“Did you see anything up there?” Morlacher said to Pridgeon, as though they were alone together and nothing had happened.
“Nope. Anybody’s up there, they’re keeping away from the windows.”
“I’ll go up with you.” Morlacher began tightening the straps of his harness.
“Just so long as you don’t carry that shotgun with you,” Werry said severely. “We can’t have you just blasting off at people.”
Morlacher continued addressing Pridgeon. “I’ll take this shotgun up with me, and if I see anybody I’ll blast off at them.”
“Well, I don’t know how you characters feel, but I’m hungry,” Werry said, suddenly breezy and jovial as he turned to Hasson. “Come on, Rob — May’s going to get mad at us if we don’t show up in time for those steaks.” He walked to his car and dropped into the driving seat, causing the vehicle to rock on its suspension. Hasson, who had just established that it was now safe for him to move, lowered himself back into the car and closed the door. He placed his hands on his knees and gazed fixedly at them while Werry started the car, drove it in a semicircle across the uneven snow and took them back out to the road. A minute of silence was all he could endure.
“Al,” he said quietly, “are you going to put in a call?”
“A call?” Werry sounded genuinely surprised. “What for?”
“You saw Pridgeon commit a TDO — he was carrying a shotgun on an ordinary shoulder sling. And Morlacher’s going to do it, too.”
“I wouldn’t worry about that too much. Besides, it was on Buck’s private property.”
“Which doesn’t count in air law.”
Werry laughed. “Relax, Rob. This isn’t the old country. People aren’t shoulder to shoulder on the ground here. We’ve got millions of square kilometres of open land you could drop whole city blocks on without anybody paying any heed.”
“But …” Hasson tightened his grip on his knees, and the knuckles shone through the skin like ivory hillocks, each bifurcated by a thin pink line. He had realized why he could not remember his first meeting with Werry — the man he had believed Werry to be simply did not exist.