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== The unraveling ==

== The unraveling ==

At the end of June, Dagny Taggart elected to return to her job with Taggart Transcontinental, to the disappointment of virtually every resident. But before the year was out, Dagny would be back, and to stay, as the outside society collapsed into [[anarchy]]. As old as he was, Hugh Akston probably did ''not'' participate in Ragnar Danneskjold's rescue operation to liberate John Galt from the State Science Institute. But he was definitely on hand for John Galt's eventual declaration that the strike was over, and the strikers had won, essentially by default.

At the end of June, Dagny Taggart elected to return to her job with Taggart Transcontinental, to the disappointment of virtually every resident. But before the year was out, Dagny would be back, and to stay, as the outside society collapsed into [[anarchy]]. But the story of that homecoming was as frightening to Akston as anything he could have conceived.

 

On November 4, 1957, John Galt brought [[Henry Rearden]] to the valley, and then returned to New York as quickly as he had come. The next day, several key people from Rearden's steel plant followed him to the valley, mostly in Francisco d'Anconia's aircraft. Rearden began at once to re-establish Rearden Steel in the valley.

 

On November 22, John Galt came back to the valley long enough to deliver a speech to the outside, pre-empting [[Mr. Thompson]]'s time. Then Galt went back to New York. Very few men could understand why. Hugh Akston was one of them. He knew that John Galt was in love with Dagny Taggart, and her recruitment was now his one aim, from which no one, not even Akston himself, could dissuade Galt.

 

For three months, Galt would make terse reports to the valley, from his apartment in New York, on the happenings outside. So Akston heard, at the same time that Hank Rearden did, about the collapse and destruction of the old Rearden Steel. Rearden laughed it off and told his new friends not to worry about it, because Rearden Steel was now headquartered in "Galt's Gulch," not Berks County, [[Pennsylvania]].

 

 

The news struck the valley like a thunderclap. Akston went straight to the cabin of Ragnar Danneskjold, who now was the senior member of the Committee of Safety. Using all the skill he remembered from his days as a university professor, he argued strenuously that Ragnar ''must'' allow him to take part in the rescue of John Galt. Ragnar accepted this, but told Akston to "stick close to [[Ellis Wyatt]], stay out of his way, and do exactly as he tells you." Ellis Wyatt, the shale-oil tycoon, would command the main body of what now became the Galt's Gulch Combined Air and Land Militia.

 

Akston did not allow himself to feel during the days that he kept station, at Wyatt's side, on Manhattan Island, then the hasty decamping and transit to Lyme, [[New Hampshire]], and the suspenseful wait for word as Dagny Taggart, Francisco, Ragnar, and Henry Rearden walked, alone and very lightly armed, onto the campus of the [[State Science Institute]] to search for and rescue John Galt.

 

Then at last came the report from Ellis Wyatt's scouts that the rescue had succeeded, and that Ragnar and his party were "wheels up." Ellis Wyatt gave the order for an immediate evacuation, and all the militiamen boarded their planes and took off for the valley.

 

As they overflew New York City, it went dark. Akston would learn later that the people had panicked after learning of the destruction of the [[Taggart Bridge]]. Wyatt took a brief report from Ragnar about the rescue. Akston, now thoroughly impatient, insisted on speaking to Galt directly. Wyatt reluctantly passed him the radio headset and let him talk.

 

 

{{cquote|Of course I'm all right. Why shouldn't I be? A is A.}}

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