Boulder functions in the novel as a point of connection and transmission: it is associated with a contact Jenny fears has exposed her, and with a radio station that carries the cadre’s political account to listeners elsewhere. The city’s importance lies chiefly in these links, which make distance no guarantee of secrecy.

A Contact in the Investigation

When Dana explains that people have found her, she connects the inquiry to Sandy’s appearance at a memorial service. The doctors, ostensibly tracing people associated with an illness, have questioned Sandy and then come to Dana’s home; Jenny’s letter is on the table when Dana returns. Dana believes Sandy must have told them she knew someone in Boulder, placing the city within the chain of acquaintances by which investigators may approach Jenny.

The conversation makes Boulder a marker of uncertain concealment rather than a confirmed location for every person involved. Dana says Sandy may have disclosed her connection to someone there, and warns that this could have exposed Jenny’s admirer as well. Jenny points out that Dana already knows where she is, while Dana replies that she does not know exactly and would rather know less. The exchange shows how partial knowledge itself becomes a risk: no single person needs to possess the whole route for information to travel toward the fugitives.

A Broadcast Point

Boulder also enters the narrative through radio. In a safe house, an announcer interrupts regular programming to join station K____ in Boulder, where Yvonne’s report is broadcast. She gives a tightly organized account of the confrontation in Los Angeles, listing its times, duration, weapons, injuries, deaths, and public cost. Juan then turns those particulars into a broader political argument, claiming that three members of the cadre survived and escaped.

The scene presents Boulder not as the site of the events being described but as a source of their transmission. A report delivered through a distant station reaches the group gathered around a small radio, where Yvonne watches Juan’s response and Pauline listens in silence. The broadcast thus carries both information and interpretation across distance: concrete details become the basis for Juan’s expansive account of state violence, survival, and vengeance.

Distance, Publicity, and Exposure

The novel places Boulder within a communications network that works in both directions. Radio allows the cadre to address an audience beyond its immediate hiding place, while personal ties give investigators possible paths toward Jenny. In one instance, information moves outward as a public political speech; in the other, an acquaintance’s possible disclosure threatens private concealment.

This contrast gives Boulder a narrative significance beyond its limited physical description. The text supplies no extended portrait of the city; instead, it makes the place legible through what passes through it or is associated with it. Boulder is a node in a story where broadcast messages can make fugitives publicly present, and ordinary social connections can make them easier to find.