Song of Susannah (Page 78)

"This is it."

"Yes, I know. How’s your leg?"

"Hurts. Don’t worry about it. Are we gonna do this?"

"Wehave to," Roland said. "You were right to bring us here. What’s here is the other half ofthis. " He tapped the paper in his pocket, the one conveying ownership of the vacant lot to the Tet Corporation.

"You think this guy King is the rose’s twin."

"You say true." Roland smiled at his own choice of words. Eddie thought he’d rarely seen one so sad. "We’ve picked up the Calla way of talking, haven’t we? Jake first, then all of us. But that will fall away."

"Further to go," Eddie said. It wasn’t a question.

"Aye, and it will be dangerous. Still…maybe nothing so dangerous as this. Shall we roll?"

"In a minute. Roland, do you remember Susannah mentioning a man named Moses Carver?"

"A stem…which is to say a man of affairs. He took over her father’s business when sai Holmes died, am I correct?"

"Yeah. He was also Suze’s godfather. She said he could be trusted completely. Remember how mad she got at Jake and me when we suggested he might have stolen the company’s money?"

Roland nodded.

"I trust her judgment," Eddie said. "What about you?"

"Yes."

"If Carveris honest, we might be able to put him in charge of the things we need to accomplish in this world."

None of this seemed terribly important compared to the force Eddie felt rising all around him, but he thought it was. They might only have one chance to protect the rose now and ensure its survival later. They had to do it right, and Eddie knew that meant heeding the will of destiny.

In a word, ka.

"Suze says Holmes Dental was worth eight or ten million when you snatched her out of New York, Roland. If Carver’s as good as I hope he is, the company might be worth twelve or fourteen million by now."

"That’s a lot?"

"Delah," Eddie said, tossing his open hand at the horizon, and Roland nodded. "It sounds funny to talk about using the profits from some kind of dental process to save the universe, but that’s just what Iam talking about. And the money the tooth-fairy left her may only be the beginning. Microsoft, for instance. Remember me mentioning that name to Tower?"

Roland nodded. "Slow down, Eddie.Calm down, I beg."

"I’m sorry," Eddie said, and pulled in a deep breath. "It’s this place. The singing. Thefaces …do you see the faces in the trees? In the shadows?"

"I see them very well."

"It makes me feel a little crazy. Bear with me. What I’m talking about is merging Holmes Dental and the Tet Corporation, then using our knowledge of the future to turn it into one of the richest combinations in the history of the world. Resources to equal those of the Sombra Corporation…or maybe North Central Positronics itself."

Roland shrugged, then lifted a hand as if to ask how Eddie could talk about money while in the presence of the immense force flowing along the barrel of the Beam and through them, lifting the hair from the napes of their necks, making their sinuses tingle, turning every woodsy shadow into a watching face…as if a multitude had gathered here to watch them play out a crucial scene in their drama.

"I know how you feel, but itmatters, " Eddie insisted. "Believe me, it does. Suppose, for instance, we were to grow fast enough to buy out North Central Positronics before it can rise as a force in this world? Roland, we might be able to turn it, the way you can turn even the biggest river with no more than a single spade up in its headwaters, where it’s only a trickle."

At this Roland’s eyes gleamed. "Take it over," he said. "Turn its purpose from the Crimson King’s to our own. Yes, that might be possible."

"Whether it is or isn’t, we have to remember that we’re not just playing for 1977, or 1987, where I came from, or 1999, where Suze went." In that world, Eddie realized, Calvin Tower might be dead and Aaron Deepneau would be for sure, their final action in the Dark Tower’s drama – saving Donald Callahan from the Hitler Brothers – long finished. Swept from the stage, both of them. Into the clearing at the end of the path along with Gasher and Hoots, Benny Slightman, Susan Delgado

(Calla, Callahan, Susan, Susannah)

and the Tick-Tock Man, even Blaine and Patricia. Roland and his ka-tet would also pass into that clearing, be it early or late. In the end – if they were fantastically lucky and suicidally brave – only the Dark Tower would stand. If they could nip North Central Positronics in the bud, they might be able to save all the Beams that had been broken. Even if they failed at that, two Beams might be enough to hold the Tower in place: the rose in New York and a man named Stephen King in Maine. Eddie’s head had no proof that this was indeed the case…but his heart believed it.

"What we’re playing for, Roland, is the ages."

Roland made a fist and thumped it lightly on the dusty dashboard of John Cullum’s old Ford and nodded.

"Anything can go on that lot, you realize that?Anything. A building, a park, a monument, The National Gramophone Institute. As long as the rose stays. This guy Carver can make the Tet Corporation legal, maybe working with Aaron Deepneau – "

"Yes," Roland said. "I liked Deepneau. He had a true face."

Eddie thought so, too. "Anyway, they can draw up legal papers that take care of the rose – the rose always stays, no matter what. And I’ve got a feeling that it will. 2007, 2057, 2525, 3700…hell, the year 19,000…I think it’ll always be there. Because it may be fragile, but I think it’s also immortal. We have to do it right while we have the chance, though. Because this is the key world. In this one you never get a chance to whittle a little more if the key doesn’t turn. In this world I don’t think there are any do-overs."