Night of Power
He did not turn south again until he had reached the theater district. All the lights were out on The Great White Way. Things were relatively quiet for half a dozen blocks, then, until they reached Times Square, where a full-scale riot was in progress. Broadway was blocked with jammed-together burning cars, so José turned left and rocketed up 42nd Street, dodging dead cars and dead people at high speed. Within a few blocks he had hit more than half a dozen people and lost his left headlight. On either side of the street Jennifer saw a parade of clubbings, knifings, shootings. She saw something that had once been a white policeman; she saw a bag lady murder a child her age, only to have her own throat cut by a weeping priest; she saw a white woman in full dominatrix gear running from a pack of black boys, trying to clear her path with her whip. Jennifer put her face in her hands and closed her eyes. José warned her before turning right. They were back on Fifth Avenue, and all at once the trouble was, incredibly, behind them. They saw absolutely nothing out of the ordinary all the way down to 33rd Street. There were calmly strolling pedestrians and singing drunks, necking couples and break-dancing kids. Cover art by Thomas Kidd |
|
|
This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental. First Baen paperback printing, July 2005 Distributed by Simon & Schuster Printed in the United States of America |
ISBN: 0-7434-9917-4Copyright 1985 by Spider Robinson All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form. A Baen Books Original Production by Windhaven Press Electronic version by WebWrights |
Baen Books by Spider RobinsonCallahan's Lady ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Night of Power was written with the assistance of the Canada Council for the Arts, and the Nova Scotia Department of Culture, Recreation & Fitness. Additional invaluable assistance, in the form of time, expertise, research, advice, and/or general support, was given to me by (among others): George Allanson, Susan Allison, Isaac Asimov, Stanley Asimov, Bob Atkinson, Jim Baen, John Bell, Bill and Sue Bittner, Ben Bova, Kathy and Tom Cullem, Patrick Doherty, Robert A. Heinlein, Don Hutter, Bill Jones, Jack MacRae, Kirby McCauley, Betsy Mitchell, Major H.K. O'Donnell, USMC, Fred Pohl, James V. Robinson, Charles Saunders, Richard Seaver, Fred Ward, and Eleanor Wood. My thanks go to all these individuals and institutions, as well as any I may have omitted. And of course Night of Power, like all my books, could never have existed in anything like its present form without the ongoing love, encouragement and support of my wife Jeanne and my daughter Luanna. —Halifax, Nova Scotia |
|
José aimed straight for the tank ahead, was doing 80 kph by the time he reached it, jogged the wheel and was around it, still accelerating. He was screaming right onto 48th Street before the tank’s turret could swivel around to track him.