The Fountainhead: Howard Roark: 11-13

Wynand talks Roark into taking some time off. They take Wynand's yacht for a three-month cruise in the South Pacific. Sorry, Dominique, NO GIRLZ ALOWD.

Roark hops into the ocean for a swim. Wynand congratulates himself for his tremendous moral fortitude in not casting off and leaving Roark in the ocean (not out of any animosity toward Roark, but just because he has the power to do so, to abandon the man mid-ocean; let's all pat ourselves on the back for not being cold-blooded killers, shall we?). This is Wynand grading himself on the curve.

Wynand talks about his newspaper empire. He has published crap, and editorialized idiotic positions, just to curry favor with the world, and increase his power. For so subjugating his own ego, he should be called a self-sacrificing saint. He then goes on to criticize Keating, and the ostentation rich, for kowtowing to the opinions of others instead of following their own egos. Wait, what?

Competence is a fundamental virtue. Some try to push love or charity as values, but these things are inferior to competence.

The true reality is the self. "Second-handers" imagine reality to lie in relationships with others. This is emptiness.

OK, a little food for thought here, but mostly food for poisoning rats.

The vacationers return to New York. Roark sees a newspaper story about Cortlandt Homes which lists Gordon Prescott and Gus Webb as associate designers. Alarm bells go off.

Toohey had insinuated the two into the project, and they began to make little changes—and some not so little. A bureaucrat had demanded that a gymnasium be added to the project, even though there were low-cost gyms available nearby. Other modifications were suggested—a meeting hall, a theater. Prescott and Webb came up with small aesthetic changes. All added to the cost of the project. Roark's beautiful design and low-cost aesthetic were gone, kablooey.

Roark calls on Dominique: I need your help. Find some public event to attend Monday night; make sure the event is at such a place that the route from there to your home goes by the Cortlandt Homes construction site. Fix things so that your drive home takes you by the site at 11:30, and have your car run out of gas right there. Ask the night watchman at the site to go for gas. After he leaves, hide in a trench. Then when the time is right—you'll know—climb out of the trench and get back in what's left of your car. Pretend that you've been there all along.

She follows his instructions, except that she stands up in the trench too early, and flying glass from the explosion (come on, you knew Roark was going to blow the project up) severs an artery. She gets into the smashed car, bleeding, and is found and rushed to the hospital after losing a lot of blood. She survives.

Roark is found near the plunger that set off the explosion. He tells a policeman to arrest him, but otherwise remains silent. Wynand bails him out and asks him in private, did you do this? Duh.

Roark knew that Dominique would want to run off with him after his release on bail. That's why he enlisted her in the plan: With her involved so publicly in the explosion, trying to run off with Roark would only throw suspicion on her. In other words, she has to stay loyal to Wynand (who still has no clue about the past relationship between Roark and Dominique).

Writing in New Frontiers, Toohey demands Roark's execution (for destroying property and injuring one bystander?). There is a public outcry. And here Rand trots out all her favorite targets, the liberal critics who care ostentatiously about the "little people," all demanding Roark's blood.

Wynand decides to cash in all this power he's accumulated to shape public opinion. He throws all the Wynand papers into a campaign to defend Roark. But instead, public indignation is turned against Wynand. How dare this yellow journalist defend a terrorist!

Wynand defends Roark to his rich friends, but they turn their back on him. On the street, a woman throws rotten vegetables at him.

Toohey tells Scarret it's time to make their move—time to take over the Wynand syndicate!