Strangers

O'Callahan," Brendan said. "But I don't know if even Father Wycazik could arrange an immediate meeting with him."
        "He has to," Jack said firmly. "Brendan, you've got to move fast, just as Ginger will be moving fast in Boston. We've got to assume our enemies will be quick about spotting you when you turn up in Chicago. Anyway, at the meeting with Cardinal O'Callahan, you and Jorja and Sandy will explain what's happened in Elko County - and Brendan, you'll give a demonstration of your newly discovered telekinetic ability. Pull out all the stops, okay? Do cardinals wear pants under their robes?"
        Brendan blinked in surprise. "What? Of course, they wear pants."
        "Then I want you to scare the pants off your Cardinal O'Callahan. Give him a show that'll let him know he's part of the biggest story since they found the stone rolled away from the mouth of that tomb two thousand years ago. And I don't mean to be blasphemous, Brendan. I really think it is the biggest story since."
        "So do I," Brendan said. Though he had been glum all morning, he seemed to take heart from Jack's tone of authority and quiet excitement.
        Now, the wild wind was vibrating the sheets of plywood at the windows, filling the restaurant with a low and ominous thrumming.
        Ernie Block cocked his gray-bristled head, listening, and said, "With winds like this already, so soon after the snow hits, it's going to be a roof-raiser later on."
        Jack didn't want the weather to deteriorate too rapidly, for if the enemy was going to strike within the next few hours, as he anticipated, they might accelerate their schedule to avoid the messy complications of conducting the round-up in a full-scale blizzard.
        "Okay, Brendan," Jack said, "convince Cardinal O'Callahan and get him to arrange quick meetings with the mayor, city councilmen, social and financial leaders. You might have as much as twenty-four hours to spread your story before your life is in danger. The farther you spread it, the less danger you're in. But in any case, you shouldn't risk spending more than twelve hours putting together a network of powerful advocates before you ask them to arrange a press conference. Just picture it: the city's most prominent citizens forming a backdrop for you, reporters wondering what the hell is about to happen - and then you display your telekinetic ability by levitating a chair and sending it on a nice slow trip around the room!"
        Brendan grinned broadly. "That'll put an end to their cover-up for sure. No way they can continue it after that."
        "Let's hope so," Jack said. "Because while the rest of you are off on your various missions, Dom and Ned and I will be inside Thunder Hill, perhaps under military arrest, and our only chance of getting out in the same condition we went in is if you blow this wide open."
        Jorja said, "I don't like that part of it - the three of you going into the mountain. Why's it necessary? I asked you that same question fifteen minutes ago, and you still haven't answered me, Jack. If we can slip out of here, back to Boston and Chicago, use Ginger's and Brendan's connections to blast this story wide open, then there's no need to go poking around in the Depository. Once we've set the wheels of the press in motion, the Army and whatever government agencies are involved will eventually have to come clean. They'll have to tell us what happened that summer and what they've been doing in Thunder Hill."
        Jack took a deep breath, for this was the part at which they might balk - especially Ned and Dom. "Sorry, Jorja. But that's naive. If we all split and tell our stories, there'll be enormous pressure on the military and government to reveal the truth, yes, but they'll delay. They'll drag their feet and spread contradictory stories for weeks, months. That'll give them time to devise a convincing lie to explain everything, yet reveal nothing. Our only hope of exposing the truth is to make them open up fast. And to speed things along, the rest of you have to be able to tell the world that three of your friends - Dom, Ned, and me - are being held against our will inside the mountain. Hostages. The element of a hostage drama, with agencies of our own government in the role of terrorists, will be the final ingredient that might make it impossible for the Army to stonewall more than a day or two."
        He could see that this revelation startled everyone. Ernie and