Jessy, Kit and all of them were standing and holding each other
as they swayed with the other two million souls there to the spirituals
and all being sung and played while the performers talked it all over
on stage and off.
        Then Joni asked the Native Band to drum and she and Julio
went to the mike and Joni asked the city if everyone was all right.
        The cheer came back, "YEAH!..."
        Then she cheered, "did you see the holographs?"
        They cheered back, "YEAH!..."
        She asked, "did you HEAR the holographs?..."
        And the Valley of people yelled back, "YEAH!..." once more,
then cheered on for a half a minute, adding chants for Joni.
        She continued, "the government's keeping it from the rest of the
world."
        The multitude boo'd and such.
        "Are you ready to HELP the World Peace Government?" Julio
asked.
        The folks cheered "YEAH!..." and more, in response.
        The coverage was still off. The nets were were still running
commercials or other programming. And the world was jamming the
MTV and other stations' phone lines to try to find out what the hell
was going on.
        There was smoke everywhere in the Valley. "There's sure a lot
of smoke, huh?" Jess said as they were getting offered joints from
eight directions.
        "Yep," Kit answered, "that's tons of 'erb goin' up," wondering
what was going to happen.
        "Jeezuz, they can't arrest us all...can they?" Flece smiled.
        "Well, they say they did at Woodstock. But they weren't on a
rez," Kit chuckled.
        Joni and Julio waved to the audience as they left the stage, the
MC's filling in. Crystal got to the mike and joked, yelling, "it's deja
vu, people...everybody's under arrest!..." And he was just barely
kidding, police trying to organize enough power at the reservation's
borders as Billy joked on. The musicians started the music back up,
the stars feeling like it was the best performance of the what, 40-year
history of rock and roll. Jamming their big hearts out. And all the
performers had something to say about the situation, either between
songs or in the lyrics.
        Guys were climbing the holograph butte and helicopters were
flying out to it. Well, surprise. The government - also with units
outside the reservation - was also flying out to it in Blackhawks to
get the boxes, and were chasing and warning off the other choppers
or planes, one of the planes even attempting landings on the butte.
        Well, our WPO'ers had no immediate plans except to "beam
off" the other messages, Trinity Site to be the next one at dawn.
They figured they would stay a while longer, time only going on 10P
by then. But the wonder going around the city, which they heard,
was why in tarnation did the WPO just announce it and not tell
what to do or where even to send the money to. Then it was wonder
about what the US government was going to do, figuring it would
probably be shutting down the concert with force, devoted
concertgoers almost getting mad at the holographers about that. And
the performers played and talked on, trying to think of what to come
up with and going with the concert song, working on a new verse
about the message.
        Consensus ebbed and flowed throughout the masses over what
would happen next. The Peace Government, went the logic, would
want to stay way ahead of governments, particularly the fascist.
"Watch for the WPG in your neighborhood," one of the jokes from
the stage. There was a lot of talk about the beautiful images from the
butte - both sexes represented - and the female doing the talking.
And on went the buzz and the concert, still without TV coverage,
though, because the government knew they would talk about it as
soon as they got back on.
        Meanwhile, the Prez - Bill - was insisting that there be no shut
down of the concert, his representatives jawboning with law
enforcement over it, arguing about the chaos that would create,
among other topics.
        The helicopter squad found the boxes, then the track sweeper,
which was all kept secret. The White House was deep into the spin
cycle. And they still could not understand why their intelligence
agencies could not find out who the WPG was, or the WPO, though
Joni and Julio were sure involved. And rumors of Hollywood figures.
Darn crafty computer work, Al - the Vice Prez -was saying.
        The governmenteers were going with the judgement that it was
coming out of Hollywood, and were deciding to stick with the
stonewalling track. It had worked O so well for Tricky Dick, after all.
The NSA was trying to pick up leads from FAA radar or recent satellite
picture records of the butte and area. The FBI was going over the
evidence from the butte and the boxes. No fingerprints. All they had
were swept tracks of presumably a single-engine light craft, possibly a
retrac, though near impossible with the landing length. But they saw
the evidence of the controlled skid to the edge.
        The suit in D.C. was figuring it was the Mooney and called
Cincy and talked it all over with him, then asked if he should call the
White House. Cincy had hunched the same thing himself as he had
read the reports out of Washington there on the computer in his
office at Lunken.
        "We have what the Oval Office wants," he told DC. "You go
on over there and I'll make the call." But he knew they were way
out on an evidential limb.
        Government computers and pilots were coming up with it
probably having been a Super Cub, Citabria or Champ or the like.
Some thought it had been an ultralight that had landed long, which
would explain the skid, since no one had even heard a plane. But
they couldn't trust Village or reservation accounts, agents
ruminated. Meanwhile, NSA learned that there were no radar,
satellite, infra-red or any other records of what it was or where
from or gone, which strengthened the ultralight theory. Sort of.
        Time was going on midnight when Kit succumbed to the
reality that he wasn't going to be able to give Jess the actual World
Peace Government for her birthday. But they had sure gotten it
started! He and Jessy were figuring that they would be guessed
already by Cincy and DC to be involved. Even Flee would be a
suspect. Puter had recently told them that. Es, Juli and the others
were figuring that their friends were responsible for the butte
giants. But they were quiet, though smiling knowingly a lot at the
guys.
        The music was still awesome. The people were listening,
dancing, singing along, cheering, sitting, standing, laying down,
drugging, talking away or passed out. Then MTV came back on
with the coverage, after agreeing to the rules of "engagement", and
were just covering the concert. The stage. The performers were
still mentioning the message, but the government just decided to
accept that. But the message was not to be shown. And, goshsakes,
that smoke sure was thick those square miles around the stage.
There were also those hundred thousand or so revelers in the
Village "Wash" - where the road went back behind the stage. That
was really smokey. Of course, the weather was perfect. It sure
wasn't the cold rain and mud of Woodstock when that went off the
tracks.
        The whole thing was big time news on the networks. Everyone
was trying to get to the bottom of the meaning of the message and
the blockout and the White House stonewalling. It was the story.
        Meanwhile, Cincy had called the White House and arranged an
Oval Office meeting for DC, but then those two were concerned that
they had no clue where Jess or the old guy were. But there was the
barn at Truchas to search. So they got the search request on the
move over at Justice. And Pute would have that info for our guys, if
they ever decided to "clock" in, their computer was fuming.
        Puter was beeping them, and Kit finally heard it, and they
checked the "short" message. It was all they needed. They started
their goodbys to everyone, even some of their new neighbor-friends,
and told the guys that they could stay if they wanted, they would
send the 401 to Monticello. That worked, so Juli and Kenja were the
only ones leaving with our three. They packed up, made their sweet
"laters" and headed out. There was a drain on the whole area when
Jess, Flee and Kenj were being seen leaving, even the stage noticing
it. The male population was sorry to see those girls go.
        Our three checked the full message when they got to the Jeep
and Pute told them that Cincy was getting out an APB on them to
airports, plus the barn search request was getting Justice approval.
But DC was getting power-played at the White House, some Ovalers
getting his information for their own gain. And the Defense boys were
trying to take everything over. The Oval was in the weeds. And Bill
was quietly on the side of the WPO and WPG. So it was a jumble,
juggle and jiggles, the world being run on mumbles, winks and nods.
        "Dam," Jess said as they read about the barn search and APB,
"those fuckers don't give up, do they."
        "Nope..." is all Kit answered, worrying if they would get out of
Monticello. They were starting to feel the adrenalin from the threat,
so decided on waiting on taking any speed. They drove out of the lot
and through the Navajo Police checkpoint, waving to them all, then
hit the Utah State Police check, but were waved through there too,
Kenj doing the driving.
        Jess messaged Sundance thoroughly as they listened to the
concert over the radio. She told R that they had the other two grams
set for the rest of the message. He told her that there had been no
response from the WH to the word on the announcement, just as
they had expected; and still nothing from any governments, except
those that had been trying to contact them before and who would be
getting the Declaration to sign, to be delivered by Joni and Julio as
their "out there" reps, already safely on their way from Monument
themselves. Jess mentioned to the Sunman to caution the rise in
surveillance and all, but left it there to stay upbeat.
        Some of the thinking back at the concert and around the globe
was that the WPG didn't have its act together. The message had been
kind of impotent. But the intel teams and spinmeisters were planting
a lot of that, having infiltrated the Valley, coffee houses and nets
around the world (Remember '95? It wasn't all just the internet. And,
of course, still isn't.) Pute had that for our heroines and hero too.
        Sundance came back that he had liked the hologram, even
though he hadn't seen nor heard it, so Jess commed back that it had
gone word for word with the draft they had sent him. Then she told
him that the second gram would go off at dawn and the third, spirits
willing, sometime soon after, and gave him the texts. She added that
he would have to get word to the media, anonymously, when he got
their word. And he was right there on the "affirm that".
        Jessy was reeling in the power a little, though totally keeping
her head. Sunman was asking where the second message was to go
off at, so Jess and he played a good game of "trust". And RR loved
it.
        Meanwhile, MTV was trying to cope with the onslaught from
the folks over trying to explain what was going on. And the Stones
were on stage with Tina, the Kinks, Animals and Deep Purple, doing
"Satisfaction".
        "Everyone'll want a CD of the first weekend!" Flece cheered as
they rode on toward Monticello, trying to keep the spirits up.
        "It'll raise another...five hundred million, maybe," Jess backed
her up as Pute was bringing up the next step - the WPG would have
to get computers around the world so people could sign the
Declaration. Well, they knew that, but she sent that on to Sundance.
And they wondered when Putey would have the all-clear for them at
the airport.

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