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→Rescue of John Galt
== Rescue of John Galt ==
== Rescue of John Galt ==
[[John Galt]] did not stay in the valley for very long after ferrying Rearden in. He was on his way back to the outer world within a day. Francisco stayed behind, and no doubt Rearden knew that Francisco was preoccupied. If Francisco brought himself to confide in Rearden that John Galt had, against his advice, gone back out "to redeem from the outer world the one value that he wanted and would not let that world have," Rearden would have known exactly what, or rather whom, John Galt meant: Dagny.
On November 22, Galt came back for a day, long enough to make his three-hour speech explaining the strike and the philosophy behind it. He went back out the next day, probably after telling Henry the latest condition of his old mills. Rearden, as mentioned above, likely took it in good grace. As far as Henry was concerned, Rearden Steel was now based in Galt's Gulch, not near Reading, Pennsylvania.
Months passed with no news, except for the fire at Rearden Steel on January 22. Then, in the middle of February, John Galt was arrested. Somehow Dagny had been involved. Henry was probably not inclined to believe that Dagny would deliberately betray John Galt to the authorities. Surely she was acting at Galt's own suggestion, so that she would not come to harm. (Henry would probably hear the truth of the matter from Galt himself later on.)
That news caused a panic throughout the city of New York, in which residents fled the city with all their belongings lashed to their automobile roofs. In the middle of this panic, Dagny Taggart finally joined the strike herself. That night, Ragnar Danneskjold organized a commando raid on a secret facility of the [[State Science Institute]] where John Galt had been taken to be examined under torture by electric shock. Dagny, Henry, and Francisco participated under Ragnar's direct leadership as the spearhead of the raid. They killed several Institute personnel and successfully rescued Galt, who assured them all that he was not hurt, because he knew that they would never deliver him a lethal shock. Henry himself received a minor flesh wound in his right upper arm; the guard who fired that shot died almost immediately at the hand of Francisco d'Anconia.
The news of Galt's arrest electrified, astounded, and angered every man in the valley. By now, [[Ragnar Danneskjold]] had hidden his old pirate vessel and had mustered out his crew to build their own homes in the valley. Now, Danneskjold organized a militia to attempt to rescue Galt. The valley had planes enough to transport half the men, and so Danneskjold took off for New York City with a sizeable air and infantry militia. Hank Rearden served as Danneskjold's aide, while Francisco served as his "G-2," or chief of intelligence.
When the authorities announced the drafting of "The John Galt Plan for Peace and Prosperity," Francisco guessed that the time would soon come for them to make their move. He had reached Dagny and instructed her to watch the men now holding Galt and to call Francisco at once if anything threatened him.
Sure enough, the authorities planned a [[television]] special to announce their plan. But in the middle of that show, John Galt moved deftly enough to demonstrate that someone was pointing a gun at him, and said,{{cquote|Get...out of my way.}}
Very shortly thereafter, Francisco got the call he was waiting for. Dagny told them that the authorities would now transport Galt to the campus of the [[State Science Institute]] in New Hampshire (probably on the present grounds of the United States Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, near the town of Lyme) and there put him to some kind of torture. The air militia had to scramble to get their planes in the air, from hidden landing areas, which is why they would not reach the Institute for hours. At some point in the process, they learned another shocking piece of news: the famous Taggart Bridge at Bedford, [[Illinois]], the only railroad bridge that crossed the [[Mississippi River]], had been cut in half by a malfunction at the mysterious [[Project X]]. Only then would Henry have learned the nature of the secret project that he once refused to support.
That news caused a panic throughout the city of New York, in which residents fled the city with all their belongings lashed to their automobile roofs. In the middle of this panic, Francisco picked Dagny up, and she, Francisco, Rearden, and Danneskjold got away in Danneskjold's aircraft.
The council of war that the Galt's Gulch Committee of Safety (now consisting of Dagny Taggart, Francisco d'Anconia, Ragnar Danneskjold, and Henry Rearden) was tense. The militia had been camped in New York, but had hesitated to storm the Wayne-Falkland Hotel, in fear that the authorities would simply kill John Galt before they could get halfway up the building. An assault on the State Science Institute would be easier, but not by much. In the end, the Committee decided to go in as a four-person spearhead and attempt the rescue alone. Danneskjold ordered his infantry to stay behind in reserve. He placed Ellis Wyatt in command, with orders to post guards throughout the trees that surrounded the Institute campus. Then the four went in to attempt the rescue.
They got in with surprising ease. Henry Rearden was in fact the only casualty; he suffered a flesh wound. But of the sixteen-member garrison, the rescuers killed four and incapacitated the rest. They released Galt from the electroshock device to which the government men had strapped him, and hustled him out as fast as they could move (though Danneskjold took time to destroy the torture apparatus). They took off and headed back to the valley for the last time.
== Final unraveling ==
== Final unraveling ==