Sherwood Nation (68 page)

“Yeah, she was pretty. And a journalist,” Thom said, wishing, too, a phone number were involved.

“I don’t know, she was too . . . I don’t know, too librarian to be pretty.”

“What? Too librarian?”

“I could go as far as cute,” Erik said.

“Then I get the rights to flirt if we meet her again.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m more attracted to her than you,” Thom said.

“I think she’s pretty.”

“Well, we won’t ever see her again. Which is good, because it doesn’t mean we’re roped into carrying this thing across America.”

Erik shrugged. “I thought it’d be fun.”

They walked in silence for a while, passing commercial and residential areas and getting deep into the Northwest Industrial area of Portland. The road turned into Highway 30, which curved to the north along the Columbia River and then west to Astoria, at the mouth of the Columbia, and finally into Highway 101 along the Pacific Ocean. They would pass Thom’s ex-girlfriend’s house on Sauvie Island. A belt of anxiety tightened around his middle.

“When we come to a resting spot, I want to have a good look at this thing. There may be some kind of strange gyroscopic mechanism inside. By the way, we seriously need to consider a sleeping place. It’s the middle of winter. We should have brought blankets. It’ll probably rain all night.”

“I brought a blanket,” said Tree.

“So did I,” said Erik.

“Hell,” said Thom.

A car passed and honked, two young kids in the back stared.

The streets were deserted. They passed lots full of discarded iron parts, tin buildings with the discordant rumble of machinery inside. They sweated in their jackets.

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