Four Past Midnight

  "I don't know," Albert said. "It might ... for awhile. You better not try it until you have to. I sure hope it does. We won't be able to see a thing without it."

  "Where's this Airport Services place?"

  Albert pointed to the door Craig Toomy had gone through less than five minutes before. "Right over there."

  "Do you think it's unlocked?"

  "Well," Albert said, "there's only one way to find out."

  They crossed the terminal, Don still leading the way with his lighter in his right hand.

  7

  Craig heard them coming--more servants of the langoliers, no doubt. But he wasn't worried. He had taken care of the thing which had been masquerading as a little girl, and he would take care of these other things, as well. He curled his hand around the letter-opener, got up, and sidled back around the desk.

  "Do you think it's unlocked?"

  "Well, there's only one way to find out."

  You're going to find out something, anyway, Craig thought. He reached the wall beside the door. It was lined with paper-stacked shelves. He reached out and felt doorhinges. Good. The opening door would block him off from them ... not that they were likely to see him, anyway. It was as black as an elephant's asshole in here. He raised the letter-opener to shoulder height.

  "The knob doesn't move." Craig relaxed ... but only for a moment.

  "Try pushing it." That was the smart-ass kid.

  The door began to open.

  8

  Don stepped in, blinking at the gloom. He thumbed the cover of his lighter back, held it up, and flicked the wheel. There was a spark and the wick caught at once, producing a low flame. They saw what was apparently a combined office and storeroom. There was an untidy stack of luggage in one corner and a Xerox machine in another. The back wall was lined with shelves and the shelves were stacked with what looked like forms of various kinds.

  Don stepped further into the office, lifting his lighter like a spelunker holding up a guttering candle in a dark cave. He pointed to the right wall. "Hey, kid! Ace! Look!"

  A poster mounted there showed a tipsy guy in a business suit staggering out of a bar and looking at his watch. WORK IS THE CURSE OF THE DRINKING CLASS, the poster advised. Mounted on the wall beside it was a white plastic box with a large red cross on it. And leaning below it was a folded stretcher ... the kind with wheels.

  Albert wasn't looking at the poster or the first-aid kit or the stretcher, however. His eyes were fixed on the desk in the center of the room.

  On it he saw a heaped tangle of paper strips.

  "Look out!" he shouted. "Look out, he's in h--"

  Craig Toomy stepped out from behind the door and struck.

  9

  "Belt," Nick said.

  Rudy didn't move or reply. His head was turned toward the door of the restaurant. The sounds from downstairs had ceased. There was only the rattling noise and the steady, throbbing rumble of the jet engine in the dark outside.

  Nick kicked backward like a mule, connecting with Rudy's shin.

  "Ow!"

  "Belt! Now!"

  Rudy dropped clumsily to his knees and moved next to Nick, who was holding Dinah up with one hand and pressing a second tablecloth pad against her back with the other.

  "Slip it under the pad," Nick said. He was panting, and sweat was running down his face in wide streams. "Quick! I can't hold her up forever!"

  Rudy slid the belt under the pad. Nick lowered Dinah, reached across the girl's small body, and lifted her left shoulder long enough to pull the belt out the other side. Then he looped it over her chest and cinched it tight. He put the belt's free end in Laurel's hand. "Keep the pressure on," he said, standing up. "You can't use the buckte--she's much too small."

  "Are you going downstairs?" Laurel asked.

  "Yes. That seems indicated."

  "Be careful. Please be careful."

  He grinned at her, and all those white teeth suddenly shining out in the gloom were startling ... but not frightening, she discovered. Quite the opposite.

  "Of course. It's how I get along." He reached down and squeezed her shoulder. His hand was warm, and at his touch a little shiver chased through her. "You did very well, Laurel. Thank you."

  He began to turn away, and then a small hand groped out and caught the cuff of his blue-jeans. He looked down and saw that Dinah's blind eyes were open again.

  "Don't ..." she began, and then a choked sneezing fit shook her. Blood flew from her nose in a spray of fine droplets.

  "Dinah, you mustn't--"

  "Don't ... you ... kill him!" she said, and even in the dark Laurel could sense the fantastic effort she was making to speak at all.

  Nick looked down at her thoughtfully. "The bugger stabbed you, you know. Why are you so insistent on keeping him whole?"

  Her narrow chest strained against the belt. The bloodstained tablecloth pad heaved. She struggled and managed to say one thing more. They all heard it; Dinah was at great pains to speak clearly. "All ... I know ... is that we need him," she whispered, and then her eyes closed again.

  10

  Craig buried the letter-opener fist-deep in the nape of Don Gaffney's neck. Don screamed and dropped the lighter. It struck the floor and lay there, guttering sickishly. Albert shouted in surprise as he saw Craig step toward Don, who was now staggering in the direction of the desk and clawing weakly behind him for the protruding object.

  Craig grabbed the opener with one hand and planted his other against Don's back. As he simultaneously pushed and pulled, Albert heard the sound of a hungry man pulling a drumstick off a well-done turkey. Don screamed again, louder this time, and went sprawling over the desk. His arms flew out ahead of him, knocking to the floor an IN/OUT box and the stack of lost-luggage forms Craig had been ripping.

  Craig turned toward Albert, flicking a spray of blood-droplets from the blade of the letter-opener as he did so. "You're one of them, too," he breathed. "Well, fuck you. I'm going to Boston and you can't stop me. None of you can stop me." Then the lighter on the floor went out and they were in darkness.

  Albert took a step backward and felt a warm swoop of air in his face as Craig swung the blade through the spot where he had been only a second before. He flailed behind him with his free hand, terrified of backing into a corner where Craig could use the knife (in the Zippo's pallid, fading light, that was what he had thought it was) on him at will and his own weapon would be useless as well as stupid. His fingers found only empty space, and he backed through the door into the lobby. He did not feel cool; he did not feel like the fastest Hebrew on any side of the Mississippi; he did not feel faster than blue blazes. He felt like a scared kid who had foolishly chosen a childhood playtoy instead of a real weapon because he had been unable to believe--really, really believe--that it could come to this in spite of what the lunatic asshole had done to the little girl upstairs. He could smell himself. Even in the dead air he could smell himself. It was the rancid monkeypiss aroma of fear.

  Craig came gliding out through the door with the letter-opener raised. He moved like a dancing shadow in the dark. "I see you, sonny," he breathed. "I see you just like a cat."

  He began to slide forward. Albert backed away from him. At the same time he began to pendulum the toaster back and forth, reminding himself that he would have only one good shot before Toomy moved in and planted the blade in his throat or chest.

  And if the toaster goes flying out of the goddam pocket before it hits him, I'm a goner.

  11

  Craig closed in, weaving the top half of his body from side to side like a snake coming out of a basket. An absent little smile touched the comers of his lips and made small dimples there. That's right, Craig's father said grimly from his undying stronghold inside Craig's head. If you have to pick them off one by one, you can do that. EPO, Craig, remember? EPO. Effort Pays Off.

  That's right, Craiggy-weggy, his mother chimed in. You can do it, and you have to do it.

  "I'm sorry," Craig murmured to
the white-faced boy through his smile. "I'm really, really sorry, but I have to do it. If you could see things from my perspective, you'd understand."

  12

  Albert shot a quick glance behind him and saw he was backing toward the United Airlines ticket desk. If he retreated much further, the backward arc of his swing would be restricted. It had to be soon. He began to pendulum the toaster more rapidly, his sweaty hand clutching the twist of tablecloth.

  Craig caught the movement in the dark, but couldn't tell what it was the kid was swinging. It didn't matter. He couldn't let it matter. He gathered himself, then sprang forward.

  "I'M GOING TO BOSTON!" he shrieked. "I'M GOING TO--"

  Albert's eyes were adjusting to the dark, and he saw Craig make his move. The toaster was on the rearward half of its arc. Instead of snapping his wrist forward to reverse its direction, Albert let his arm go with the weight of the toaster, swinging it up and over his head in an exaggerated pitching gesture. At the same time he stepped to the left. The lump at the end of the tablecloth made a short, hard circlet in the air, held firmly in its pocket by centripetal force. Craig cooperated by stepping forward into the toaster's descending arc. It met his forehead and the bridge of his nose with a hard, toneless crunch.

  Craig wailed with agony and dropped the letter-opener. His hands went to his face and he staggered backward. Blood from his broken nose poured between his fingers like water from a busted hydrant. Albert was terrified of what he had done but even more terrified of letting up now that Toomy was hurt. Albert took another step to the left and swung the tablecloth sidearm. It whipped through the air and smashed into the center of Craig's chest with a hard thump. Craig fell over backward, still howling.

  For Albert "Ace" Kaussner, only one thought remained; all else was a tumbling, fragmented swirl of color, image, and emotion.

  I have to make him stop moving or he'll get up and kill me. I have to make him stop moving or he'll get up and kill me.

  At least Toomy had dropped his weapon; it lay glinting on the lobby carpet. Albert planted one of his loafers on it and unloaded with the toaster again. As it came down, Albert bowed from the waist like an old-fashioned butler greeting a member of the royal family. The lump at the end of the tablecloth smashed into Craig Toomy's gasping mouth. There was a sound like glass being crushed inside of a handkerchief.

  Oh God, Albert thought. That was his teeth.

  Craig flopped and squirmed on the floor. It was terrible to watch him, perhaps more terrible because of the poor light. There was something monstrous and unkillable and insectile about his horrible vitality.

  His hand closed upon Albert's loafer. Albert stepped away from the letter-opener with a little cry of revulsion, and Craig tried to grasp it when he did. Between his eyes, his nose was a burst bulb of flesh. He could hardly see Albert at all; his vision was eaten up by a vast white corona of light. A steady high keening note rang in his head, the sound of a TV test-pattern turned up to full volume.

  He was beyond doing any damage, but Albert didn't know it. In a panic, he brought the toaster down on Craig's head again. There was a metallic crunch-rattle as the heating elements inside it broke free.

  Craig stopped moving.

  Albert stood over him, sobbing for breath, the weighted tablecloth dangling from one hand. Then he took two long, shambling steps toward the escalator, bowed deeply again, and vomited on the floor.

  13

  Brian crossed himself as he thumbed back the black plastic shield which covered the screen of the 767's INS video-display terminal, half-expecting it to be smooth and blank. He looked at it closely ... and let out a deep sigh of relief.

  LAST PROGRAM COMPLETE

  it informed him in cool blue-green letters, and below that: NEW PROGRAM? Y N

  Brian typed Y, then: REVERSE AP 29: LAX/LOGAN

  The screen went dark for a moment. Then: INCLUDE DIVERSION IN REVERSE PROGRAM AP 299 Y N

  Brian typed Y. COMPUTING REVERSE

  the screen informed him, and less than five seconds later: PROGRAM COMPLETE

  "Captain Engle?"

  He turned around. Bethany was standing in the cockpit doorway. She looked pale and haggard in the cabin lights.

  "I'm a little busy right now, Bethany."

  "Why aren't they back?"

  "I can't say."

  "I asked Bob--Mr. Jenkins--if he could see anyone moving inside the terminal, and he said he couldn't. What if they're all dead?"

  "I'm sure they're not. If it will make you feel better, why don't you join him at the bottom of the ladder? I've got some more work to do here." At least I hope I do.

  "Are you scared?" she asked.

  "Yes. I sure am."

  She smiled a little. "I'm sort of glad. It's bad to be scared all by yourself--totally bogus. I'll leave you alone now."

  "Thanks. I'm sure they'll be out soon."

  She left. Brian turned back to the INS monitor and typed: ARE THERE PROBLEMS WITH THIS PROGRAM?

  He hit EXECUTE.

  NO PROBLEMS. THANK YOU FOR FLYING AMERICAN PRIDE.

  "You're welcome, I'm sure," Brian murmured, and wiped his forehead with his sleeve.

  Now, he thought, if only the fuel will burn.

  14

  Bob heard footsteps on the ladder and turned quickly. It was only Bethany, descending slowly and carefully, but he still felt jumpy. The sound coming out of the east was gradually growing louder.

  Closer.

  "Hi, Bethany. May I borrow another of your cigarettes?"

  She offered the depleted pack to him, then took one herself. She had tucked Albert's book of experimental matches into the cellophane covering the pack, and when she tried one it lit easily.

  "Any sign of them?"

  "Well, it all depends on what you mean by 'any sign,' I guess," Bob said cautiously. "I think I heard some shouting just before you came down." What he had heard actually sounded like screaming--shrieking, not to put too fine a point on it--but he saw no reason to tell the girl that. She looked as frightened as Bob felt, and he had an idea she'd taken a liking to Albert.

  "I hope Dinah's going to be all right," she said, "but I don't know. He cut her really bad."

  "Did you see the captain?"

  Bethany nodded. "He sort of kicked me out. I guess he's programming his instruments, or something."

  Bob Jenkins nodded soberly. "I hope so."

  Conversation lapsed. They both looked east. A new and even more ominous sound now underlay the crunching, chewing noise: a high, inanimate screaming. It was a strangely mechanical sound, one that made Bob think of an automatic transmission low on fluid.

  "It's a lot closer now, isn't it?"

  Bob nodded reluctantly. He drew on his cigarette and the glowing ember momentarily illuminated a pair of tired, terrified eyes.

  "What do you suppose it is, Mr. Jenkins?"

  He shook his head slowly. "Dear girl, I hope we never have to find out."

  15

  Halfway down the escalator, Nick saw a bent-over figure standing in front of the useless bank of pay telephones. It was impossible to tell if it was Albert or Craig Toomy. The Englishman reached into his right front pocket, holding his left hand against it to prevent any jingling, and by touch selected a pair of quarters from his change. He closed his right hand into a fist and slipped the quarters between his fingers, creating a makeshift set of brass knuckles. Then he continued down to the lobby.

  The figure by the telephones looked up as Nick approached. It was Albert. "Don't step in the puke," he said dully.

  Nick dropped the quarters back into his pocket and hurried to where the boy was standing with his hands propped above his knees like an old man who has badly overestimated his capacity for exercise. He could smell the high, sour stench of vomit. That and the sweaty stink of fear coming off the boy were smells with which he was all too familiar. He knew them from the Falklands, and even more intimately from Northern Ireland. He put his left arm around the boy's shoulders an
d Albert straightened very slowly.

  "Where are they, Ace?" Nick asked quietly. "Gaffney and Toomy--where are they?"

  "Mr. Toomy's there." He pointed toward a crumpled shape on the floor. "Mr. Gaffney's in the Airport Services office. I think they're both dead. Mr. Toomy was in the Airport Services office. Behind the door, I guess. He killed Mr. Gaffney because Mr. Gaffney walked in first. If I'd walked in first, he would have killed me instead."

  Albert swallowed hard.

  "Then I killed Mr. Toomy. I had to. He came after me, see? He found another knife someplace and he came after me." He spoke in a tone which could have been mistaken for indifference, but Nick knew better. And it was not indifference he saw on the white blur of Albert's face.

  "Can you get hold of yourself, Ace?" Nick asked.

  "I don't know. I never k-k-killed anyone before, and--" Albert uttered a strangled, miserable sob.

  "I know," Nick said. "It's a horrible thing, but it can be gotten over. I know. And you must get over it, Ace. We have miles to go before we sleep, and there's no time for therapy. The sound is louder."

  He left Albert and went over to the crumpled form on the floor. Craig Toomy was lying on his side with one upraised arm partially obscuring his face. Nick rolled him onto his back, looked, whistled softly. Toomy was still alive--he could hear the harsh rasp of his breath--but Nick would have bet his bank account that the man was not shamming this time. His nose hadn't just been broken; it looked vaporized. His mouth was a bloody socket ringed with the shattered remains of his teeth. And the deep, troubled dent in the center of Toomy's forehead suggested that Albert had done some creative retooling of the man's skull-plate.

  "He did all this with a toaster?" Nick muttered. "Jesus and Mary, Tom, Dick, and Harry." He got up and raised his voice. "He's not dead, Ace."

  Albert had bent over again when Nick left him. Now he straightened slowly and took a step toward him. "He's not?"