Joe Clark sat on the bed in the cheap hotel.  He kept the 
shotgun in his right hand set point-blank against the foot tall 
humming metal cylinder on the floor next to the bed.  He ran his 
fingers through his wife's hair, her blood-soaked body lying on the 
bed next to him.  He brushed away a tear with his left hand.  He 
would have to make certain only to use his left hand for awhile, 
keeping the right hand and shotgun pointed at his experiment on the 
floor.  It was the only thing keeping him alive.
	There were police sharpshooters watching through the window.  
He was certain of it.  The curtains were open, and the lights were on.  
There was nothing he could do about either problem.  If he lowered 
his gun or got up, even for a second, they would kill him instantly.  
He didn't have any sort of police scanner, but he could guarantee that 
they had standing orders to kill him with malice the first 
oppurtunity they got.  
	The only thing keeping him alive was his shotgun pointing at 
the nuclear reactor at his feet.
	It was the second experimental prototype he had built, and the 
only one remaining in existance.  All the computer records and 
printouts were lying around the warm stainless steel, strewn about 
in a pile.  The unit was plugged in to the wall outlet by the bed, and 
the unit was powering up, getting warmer and warmer.  Right now 
the room was about 70 degrees.  Soon it would be a comfortable 85 
thousand.  
	He was going to blow the reactor up, and every record of it.  
And when it went, the room would go with it.  Not to mention 
everything and everyone within 20 miles.  
	Himself included.  
	And if things went as he thought, he had about 5 minutes of 
life left.  And this was just how he wanted things.

	Nora closed the back hatch of the 4 wheel drive.  She looked at 
the desert sand that was crushed into the tread of her hiking boots.  
"I know that you needed to come out to the desert to test this 
damned thing," she said kicking the stainless steel cylinder at her 
feet, "but my god, did you have to drive us out this far?"  Joe smiled 
to himself.  Nora had a habit of complaining, whether she was really 
miserable or not.  It had taken about 7 years to figure her out.  He 
had learned to ignore her half of the time, and pay close attention 
the other half of the time.
	Now if he could figure out which half was which, he would 
have it made.
	He plugged the last of the cables from the cylinder, an 
experimental fusion reactor, into the laptop that would serve as the 
continuous recorder.  Standing up, he said "Sorry honey.  But you did 
say you wanted to get away from it all."  He slapped his shorts to 
knock the West Texas dust off, and walked back to the truck to take 
the tent down from roof.
	"Away, yes.  But not so far away that I can't call room service."  
She was still helping him set up however, plugging the reactor's 
power cable into the little Honda electric generator.  The generator 
would be used to get the first few atoms of hydrogen in the reactor 
to fuse.  Afterwards, the heat from the initial fusion reactions would 
cause other atoms of hydrogen and deuterium to fuse continuously, 
generating a tremendous amount of heat for years and years.
	That is, if everything went as planned.  That was part of the 
trouble with experimental research.  There were no books to tell you 
what would and would not happen.  Joe was a mechanical engineer 
with an Austin Manufacturing firm, but his work with "warm fusion" 
was entirely on his own.  He had an idea that was just crazy enough 
to work, so he built 2 reactors to experiment with during his 
vacation.  One was a foot tall, the other twice as large.  He decided to 
start with the large one first.
	The smaller reactor was still in the back of the truck, along 
with all the drawings and disks needed to make it.
	"I'll tell you what."  he said tossing the tent still wrapped up to 
the ground.  "It is getting kind of late, and I don't feel like setting up 
a camp tonight.  Why don't we go back to that little town we passed 
up about 40 miles ago?  I saw a hotel just off the highway.  We can 
spend the night there while the reactor gets good and charged 
overnight."  
	"Aren't you worried about leaving all your gear out here 
alone?" she asked.   
	"We are 40 miles from the nearest town."  he replied looking at 
the sun starting to dip down toward the hills.  "Nobody is going to be 
around tonight."  He turned on the generator and double checked the 
pressure of the Hydrogen in the reactor.  Finally he was satisfied that 
the experiment was underway.
	Then they both climbed back into the truck, and set off 
towards town. 
	They didn't say much on the drive.  They were both tired from 
the long drive out and the west Texas heat.  It had taken him quite 
some time to find an empty patch of nothing in which to test his new 
equipment.  At first she questioned why he had to test the reactor in 
such an isolated place.  But soon she realized that if something went 
wrong, the potential for destruction was enormous.  High pressure 
Hydrogen at high temperture could burn a city block.  So, grudgingly, 
she went along with him into the desert for a 5 day "camping trip".  
	She hated camping.
	They had been on the road for about 30 minutes, heading East.  
They were now over 25 miles from the campsite.  Only about 5 more 
miles to go.  Already they could see occasional streetlights over the 
occasional driveway.  She broke the silence first.  "Do you really 
think this crazy idea will work?"
	"I certainly hope so." he replied.  "I have put a lot of money 
into this experiment.  Computers, generators, custom-made stainless 
steel, illegally obtained radioactive material.  But the potential 
reward is fantastic."
	"Once again, just how much energy could it produce?" she 
quizzed.  She had never quite grasped the concept, no matter how 
often he explained it.
	"If things work out like I believe it will, each reactor could 
produce as much power as a coal-fired generator.  Burning nothing 
but cheap old hydrogen"  he replied.  "This could be a quantum 
technology, changing the face of the world forever.  Imagine a power 
bill in the single digits.  Imagine free heating for the poor.  Energy 
intensive industries would have cheap power and make lower cost 
goods.  
	"A working practical fusion cell could create a new world-wide 
Industrial Renaissance." he continued. 
	She listened quietly as he preached.  She knew better than to 
interrupt when he was on a roll.  She had heard it all before, but 
found it hard to grasp.  She had always been taught that you couldn't 
get something for nothing.  Finally he was finished, and she took the 
oppurtunity to ask "And what is the worst that could happen in this 
experiment?"
	"Well, if things don't work out, nothing will happen.  We will 
have wasted 5 days in the desert.  But the absolute worst case would 
be a runaway reactor.  But that is near impossible."
	"Then why all this care in testing so far from home?"
	He was about to reply, but was interrupted by a sudden flash 
in the rear-view mirror.  Looking backwards, he saw the birth of a 
new sun on the horizon.
	It started with a sphere of unbelievably bright light, and very 
rapidly grew into a mushroom cloud.  And it came from about where 
their campsite is, or was.  It became monsterously large in an instant.  
	Something had gone terribly wrong with his experiment.
	"What the hell was that?"  Nora screamed.
	"Be Quiet!" he commanded.  He knew that his reactor was the 
source of the nuclear explosion behind him.  He also knew that in a 
moment the shock wave from the blast would hit them.  Quickly he 
did the math in his head.  Sound moving at about 1 mile per 4 
seconds meant the shock would hit in about 2 minutes.  That wasn't 
much time at all.  They had to get to lower ground, and quick.  If the 
shockwave caught them out in the open...
	He slammed on the brakes and brought the truck screeching to 
a stop next to a crossing in the road.  He jumped out of the truck and 
yelled for Nora to get out and follow him.  She quickly got out and 
ran after him toward the ditch by the side of the road.  Just ahead 
was a culvert, going under the road.  Not exactly a bomb shelter, but 
it would do fine.  "Head for the culvert and get in!" he cried.  He ran 
as fast as he could to the pipe and stopped short to wait for Nora.  
She got to the culvert and stopped.  "There could be snakes in there!"  
she yelled.
	"Get in!" he demanded, shoving her forward into the pipe.  He 
immediately dropped to all fours and followed her in.  He hoped 
there weren't any snakes in there, but if there were, too bad.
	"Now why are hiding down here?"  Nora gasped.  He didn't 
have to reply.  A thunderous boom suddenly filled their ears.  He 
didn't know it was possible for sound to get that loud.  The volume 
was beyond belief.  The pipe shook like an angry giant was beating 
on it.  Chunks of the concrete roof turned to dust from the vibration 
and fell in their faces.  He was terrified.  He probably screamed.  She 
may have screamed too.  Neither knew, since the sounds of their 
screams were more than crushed by the ungodly bass around them.  
	And as quickly as it started, the sound stopped.
	Both Nora and Joe laid there unmoving for a fair amount of 
time.  There was a ringing in his ears for what seemed an eternity.  
He could feel his wife moving around ahead of him, so he knew she 
was alright.  The culvert was cracked and broken all around him.  It 
didn't collapse at least.  For that, he was grateful.  Gradually, the roar 
in his head faded away.  The first real sound he heard was his wife 
talking.  She had turned around on all fours, and was staring him 
straight in the eye.
	"Joe"  She said flattly.  "In the near future, we need to discuss 
what is usually meant by the phrase 'nearly impossible' ."
	They crawled out of the culvert the same way they came in.  
The sky was much darker than a moment ago.  As he stood up in the 
ditch he got a good look at his truck.  The rear window was gone, 
shattered and gone to pebbles.  Fortunately, the truck wasn't 
destroyed by the shock wave.  Either the blast was smaller than he 
thought, or they were farther away.  But if they were farther away, 
the shockwave would have come later than it did.  So the blast, 
nuclear though it was, wasn't as large as the big bombs the military 
had.  
	Of course, he had built his bomb in a garage for $5000.
	As she came out, she looked at the darkened sky.  The glow 
from the explosion had long since passed, but the dust and smoke in 
the air blocked most of the sunset.  What light from the sun did 
manage to cut through the debris was a sickly reddish color, like an 
old wound that wouldn't quite heal.  It made her nauseous to look at 
it, so she turned away.  Or was it the metallic taste in her mouth?
	"So, what happens now?" she asked, surveying the damage to 
the truck rather than face the cloud to the west.
	He thought about it a moment.  " I don't know." he said.  "I.. I 
guess we will go home, and bury this damned thing." he exclaimed, 
pointing to the metal cylinder in the back of the truck.  " We will 
pretend that we were running late, and turned around when we saw 
the explosion.  No one ever need to know that we caused it."
	"You mean you aren't going to try to find out what went 
wrong?"  she asked, quite surprised at her husband.  He always fixed 
things when they broke.  It was his trademark.
	" I'm not sure yet." he exclaimed.  "I need to hide the thing for 
a while and buy some time.  I need to think things through.  But it 
must be hidden.  If the designs for this cell fall into the wrong hands, 
it could be the end of civilization!"  He shuddered.  "Imagine every 
terrorist wacko group on earth suddenly having the power to wage 
nuclear war on anyone they wish."  He sank to his knees.  The total 
impact of what he had done began to reach him.
	" I tried to help mankind, and instead built the tool that could 
destroy them."  he cried.
	Nora stood watching him.  He was near to tears.  This was quite 
a character change from the unemotional engineer she was used to 
living with.  He was usually the strong one in the family, and the 
support she used when she felt the world fall apart.  For him to be 
torn up so, things must really be screwed up.  She really didn't know 
what to do.  So she just stood next to him, letting him feel her 
closeness and warmth without condesending to mothering him.  She 
felt so sorry for him she could cry herself.  His dream was bigger 
than he could handle.  Probably bigger than anyone could handle.
	Gradually, they both became aware of a noise in the sky.  A 
distant roar from a distant aircraft.  Looking up, they saw a silver 
flash with long white streaks behind it, four plumes in all.  The sun 
was still shining at whatever altitude the plane was flying at, and 
against the dark sky its metal body gleamed brightly.
	"Commercial airline."  she said, grateful for the distraction.  
Maybe she could bring him out of it by letting him try to determine 
what kind of airplane it was.  He loved planes.  "Probably trying to 
get a better look of the area in order to report to the FAA, or 
something."
	But he knew that particular shape of silver.  He had seen them 
for years.  "Sorry dear, but that plane is military.  B1 Bomber 
aircraft.  Probably from Dyess Air Force Base in Abilene."  
	Something made him stop for a moment.  To have come this far 
from Dyess in so short a time, that plane would have had to have 
been on active alert and ready to go at a moments notice.  And all 
alert aircraft carried nuclear attack missles.  He was starting to get a 
queasy feeling in his stomach.
	"But what is he doing flying around here for?" she asked.
	"They probably launched every bomber they could..." He didn't 
have to finish his sentence.  The military would fire everything it 
had when they saw the explosion on U.S. soil.  
	To hell with the terrorists, he thought.  He may have just 
started World War 3!
	"We have to get to town as fast as possible!" he said.  "We need 
to tell someone that this was an accident, and not a part of any 
military assault!"  He ran toward the truck with Nora close behind.  
As he opened the driver side door, broken glass from the rear 
window fell out onto the road.  He took a second to wipe the glass 
from the seat with a magazine, and jumped in.  A second later his 
wife was inside with him, and he started the truck and continued 
eastward.
	They arrived in town about 5 minutes later and turned north 
towards the hotel.  It wouldn't have looked like a nice hotel under 
any conditions.  Right now it looked downright awful.  The darkness 
didn't hide enough of the dry cracked wood.  The blinking neon had 
several broken tubes, and he was certain they had been broken long 
before this incident.  They pulled the truck up to the front, and he 
jumped out.  He ran into the lobby and stopped at the front desk.  At 
least he didn't have to beat on a bell to get the attention of the clerk.  
The old fart was waiting at the desk when Joe arrived.
	"I need a room for the night, and fast!" he gasped.
	The old man looked up from the paper he was reading.  "Well, I 
have plenty of rooms," he said.  "but I have no idea how long we are 
going to stay open.  Seems some natural gas main or something blew 
up out west, and the politicians haven't decided whether to evacute 
the area or not."  
	"Natural gas?" Joe asked.  "Who says?  Where did you hear a 
thing like that?" Joe asked.
	"Heard it on the radio." the old man replied, turning up the 
volume on a desk radio on the counter.  He could hear the announcer 
clearly:  'are not certain the danger from secondary explosions has 
passed.  Washington and Austin continue to insist that the explosion 
was due to a fault in a salt storage dome somewhere in west Texas.  
They are being very tight lipped about which dome is responsible 
however, and all military forces here and abroad have been ordered 
to DefCon 2, which is the readiness level just short of war.
	The old man pushed a key across the counter to Joe.  "Room 
13." he said.  "You can settle accounts with me later."  The old man 
then turned around and walked back to the kitchen in the back of 
the office.
	Joe thanked the man as he left, and ran back to the truck and 
his wife.  They drove through the almost empty parking lot and 
pulled up in front of their room as quickly as they could.  After 
parking, Joe leaped out and opened the back hatch.  He grabbed the 
remaining reactor and lifted its heavy steel weight up onto his 
shoulders with all his strength.  Nora had gotten the door unlocked 
and opened by the time he reached it, and he ran inside and put the 
cylinder down beside the bed.  He noticed that it was unusually 
heavy.  Suddenly he remembered charging both units with hydrogen 
before leaving their home, just in case the hydrogen tank got 
damaged.
	"You find out who to call Nora," Joe gasped.  " and I will try to 
explain all this to them.  Meanwhile I am going back outside to get 
the papers and computer disks."  She looked up at him as she picked 
up the phone.  She was scared, he knew.  Hell, so was he.  But best to 
keep her spirits up.  "Don't worry dear.  Everything will work out 
fine."  He then smiled at her.  "Heck, now that we have proven the 
concept, all we need to do is control it and we are rich, baby."  She 
looked down and started to dial the phone, ignoring the pep talk.  
	Joe ran back out of the hotel room to the truck.  In the parking 
lot light he got a better look at the vehicle.  The back looked as if it 
had been sandblasted.  There wasn't a speck of paint left on the rear 
of the truck.  We are lucky to be alive, he thought to himself.  They 
could have stayed put and set up camp that night.  Then no-one 
would be left to tell what really happened.  Grabbing the folders and 
disks, he wondered what kind of charges would be filed against him 
for nuking a U.S. desert?
	Probably they would demand the secret to warm-fusion.  For a 
start...
	Collecting the last disk he saw the shotgun they always kept in 
the truck for long trips.  Many people had vanished because they 
were a long way from home in unfamiliar territory.  Joe wasn't going 
to end up like that, so he carried the shotgun on such trips.  But the 
back window was broken, and someone could just reach in and take 
it.  Grumbling, he picked it up , and carried it and the rest of his 
cache out of the truck.
	He went back inside, and set the gun, disks, and papers next to 
the reactor beside the bed.  His wife was already talking to someone 
on the phone.  "No.  No I am not kidding!  No, things aren't like that 
at all!  What do you mean 'what are our demands?'  We don't have 
any demands!  Look, would you just talk with my husband?"  As he 
closed the door, she handed the phone to him.  She no longer looked 
scared, now she looked pissed off.  "Mr. Omaha, Deputy Director of 
the F.B.I. is on the phone.  You try to talk to him!"
	He was impressed.  "F.B.I., great idea."  He smiled at her 
ingenuity in the face of disaster.
	"Federal Bureau of Incompentents!" she replied, an angry edge 
to her voice.  "And no, I think it was a bad idea.  I should never 
called them."  She got up and stormed off into the bathroom, 
muttering something about a special plane in hell reserved solely for 
bureaucrats.
	Joe picked up the phone.  "Is this the F.B.I.?"
	"Yes indeed.  I understand you are the one responsible for the 
explosion in West Texas?"
	"Unfortunately, yes.  I had an accident with an experiment 
that..."
	"And you naturally want your group to be given credit.  Setting 
off a nuclear device on U.S. soil is definately an achievement, is it 
not?"  Omahas voice was anything but receptive.  He sounded 
arrogant and self-assured.
	"Huh?" Joe replied.
	"Actually, we are all grateful that you didn't detonate it inside 
a city."
	"Well, I didn't exactly detonate it." Joe replied.
	"Tell me, which terrorist group do you belong to?"
	"I don't belong to any terrorist group." Joe insisted.
	"And which U.S. policies do you want changed?"  
	"I don't give a shit what the government does!"
	"Do you want a new constitution then?" Omaha asked, his voice 
dripping with anger. "Perhaps a total dissolution of the military?  Or 
do you just demand that the president step down?"
	Joe had a little anger of his own!  What the hell were they 
talking about, terrorist organization.  He was no terrorist, he was an 
engineer.  An engineer that goofed, that's all.
	"Listen you two-bit pompous federal ass!  I am not a terrorist! 
I have never been a terrorist!  I don't care about anything to do with 
politics, it's beneath my dignity.  I was trying to develop a new 
power plant when it exploded!  That's all!  Why won't you listen to 
me?"
	Omaha apparently was not impressed.  "I heard you.  Now you 
can listen to me you rag-head death-to-everyone-I-don't-like 
selfrightous bastard"  Omaha's voice was just on this side of yelling.  
"You aren't going to accomplish ANYTHING by attacking this country!  
We may have our problems dipshit, but they sure as hell aren't as 
bad as anything you have to offer! 
	"And we will find you!  More to the point, I will find you!"  
Omaha was gritting his teeth, Joe could hear it through the telephone.  
"I will make it my life's mission to find you in particular!  I will see 
to it that you never see a court room.  I will see to it that you never 
make the papers.  I will ensure that you resist arrest in the slowest, 
most painful manner I can devise!  I will ask the sickest and most 
depraved psychos we have in prison to tell us their worst fantasies!  
Then, after I have you, rest assured that I will enjoy watching you 
suffer!
	"By attacking this country, you have signed your death 
warrant!  You make your peace with your god now, Abdul!  Because 
when I get hold of you..."
	Joe had known people that were angry, even furious.  This was 
the first time he had encountered absolute rage.  He was stunned by 
the verbal assault.  He barely had the strength to hold the phone to 
his head.  
	Finally he got some sense back.  "But I didn't do it on purpose."  
he said weakly.  He shouldn't have bothered.  Omaha had already 
slammed the phone down, and hung up on him.
	Slowly, Joe hung up the phone.  They didn't believe him.  He 
could hear a toilet flush in the bathroom.  He envisioned his life in 
that moment, going down the toilet.  Spinning faster and faster, 
getting deeper and deeper, until finally it was gone.  It wasn't a 
pretty thought.  He put his head in his hands.  He had already broken 
down once today, he thought.  Who would care if he did it again?
	Nora came out of the bathroom wearing only a towel.  "Listen, I 
am filthy, so I am going to take a bath."  She went over to the 
suitcase and got the shampoo, and her hairdryer.  " You know, you 
could use a bath yourself lover."  she said, teasingly.  "I don't 
normally roam around hotel rooms in the buff with people that crawl 
around in sewers."  She smiled coyly at him.  "Hey, care to join me?  I 
think we can find a way to both fit in the tub."  She teasingly opened 
the towel for a split second, showing him what she had to offer.
	Joe didn't respond.  He just sat there with his head in his hands.  
He was too numb... too taken by everything that had happened.  One 
hour ago he was an engineer with a prestigious firm on vacation.  
Now he was Public Enemy number one.  It happened so fast!  He just 
couldn't take it all in.  And his family.  What would happen to his 
kids?  What would happen to his wife?
	She somehow knew that he needed her.  Tucking the towel to 
stay in place, she came over to him and sat down on the bed.  "Hey 
tiger, are you going to be okay?"
	When he didn't respond, she pulled him to her breast and held 
him.  It seemed she held him for the longest time.  "There, there" she 
said.  "Things aren't so bad."  
	Joe started to feel more like himself under his wife's gentle 
care.  " And just how is it not so bad?"  he asked?
	"Well, just like you said earlier.  No-one knows who we are or 
where we are."  she replied.
	Joe sat upright.  She was right!  Nobody knew anything about 
them.  Nothing at all.  They could just pretend nothing happened, and 
go back to their old lives.  They could go home and say they 
cancelled the trip due to high temperatures (over 10000 degrees in 
spots).  
	Then Joe saw the second reactor. 
	"And what do we do about that?"  he asked.
	She turned his face towards hers.  Then slowly, oh so slowly, 
she kissed him.  For an eternity he felt her love on him.  Then all too 
quickly, it was over.  She then stared at him straight on.
	"Destroy it."
	"What?!!"  he exclaimed.  "But I am on the right track honey.  
Think of the possibilities.  Why, the rewards could be..."
	"Far below the price you and I would have to pay."  she 
interrupted.  "You cannot allow this technology to leak out.  You said 
so yourself just 30 minutes ago.  And you certainly can't let the 
government have it, or in 50 years, everyone on earth will know its 
secrets.  
	"Remember what you told me earlier.   Think a minute, and 
imagine a world where every organization becomes a nuclear power." 
she said quietly.  "Imagine a world where factional fighting has 
reduced every city on earth to ash.  You know that the government is 
by its very nature incapable of keeping secrets, and that mankind is 
still warlike and petty.
	"So.  The only way to keep this thing a secret, is to destroy it."
	Deep down he knew she was right.  The price was indeed high.  
Unlimited power now, but the end of civilization later.  He would 
have to disassemble the reactor and bury the seperate pieces far, far 
apart.  He would also have to burn every paper and disk.  
	"You are right, of course."  he said.  "If only it hadn't exploded 
though..."
	She got up off the bed.  "And if wishes were horses, beggers 
would ride."  She kicked the power cord of the reactor, tossing it high 
into the air, causing it to land on the bed.  "Sorry honey.  But 
everything has a price.  Nothing is free, not even free power."
	He smiled.  "You are right again, I suppose"  he said.  "But at 
least no-one knows who we are and where we are."
	They both then heard a phone ring in the next room.  Suddenly 
they both looked in horror at the telephone they had just talked with 
the FBI on.
	That call was traced!
	They both moved in an instant.  "We have to get out of here," 
Nora said, "Now!"  She grabbed the suitcase and tossed it onto the 
bed, opening it.  Joe dashed to the doorway saying "I am going to 
back the truck up and open the tailgate!  We can just throw our stuff 
in the back and haul ass!"  He opened the door...
	It happened so fast it was like a blur.  He opened the door, and 
saw a dozen police officers running through the parking lot toward 
him, their guns drawn.  He turned and dropped inside to the ground, 
yelling for Nora to dive for it.  Nora turned around puzzled... she was 
holding the blowdrier in her right hand.
	The police opened fire.  They mistook the drier for a gun, and 
shot his wife over and over and over.  The air was filled with 
gunshots and shattering glass.  Joe screamed as he watched red 
eruptions tear from his wife's front, splattering blood everywhere.  
She appeared more surprised than anything else, but then she didn't 
have the view that Joe had, and didn't have to see her guts 
splattering on the wall.  Then as quickly as it began, the gunfire 
stopped, and he watched in horror as her bullet-ridden body fell 
backwards onto the bloodstained bed.
	He got on all fours and rushed over to her!  As he rounded the 
reactor, he came upon the shotgun lying among the papers and disks.  
Without thinking he grabbed it, and pointed it at the reactor just as 
the cops rushed in.
	About three police entered, their faces wild with fear.  They 
pointed their guns every which way, not knowing how many people 
could be in the room.  "Drop the gun!" the first cop demanded.  "Drop 
that damned shotgun, or we'll kill you right here!"  Convinced that 
there was no-one else in the room, they all pointed their weapons at 
him.
	Joe gritted his teeth, squatting on the floor.  "You wouldn't 
dare." he growled.  "You shoot me, and I shoot this reactor!"  With 
that, he pulled the hammers back on both barrels, holding them back 
with his right thumb.  "You saw that explosion out west?  That was 
my work.  This cylinder is the same as the one that blew up by 
accident awhile ago.  The last time was an accident, but this time will 
be diliberate!
	"So unless you want to see another explosion real close like, 
you will leave this hotel... NOW!"  
	The cops just stood there for a moment.  Joe stared at them as 
they stared back.  Then they slowly backed out of the room.  Their 
guns stayed focused on him every second.  After they had left, he 
was certain the guns were still trained on him from the dark.  
	He kept the shotgun pointed at the reactor as he crawled up 
onto the bed to his dying wife.  She was still breathing, but her 
breath was gurgling from the blood in her lungs.  "Nora!  Nora, oh 
God, please no!" he yelled.  He started to cry.  Not his beloved wife.  
She was as innocent as they came.  Why, dear god, why her?
	She looked at him, the pain very evident on her face.  "There, 
there, " she croaked.  "The pain will... will go away soon."  She tried to 
smile at him, only to wince again at the pain.  She coughed again, 
bright red blood coming out the corner of her mouth.  
	"Everything has... a price... my love." she said.  "You must 
destroy... destroy that thing."
	"But I can't put the gun down long enough to plug the reactor 
in!" he sobbed.  "Honey, I have failed you again!"
	"Then..." she coughed again  "allow me."  She pulled her arm out 
from behind her back, holding the power cord that had been laying 
on the bed.  Both the cord and her arm were dripping with blood.  
Tilting her head back, she slowly oh so slowly reached back towards 
the plug on the wall.  With the last of her strength, she pushed the 
plug into the socket, powering the reactor.  The cylinder began to 
hum.
	She dropped her arm quickly.  "Call it my... last gift... beloved."  
Her breathing was fading quickly.  "Don't you put... that gun down... 
or they will... will kill you.  They'll kill you, and get the... the..." She 
began to cough again.
	"Nora," he said, "I haven't told you often enough that I love 
you.  You know that I do, don't you?"  His words came out in rush.
	Nora nodded.  "And I love you.  And I always will.  When I 
have gone,  I will wait for you on the other side."  She closed her 
eyes.  "Don't be... late... this... once..."  And then she was gone.
	
	And that was about an hour ago.  Her body still lay right where 
it had then.  He had not moved since then either.  The door was still 
open, and the shades were still back.  There were flashing police 
lights everywhere outside.  He couldn't see them of course, but he 
was certain there were sharpshooters watching every second.  In 
fact, he would bet his life on it, and that was why he kept the gun 
pointed at the reactor.
	Yes, the explosion would destroy the town, and everyone in it.  
But like Nora had said, nothing was free.  To protect humanity, the 
cost was one small town, all the people in it, a few dozen cops, the 
love of his life, and his existance.  A small price to pay.
	Of course, he wondered from time to time if this reactor would 
go critical like the other did.  He also wondered if he had the nerve to 
go through with it.  But he had to muster up the guts.  He couldn't 
keep his wife waiting this time.  All he had to do was sit and do 
nothing.  He could do nothing for awhile, couldn't he?  Just a few 
moments more, God.  That's all I ask.  Just give me the strength to 
remain a few moments more. 
	He wondered what the explosion would look like.  And all too 
soon, he found out.