Absolute Rage by Tanenbaum Robert K

Author:Tanenbaum, Robert K. [Tanenbaum, Robert K.]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9780743469906
Publisher: Atria
Published: 2002-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

“That’s what they look like when you don’t clean ’em up, and Majestic don’t.”

“Don’t they have to?”

“Oh, it’s the law all right, but try and make them. There’s court cases been going on for ten years on this pit alone. See, what they do is dump the spoil from the hole down into the hollers. They bury everything, homes, farms, graveyards, whole little towns. Of course, the people’ve moved out before then. The mining ruins the water first, tears up the water tables and kills the creeks. And that’s what you got left. You all have your coal, though. This here’s downtown McCullensburg.”

The plane dropped even lower and sped over a group of low buildings and a green square with a golden-domed courthouse in it.

“Not much to it at this speed,” said Hendricks. “On the other hand, there ain’t much to it on the ground neither.” The plane circled the town twice, while the trooper pointed out the hills and highways, scars of coal patches, and the coffee stream of the Guyandotte River.

“We’re passing over the murder house there.”

Karp pressed his face against the glass and looked down with interest. A yard, a roof, a red truck in the driveway. Marlene’s maybe. Then it was gone.

“One more beauty spot and then we’ll put the pedal down and get us home,” said Hendricks. The plane rose, rising with the curve of the mountain he had identified as Hampden. The top of the mountain was gone, leaving a great mustard-and-black scab upon which yellow trucks and bulldozers rolled. It looked like a sandbox occupied by a child unusually well supplied with Tonka toys. In the center was what appeared to be a white, rectangular, five-story office building.

“Majestic Number Two. There’s the dragline,” said Hendricks, answering Karp’s unspoken question about what a five-story office building was doing in the middle of a mine. “They use a Bucyrus 2570, maybe the largest shovel in the world, although I hear they got one even bigger out in Wyoming.”

“That thing moves?”

“Oh, yeah. It never stops, day and night. Every scoop is near four hundred tons. Those trucks down there? Cat 797s. Over six hundred tons fully loaded.”

“I’m impressed,” said Karp. “Every little boy’s dream.”

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