There were a lot of pages in the magazine, there were a lot of strips to each page, and that meant a lot of work lay ahead before the plane landed. But he wasn't worried. Craig Toomy was a cando type of guy. 5 Laurel Stevenson didn't go back to sleep but she did slide into a light doze. Her thoughts  which became something close to dreams in this mentally untethered state  turned to why she had really been going to Boston. I'm supposed to be starting my first real vacation in ten years, she had said, but that was a lie. It contained a small grain of truth, but she doubted if she had been very believable when she told it; she had not been raised to tell lies, and her technique was not very good. Not that any of the people left on Flight 29 would have cared much either way, she supposed. Not in this situation. The fact that you were going to Boston to meet  and almost certainly sleep  with a man you had never met paled next to the fact that you were heading east in an airplane from which most of the passengers and all of the crew had disappeared. Dear Laurel I am so much looking forward to meeting you. You won't even have to doublecheck my photo when you step out of the jetway. I'll have so many butterflies in my stomach that all you need to do is look for the guy who's floating somewhere near the ceiling ... His name was Darren Crosby. She wouldn't need to look at his photograph; that much was true. She had memorized his face, just as she had memorized most of his letters. The question was why. And to that question she had no answer. Not even a clue. It was just another proof of J. R. R. Tolkien's observation you must be careful each time you step out of your door, because your front walk is really a road, and the road leads ever onward. If you aren't careful, you're apt to find yourself ... well ... simply swept away, a stranger in a strange land with no clue as to how you got there. Laurel had told everyone where she was going, but she had told no one why she was going or what she was doing. She was a graduate of the University of California with a master's degree in library science. Although she was no model, she was cleanly built and pleasant enough to look at. She had a small circle of good friends, and they would have been flabbergasted by what she was up to heading off to Boston, planning to stay with a man she knew only through correspondence, a man she had met through the extensive personals column of a magazine called Friends and Lovers. She was, in fact, flabbergasted herself. Darren Crosby was sixfeetone, weighed one hundred and eighty pounds, and had darkblue eyes. He preferred Scotch (although not to excess), he had a cat named Stanley, he was a dedicated heterosexual, he was a perfect gentleman (or so he claimed), and he thought Laurel was the most beautiful name he had ever heard. The picture he had sent showed a man with a pleasant, open, intelligent face. She guessed he was the sort of man who would look sinister if he didn't shave twice a day. And that was really all she knew. Laurel had corresponded with half a dozen men over half a dozen years  it was a hobby, she supposed  but she had never expected to take the next step  this step. She supposed that Darren's wry and selfdeprecating sense of humor was part of the attraction, but she was dismally aware that her real reasons were not in him at all, but in herself. And wasn't the real attraction her own inability to understand this strong desire to step out of character? To just fly off into the unknown, hoping for the right kind of lightning to strike? What are you doing? she asked herself again. The plane ran through some light turbulence and back into smooth air again. Laurel stirred out of her doze and looked around. She saw the young teenaged girl had taken the seat across from her. She was looking out the window. 'What do you see?' Laurel asked. 'Anything?' 'Well, the sun's up,' the girl said, 'but that's all.' 'What about the ground?' Laurel didn't want to get up and look for herself. Dinah's head was still resting against her, and Laurel didn't want to wake her. 'Can't see it. It's all clouds down there.' She looked around. Her eyes had cleared and a little color  not much, but a little  had come back into her face. 'My name's Bethany Simms. What's yours?' 'Laurel Stevenson.' 'Do you think we'll be all right?' 'I think so,' Laurel said, and then added reluctantly 'I hope so.' 'I'm scared about what might be under those clouds,' Bethany said, 'but I was scared anyway. About Boston. My mother all at once decided how it would be a great idea if I spent a couple of weeks with my Aunt Shawna, even though school starts again in ten days. I think the idea was for me to get off the plane, just like Mary's little lamb, and then Aunt Shawna pulls the string on me.' 'What string?' 'Do not pass Go, do not collect two hundred dollars, go directly to the nearest rehab, and start drying out,' Bethany said. She raked her hands through her short dark hair. 'Things were already so weird that this seems like just more of the same.' She looked Laurel over carefully and then added with perfect seriousness 'This is really happening, isn't it? I mean, I've already pinched myself. Several times. Nothing changed.' 'It's real.' 'It doesn't seem real,' Bethany said. 'It seems like one of those stupid disaster movies. Airport 1990, something like that. I keep looking around for a couple of old actors like Wilford Brimley and Olivia De Havilland. They're supposed to meet during the shitstorm and fall in love, you know?' 'I don't think they're on the plane,' Laurel said gravely. They glanced into each other's eyes and for a moment they almost laughed together. It could have made them friends if it had happened ... but it didn't. Not quite. 'What about you, Laurel? Do you have a disastermovie problem?' 'I'm afraid not,' Laurel replied ... and then she did begin to laugh. Because the thought which shot across her mind in red neon was Oh you liar! Bethany put a hand over her mouth and giggled. 'Jesus,' she said after a minute. 'I mean, this is the ultimate hairball, you know?' Laurel nodded. 'I know.' She paused and then asked, 'Do you need a rehab, Bethany?' 'I don't know.' She turned to look out the window again. Her smile was gone and her voice was morose. 'I guess I might. I used to think it was just partytime, but now I don't know. I guess it's out of control. But getting shipped off this way ... I feel like a pig in a slaughterhouse chute.' 'I'm sorry,' Laurel said, but she was also sorry for herself. The blind girl had already adopted her; she did not need a second adoptee. Now that she was fully awake again she found herself scared  badly scared. She did not want to be behind this kid's dumpster if she was going to offload a big pile of disastermovie angst. The thought made her grin again; she simply couldn't help it. It was the ultimate hairball. It really was. 'I'm sorry, too,' Bethany said, 'but I guess this is the wrong time to worry about it, huh?' 'I guess maybe it is,' Laurel said. 'The pilot never disappeared in any of those Airport movies, did he?' 'Not that I remember.' 'It's almost six o'clock. Two and a half hours to go.' 'Yes.' 'If only the world's still there,' Bethany said, 'that'll be enough for a start.' She looked closely at Laurel again. 'I don't suppose you've got any grass, do you?' 'I'm afraid not.' Bethany shrugged and offered Laurel a tired smile which was oddly winning. 'Well,' she said, 'you're one ahead of me  I'm just afraid.' 6 Some time later, Brian Engle rechecked his heading, his airspeed, his navigational figures, and his charts. Last of all he checked his wristwatch. It was two minutes past eight. 'Well,' he said, to Nick without looking around, 'I think it's about that time. Shit or git.' He reached forward and flicked on the FASTEN SEATBELTS sign. The bell made its low, pleasant chime. Then he flicked the intercom toggle and picked up the mike. 'Hello, ladies and gentlemen. This is Captain Engle again. We're currently over the Atlantic Ocean, roughly thirty miles east of the Maine coast, and I'll be commencing our initial descent into the Bangor area very soon. Under ordinary circumstances I wouldn't turn on the seatbelt sign so early, but these circumstances aren't ordinary, and my mother always said prudence is the better part of valor. In that spirit, I want you to make sure your lapbelts are snug and secure. Conditions below us don't look especially threatening, but since I have no radio communication, the weather is going to be something of a surprise package for all of us. I kept hoping the clouds would break, and I did see a few small holes over Vermont, but I'm afraid they've closed up again. I can tell you from my experience as a pilot that the clouds you see below us don't suggest very bad weather to me. I think the weather in Bangor may be overcast, with some light rain. I'm beginning our descent now. Please be calm; my board is green across and all procedures here on the flight deck remain routine.' Brian had not bothered programming the autopilot for descent; he now began the process himself. He brought the plane around in a long, slow turn, and the seat beneath him canted slightly forward as the 767 began its slow glide down toward the clouds at 4,000 feet. 'Very comforting, that,' Nick said. 'You should have been a politician, matey.' 'I doubt if they're feeling very comfortable right now,' Brian said. 'I know I'm not.' He was, in fact, more frightened than he had ever been while at the controls of an airplane. The pressureleak on Flight 7 from Tokyo seemed like a minor glitch in comparison to this situation. His heart was beating slowly and heavily in his chest, like a funeral drum. He swallowed and heard a click in his throat. Flight 29 passed through 30,000 feet, still descending. The white, featureless clouds were closer now. They stretched from horizon to horizon like some strange ballroom floor. 'I'm scared shitless, mate,' Nick Hopewell said in a strange, hoarse voice. 'I saw men die in the Falklands, took a bullet in the leg there myself, got the Teflon knee to prove it, and I came within an ace of getting blown up by a truck bomb in Beirut  in '82, that was  but I've never been as scared as I am right now. Part of me would like to grab you and make you take us right back up just as far up as this bird will go.' 'It wouldn't do any good,' Brian replied. His own voice was no longer steady; he could hear his heartbeat in it, making it jigjag up and down in minute variations. 'Remember what I said before  we can't stay up here forever.' 'I know it. But I'm afraid of what's under those clouds. Or not under them.' 'Well, we'll all find out together.' 'No help for it, is there, mate?' 'Not a bit.' The 767 passed through 25,000 feet, still descending. 7 All the passengers were in the main cabin; even the bald man, who had stuck stubbornly to his seat in business class for most of the flight, had joined them. And they were all awake, except for the bearded man at the very back of the plane. They could hear him snoring blithely away, and Albert Kaussner felt one moment of bitter jealousy, a wish that he could wake up after they were safely on the ground as the bearded man would most likely do, and say what the bearded man was most likely to say Where the hell are we? The only other sound was the soft riiip ... riiip ... riiip of Craig Toomy dismembering the inflight magazine. He sat with his shoes in a deep pile of paper strips. 'Would you mind stopping that?' Don Gaffney asked. His voice was tight and strained. 'It's driving me up the wall, buddy.' Craig turned his head. Regarded Don Gaffney with a pair of wide, smooth, empty eyes. Turned his head back. Held up the page he was currently working on, which happened to be the eastern half of the American Pride route map. Riiip. Gaffney opened his mouth to say something, then closed it tight. Laurel had her arm around Dinah's shoulders. Dinah was holding Laurel's free hand in both of hers. Albert sat with Robert Jenkins, just ahead of Gaffney. Ahead of him was the girl with the short dark hair. She was looking out the window, her body held so stiffly upright it might have been wired together. And ahead of her sat Baldy from business class. 'Well, at least we'll be able to get some chow!' he said loudly. No one answered. The main cabin seemed encased in a stiff shell of tension. Albert Kaussner felt each individual hair on his body standing at attention. He searched for the comforting cloak of Ace Kaussner, that duke of the desert, that baron of the Buntline, and could not find him. Ace had gone on vacation. The clouds were much closer. They had lost their flat look; Laurel could now see fluffy curves and mild crenellations filled with earlymorning shadows. She wondered if Darren Crosby was still down there, patiently waiting for her at a Logan Airport arrivals gate somewhere along the American Pride concourse. She was not terribly surprised to find she didn't care much, one way or another. Her gaze was drawn back to the clouds, and she forgot all about Darren Crosby, who liked Scotch (although not to excess) and claimed to be a perfect gentleman. She imagined a hand, a huge green hand, suddenly slamming its way up through those clouds and seizing the 767 the way an angry child might seize a toy. She imagined the hand squeezing, saw jetfuel exploding in orange licks of flame between the huge knuckles, and closed her eyes for a moment. Don't go down there! she wanted to scream. Oh please, don't go down there! But what choice had they? What choice? 'I'm very scared,' Bethany Simms said in a blurred, watery voice. She moved to one of the seats in the center section, fastened her lapbelt, and pressed her hands tightly against her middle. 'I think I'm going to pass out.' Craig Toomy glanced at her, and then began ripping a fresh strip from the route map. After a moment, Albert unbuckled his seatbelt, got up, sat down beside Bethany, and buckled up again. As soon as he had, she grasped his hands. Her skin was as cold as marble. 'It's going to be all right,' he said, striving to sound tough and unafraid, striving to sound like the fastest Hebrew west of the Mississippi. Instead he only sounded like Albert Kaussner, a seventeenyearold violin student who felt on the verge of pissing his pants. 'I hope ' she began, and then Flight 29 began to bounce. Bethany screamed. 'What's wrong?' Dinah asked Laurel in a thin, anxious voice. 'Is something wrong with the plane? Are we going to crash?' 'I don't ' Brian's voice came over the speakers. 'This is ordinary light turbulence, folks,' he said. 'Please be calm. We're apt to hit some heavier bumps when we go into the clouds. Most of you have been through this before, so just settle down.' Riiip. Don Gaffney looked toward the man in the crewneck jersey again and felt a sudden, almost overmastering urge to rip the flight magazine out of the weird son of a bitch's hands and begin whacking him with it. The clouds were very close now. Robert Jenkins could see the 767's black shape rushing across their white surfaces just below the plane. Shortly the plane would kiss its own shadow and disappear. He had never had a premonition in his life, but one came to him now, one which was sure and complete. When we break through those clouds, we are going to see something no human being has ever seen before. It will be something which is utterly beyond belief... yet we will be forced to believe it. We will have no choice. His hands curled into tight knobs on the arms of his seat. A drop of sweat ran into one eye. Instead of raising a hand to wipe the eye clear, Jenkins tried to blink the sting away. His hands felt nailed to the arms of the seat. 'Is it going to be all right?' Dinah asked frantically. Her hands were locked over Laurel's. They were small, but they squeezed with almost painful force. 'Is it really going to be all right?' Laurel looked out the window. Now the 767 was skimming the tops of the clouds, and the first cottoncandy wisps drifted past her window. The plane ran through another series of jolts and she had to close her throat against a moan. For the first time in her life she felt physically ill with terror. 'I hope so, honey,' she said. 'I hope so, but I really don't know.' 8 'What's on your radar, Brian?' Nick asked. 'Anything unusual? Anything at all?' 'No,' Brian said. 'It says the world is down there, and that's all it says. We're ' 'Wait,' Nick said. His voice had a tight, strangled sound, as if his throat had closed down to a bare pinhole. 'Climb back up. Let's think this over. Wait for the clouds to break ' 'Not enough time and not enough fuel.' Brian's eyes were locked on his instruments. The plane began to bounce again. He made the corrections automatically. 'Hang on. We're going in.' He pushed the wheel forward. The altimeter needle began to move more swiftly beneath its glass circle. And Flight 29 slid into the clouds. For a moment its tail protruded, cutting through the fluffy surface like the fin of a shark. A moment later that was also gone and the sky was empty ... as if no plane had ever been there at all. CHAPTER 4 In the Clouds. Welcome to Bangor. A Round of Applause. The Slide and the Conveyor Belt. The Sound of No Phones Ringing. Craig Toomy Makes a SideTrip. The Little Blind Girl's Warning. 1 The main cabin went from bright sunlight to the gloom of late twilight and the plane began to buck harder. After one particularly hard washboard bump, Albert felt a pressure against his right shoulder. He looked around and saw Bethany's head lying there, as heavy as a ripe October pumpkin. The girl had fainted. The plane leaped again and there was a heavy thud in first class. This time it was Dinah who shrieked, and Gaffney let out a yell 'What was that? For God's sake what was that?' 'The drinks trolley,' Bob Jenkins said in a low, dry voice. He tried to speak louder so they would all hear him and found himself unable. 'The drinks trolley was left out, remember? I think it must have rolled across ' The plane took a dizzying rollercoaster leap, came down with a jarring smack, and the drinks trolley fell over with a bang. Glass shattered. Dinah screamed again. 'It's all right,' Laurel said frantically. 'Don't hold me so tight, Dinah, honey, it's okay ' 'Please, I don't want to die! I just don't want to die!' 'Normal turbulence, folks.' Brian's voice, coming through the speakers, sounded calm ... but Bob Jenkins thought he heard barely controlled terror in that voice. 'Just be ' Another rocketing, twisting bump. Another crash as more glasses and minibottles fell out of the overturned drinks trolley. 'calm,' Brian finished. From across the aisle on Don Gaffney's left riiip. Gaffney turned in that direction. 'Quit it right now, motherfucker, or I'll stuff what's left of that magazine right down your throat.' Craig looked at him blandly. 'Try it, you old jackass.' The plane bumped up and down again. Albert leaned over Bethany toward the window. Her breasts pressed softly against his arm as he did, and for the first time in the last five years that sensation did not immediately drive everything else out of his mind. He stared out the window, desperately looking for a break in the clouds, trying to will a break in the clouds. There was nothing but shades of dark gray. 2 'How low is the ceiling, mate?' Nick asked. Now that they were actually in the clouds, he seemed calmer. 'I don't know,' Brian said. 'Lower than I'd hoped, I can tell you that.' 'What happens if you run out of room?' 'If my instruments are off even a little, we'll go into the drink,' he said flatly. 'I doubt if they are, though. If I get down to five hundred feet and there's still no joy, I'll take us up again and fly down to Portland.' 'Maybe you ought to just head that way now.' Brian shook his head. 'The weather there is almost always worse than the weather here.' 'What about Presque Isle? Isn't there a longrange SAC base there?' Brian had just a moment to think that this guy really did know much more than he should. 'It's out of our reach. We'd crash in the woods.' 'Then Boston is out of reach, too.' 'You bet.' 'This is starting to look like being a bad decision, matey.' The plane struck another invisible current of turbulence, and the 767 shivered like a dog with a bad chill. Brian heard faint screams from the main cabin even as he made the necessary corrections and wished he could tell them all that this was nothing, that the 767 could ride out turbulence twenty times this bad. The real problem was the ceiling. 'We're not struck out yet,' he said. The altimeter stood at 2,200 feet. 'But we are running out of room.' 'We ' Brian broke off. A wave of relief rushed over him like a cooling hand. 'Here we are,' he said. 'Coming through.' Ahead of the 767's black nose, the clouds were rapidly thinning. For the first time since they had overflown Vermont, Brian saw a gauzy rip in the whitishgray blanket. Through it he saw the leaden color of the Atlantic Ocean. Into the cabin microphone, Brian said 'We've reached the ceiling, ladies and gentlemen. I expect this minor turbulence to ease off once we pass through. In a few minutes, you're going to hear a thump from below. That will be the landing gear descending and locking into place. I am continuing our descent into the Bangor area.' He clicked off and turned briefly to the man in the navigator's seat. 'Wish me luck, Nick.' 'Oh, I do, matey  I do.' 3 Laurel looked out the window with her breath caught in her throat. The clouds were unravelling fast now. She saw the ocean in a series of brief winks waves, whitecaps, then a large chunk of rock poking out of the water like the fang of a dead monster. She caught a glimpse of bright orange that might have been a buoy. They passed over a small, treeshrouded island, and by leaning and craning her neck, she could see the coast dead ahead. Thin wisps of smoky cloud obscured the view for an endless fortyfive seconds. When they cleared, the 767 was over land again. They passed above a field; a patch of forest; what looked like a pond. But where are the houses? Where are the roads and the cars and the buildings and the hightension wires? Then a cry burst from her throat. 'What is it?' Dinah nearly screamed. 'What is it, Laurel? What's wrong?' 'Nothing!' she shouted triumphantly. Down below she could see a narrow road leading into a small seaside village. From up here, it looked like a toy town with tiny toy cars parked along the main street. She saw a church steeple, a town gravel pit, a Little League baseball field. 'Nothing's wrong! It's all there! It's all still there!' From behind her, Robert Jenkins spoke. His voice was calm, level, and deeply dismayed. 'Madam,' he said, 'I'm afraid you are quite wrong.' 4 A long white passenger jet cruised slowly above the ground thirtyfive miles east of Bangor International Airport. 767 was printed on its tail in large, proud numerals. Along the fuselage, the words AMERICAN PRIDE were written in letters which had been raked backward to indicate speed. On both sides of the nose was the airline's trademark a large red eagle. Its spread wings were spangled with blue stars; its talons were flexed and its head was slightly bent. Like the airliner it decorated, the eagle appeared to be coming in for a landing. The plane printed no shadow on the ground below it as it flew toward the cluster of city ahead; there was no rain, but the morning was gray and sunless. Its belly slid open. The undercarriage dropped down and spread out. The wheels locked into place below the body of the plane and the cockpit area. American Pride Flight 29 slipped down the chute toward Bangor. It banked slightly left as it went; Captain Engle was now able to correct his course visually, and he did so. 'I see it!' Nick cried. 'I see the airport! My God, what a beautiful sight!' 'If you see it, you're out of your seat,' Brian said. He spoke without turning around. There was no time to turn around now. 'Buckle up and shut up.' But that single long runway was a beautiful sight. Brian centered the plane's nose on it and continued down the slide, passing through 1,000 to 800. Below him, a seemingly endless pine forest passed beneath Flight 29's wings. This finally gave way to a sprawl of buildings  Brian's restless eyes automatically recorded the usual litter of motels, gas stations, and fastfood restaurants  and then they were passing over the Penobscot River and into Bangor airspace. Brian checked the board again, noted he had green lights on his flaps, and then tried the airport again ... although he knew it was hopeless. 'Bangor tower, this is Flight 29,' he said. 'I am declaring an emergency. Repeat, I am declaring an emergency. If you have runway traffic, get it out of my way. I'm coming in.' He glanced at the airspeed indicator just in time to see it drop below 140, the speed which theoretically committed him to landing. Below him, thinning trees gave way to a golfcourse. He caught a quick glimpse of a green Holiday Inn sign and then the lights which marked the end of the runway  33 painted on it in big white numerals  were rushing toward him. The lights were not red, not green. They were simply dead. No time to think about it. No time to think about what would happen to them if a Learjet or a fat little Doyka puddlejumper suddenly trundled onto the runway ahead of them. No time to do anything now but land the bird. They passed over a short strip of weeds and gravel and then concrete runway was unrolling thirty feet below the plane. They passed over the first set of white stripes and then the skidmarks  probably made by Air National Guard jets this far out  began just below them. Brian babied the 767 down toward the runway. The second set of stripes flashed just below them ... and a moment later there was a light bump as the main landing gear touched down. Now Flight 29 streaked along Runway 33 at a hundred and twenty miles an hour with its nose slightly up and its wings tilted at a mild angle. Brian applied full flaps and reversed the thrusters. There was another bump, even lighter than the first, as the nose came down. Then the plane was slowing, from a hundred and twenty to a hundred, from a hundred to eighty, from eighty to forty, from forty to the speed at which a man might run. It was done. They were down. 'Routine landing,' Brian said. 'Nothing to it.' Then he let out a long, shuddery breath and brought the plane to a full stop still four hundred yards from the nearest taxiway. His slim body was suddenly twisted by a flock of shivers. When he raised his hand to his face, it wiped away a great warm handful of sweat. He looked at it and uttered a weak laugh. A hand fell on his shoulder. 'You all right, Brian?' 'Yes,' he said, and picked up the intercom mike again. 'Ladies and gentlemen,' he said, 'welcome to Bangor.' From behind him Brian heard a chorus of cheers and he laughed again. Nick Hopewell was not laughing. He was leaning over Brian's seat and peering out through the cockpit window. Nothing moved on the gridwork of runways; nothing moved on the taxiways. No trucks or security vehicles buzzed back and forth on the tarmac. He could see a few vehicles, he could see an Army transport plane  a C12  parked on an outer taxiway and a Delta 727 parked at one of the jetways, but they were as still as statues. 'Thank you for the welcome, my friend,' Nick said softly. 'My deep appreciation stems from the fact that it appears you are the only one who is going to extend one. This place is utterly deserted.' 5 In spite of the continued radio silence, Brian was reluctant to accept Nick's judgment ... but by the time he had taxied to a point between two of the passenger terminal's jetways, he found it impossible to believe anything else. It was not just the absence of people; not just the lack of a single security car rushing out to see what was up with this unexpected 767; it was an air of utter lifelessness, as if Bangor International Airport had been deserted for a thousand years, or a hundred thousand. A jeepdriven baggage train with a few scattered pieces of luggage on its flatties was parked beneath one wing of the Delta jet. It was to this that Brian's eyes kept returning as he brought Flight 29 as close to the terminal as he dared and parked it. The dozen or so bags looked as ancient as artifacts exhumed from the site of some fabulous ancient city. I wonder if the guy who discovered King Tut's tomb felt the way I do now, he thought. He let the engines die and just sat there for a moment. Now there was no sound but the faint whisper of an auxiliary power unit  one of four  at the rear of the plane. Brian's hand moved toward a switch marked INTERNAL POWER and actually touched it before drawing his hand back. Suddenly he didn't want to shut down completely. There was no reason not to, but the voice of instinct was very strong. Besides, he thought, I don't think there's anyone around to bitch about wasting fuel . . . what little there is left to waste. Then he unbuckled his safety harness and got up. 'Now what, Brian?' Nick asked. He had also risen, and Brian noticed for the first time that Nick was a good four inches taller than he was. He thought I have been in charge. Ever since this weird thing happened  ever since we discovered it had happened, to be more accurate  I have been in charge. But I think that's going to change very shortly. He discovered he didn't care. Flying the 767 into the clouds had taken every ounce of courage he possessed, but he didn't expect any thanks for keeping his head and doing his job; courage was one of the things he got paid for. He remembered a pilot telling him once, 'They pay us a hundred thousand dollars or more a year, Brian, and they really do it for just one reason. They know that in almost every pilot's career, there are thirty or forty seconds when he might actually make a difference. They pay us not to freeze when those seconds finally come.' It was all very well for your brain to tell you that you had to go down, clouds or no clouds, that there was simply no choice; your nerveendings just went on screaming their old warning, telegraphing the old highvoltage terror of the unknown. Even Nick, whatever he was and whatever he did on the ground, had wanted to back away from the clouds when it came to the sticking point. He had needed Brian to do what needed to be done. He and all the others had needed Brian to be their guts. Now they were down and there were no monsters beneath the clouds; only this weird silence and one deserted luggage train sitting beneath the wing of a Delta 727. So if you want to take over and be the captain, my nosetwisting friend, you have my blessing. I'll even let you wear my cap if you want to. But not until we're off the plane. Until you and the rest of the geese actually stand on the ground, you're my responsibility. But Nick had asked him a question, and Brian supposed he deserved an answer. 'Now we get off the airplane and see what's what,' he said, brushing past the Englishman. Nick put a restraining hand on his shoulder. 'Do you think' Brian felt a flash of uncharacteristic anger. He shook loose from Nick's hand. 'I think we get off the plane,' he said. 'There's no one to extend a jetway or run us out a set of stairs, so I think we use the emergency slide. After that, you think. Matey.' He pushed through into first class ... and almost fell over the drinks trolley, which lay on its side. There was a lot of broken glass and an eyewatering stink of alcohol. He stepped over it. Nick caught up with him at the rear of the firstclass compartment. 'Brian, if I said something to offend you, I'm sorry. You did a hell of a fine job.' 'You didn't offend me,' Brian said.


'It's just that in the last ten hours or so I've had to cope with a pressure leak over the Pacific Ocean, finding out that my exwife died in a stupid apartment fire in Boston, and that the United States has been cancelled. I'm feeling a little zonked.' He walked through business class into the main cabin. For a moment there was utter silence; they only sat there, looking at him from their white faces with dumb incomprehension. Then Albert Kaussner began to applaud. After a moment, Bob Jenkins joined him ... and Don Gaffney ... and Laurel Stevenson. The bald man looked around and also began to applaud. 'What is it?' Dinah asked Laurel. 'What's happening?' 'It's the captain,' Laurel said. She began to cry. 'It's the captain who brought us down safe.' Then Dinah began to applaud, too. Brian stared at them, dumbfounded. Standing behind him, Nick joined in. They unbuckled their belts and stood in front of their seats, applauding him. The only three who did not join in were Bethany, who had fainted, the bearded man, who was still snoring in the back row, and Craig Toomy, who panned them all with his strange lunar gaze and then began to rip a fresh strip from the airline magazine. 6 Brian felt his face flush  this was just too goony. He raised his hands but for a moment they went on, regardless. 'Ladies and gentlemen, please ... please ... I assure you, it was a very routine landing ' 'Shucks, ma'am  t'warn't nothin,' Bob Jenkins said, doing a very passable Gary Cooper imitation, and Albert burst out laughing. Beside him, Bethany's eyes fluttered open and she looked around, dazed. 'We got down alive, didn't we?' she said. 'My God! That's great! I thought we were all dead meat!' 'Please,' Brian said. He raised his arms higher and now he felt weirdly like Richard Nixon, accepting his party's nomination for four more years. He had to struggle against sudden shrieks of laughter. He couldn't do that; the passengers wouldn't understand. They wanted a hero, and he was elected. He might as well accept the position ... and use it. He still had to get them off the plane, after all. 'If I could have your attention, please!' They stopped applauding one by one and looked at him expectantly  all except Craig, who threw his magazine aside in a sudden resolute gesture. He unbuckled his seatbelt, rose, and stepped out into the aisle, kicking a drift of paper strips aside. He began to rummage around in the compartment above his seat, frowning with concentration as he did so. 'You've looked out the windows, so you know as much as I do,' Brian said. 'Most of the passengers and all of the crew on this flight disappeared while we were asleep. That's crazy enough, but now we appear to be faced with an even crazier proposition. It looks like a lot of other people have disappeared as well ... but logic suggests that other people must be around somewhere. We survived whateveritwas, so others must have survived it as well.' Bob Jenkins, the mystery writer, whispered something under his breath. Albert heard him but could not make out the words. He halfturned in Jenkins's direction just as the writer muttered the two words again. This time Albert caught them. They were false logic. 'The best way to deal with this, I think, is to take things one step at a time. Step one is exiting the plane.' 'I bought a ticket to Boston,' Craig Toomy said in a calm, rational voice. 'Boston is where I want to go.' Nick stepped out from behind Brian's shoulder. Craig glanced at him and his eyes narrowed. For a moment he looked like a badtempered housecat again. Nick raised one hand with the fingers curled in against his palm and scissored two of his knuckles together in a nosepinching gesture. Craig Toomy, who had once been forced to stand with a lit match between his toes while his mother sang 'Happy Birthday,' got the message at once. He had always been a quick study. And he could wait. 'We'll have to use the emergency slide,' Brian said, 'so I want to review the procedures with you. Listen carefully, then form a singlefile line and follow me to the front of the aircraft.' 7 Four minutes later, the forward entrance of American Pride's Flight 29 Swung inward. Some murmured conversation drifted out of the opening and seemed to fall immediately dead on the cool, still air. There was a hissing sound and a large clump of orange fabric suddenly bloomed in the doorway. For a moment it looked like a strange hybrid sunflower. It grew and took shape as it fell, its surface inflating into a plump ribbed slide. As the foot of the slide struck the tarmac there was a low pop! and then it just leaned there, looking like a giant orange air mattress. Brian and Nick stood at the head of the short line in the portside row of first class. 'There's something wrong with the air out there,' Nick said in a low voice. 'What do you mean?' Brian asked. He pitched his voice even lower. 'Poisoned?' 'No ... at least I don't think so. But it has no smell, no taste.' 'You're nuts,' Brian said uneasily. 'No I'm not,' Nick said. 'This is an airport, mate, not a bloody hayfield, but can you smell oil or gas? I can't.' Brian sniffed. And there was nothing. If the air was poisoned  he didn't believe it was, but if  it was a slowacting toxin. His lungs seemed to be processing it just fine. But Nick was right. There was no smell. And that other, more elusive, quality that the Brit had called taste ... that wasn't there, either. The air outside the open door tasted utterly neutral. It tasted canned. 'Is something wrong?' Bethany Simms asked anxiously. 'I mean, I'm not sure if I really want to know if there is, but ' 'There's nothing wrong,' Brian said. He counted heads, came up with ten, and turned to Nick again. 'That guy in the back is still asleep. Do you think we should wake him up?' Nick thought for a moment, then shook his head. 'Let's not. Haven't we got enough problems for now without having to play nursemaid to a bloke with a hangover?' Brian grinned. They were his thoughts exactly. 'Yes, I think we do. All right you go down first, Nick. Hold the bottom of the slide. I'll help the rest off.' 'Maybe you'd better go first. In case my loudmouthed friend decides to cut up rough about the unscheduled stop again.' He pronounced unscheduled as unshedyouled. Brian glanced at the man in the crewnecked jersey. He was standing at the rear of the line, a slim monogrammed briefcase in one hand, staring blankly at the ceiling. His face had all the expression of a departmentstore dummy. 'I'm not going to have any trouble with him,' he said, 'because I don't give a crap what he does. He can go or stay, it's all the same to me.' Nick grinned. 'Good enough for me, too. Let the grand exodus begin.' 'Shoes off ?' Nick held up a pair of black kidskin loafers. 'Okay  away you go.' Brian turned to Bethany. 'Watch closely, miss you're next.' 'Oh God  I hate shit like this.' Bethany nevertheless crowded up beside Brian and watched apprehensively as Nick Hopewell addressed the slide. He jumped, raising both legs at the same time so he looked like a man doing a seatdrop on a trampoline. He landed on his butt and slid to the bottom. It was neatly done; the foot of the slide barely moved. He hit the tarmac with his stockinged feet, stood up, twirled around, and made a mock bow with his arms held out behind him. 'Easy as pie!' he called up. 'Next customer!' 'That's you, miss,' Brian said. 'Is it Bethany?' 'Yes,' she said nervously. 'I don't think I can do this. I flunked gym all three semesters and they finally let me take home ec again instead.' 'You'll do fine,' Brian told her. He reflected that people used the slide with much less coaxing and a lot more enthusiasm when there was a threat they could see  a hole in the fuselage or a fire in one of the portside engines. 'Shoes off?' Bethany's shoes  actually a pair of old pink sneakers  were off, but she tried to withdraw from the doorway and the brightorange slide just the same. 'Maybe if I could just have a drink before ' 'Mr Hopewell's holding the slide and you'll be fine,' Brian coaxed, but he was beginning to be afraid he might have to push her. He didn't want to, but if she didn't jump soon, he would. You couldn't let them go to the end of the line until their courage returned; that was the big nono when it came to the escape slide. If you did that, they all wanted to go to the end of the line. 'Go on, Bethany,' Albert said suddenly. He had taken his violin case from the overhead compartment and held it tucked under one arm. 'I'm scared to death of that thing, and if you go, I'll have to.' She looked at him, surprised. 'Why?' Albert's face was very red. 'Because you're a girl,' he said simply. 'I know I'm a sexist rat, but that's it.' Bethany looked at him a moment longer, then laughed and turned to the slide. Brian had made up his mind to push her if she looked around or drew back again, but she didn't. 'Boy, I wish I had some grass,' she said, and jumped. She had seen Nick's seatdrop maneuver and knew what to do, but at the last moment she lost her courage and tried to get her feet under her again. As a result, she skidded to one side when she came down on the slide's bouncy surface. Brian was sure she was going to tumble off, but Bethany herself saw the danger and managed to roll back. She shot down the slope on her right side, one hand over her head, her blouse rucking up almost to the nape of her neck. Then Nick caught her and she stepped off. 'Oh boy,' she said breathlessly. 'Just like being a kid again.' 'Are you all right?' Nick asked. 'Yeah. I think I might have wet my pants a little, but I'm okay.' Nick smiled at her and turned back to the slide. Albert looked apologetically at Brian and extended the violin case. 'Would you mind holding this for me? I'm afraid if I fall off the slide, it might get broken. My folks'd kill me. It's a Gretch.' Brian took it. His face was calm and serious, but he was smiling inside. 'Could I look? I used to play one of these about a thousand years ago.' 'Sure,' Albert said. Brian's interest had a calming effect on the boy ... which was exactly what he had hoped for. He unsnapped the three catches and opened the case. The violin inside was indeed a Gretch, and not from the bottom of that prestigious line, either. Brian guessed you could buy a compact car for the amount of money this had cost. 'Beautiful,' he said, and plucked out four quick notes along the neck My dog has fleas. They rang sweetly and beautifully. Brian closed and latched the case again. 'I'll keep it safe. Promise.' 'Thanks.' Albert stood in the doorway, took a deep breath, then let it out again. 'Geronimo,' he said in a weak little voice and jumped. He tucked his hands into his armpits as he did so  protecting his hands in any situation where physical damage was possible was so ingrained in him that it had become a reflex. He seatdropped onto the slide and shot neatly to the bottom. 'Well done!' Nick said. 'Nothing to it,' Ace Kaussner drawled, stepped off, and then nearly tripped over his own feet. 'Albert!' Brian called down. 'Catch!' He leaned out, placed the violin case on the center of the slide, and let it go. Albert caught it easily five feet from the bottom, tucked it under his arm, and stood back. Jenkins shut his eyes as he leaped and came down aslant on one scrawny buttock. Nick stepped nimbly to the left side of the slide and caught the writer just as he fell off, saving him a nasty tumble to the concrete. 'Thank you, young man.' 'Don't mention it, matey.' Gaffney followed; so did the bald man. Then Laurel and Dinah Bellman stood in the hatchway. 'I'm scared,' Dinah said in a thin, wavery voice. 'You'll be fine, honey,' Brian said. 'You don't even have to jump.' He put his hands on Dinah's shoulders and turned her so she was facing him with her back to the slide. 'Give me your hands and I'll lower you onto the slide.' But Dinah put them behind her back. 'Not you. I want Laurel to do it.' Brian looked at the youngish woman with the dark hair. 'Would you?' 'Yes,' she said. 'If you tell me what to do.' 'Dinah already knows. Lower her onto the slide by her hands. When she's lying on her tummy with her feet pointed straight, she can shoot right down.' Dinah's hands were cold in Laurel's. 'I'm scared,' she repeated. 'Honey, it'll be just like going down a playground slide,' Brian said. 'The man with the English accent is waiting at the bottom to catch you. He's got his hands up just like a catcher in a baseball game.' Not, he reflected, that Dinah would know what that looked like. Dinah looked at him as if he were being quite foolish. 'Not of that. I'm scared of this place. It smells funny.' Laurel, who detected no smell but her own nervous sweat, looked helplessly at Brian. 'Honey,' Brian said, dropping to one knee in front of the little blind girl, 'we have to get off the plane. You know that, don't you?' The lenses of the dark glasses turned toward him. 'Why? Why do we have to get off the plane? There's no one here.' Brian and Laurel exchanged a glance. 'Well,' Brian said, 'we won't really know that until we check, will we?' 'I know already,' Dinah said. 'There's nothing to smell and nothing to hear. But ... but . . .' 'But what, Dinah?' Laurel asked. Dinah hesitated. She wanted to make them understand that the way she had to leave the plane was really not what was bothering her. She had gone down slides before, and she trusted Laurel. Laurel would not let go of her hands if it was dangerous. Something was wrong here, wrong, and that was what she was afraid of  the wrong thing. It wasn't the quiet and it wasn't the emptiness. It might have to do with those things, but it was more than those things. Something wrong. But grownups did not believe children, especially not blind children, even more especially not blind girl children. She wanted to tell them they couldn't stay here, that it wasn't safe to stay here, that they had to start the plane up and get going again. But what would they say? Okay, sure, Dinah's right, everybody back on the plane? No way. They'll see. They'll see that it's empty and then we'll get back on the airplane and go someplace else. Someplace where it doesn't feel wrong. There's still time. I think. 'Never mind,' she told Laurel. Her voice was low and resigned. 'Lower me down.' Laurel lowered her carefully onto the slide. A moment later Dinah was looking up at her  except she's not really looking, Laurel thought, she can't really look at all  with her bare feet splayed out behind her on the orange slide. 'Okay, Dinah?' Laurel asked. 'No,' Dinah said. 'Nothing's okay here.' And before Laurel could release her, Dinah unlocked her hands from Laurel's and released herself. She slid to the bottom, and Nick caught her. Laurel went next, dropping neatly onto the slide and holding her skirt primly as she slid to the bottom. That left Brian, the snoozing drunk at the back of the plane, and that funloving, paperripping party animal, Mr CrewNeck jersey. I'm not going to have any trouble with him, Brian had said, because I don't give a crap what he does. Now he discovered that was not really true. The man was not playing with a full deck. Brian suspected even the little girl knew that, and the little girl was blind. What if they left him behind and the guy decided to go on a rampage? What if, in the course of that rampage, he decided to trash the cockpit? So what? You're not going anyplace. The tanks are almost dry. Still, he didn't like the idea, and not just because the 767 was a multimilliondollar piece of equipment, either. Perhaps what he felt was a vague echo of what he had seen in Dinah's face as she looked up from the slide. Things here seemed wrong, even wronger than they looked ... and that was scary, because he didn't know how things could be wronger than that. The plane, however, was right. Even with its fuel tanks all but empty, it was a world he knew and understood. 'Your turn, friend,' he said as civilly as he could. 'You know I'm going to report you for this, don't you?' Craig Toomy asked in a queerly gentle voice. 'You know I plan to sue this entire airline for thirty million dollars, and that I plan to name you a primary respondent?' 'That's your privilege, Mr ' 'Toomy. Craig Toomy.' 'Mr Toomy,' Brian agreed. He hesitated. 'Mr Toomy, are you aware of what has happened to us?' Craig looked out the open doorway for a moment  looked at the deserted tarmac and the wide, slightly polarized terminal windows on the second level, where no happy friends and relatives stood waiting to embrace arriving passengers, where no impatient travellers waited for their flights to be called. Of course he knew. It was the langoliers. The langoliers had come for all the foolish, lazy people, just as his father had always said they would. In that same gentle voice, Craig said 'In the Bond Department of the Desert Sun Banking Corporation, I am known as The Wheelhorse. Did you know that?' He paused for a moment, apparently waiting for Brian to make some response. When Brian didn't, Craig continued. 'Of course you didn't. No more than you know how important this meeting at the Prudential Center in Boston is. No more than you care. But let me tell you something, Captain the economic fate of nations may hinge upon the results of that meeting  that meeting from which I will be absent when the roll is taken.' 'Mr Toomy, all that's very interesting, but I really don't have time 'Time!' Craig screamed at him suddenly. 'What in the hell do you know about time? Ask me! Ask me! I know about time! I know all about time! Time is short, sir! Time is very fucking short!' Hell with it, I'm going to push the crazy son of a bitch, Brian thought, but before he could, Craig Toomy turned and leaped. He did a perfect seatdrop, holding his briefcase to his chest as he did so, and Brian was crazily reminded of that old Hertz ad on TV, the one where O.J.Simpson went flying through airports in a suit and a tie. 'Time is short as hell!' Craig shouted as he slid down, briefcase over his chest like a shield, pantslegs pulling up to reveal his kneehigh dressforsuccess black nylon socks. Brian muttered 'Jesus, what a fucking weirdo.' He paused at the head of the slide, looked around once more at the comforting, known world of his aircraft . . . and jumped. 8 Ten people stood in two small groups beneath the giant wing of the 767 with the redandblue eagle on the nose. In one group were Brian, Nick, the bald man, Bethany Simms, Albert Kaussner, Robert Jenkins, Dinah, Laurel, and Don Gaffney. Standing slightly apart from them and constituting his own group was Craig Toomy, a.k.a. The Wheelhorse. Craig bent and shook out the creases of his pants with fussy concentration, using his left hand to do it. The right hand was tightly locked around the handle of his briefcase. Then he simply stood and looked around with wide, disinterested eyes. 'What now, Captain?' Nick asked briskly. 'You tell me. Us.' Nick looked at him for a moment, one eyebrow slightly raised, as if to ask Brian if he really meant it. Brian inclined his head half an inch. It was enough. 'Well, inside the terminal will do for a start, I reckon,' Nick said. 'What would be the quickest way to get there? Any idea?' Brian nodded toward a line of baggage trains parked beneath the overhang of the main terminal. 'I'd guess the quickest way in without a jetway would be the luggage conveyor.' 'All right; let's hike on over, ladies and gentlemen, shall we?' It was a short walk, but Laurel, who walked handinhand with Dinah, thought it was the strangest one she had ever taken in her life. She could see them as if from above, less than a dozen dots trundling slowly across a wide concrete plain. There was no breeze. No birds sang. No motors revved in the distance, and no human voice broke the unnatural quiet. Even their footfalls seemed wrong to her. She was wearing a pair of high heels, but instead of the brisk click she was used to, she seemed to hear only small, dull thuds. Seemed, she thought. That's the key word. Because the situation is so strange, everything begins to seem strange. It's the concrete, that's all. High heels sound different on concrete. But she had walked on concrete in high heels before. She didn't remember ever hearing a sound precisely like this. It was ... pallid, somehow. Strengthless. They reached the parked luggage trains. Nick wove between them, leading the line, and stopped at a dead conveyor belt which emerged from a hole lined with hanging strips of rubber. The conveyor made a wide circle on the apron where the handlers normally stood to unload the flatties, then reentered the terminal through another hole hung with rubber strips. 'What are those pieces of rubber for?' Bethany asked nervously. 'To keep out the draft in cold weather, I imagine,' Nick said. 'Just let me poke my head through and have a look. No fear; won't be a moment.' And before anyone could reply, he had boosted himself onto the conveyor belt and was walking bentover down to one of the holes cut into the building. When he got there, he dropped to his knees and poked his head through the rubber strips. We're going to hear a whistle and then a thud, Albert thought wildly, and when we pull him back, his head will be gone. There was no whistle, no thud. When Nick withdrew, his head was still firmly attached to his neck, and his face wore a thoughtful expression. 'Coast's clear,' he said, and to Albert his cheery tone now sounded manufactured. 'Come on through, friends. When a body meet a body, and all that.' Bethany held back. 'Are there bodies? Mister, are there dead people in there?' 'Not that I saw, miss,' Nick said, and now he had dropped any attempt at lightness. 'I was misquoting old Bobby Burns in an attempt to be funny. I'm afraid I achieved tastelessness instead of humor. The fact is, I didn't see anyone at all. But that's pretty much what we expected, isn't it?' It was ... but it struck heavily at their hearts just the same. Nick's as well, from his tone. One after the other they climbed onto the conveyor belt and crawled after him through the hanging rubber strips. Dinah paused just outside the entrance hole and turned her head back toward Laurel. Hazy light flashed across her dark glasses, turning them to momentary mirrors. 'It's really wrong here,' she repeated, and pushed through to the other side. 9 One by one they emerged into the main terminal of Bangor International Airport, exotic baggage crawling along a stalled conveyor belt. Albert helped Dinah off and then they all stood there, looking around in silent wonder. The shocked amazement at waking to a plane which had been magically emptied of people had worn off; now dislocation had taken the place of wonder. None of them had ever been in an airport terminal which was utterly empty. The rentalcar stalls were deserted. The ARRIVALSDEPARTURES monitors were dark and dead. No one stood at the bank of counters serving Delta, United, Northwest AirLink, or MidCoast Airways. The huge tank in the middle of the floor with the BUY MAINE LOBSTERS banner stretched over it was full of water, but there were no lobsters in it. The overhead fluorescents were off, and the small amount of light entering through the doors on the far side of the large room petered out halfway across the floor, leaving the little group from Flight 29 huddled together in an unpleasant nest of shadows. 'Right, then,' Nick said, trying for briskness and managing only unease. 'Let's try the telephones, shall we?' While he went to the bank of telephones, Albert wandered over to the Budget Rent A Car desk. In the slots on the rear wall he saw folders for BRIGGS, HANDLEFORD, MARCHANT, FENWICK, and PESTLEMAN. There was, no doubt, a rental agreement inside each one, along with a map of the central Maine area, and on each map there would be an arrow with the legend You ARE HERE on it, pointing at the city of Bangor. But where are we really? Albert wondered. And where are Briggs, Handleford, Marchant, Fenwick, and Pestleman? Have they been transported to another dimension? Maybe it's the Grateful Dead. Maybe the Dead's playing somewhere downstate and everybody left for the show. There was a dry scratching noise just behind him. Albert nearly jumped out of his skin and whirled around fast, holding his violin case up like a cudgel. Bethany was standing there, just touching a match to the tip of her cigarette. She raised her eyebrows. 'Scare you?' 'A little,' Albert said, lowering the case and offering her a small, embarrassed smile. 'Sorry.' She shook out the match, dropped it on the floor, and drew deeply on her cigarette. 'There. At least that's better. I didn't dare to on the plane. I was afraid something might blow up.' Bob Jenkins strolled over. 'You know, I quit those about ten years ago.' 'No lectures, please,' Bethany said. 'I've got a feeling that if we get out of this alive and sane, I'm in for about a month of lectures. Solid. Walltowall.' Jenkins raised his eyebrows but didn't ask for an explanation. 'Actually,' he said, 'I was going to ask you if I could have one. This seems like an excellent time to renew acquaintances with old habits.' Bethany smiled and offered him a Marlboro. Jenkins took it and she lit it for him. He inhaled, then coughed out a series of smokesignal puffs. 'You have been away,' she observed matteroffactly. Jenkins agreed. 'But I'll get used to it again in a hurry. That's the real horror of the habit, I'm afraid. Did you two notice the clock?' 'No,' Albert said. Jenkins pointed to the wall above the doors of the men's and women's bathrooms. The clock mounted there had stopped at 407. lit fits,' he said. 'We knew we had been in the air for awhile when  let's call it The Event, for want of a better term  when The Event took place. 407 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time is 107 A.M. PDT. So now we know the when.' 'Gee, that's great,' Bethany said. 'Yes,' Jenkins said, either not noticing or preferring to ignore the light overlay of sarcasm in her voice. 'But there's something wrong with it. I only wish the sun was out. Then I could be sure.' 'What do you mean?' Albert asked. 'The clocks  the electric ones, anyway  are no good. There's no juice. But if the sun was out, we could get at least a rough idea of what time it is by the length and direction of our shadows. My watch says it's going on quarter of nine, but I don't trust it. It feels later to me than that. I have no proof for it, and I can't explain it, but it does.' Albert thought about it. Looked around. Looked back at Jenkins. 'You know,' he said, 'it does. It feels like it's almost lunchtime. Isn't that nuts?' 'It's not nuts,' Bethany said, 'it's just jetlag.' 'I disagree,' Jenkins said. 'We travelled west to east, young lady. Any temporal dislocation westeast travellers feel goes the other way. They feel it's earlier than it should be.' 'I want to ask you about something you said on the plane,' Albert said. 'When the captain told us that there must be some other people here, you said "false logic." In fact, you said it twice. But it seems straight enough to me. We were all asleep, and we're here. And if this thing happened at ' Albert glanced toward the clock ' at 407, Bangor time, almost everyone in town must have been asleep.' 'Yes,' Jenkins said blandly. 'So where are they?' Albert was nonplussed. 'Well . . .' There was a bang as Nick forcibly hung up one of the pay telephones. It was the last in a long line of them; he had tried every one. 'It's a wash' out,' he said. 'They're all dead. The coinfed ones as well as the directdials. You can add the sound of no phones ringing to that of no dogs barking, Brian.' 'So what do we do now?' Laurel asked. She heard the forlorn sound of her own voice and it made her feel very small, very lost. Beside her, Dinah was turning in slow circles. She looked like a human radar dish. 'Let's go upstairs,' Baldy proposed. 'That's where the restaurant must be.' They all looked at him. Gaffney snorted. 'You got a onetrack mind, mister.' The bald man looked at him from beneath one raised eyebrow. 'First, the name is Rudy Warwick, not mister,' he replied. 'Second, people think better when their stomachs are full.' He shrugged. 'It's just a law of nature.' 'I think Mr Warwick is quite right,' Jenkins said. 'We all could use something to eat ... and if we go upstairs, we may find some other clues pointing toward what has happened. In fact, I rather think we will.' Nick shrugged. He looked suddenly tired and confused. 'Why not? he said. 'I'm starting to feel like Mr Robinson Bloody Crusoe.' They started toward the escalator, which was also dead, in a straggling little group. Albert, Bethany, and Bob Jenkins walked together, toward the rear. 'You know something, don't you?' Albert asked abruptly. 'What is it?' 'I might know something,' Jenkins corrected. 'I might not. For the time being I'm going to hold my peace ... except for one suggestion.' 'What?' 'It's not for you; it's for the young lady.' He turned to Bethany. 'Save your matches. That's my suggestion.' 'What?' Bethany frowned at him. 'You heard me.' 'Yeah, I guess I did, but I don't get what you mean. There's probably a newsstand upstairs, Mr Jenkins. They'll have lots of matches. Cigarettes and disposable lighters, too.' 'I agree,' Jenkins said. 'I still advise you to save your matches.' He's playing Philo Christie or whoever it was again, Albert thought. He was about to point this out and ask Jenkins to please remember that this wasn't one of his novels when Brian Engle stopped at the foot of the escalator, so suddenly that Laurel had to jerk sharply on Dinah's hand to keep the blind girl from running into him. 'Watch where you're going, okay?' Laurel asked. 'In case you didn't notice, the kid here can't see.' Brian ignored her. He was looking around at the little group of refugees. 'Where's Mr Toomy?' 'Who?' the bald man  Warwick  asked. 'The guy with the pressing appointment in Boston.' 'Who cares?' Gaffney asked. 'Good riddance to bad rubbish.' But Brian was uneasy. He didn't like the idea that Toomy had slipped away and gone off on his own. He didn't know why, but he didn't like that idea at all. He glanced at Nick. Nick shrugged, then shook his head. 'Didn't see him go, mate. I was fooling with the phones. Sorry.' 'Toomy!' Brian shouted. 'Craig Toomy! Where are you?' There was no response. Only that queer, oppressive silence. And Laurel noticed something then, something that made her skin cold. Brian had cupped his hands and shouted up the escalator. In a highceilinged place like this one, there should have been at least some echo. But there had been none. No echo at all. 10 While the others were occupied downstairs  the two teenagers and the old geezer standing by one of the carrental desks, the others watching the British thug as he tried the phones  Craig Toomy had crept up the stalled escalator as quietly as a mouse. He knew exactly where he wanted to go; he knew exactly what to look for when he got there. He strode briskly across the large waiting room with his briefcase swinging beside his right knee, ignoring both the empty chairs and an empty bar called The Red Baron. At the far end of the room was a sign hanging over the mouth of a wide, dark corridor. It read GATE 5 INTERNATIONAL ARRIVALS DUTY FREE SHOPS U.S. CUSTOMS AIRPORT SECURITY He had almost reached the head of this corridor when he glanced out one of the wide windows at the tarmac again . . . and his pace faltered. He approached the glass slowly and looked out. There was nothing to see but the empty concrete and the moveless white sky, but his eyes began to widen nonetheless and he felt fear begin to steal into his heart. They're coming, a dead voice suddenly told him. It was the voice of his father, and it spoke from a small, haunted mausoleum tucked away in a gloomy corner of Craig Toomy's heart.


'No,' he whispered, and the word spun a little blossom of fog on the window in front of his lips. 'No one is coming.' You've been bad. Worse, you've been lazy. 'No!' Yes. You had an appointment and you skipped it. You ran away. You ran away to Bangor, Maine, of all the silly places. 'It wasn't my fault,' he muttered. He was gripping the handle of the briefcase with almost painful tightness now. 'I was taken against my will. I ... I was shanghaied!' No reply from that interior voice. Only waves of disapproval. And once again Craig intuited the pressure he was under, the terrible neverending pressure, the weight of the fathoms. The interior voice did not have to tell him there were no excuses; Craig knew that. He knew it of old. THEY were here ... and they will be back. You know that, don't you? He knew. The langoliers would be back. They would be back for him. He could sense them. He had never seen them, but he knew how horrible they would be. And was he alone in his knowledge? He thought not. He thought perhaps the little blind girl knew something about the langoliers as well. But that didn't matter. The only thing which did was getting to Boston getting to Boston before the langoliers could arrive in Bangor from their terrible, doomish lair to eat him alive and screaming. He had to get to that meeting at the Pru, had to let them know what he had done, and then he would be ... Free. He would be free. Craig pulled himself away from the window, away from the emptiness and the stillness, and plunged into the corridor beneath the sign. He passed the empty shops without a glance. Beyond them he came to the door he was looking for. There was a small rectangular plaque mounted on it, just above a bullseye peephole. AIRPORT SECURITY, it said. He had to get in there. One way or another, he had to get in there. All of this ... this craziness ... it doesn't have to belong to me. I don't have to own it. Not anymore. Craig reached out and touched the doorknob of the Airport Security office. The blank look in his eyes had been replaced by an expression of clear determination. I have been under stress for a long, a very long, time. Since I was seven? No  I think it started even before that. The fact is, I've been under stress for as long as I can remember. This latest piece of craziness is just a new variation. It's probably just what the man in the ratty sportcoat said it was a test. Agents of some secret government agency or sinister foreign power running a test. But I choose not to participate in any more tests. I don't care if it's my father in charge, or my mother, or the dean of the Graduate School of Management, or the Desert Sun Banking Corporation's Board of Directors. I choose not to participate. I choose to escape. I choose to get to Boston and finish what I set out to do when I presented the Argentinian bondbuy in the first place. If I don't . . . But he knew what would happen if he didn't. He would go mad. Craig tried the doorknob. It did not move beneath his hand, but when he gave it a small, frustrated push, the door swung open. Either it had been left slightly unlatched, or it had unlocked when the power went off and the security systems went dead. Craig didn't care which. The important thing was that he wouldn't need to muss his clothes trying to crawl through an airconditioning duct or something. He still had every intention of showing up at his meeting before the end of the day, and he didn't want his clothes smeared with dirt and grease when he got there. One of the simple, unexceptional truths of life was this guys with dirt on their suits have no credibility. He pushed the door open and went inside. 11 Brian and Nick reached the top of the escalator first, and the others gathered around them. This was BIA's central waiting room, a large square box filled with contour plastic seats (some with coinop TVs bolted to the arms) and dominated by a wall of polarized floortoceiling windows. To their immediate left was the airport newsstand and the security checkpoint which served Gate I; to their right and all the way across the room was The Red Baron Bar and The Cloud Nine Restaurant. Beyond the restaurant was the corridor leading to the Airport Security Office and the International Arrivals Annex. 'Come on ' Nick began, and Dinah said, 'Wait.' She spoke in a strong, urgent voice and they all turned toward her curiously. Dinah dropped Laurel's hand and raised both of her own. She cupped the thumbs behind her ears and splayed her fingers out like fans. Then she simply stood there, still as a post, in this odd and rather weird listening posture. 'What ' Brian began, and Dinah said 'Shhh!' in an abrupt, inarguable sibilant. She turned slightly to the left, paused, then turned in the other direction until the white light coming through the windows fell directly on her, turning her already pale face into something which was ghostlike and eerie. She took off her dark glasses. The eyes beneath were wide, brown, and not quite blank. 'There,' she said in a low, dreaming voice, and Laurel felt terror begin to stroke at her heart with chilly fingers. Nor was she alone. Bethany was crowding close to her on one side, and Don Gaffney moved in against her other side. 'There  I can feel the light. They said that's how they know I can see again. I can always feel the light. It's like heat inside my head.' 'Dinah, what 'Brian began. Nick elbowed him. The Englishman's face was long and drawn, his forehead ribbed with lines. 'Be quiet, mate.' 'The fight is ... here.' She walked slowly away from them, her hands still fanned out by her ears, her elbows held out before her to encounter any object which might stand in her way. She advanced until she was less than two feet from the window. Then she slowly reached out until her fingers touched the glass. They looked like black starfish outlined against the white sky. She let out a small, unhappy Murmur. 'The glass is wrong, too,' she said in that dreaming voice. 'Dinah ' Laurel began. 'Shhh . . .'she whispered without turning round. She stood at the window like a little girl waiting for her father to come home from work. 'I hear something.' These whispered words sent a wordless, thoughtless horror through Albert Kaussner's mind. He felt pressure on his shoulders and looked down to see he had crossed his arms across his chest and was clutching himself hard. Brian listened with all his concentration. He heard his own breathing, and the breathing of the others ... but he heard nothing else. It's her imagination, he thought. That's all it is. But he wondered. 'What?' Laurel asked urgently. 'What do you hear, Dinah?' 'I don't know,' she said without turning from the window. 'It's very faint. I thought I heard it when we got off the airplane, and then I decided it was just my imagination. Now I can hear it better. I can hear it even through the glass. It sounds ... a little like Rice Krispies after you pour in the milk.' Brian turned to Nick and spoke in a low voice. 'Do you hear anything?' 'Not a bloody thing,' Nick said, matching Brian's tone. 'But she's blind. She's used to making her ears do double duty.' 'I think it's hysteria,' Brian said. He was whispering now, his lips almost touching Nick's ear. Dinah turned from the window. '"Do you hear anything?"' she mimicked. "'Not a bloody thing. But she's blind. She's used to making her ears do double duty."' She paused, then added "'I think it's hysteria."' 'Dinah, what are you talking about?' Laurel asked, perplexed and frightened. She had not heard Brian and Nick's muttered conversation, although she had been standing much closer to them than Dinah was. 'Ask them,' Dinah said. Her voice was trembling. 'I'm not crazy! I'm blind, but I'm not crazy!' 'All right,' Brian said, shaken. 'All right, Dinah.' And to Laurel he said 'I was talking to Nick. She heard us. From over there by the windows, she heard us.' You've got great ears, hon,' Bethany said. I hear what I hear,' Dinah said. 'And I hear something out there. In that direction.' She pointed due east through the glass. Her unseeing eyes swept them. 'And it's bad. It's an awful sound, a scary sound.' Don Gaffney said hesitantly 'If you knew what it was, little miss, that would help, maybe.' 'I don't,' Dinah said. 'But I know that it's closer than it was.' She put her dark glasses back on with a hand that was trembling. 'We have to get out of here. And we have to get out soon. Because something is coming. The bad something making the cereal noise.' 'Dinah,' Brian said, 'the plane we came in is almost out of fuel.' 'Then you have to put some more in it!' Dinah screamed shrilly at him. 'It's coming, don't you understand? It's coming, and if we haven't gone when it gets here, we're going to die! We're all going to die!' Her voice cracked and she began to sob. She was not a sibyl or a medium but only a little girl forced to live her terror in a darkness which was almost complete. She staggered toward them, her selfpossession utterly gone. Laurel grabbed her before she could stumble over one of the guideropes which marked the way to the security checkpoint and hugged her tight. She tried to soothe the girl, but those last words echoed and rang in Laurel's confused, shocked mind If we haven't gone when it gets here, we're going to die. We're all going to die. 12 Craig Toomy heard the brat begin to caterwaul back there someplace and ignored it. He had found what he was looking for in the third locker he opened, the one with the name MARKEY Dymotaped to the front. Mr Markey's lunch  a sub sandwich poking out of a brown paper bag  was on the top shelf. Mr Markey's street shoes were placed neatly side by side on the bottom shelf. Hanging in between, from the same hook, were a plain white shirt and a gunbelt. Protruding from the holster was the butt of Mr Markey's service revolver. Craig unsnapped the safety strap and took the gun out. He didn't know much about guns  this could have been a .32, a .38, or even a .45, for all of him  but he was not stupid, and after a few moments of fumbling he was able to roll the cylinder. All six chambers were loaded. He pushed the cylinder back in, nodding slightly when he heard it click home, and then inspected the hammer area and both sides of the grip. He was looking for a safety catch, but there didn't appear to be one. He put his finger on the trigger and tightened until he saw both the hammer and the cylinder move slightly. Craig nodded, satisfied. He turned around and without warning the most intense loneliness of his adult life struck him. The gun seemed to take on weight and the hand holding it sagged. Now he stood with his shoulders slumped, the briefcase dangling from his right hand, the security guard's pistol dangling from his left. On his face was an expression of utter, abject misery. And suddenly a memory recurred to him, something he hadn't thought of in years Craig Toomy, twelve years old, lying in bed and shivering as hot tears ran down his face. In the other room the stereo was turned up loud and his mother was singing along with Merrilee Rush in her droning offkey drunk's voice 'Just call me angel ... of the morning, baybee ... just touch my cheek ... before you leave me, baybee . . .' Lying there in bed. Shaking. Crying. Not making a sound. And thinking Why can't you love me and leave me alone, Momma? Why can't you just love me and leave me alone? 'I don't want to hurt anyone,' Craig Toomy muttered through his tears. 'I don't want to, but this ... this is intolerable.' Across the room was a bank of TV monitors, all blank. For a moment, as he looked at them, the truth of what had happened, what was still happening, tried to crowd in on him. For a moment it almost broke through his complex system of neurotic shields and into the airraid shelter where he lived his life. Everyone is gone, Craiggyweggy. The whole world is gone except for you and the people who were on that plane. 'No,' he moaned, and collapsed into one of the chairs standing around the Formicatopped kitchen table in the center of the room. 'No, that's not so. That's just not so. I refute that idea. I refute it utterly.' The langoliers were here, and they will be back, his father said. It overrode the voice of his mother, as it always had. You better be gone when they get here . . . or you know what will happen. He knew, all right. They would eat him. The langoliers would eat him up. 'But I don't want to hurt anyone,' he repeated in a dreary, distraught voice. There was a mimeographed duty roster lying on the table. Craig let go of his briefcase and laid the gun on the table beside him. Then he picked up the duty roster, looked at it for a moment with unseeing eyes, and began to tear a long strip from the lefthand side. Riiip. Soon he was hypnotized as a pile of thin strips  maybe the thinnest ever!  began to flutter down onto the table. But even then the cold voice of his father would not entirely leave him Or you know what will happen. CHAPTER 5 A Book of Matches. The Adventure of the Salami Sandwich. Another Example of the Deductive Method. The Arizona Yew Plays the Violin. The Only Sound in Town. 1 The frozen silence following Dinah's warning was finally broken by Robert Jenkins. 'We have some problems,' he said in a dry lecturehall voice. 'If Dinah hears something  and following the remarkable demonstration she's just given us, I'm inclined to think she does  it would be helpful if we knew what it is. We don't. That's one problem. The plane's lack of fuel is another problem.' 'There's a 727 Out there,' Nick said, 'all cozied up to a jetway. Can you fly one of those, Brian?' 'Yes,' Brian said. Nick spread his hands in Bob's direction and shrugged, as if to say There you are one knot untied already. 'Assuming we do take off again, where should we go?' Bob Jenkins went on. 'A third problem.' 'Away,' Dinah said immediately. 'Away from that sound. We have to get away from that sound, and what's making it.' 'How long do you think we have?' Bob asked her gently. 'How long before it gets here, Dinah? Do you have any idea at all?' 'No,' she said from the safe circle of Laurel's arms. 'I think it's still far. I think there's still time. But . . .' 'Then I suggest we do exactly as Mr Warwick has suggested,' Bob said. 'Let's step over to the restaurant, have a bite to eat, and discuss what happens next. Food does have a beneficial effect on what Monsieur Poirot liked to call the little gray cells.' 'We shouldn't wait,' Dinah said fretfully. 'Fifteen minutes,' Bob said. 'No more than that. And even at your age, Dinah, you should know that useful thinking must always precede useful action.' Albert suddenly realized that the mystery writer had his own reasons for wanting to go to the restaurant. Mr Jenkins's little gray cells were all in applepie working order  or at least he believed they were  and following his eerily sharp assessment of their situation on board the plane, Albert was willing at least to give him the benefit of the doubt. He wants to show us something, or prove something to us, he thought. 'Surely we have fifteen minutes?' he coaxed. 'Well . . .'Dinah said unwillingly. 'I guess so.' 'Fine,' Bob said briskly. 'It's decided.' And he struck off across the room toward the restaurant, as if taking it for granted that the others would follow him. Brian and Nick looked at each other. 'We better go along,' Albert said quietly. 'I think he knows stuff.' 'What kind of stuff?' Brian asked. 'I don't know, exactly, but I think it might be stuff worth finding out.' Albert followed Bob; Bethany followed Albert; the others fell in behind them, Laurel leading Dinah by the hand. The little girl was very pale. 2 The Cloud Nine Restaurant was really a cafeteria with a coldcase full of drinks and sandwiches at the rear and a stainless steel counter running beside a long, compartmentalized steamtable. All the compartments were empty, all sparkling clean. There wasn't a speck of grease on the grill. Glasses  those tough cafeteria glasses with the ripply sides  were stacked in neat pyramids on rear shelves, along with a wide selection of even tougher cafeteria crockery. Robert Jenkins was standing by the cash register. As Albert and Bethany came in, he said 'May I have another cigarette, Bethany?' 'Gee, you're a real mooch,' she said, but her tone was goodnatured. She produced her box of Marlboros and shook one out. He took it, then touched her hand as she also produced her book of matches. 'I'll just use one of these, shall I?' There was a bowl filled with paper matches advertising LaSalle Business School by the cash register. FOR OUR MATCHLESS FRIENDS, a little sign beside the bowl read. Bob took a book of these matches, opened it, and pulled one of the matches free. 'Sure,' Bethany said, 'but why?' 'That's what we're going to find out,' he said. He glanced at the others. They were standing around in a semicircle, watching  all except Rudy Warwick, who had drifted to the rear of the serving area and was closely inspecting the contents of the coldcase. Bob struck the match. It left a little smear of white stuff on the striker but didn't light. He struck it again with the same result. On the third try, the paper match bent. Most of the flammable head was gone, anyway. 'My, my,' he said in an utterly unsurprised tone. 'I suppose they must be wet. Let's try a book from the bottom, shall we? They should be dry.' He dug to the bottom of the bowl, spilling a number of matchbooks off the top and onto the counter as he did so. They all looked perfectly dry to Albert. Behind him, Nick and Brian exchanged another glance. Bob fished out another book of matches, pulled one, and tried to strike it. It didn't light. 'Son of a bee,' he said. 'We seem to have discovered yet another problem. May I borrow your book of matches, Bethany?' She handed it over without a word. 'Wait a minute,' Nick said slowly. 'What do you know, matey?' 'Only that this situation has even wider implications than we at first thought,' Bob said. His eyes were calm enough, but the face from which they looked was haggard. 'And I have an idea that we all may have made one big mistake. Understandable enough under the circumstances ... but until we've rectified our thinking on this subject, I don't believe we can make any progress. An error of perspective, I'd call it.' Warwick was wandering back toward them. He had selected a wrapped sandwich and a bottle of beer. His acquisitions seemed to have cheered him considerably. 'What's happening, folks?' 'I'll be damned if I know,' Brian said, 'but I don't like it much.' Bob Jenkins pulled one of the matches from Bethany's book and struck it. It lit on the first strike. 'Ah,' he said, and applied the flame to the tip of his cigarette. The smoke smelled incredibly pungent, incredibly sweet to Brian, and a moment's reflection suggested a reason why it was the only thing, save for the faint tang of Nick Hopewell's shaving lotion and Laurel's perfume, that he could smell. Now that he thought about it, Brian realized that he could also smell his travelling companions' sweat. Bob still held the lit match in his hand. Now he bent back the top of the book he'd taken from the bowl, exposing all the matches, and touched the lit match to the heads of the others. For a long moment nothing happened. The writer slipped the flame back and forth along the heads of the matches, but they didn't light. The others watched, fascinated. At last there was a sickly phsssss sound, and a few of the matches erupted into dull, momentary life. They did not really burn at all; there was a weak glow and they went out. A few tendrils of smoke drifted up ... smoke which seemed to have no odor at all. Bob looked around at them and smiled grimly. 'Even that,' he said, 'is more than I expected.' 'All right,' Brian said. 'Tell us about it. I know ' At that moment, Rudy Warwick uttered a cry of disgust. Dinah gave a little shriek and pressed closer to Laurel. Albert felt his heart take a high skip in his chest. Rudy had unwrapped his sandwich  it looked to Brian like salami and cheese and had taken a large bite. Now he spat it out onto the floor with a grimace of disgust. 'It's spoiled!' Rudy cried. 'Oh, goddam! I hate that!' 'Spoiled?' Bob Jenkins said swiftly. His eyes gleamed like blue electrical sparks. 'Oh, I doubt that. Processed meats are so loaded with preservatives these days that it takes eight hours or more in the hot sun to send them over. And we know by the clocks that the power in that coldcase went out less than five hours ago.' 'Maybe not,' Albert spoke up. 'You were the one who said it felt later than our wristwatches say.' 'Yes, but I don't think ... Was the case still cold, Mr Warwick? When you opened it, was the case still cold?' 'Not cold, exactly, but cool,' Rudy said. 'That sandwich is all fucked up, though. Pardon me, ladies. Here.' He held it out. 'If you don't think it's spoiled, you try it.' Bob stared at the sandwich, appeared to screw up his courage, and then did just that, taking a small bite from the untouched half. Albert saw an expression of disgust pass over his face, but he did not get rid of the food immediately. He chewed once ... twice ... then turned and spat into his hand. He stuffed the halfchewed bite of sandwich into the trashbin below the condiments shelf, and dropped the rest of the sandwich in after it. 'Not spoiled,' he said. 'Tasteless. And not just that, either. It seemed to have no texture.' His mouth drew down in an involuntary expression of disgust. 'We talk about things being bland  unseasoned white rice, boiled potatoes  but even the blandest food has some taste, I think. That had none. It was like chewing paper. No wonder you thought it was spoiled.' 'It was spoiled,' the bald man reiterated stubbornly. 'Try your beer,' Bob invited. 'That shouldn't be spoiled. The cap is still on, and a capped bottle of beer shouldn't spoil even if it isn't refrigerated.' Rudy looked thoughtfully at the bottle of Budweiser in his hand, then shook his head and held it out to Bob. 'I don't want it anymore,' he said. He glanced at the coldcase. His gaze was baleful, as if he suspected Jenkins of having played an unfunny practical joke on him. 'I will if I have to,' Bob said, 'but I've already offered my body up to science once. Will somebody else try this beer? I think it's very important.' 'Give it to me,' Nick said. 'No.' It was Don Gaffney. 'Give it to me. I could use a beer, by God. I've drunk 'em warm before and they don't cross my eyes none.' He took the beer, twisted off the cap, and upended it. A moment later he whirled and sprayed the mouthful he had taken onto the floor. 'Jesus!' he cried. 'Flat! Flat as a pancake!' 'Is it?' Bob asked brightly. 'Good! Great! Something we can all see!' He was around the counter in a flash, and taking one of the glasses down from the shelf. Gaffney had set the bottle down beside the cash register, and Brian looked at it closely as Bob Jenkins picked it up. He could see no foam clinging to the inside of the bottleneck. It might as well be water in there, he thought. What Bob poured out didn't look like water, however; it looked like beer. Flat beer. There was no head. A few small bubbles clung to the inside of the glass, but none of them came pinging up through the liquid to the surface. 'All right,' Nick said slowly, 'it's flat. Sometimes that happens. The cap doesn't get screwed on all the way at the factory and the gas escapes. Everyone's gotten a flat lager from time to time.' 'But when you add in the tasteless salami sandwich, it's suggestive, isn't it?' 'Suggestive of what?' Brian exploded. 'In a moment,' Bob said. 'Let's take care of Mr Hopewell's caveat first, shall we?' He turned, grabbed glasses with both hands (a couple of others fell off the shelf and shattered on the floor), then began to set them out along the counter with the agile speed of a bartender. 'Bring me some more beer. And a couple of soft drinks, while you're at it.' Albert and Bethany went down to the coldcase and each took four or five bottles, picking at random. 'Is he nuts?' Bethany asked in a low voice. 'I don't think so,' Albert said. He had a vague idea of what the writer was trying to show them ... and he didn't like the shape it made in his mind. 'Remember when he told you to save your matches? He knew something like this was going to happen. That's why he was so hot to get us over to the restaurant. He wanted to show us.' 3 The duty roster was ripped into three dozen narrow strips and the langoliers were closer now. Craig could feel their approach at the back of his mind  more weight. More insupportable weight. It was time to go. He picked up the gun and his briefcase, then stood up and left the security room. He walked slowly, rehearsing as he went I don't want to shoot you, but I will if I have to. Take me to Boston. I don't want to shoot you, but I will if I have to. Take me to Boston. 'I will if I have to,' Craig muttered as he walked back into the waiting room. 'I will if I have to.' His finger found the hammer of the gun and cocked it back. Halfway across the room, his attention was once more snared by the pallid light which fell through the windows, and he turned in that direction. He could feel them out there. The langoliers. They had eaten all the useless, lazy people, and now they were returning for him. He had to get to Boston. It was the only way he knew to save the rest of himself ... because their death would be horrible. Their death would be horrible indeed. He walked slowly to the windows and looked out, ignoring  at least for the time being  the murmur of the other passengers behind him. 4 Bob Jenkins poured a little from each bottle into its own glass. The contents of each was as flat as the first beer had been. 'Are you convinced?' he asked Nick. 'Yes,' Nick said. 'If you know what's going on here, mate, spill it. Please spill it.' 'I have an idea,' Bob said. 'It's not ... I'm afraid it's not very comforting, but I'm one of those people who believe that knowledge is always better  safer  in the long run than ignorance, no matter how dismayed one may feel when one first understands certain facts. Does that make any sense?' 'No,' Gaffney said at once. Bob shrugged and offered a small, wry smile. 'Be that as it may, I stand by my statement. And before I say anything else, I want to ask you all to look around this place and tell me what you see.' They looked around, concentrating so fiercely on the little clusters of tables and chairs that no one noticed Craig Toomy standing on the far side of the waiting room, his back to them, gazing out at the tarmac. 'Nothing,' Laurel said at last. 'I'm sorry, but I don't see anything. Your eyes must be sharper than mine, Mr Jenkins.' 'Not a bit. I see what you see nothing. But airports are open twentyfour hours a day. When this thing  this Event  happened, it was probably at the dead low tide of its twentyfourhour cycle, but I find it difficult to believe there weren't at least a few people in here, drinking coffee and perhaps eating early breakfasts. Aircraft maintenance men. Airport personnel. Perhaps a handful of connecting passengers who elected to save money by spending the hours between midnight and six or seven o'clock in the terminal instead of in a nearby motel. When I first got off that baggage conveyor and looked around, I felt utterly dislocated. Why? Because airports are never completely deserted, just as police and fire stations are never completely deserted. Now look around again, and ask yourself this where are the halfeaten meals, the halfempty glasses? Remember the drinks trolley on the airplane with the dirty glasses on the lower shelf ? Remember the halfeaten pastry and the halfdrunk cup of coffee beside the pilot's seat in the cockpit? There's nothing like that here. Where is the least sign that there were people here at all when this Event occurred?' Albert looked around again and then said slowly, 'There's no pipe on the foredeck, is there?' Bob looked at him closely. 'What? What do you say, Albert?' 'When we were on the plane,' Albert said slowly, 'I was thinking of this sailing ship I read about once. It was called the Mary Celeste, and someone spotted it, just floating aimlessly along. Well . . . not really floating, I guess, because the book said the sails were set, but when the people who found it boarded her, everyone on the Mary Celeste was gone. Their stuff was still there, though, and there was food cooking on the stove. Someone even found a pipe on the foredeck. It was still lit.' 'Bravo!' Bob cried, almost feverishly. They were all looking at him now, and no one saw Craig Toomy walking slowly toward them. The gun he had found was no longer pointed at the floor. 'Bravo, Albert! You've put your finger on it! And there was another famous disappearance  an entire colony of settlers at a place called Roanoke Island ... off the coast of North Carolina, I believe. All gone, but they had left remains of campfires, cluttered houses, and trash middens behind. Now, Albert, take this a step further. How else does this terminal differ from our airplane?' For a moment Albert looked entirely blank, and then understanding dawned in his eyes. 'The rings!' he shouted. 'The purses! The wallets! The money! The surgical pins! None of that stuff is here!' 'Correct,' Bob said softly. 'One hundred per cent correct. As you say, none of that stuff is here. But it was on the airplane when we survivors woke up, wasn't it? There were even a cup of coffee and a halfeaten Danish in the cockpit. The equivalent of a smoking pipe on the foredeck.' 'You think we've flown into another dimension, don't you?' Albert said. His voice was awed. 'Just like in a sciencefiction story.' Dinah's head cocked to one side, and for a moment she looked strikingly like Nipper, the dog on the old RCA Victor labels. 'No,' Bob said, 'I think ' 'Watch out!' Dinah cried sharply. 'I hear some' She was too late. Once Craig Toomy broke the paralysis which had held him and he started to move, he moved fast. Before Nick or Brian could do more than begin to turn around, he had locked one forearm around Bethany's throat and was dragging her backward. He pointed the gun at her temple. The girl uttered a desperate, terrorized squawk. 'I don't want to shoot her, but I will if I have to,' Craig panted. 'Take me to Boston.' His eyes were no longer blank; they shot glances full of terrified, paranoid intelligence in every direction. 'Do you hear me? Take me to Boston!' Brian started toward him, and Nick placed a hand against his chest without shifting his eyes away from Craig. 'Steady down, mate,' he said in a low voice. 'It wouldn't be safe. Our friend here is quite bonkers.' Bethany was squirming under Craig's restraining forearm. 'You're choking me! Please stop choking me.' 'What's happening?' Dinah cried. 'What is it?' 'Stop that!' Craig shouted at Bethany. 'Stop moving around! You're going to force me to do something I don't want to do!' He pressed the muzzle of the gun against the side of her head. She continued to struggle, and Albert suddenly realized she didn't know he had a gun  even with it pressed against her skull she didn't know. 'Quit it, girl!' Nick said sharply. 'Quit fighting!' For the first time in his waking life, Albert found himself not just thinking like The Arizona Jew but possibly called upon to act like that fabled character. Without taking his eyes off the lunatic in the crewneck jersey, he slowly began to raise his violin case. He switched his grip from the handle and settled both hands around the neck of the case. Toomy was not looking at him; his eyes were shuttling rapidly back and forth between Brian and Nick, and he had his hands full  quite literally  holding onto Bethany.