they could claim they stole them from the greenhouse. And Kim would ask why he was so certain they would not escape the camp. HIM: Mr. Kaneko would bring up  the barbed-wire fence that began to  go up  in October and was  nearly  com- plete, much to the bewilderment and dismay of the Japanese-Americans in the  camp who thought their  perfect acquiescence to the internment would prove their loyalty to America. HIN: He would say the only  gap  in the fence was along the west side of the  camp away from the  train  sta- tion. It was guarded by two towers with high-power  searchlights,  and soldiers on horseback to  run  down any who made it through. Seven less- er-equipped towers guarded the rest. HIO: Nevertheless,  Kim  and  Sofie would thank  Mr.  Kaneko  for   the clothing, depart his greenhouse, and make for the fence line  along  the train tracks,  choosing  a  section equidistant between two guard  tow- ers. They would be spotted but none of the  guards  would  shoot  right away. HIP: Sofie,  by simply  touching  a lamp post, would take out the  light overhead by  remotely  pulling  the wires. After that, she would merely touch a fence post to snap it off at the base. The fence would  dangle suspended by the two nearest  posts permitting the girls to roll under. HIQ: The guards would begin firing, but none  would score hits  in  the darkness as the girls ran  for  the tracks. There they would find  the manual turnout switch used to  move trains onto the siding to unload new internees for the camp. Sofie would break the metal left/right sign. HIR: With  the reflective  sign  no longer  indicating the  position  of the switch Sofie would throw a lever to divert traffic to the siding just before the next train arrived in  a ridiculously  opportune  coincidence that would say much more about Kim's new sense of timing than luck. HIS: The train would veer onto  the side track as expected, and the en- gineer would apply the brakes with a will, causing an empty gondola  car to stop right in front of the girls just long enough for them to  climb inside and get out of  sight. Then the train would go into reverse. HIT: When the train was entirely on the  main  line again  the  engineer would manually move the shunt  from left to right. The guards couldn't leave  their posts and would  report the fence breach by telephone. The train would resume its voyage  east before anyone knew one had stopped. HIU: That,  in any event,  was  the escape scenario Kim  had  foreseen, but the half-hour was up. Mr. Kaneko turned the  lights  on  within  his greenhouse, and it was time for the girls to carry out  everything  Kim had daydreamed to the  last  detail without a single deviation. HJA: The freight train between Cody and Billings was not  scheduled  to make  a stop in Powell but  on  this occasion the  engineer  stopped  to phone  in  the broken light  at  the Heart Mountain internment camp. That gave the friends of Kim and Sofie a very brief window to save them. HJB: The train was a half mile long and nobody knew exactly  which  car the girls had chosen to  stow  away on. The last image Dory recieved was the kind of rolling stock  with  an open top, about half the height of a box  car. The girls themselves were unconscious from exposure. HJC: Peter drove beside the motion- less train for a quarter mile before reaching the first run  of  gondola cars. Everyone got out of the sta- tion wagon and began calling  Sofie and Kim by name but no heads  poked over the sides of the cars. Gabriel used handrails to climb one of them. HJD: Gabriel didn't see the  girls, he saw a railcar filled with  inch- thick sheets  of steel  stacked  to within a foot and a half of the top. Same with the next car back. But the car after that had two piles of rags huddled against the front wall that could have been Kim and Sofie. HJE: Gabriel climbed back down  and pointed at the correct gondola car. 'They're in that one!' he told Dory, sprinting toward it. He hoped he was right. There was only the light of a waxing gibbous moon for him to see. Then disaster struck: the train be- gan to move once again. HJF: Instantly Gabriel had the relic that Michael called the Macro in his hand. He squeezed it until the hiss- ing shaft, pitch black on near black in the night, reached  its  maximum extension of about ten feet. If he squeezed  harder it would  begin  to retract as a shield or dome. HJG: When the railcar containing the girls approached, Gabriel swiped the active Macro effect through the cou- pling. This caused  an   inch-wide swath of  steel to  disappear. The half of the train with a locomotive continued to accelerate, while  the rear half began to slow to a halt. HJH: Peter moved his vehicle in re- verse to  follow the  part  of  the train that was left  behind,  while Gabriel and Dory followed on  foot. Dory felt a great sense of  relief. No matter what happened now, Kim and Sofie were  not on a  one-way  trip into eternity by way of the Rockies. HJI: When the rear half of the train rolled to a complete  stop  Gabriel told Dory to get up there and  make sure it really was the girls he saw. Dory climbed to the top, saw it was indeed Kim and Sofie, and burst into tears from the raw emotion of seeing them again after so long. HJJ: 'I'm  going  to  cut  them   a slide,' Gabriel said, and he let the Macro bite into the lip of the open gondola car. 'You're too  close,'  Dory  warned. 'You'll slice their feet.' The front half of the train was slowing to  a stop. The engineer  had   realized something was wrong. HJK: Gabriel put another nick about two feet aft of the first  one  and Dory told him that was better. So he made a cut about three feet wide and danced out of the way as the wall of the gondola car and tons  of  steel spilled to the ground. The chute was as smooth as a mirror. HJL: Peter Twofeathers joined Gabri- el, ready to catch the  girls  when they came  down  the  slide. Dory dragged Kim to the cut first and let her go. Kim was wrapped in blankets and a man's clothing. Not so much as a single atom of iron was  sticking its head up to impede her drop. HJM: Dory waited for Peter and  Ga- briel to pile Kim into the  station wagon before dragging Sofie to  the slide. She could see two flashlights dancing a thou- sand feet away. The crewmen from the caboose were walk- ing toward them to investigate  why the train had been snapped in two. HJN: When  Peter and  Gabriel  were ready Dory  pushed  Sofie  off  the railcar into  their  waiting  arms. Dory thought  better than  to  just slide down after her. After everyone was safe in the car Peter drove per- pendicular to the tracks so the men with flashlights wouldn't  see  the plates. HJO: Gabriel saw that Kim was wear- ing some short fellow's clothes and flannel coat under a blanket and she looked for  all the  world  like  a homeless bum, but everything smelled clean. The car stank worse than Kim- berly did. Che dug to reach skin and found she was dangerously cold. HJP: 'No wonder they nearly froze to death,' Dory said. 'There was just over a foot of steel  between  them and sixty miles an hour of cold No- vember wind, at two in the morning, in Wyoming. Poor Kim. Poor Sofie.' 'Poor Hunky,' Sofie corrected, stir- ring awake under Dory's hands. HJQ: 'Hunky? What?' 'They'll never stop looking for us,' Hunky said. 'We decided to  change our names. Kim is Robyn now.' Gabriel still had a comatose Kim, or Robyn, on his hands. 'What did you do, Dory?'  'Skin  to skin, Gabriel, that's the secret  to it. I know you want to.' HJR: 'Naming yourself Hunky  Krause won't hide you from the FBI,' Peter said. 'Just Hunky,' she said. 'One name.' 'Hunky-Dory,' said Dory. 'Cute.' 'And I want a secret code name just like in the Galaxy's Fall trilogy,' she went on. 'Call me Sabotage. I can break things.' HJS: The  way  home  doubled   back southwest. As Peter was driving past the Heart Mountain 'relocation cen- ter' Robyn stirred to life,  as  if sensitive  to the mere proximity  of her  former prison. Luxuriating in the  attention Gabriel  lavished  on her she purred, 'I like this  after- life.'