Back in Western City North, Lorrie’s mind had been full of misapprehensions, dazzled by all the wrong things. Now, in Interior City—that land of traditional, bighearted, and ruggedly individual Homeland citizens—she could finally focus. She would stop the war by blocking its supply. As it stood, the war showed no signs of ending. Two attacks on the Homeland’s Strategic National Stockpile just within the last two weeks. Leave us alone, scientists on television pleaded, their appeals broadcast on hundreds of channels, their words reprinted in thousands of newspapers. We’re warehousing vaccines, antidotes. This is a place of medicine. That’s it. Though most major newspapers preferred to refrain from even printing the word, everyone knew what those terrorists were looking for. And now, Lorrie guessed, the prime minister would stomp all over the Coyotes and use the attacks to justify another surge. With so much to do, she was worried about time.
