Through the branches of his bush he could see three men, two dressed inappropriately in suits and hard-soled shoes, the other in sensible boots and a plaid shirt. The tallest and oldest of the suits seemed to be in charge.
“Christ, it’s filthy out here. Look at my pants. What are those things?”
“Burrs,” said the plaid shirt. “Just pick them off, they won’t hurt you.”
“This the place?” Pick pick pick. “Ow.” Pick pick.
“This is it,” Plaid Shirt said, and pointed right at Robert who barely had the sense to prevent himself from leaping out of the bush in surprise.. “The westbound shoulder will begin there and the road itself will be right where we’re standing.” He turned to indicate the slope beyond the opposite side of the clearing. “The eastbound lanes will be over there. We’ll level all this off, of course.”
“The westbound side is awfully close to the river,” the younger suit said tentatively.
“We’re outside the legal limit,” Plaid Shirt said. “No problem.”
“I don’t give a damn about the river,” Old Suit snapped. “What I’m concerned about is that goddamn hill. It’s damned narrow in here. You’re going to have to take half of it for the road as it is. Where the hell are we going to put the chemical plant, on the side of a goddamn mountain? I need a level surface area of at least fifty acres. Where the hell’s it going to some from?”
“Well,” Plaid Shirt said slowly, “we could take that whole slope, all the way back to the ridge. That would give you more than fifty acres, closer to a hundred or so, but it’ll bump up the cost some.”
“How much of a bump?”
Plaid Shirt considered for a moment. “Thirty, maybe forty million.”
Old Suit turned to Young Suit. “Well?”
Young Suit shook his head. “I don’t think the legislature will go for it, Mr Underhill. Not this year, anyway. The budget’s too tight. And there’s the Environmental Impact Statement to consider. That level of destruction in a State Forest won’t be acceptable to the court.”
“There’s no reason for this to get to court,” Underhill scowled.
“There might be,” Young Suit said. “There’s a group gearing up to fight this road right now. I understand they had a meeting this morning, as a matter of fact. And they’ve got a lawyer involved. It’s going to be tough enough to get the road past them. If they find out about the chemical plant being sited here, all hell’s going to break loose.”
“You telling me you people can’t handle a bunch of redneck environmentalist whackos and some broken-down hack of a backwoods lawyer? Is that what you’re telling me?”
“Well, technically, they’ve got the law on their side, Mr Underhill–“
“Don’t tell me about the law, sonny. I’m the one writes the goddamn laws. My lawyers wrote the proposal for this law so I could put my plant close to Highway 91 and get fast north-south access. I’m the one who pays that chickenshit legislature to pass the laws I write. They’ll do what they’re told or they’re out, it’s that simple.”
“I’m talking about Federal law, Mr Underhill, not State law.”
“Fucking Feds. Anti-business Commies, the lot of them. If I didn’t need the plant to be in New England to keep my customers, I’d shitcan the whole goddamn deal and move South where they’re not so damn picky. Any judge in Mississippi would pass any goddamn plan I gave him to get the jobs this plant is going to create without one goddamn question about the fucking ‘environmental impact’. I could pour the effluent straight into the river and they’d be glad to have it. Save me a bundle, too. But no, I have to be saddled with a bunch of aging hippies want to stop progress because they might lose a few of their precious trees, like anybody gives a shit. Fucking fags.”
“Mr Underhill, please–“
“Screw it. Maybe I’ll look in New Hampshire or Maine. They need the jobs and they’re both Republican states.”
“Moderate Republican,” Young Suit said hastily. “Moderate. And the environmental groups up there are a lot tougher than ours. You don’t want to do that. I’m sure we can work something out. Let me talk to the Senator. He’ll talk to the Senate President and the President will talk to the Speaker and they’ll both talk to the Majority Leaders. I’m sure we can find a way to do what you need to have done.”
“You better,” Underhill said, “or this deal is history. And so is my money. Are we clear?”
“Yes, sir. Clear as a bell.”
Underhill turned back to Plaid Shirt. “Alright, as long as we’re in this godforsaken shit-hole, show me where the on-ramp’s going to be. It’s close, isn’t it? I don’t want it too far from the plant site.”
“Close as we could make it,” Plaid Shirt replied, and pointed west. “It’s only a couple of hundred yards downriver. This way.”
When they were gone, crashing through the forest like a small herd of stampeding elephants, Robert emerged from his hiding place to move swiftly – and quietly – across the clearing. He may not have been the brightest bulb in the marquee but even he knew that a chemical plant was something DJ needed to know about. Now.
Juliette Rose, too, of course, but he knew who he wanted to see first.
