The Icarus Hunt

CHAPTER 18

THE TRIP BACK to the Icarus probably took no longer than the trip out from ithad. I say probably because it definitely seemed longer. Partly that was dueto the fact that I was expecting it, with the accompanying sense of slightlycringing anticipation, and partly because this time I had a Kalixiri ferretcradled in my arm, whose main reaction to the tingling sensation was toattemptto dig his claws into whatever patches of skin were within easy reach.

Mostly, though, it was due to the uncomfortable awareness that a singlemiscalculation on Cameron's part would leave me in very serious troubleindeed.

Because if Cameron had guessed that I was not precisely what he thought he'dhired back at that Meima taverno, and if he'd decided he didn't want someonelike me aboard his ship anymore, then a small mistake on the encoding panelwould be the absolute simplest way of getting rid of me for good.

But Pax's claws didn't get to anything that wouldn't heal by itself, andCameron hadn't made any mistakes, deliberate or otherwise. There below me were thestacks of interior wall panels awaiting the attention of Chort and his weldingteam outside, the other stacks of equipment and paraphernalia, and the archaiccomputer humming beside the gaping access panel.

The relatively minuscule part of my mind that hadn't been worried about meending up in the wrong stargate at the wrong end of the universe had occupied itself with the question of how I was going to explain my sudden appearance toTera without giving away the true nature of her father's discovery. But to mymild surprise Tera was nowhere to be seen, either at the access panel orhalf-hidden in the shadows thrown by the sections of inner hull that we'd leftin place because of the wiring conduits fastened to their undersides. For amoment I wondered uneasily if she might have taken it upon herself to crawlinto the small sphere after me, but as I began the by-now-familiar downward drifttoward the surface I realized she had more likely simply gone around to theaccess panel in the engineering section to see if I was coming out there.

For a change, Lady Luck seemed to be smiling on me. Then again, maybe thefickle wench was just lulling me into a false sense of security while she reached fora rock.

I had made it to the surface, ready this time for the sudden surge ingravitational strength in that final meter, and was picking my way through theobstacle course toward the access panel when the hatchway to the wraparoundopened. Tera, undoubtedly, come to ask questions I had no intention ofanswering.

But to my mild surprise it wasn't Tera who came crawling out of the zero geeof the wraparound toward me. It was, instead, Chort, still vacsuited but with hishelmet hanging from the neck connector and bouncing gently against hisshoulder blades. "Captain McKell," he puffed as he caught sight of me. "Good—I hadhopedto find you here."

I resisted the impulse to ask where else he thought I might have gotten to. Itwould have been unnecessarily sarcastic, and given my experiences of the pasthour, would have been rather disingenuous as well. "Is there a problem?" Iasked instead as I set Pax down.

"We have to leave this place," he said, pulling himself the rest of the wayinto the sphere and standing up. "As soon as possible."

I frowned. "Are you finished with the cowling already?"

He twitched his head. "No, not entirely," he said. "But there will be nofinishing. Electronics Specialist Shawn is ill."

I grimaced. In the excitement of my trip to nowhere and back I'd almostforgotten about this constraint on our little operation. "How bad is he?"

"You will see for yourself soon," Chort said, his voice noticeably morewhistlythan usual. "Drive Specialist Nicabar will be bringing him inside as soon ashis seizure is ended."

I felt the hairs on the back of my neck tingling unpleasantly. Seizures? Thatwas a new one on me. "Does Revs need help?"

Another twitch of the head. "He assured me he can manage on his own. But wewill need to obtain more medicine as soon as possible."

"Understood," I said, stepping over to the computer and tapping the intercomto the engine room. "Ixil?"

"There you are," Tera's voice came back almost instantly. "Where have youbeen?"

"Where do you think I've been?" I retorted. "Inside that damn puzzle box disentangling Ixil's damn ferret from all that damn wiring. Why, wasn't Imovingfast enough for you? Put Ixil on."

She didn't reply, and I could imagine her floundering with surprise at myuncharacteristic harshness. I felt a twinge of guilt, but at the moment hurtfeelings were low on my priority list. "Yes, Jordan?" Ixil's voice camecalmly.

"Shawn's having some kind of seizure," I told him. "Revs will be bringing himin as soon as it's over. Start kicking the thrusters and stardrive back to life, and send Everett and Tera over to this side before we have to seal down the wraparound again."

"Understood," he said. "They're on their way."

"Good," I said. "Oh, and I've got Pax. He's safe and sound." A thoughtoccurred to me—"I'll bring him back around to you in a minute."

I keyed off before he could ask why I would waste time bringing a safe andsound ferret around to him now instead of concentrating on the navigational part ofour upcoming trip. "What shall I do?" Chort asked.

"Go get the treatment table ready for him," I said, pointing across toward thepile of sick-bay equipment. "Then stand by to assist Everett. I've got to getPax back to Ixil in case he needs him."

The excuse, lame though it was, was unnecessary. Chort probably didn't evenhear it as he took off at a quick jog across the sphere. I headed in the oppositedirection, toward my personal kit and the food supplies that had been storednear my cabin and were now conveniently piled nearby. I'd promised Cameronsome supplies, and this could very well be my last clear chance for a while to getthem to him.

I'd just finished filling my bag with food bars and water bottles when Everettand Tera emerged from the wraparound. Everett made a beeline for Chort and themedical setup; Tera, not surprisingly, made an equally straight beeline forme.

I met her halfway. "Well?" she asked in a low and anxious voice, herexpressionthat of someone braced for the worst.

I shook my head. "He's not in there," I said. "Not alive, not dead, notinjured."

The anxiety in her face eased, but only fractionally. "Then where is he?" sheasked.

"I don't know," I told her, a statement that was technically correct, thoughmisleading as hell. "Maybe he got off at Potosi after all."

She turned her eyes away from me. "He wouldn't have left the Icarus," she saidquietly. "Not voluntarily."

I thought about that one. Another technically correct statement, though shedidn't know it. "Perhaps," I said. "I wouldn't give up hope, though. If anyonecan find a place to hide where the Patth can't find him, it'll be yourfather."

She took a careful breath. "I hope so."

"I know so," I said, turning my eyes away from her in turn. The quiet pain onher face was tugging hard at my conscience, making me want to tell her that hewas all right.

But with a heroic effort I resisted the temptation. If I even let myself startdropping hints as to the true situation here, I would go from comforter tosuspect in nothing flat. Neither of us could afford that. "Look, I'd love to chat some more," I said instead. "But I have to get this stuff to Ixil beforeNicabar needs to turn the wraparound into an airlock again."

"Sure," she said automatically, her thoughts clearly still with her father.

Which for the immediate moment was all to the good. If I could get out of hersight before she thought to ask what I had in my bag, it would mean one lessthing I would have to lie to her about. Whistling for Pax, who was rootingaround the food stores, I headed out into the wraparound.

Ixil was drifting around the cramped space of the engine section like amassive cloud, checking and double-checking monitors and indicators as he eased thethrusters and stardrive back to life. "I'm glad to see you're all right," hesaid, dropping his eyes to Pax as I gave the ferret a nudge that sent himfloating through the air in Ixil's direction, squeaking happily as his clawsscrabbled through the air in search of a pawhold. "Both of you," he added asPax reached him and clawed his way up the tunic to his accustomed place on Ixil'sshoulder. "Any problems?"

"Hang on to your teeth," I advised, crossing toward the access panel into thesmall sphere, which Tera had thoughtfully left open for me. "I'll make you asmall wager you're not going to believe the ride Pax and I had."

The tangle of wiring on this side of the sphere was as bad as the matching seton the other side had been. Now, though, after Cameron's assurances that thestuff was stronger than it looked, I was far less concerned that an accidentalbump might irrevocably damage something. Accordingly, I plowed my way inside, pushing the wires and conduits aside with relatively reckless abandon, and asa result took only five minutes to reach the mesh instead of the hour it hadtaken me going in from the opposite side.

Hovering just inside the mesh, I pulled out a pad and scribbled a quick noteto Cameron, warning him again not to budge from his private hermitage until oneof the ferrets or I came for him. I stuffed the note into the pack, and withcareful aim sent the whole bundle dropping gently toward the end of thecontrol arm. At the last minute it occurred to me that perhaps having the pack bumpinto the end wouldn't be enough, that it might require an actual grip of some sortto trigger the mechanism. If so, I would have to figure out a way to retrieve thebag and send it back down with Pix strapped somehow to it. At that point Iwould also have to figure out how to explain the ferret's disappearance to the restof the crew, because the last thing I could afford would be for Pix to suddenlyappear in the center of the large sphere with the whole bunch of us in therewith him.

But evidently a grip was not required. The bag slid down the arm to the end, and without any fuss whatsoever it vanished. There was a faint, brief breeze asair rushed into the hole where it had been, and that was that.

I worked my way out back to the rim—another five-minute trip—and climbed outinto the engine section. Ixil was strapped into the control chair now, bothferrets on his shoulders, a look on his face that I'd never seen before. "So," said conversationally as I swung the hinged breaker panel closed again overthe access hole. "What do you think?"

With an obvious effort he focused on me. "It's unbelievable," he said quietly.

"Absolutely unbelievable."

"Isn't it though," I agreed. "But it's real."

Absently, Ixil reached up to rub Pax's head. "We can't let the others knowabout this," he said. "The Patth would be willing to topple whole governments iftheyreally knew what it was they were chasing."

"Yes, I've already worked through the logic," I assured him. "Including thefact that we can't tell Tera, either."

The ferrets did one of their unison twitches. "Because we work for Brother John?"

"And because turning the Icarus over to him would more than buy our way clearof the whole organization," I said. "She doesn't trust us as it is—she'd spot- weld our butts to the hull if she knew the bargaining chip we held here."

"Yes." Ixil was silent a moment. "Which unfortunately loops us back to thequestion of our immediate future."

I grimaced. "I don't think we have any choice," I said. "Unless we want to sitout here and watch Shawn die, we have to go get him some more borandis."

"I wonder," Ixil said thoughtfully. "We have only his word that he even hasthe disease, you know. As I recall, Everett was unable to either confirm or denyit.

What if he's faking all this, with these seizures his way of pulling us out ofhiding before we're ready?"

"In that case, we're back to the question of why he didn't betray us earlierand save everyone a lot of trouble," I reminded him.

"I suppose." He eyed me closely. "You wouldn't be holding out on me, wouldyou?"

"Holding out how?" I asked.

"Oh, I don't know," he said with a shrug. "Actually considering offering theIcarus to Brother John without consulting me first, for example."

"Don't be silly," I said, putting some huff into my voice. "Though you have toadmit that would be one way to keep it safe."

" 'Safe' being an extremely relative term."

"True," I conceded. "Still, Brother John could probably give even the Patth apretty good run for their money."

"And of course, turning such a plum over to him would give us a giant step upin the Antoniewicz organization," he continued. "Don't pretend that hadn'talreadyoccurred to you, either."

"Occurred, pondered, and dismissed," I assured him. "I have plenty of faults, but ambition on that scale isn't one of them." I cocked an eyebrow at him.

"Unless you'd like to take a shot at it."

"What, be the first nonhuman in Antoniewicz's direct line of command?" heasked dryly. "Thanks, but I think I'll pass."

I waved a hand. "Up to you. By the way, do you happen to know if Nicabar'sgotten Shawn back inside the ship yet?"

"Yes, they came in while you were inside the small sphere," he said. "Terawill let us know when the wraparound's been repressurized." He cocked his head tothe side. "She seemed rather annoyed you'd gotten yourself trapped on this side ofthe wraparound when you had work to do over there."

"Actually, there's very little work left to do," I said with a shrug. "Ialreadyknow where we're heading."

"And that is?"

I cleared my throat. "I thought we'd try the Grand Feast of Plorins onPalmary."

The ferrets twitched again, quite impressively this time. "You are joking,"

Ixil said. "The Grand Feast of Plorins?"

"Can you think of a better place to hide than square in the middle of awall-to-wall crowd of people?" I asked reasonably.

"With half the thieves, lifters, and cons for two hundred light-years workingthat same crowd?" he countered. "And, as a consequence, half the badgemen forthe same two hundred light-years there to keep an eye on them? And both groupsbusy looking for us?"

"Of course it's crazy," I agreed. "That's why no one will be expecting it."

He shook his head. But at least the ferrets had settled down again. He must begetting used to the idea. " 'Crazy' isn't nearly strong enough a word," hesaid with a sigh. "But under the circumstances I suppose it's as good a plan asany."

"That's the spirit," I said approvingly. "Besides, they'll be watching everyport within a thousand light-years of Utheno anyway. The bigger the clog ofspace traffic we sneak in under, the better the chances they'll miss uscompletely."

He gave me one of his repertoire of sour looks. "And the more confusion andpanic we can stir up if they don't?"

I shrugged. "Something like that."

The intercom clicked. "McKell?" Tera's voice came. "Wraparound's ready again.

You feel like getting your butt in here and finding us a place to land?"

"Yes, dear," I murmured.

"What was that?"

"I said I'll be right there," I said. "And tell Revs to get back here and giveIxil a hand with the startup procedure."

PALMARY WAS ONE of those semi-independent colony worlds that, while relativelynewly settled, still somehow managed to seem like it had been there forever.

Part of that was the fact that, unlike most colonies, there was no dominantspecies controlling most of the local real estate. The Trinkians had found theworld about twenty years ago and started its development, but within a fewyearsthey'd been joined by Wanch settlers, Porpyfian miners, and k'Tra foresters.

Someone on some news service had touted the place, commenting favorably on itsegalitarian flavor, and within a few years more the planet was starting toseem almost crowded.

The Grand Feast of Plorins was something the k'Tra had brought with them, andthe rest of the egalitarians on the planet had grabbed on to the idea withboth hands. Depending on who you talked to, the Grand Feast was either a deeply meaningful manifestation of esoteric historic and cultural significance, orelse the greatest excuse to party the Spiral had ever known. I assumed the truthwas probably somewhere in the middle, where truth has a tendency to lurk anyway, but I was certainly willing to concede the point that millions of beings who hadnot the slightest interest in k'Tra history or culture nevertheless descendedenthusiastically on the planet every year for a three-week bash.

The Grand Feast was sometimes compared to the annual Mardi Gras celebrationsthat still took place in various places on Earth and its colonies. Mardi Grasinvariably lost.

I had used the hull cameras to take a quick look at the changes that had beenmade to the ship before we ever took to hyperspace again. Chort was right: Thedisguise was far from perfect. On the other hand, he and his helpers hadgottenenough of the plates in place to markedly change both our visual and radarsignatures, which was hopefully all we would need to get to the ground withouttripping alarms from the underworld to the Patth and back again.

Once we were on the ground, of course, it would be a different story. Someonewho wandered in close for a good look would easily be able to see through thegaps to the distinctive joined spheres beneath. But I had a couple of ideasfor dealing with that one; and anyway, getting to the ground was the first orderof business.

After the near disaster at Utheno the situation at Palmary was decidedlyanticlimactic. The official start of the Grand Feast was still three daysaway, but the hard-core party types were already clogging the space lanes as theyheaded in to scope out the best celebration spots or just get a head start onthe festivities. With our new silhouette, plus yet another of Ixil's fake IDsidentifying us as the Sherman's Blunder, we sailed straight through theprelanding formalities. A harried-sounding controller directed me to a landingrectangle at the Bangrot Spaceport, a name that didn't even show up on mysupposedly comprehensive listing, and instructed us to have a good time.

The reason for the lack of a listing was apparent as soon as I got withinvisual range of the coordinates I'd been given. The Bangrot Spaceport was nothingmore than a large open area stretching across the southern ends of the twin citiesDrobney and k'Barch, an area that looked to me like a former condemnedbuildingdevelopment. Apparently, the Grand Feast had grown so large they were nowhavingto park spaceships on every reasonably sized vacant lot they could find.

And the official celebration didn't even start for three more days. Give thiswhole thing a few years, and they might as well declare it a permanent partyand be done with it.

One might have assumed that the Bangrot Expansion Spaceport would be onlysparsely settled, with the bulk of the space still waiting for the arrival ofthe latecomers. But one would have been wrong. The place was crowded withships, already crammed in practically nose to tail, with the narrow spaces betweenthem crawling with activity. As far as this party was concerned, we were thelatecomers.

I was also a little worried about what would happen to the definitions of "up" and "down" inside the Icarus as we went deeper into the Palmary gravity field.

Tera had told us that on Meima the alien gravity generator in the large spherehad been able to cancel out all other gravitational effects, but that wasbefore Cameron's techs had gotten in and started messing around. If it failed toovercome Palmary's gravitational attraction I was going to suddenly findmyselflying on my back in my seat as I tried to pilot the ship to the ground. Orworse, our jury-rigged seating system might fail completely and I would findmyself, my seat, and possibly my entire control board falling to the bottom ofthe sphere some twenty meters below.

That particular set of fears proved groundless. With the removal of the metalbaffling that had been created by the inner hull, walls, and corridors, thealien generator had come back to full strength, and I didn't feel so much as aflicker of change in the gravity as I eased the Icarus down onto theundersized plot of ground we'd been assigned.

"Now what?" Tera called to me from across the sphere, her voice echoingthroughthe open space as I keyed the ship's systems back to standby.

"I go scare us up some borandis," I said, craning my neck to look up at her, watching the top of her head as she got up from her seat at the computer andwalked toward the wraparound.

"What about the rest of us?" Shawn called up from a quarter of the way aroundthe sphere, at the natural bottom point of the ship. I'd stationed everyoneelse except Nicabar down there on the theory that there was no point in lettingeveryone fall to their deaths if the alien gravity failed. "I suppose we'reall going to sit around here like we did before and just wait for you? Twiddlingour thumbs or whatever?"

"You're welcome to twiddle whatever you want," I told him, walking down thecurve toward them, "since you and Everett are staying in here where he can tryto keep you quiet until I get back with the medicine."

I pointed at Chort and Tera, the latter approaching the group from the otherside. "You two and Nicabar, on the other hand, aren't going to have time totwiddle much of anything. I want the three of you to collect all the emergencylights we've got and start stringing them just inside the gaps in the shroudout there, with the lights shining outward. All nice and decorative for the GrandFeast, and with any luck the glare will keep everyone from seeing past them tothe linked spheres underneath."

"Maybe we could also get hold of some colored transparent sheeting to coverthem with," Tera suggested. "They'd look even more festive that way."

"Probably would," I agreed. "But I don't know how well they've got thistemporary spaceport equipped. I don't want anyone wandering too far afieldhunting for anything that's not really vital."

"They've got tram systems leading from the port into each of the two citycenters," Nicabar put in from the wraparound, apparently having arrived intime to hear this last exchange. "I spotted them on the monitors while you wereputting us down. If they had time to set those up, they've surely got an outfitters' shop or two in place. I can go check—it won't take me long."

"Forget it," Shawn growled before I could answer. "He never lets anyone goanywhere except him, remember? Just him."

"Shawn," Everett said warningly, putting a massive hand on the kid's shoulder.

"Don't 'Shawn' me," Shawn snapped, angrily shrugging off the hand. "I'm not achild, you know."

"If you want to make a quick check, go ahead," I told Nicabar. "Just watchyourself, and be back in half an hour to help Tera and Chort with the lights."

"I will," Nicabar promised. "Don't worry—it's a zoo out there. I won't even benoticed." Turning, he disappeared back down the wraparound.

"What about him?" Tera asked, nodding toward Ixil, who was standing slightlyoff to the side keeping out of the conversation.

"He'll be in overall charge here," I told her, ignoring the glare Shawn wasgiving me, this particular bile probably a result of me proving him wrong byletting Nicabar go. Even at his best Shawn hated being proved wrong, and inthe middle of borandis withdrawal he was a long way from his best. "He'll also beusing Pix and Pax to keep an eye on things outside the ship."

"How do you plan to get it this time?" Tera asked. "The borandis, I mean."

I focused on her face. She was gazing evenly back at me, her expression notgiving anything away.

But then, the fact that she didn't want her expression giving anything awayspoke volumes all by itself. "Why, you feeling squeamish?" I countered. "I'lldo whatever I have to. Leave it at that."

"Fine," she said, not taking offense. At least no visible offense. "I justwant to remind you that we can't afford for you to get into any trouble. If youdon't make it back, we don't lift."

"I'll make it back," I assured her, brushing past her and heading up towardthe wraparound. "Don't worry about me," I added over my shoulder. "You justconcentrate on getting those lights up and running."

The transition between the different gravity vectors of the sphere and thewraparound was as always a bit tricky to navigate, but I managed it withoutanyserious loss of balance or dignity. Nicabar had already opened the hatchwayand lowered the ladder the ten meters to the ground; checking to make sure myplasmic was riding loose in its holster, I stepped to the top of the ladderand looked down.

Nicabar had been right: It was indeed a zoo out there. The close packing ofthe parked ships was funneling the prospective merrymakers down the relativelynarrow lanes between them, lanes they were further having to share withfuelingtrucks, the occasional token customs vehicle, and about a million little two- man runaround cars that were obviously intended to alleviate the pedestriancongestion but were only succeeding in making it worse.

All of which boiled down to about as ideal a situation as I could have asked for. Even if the Patth and their lumpy Iykami allies were out there lookingfor us, the sheer volume of people they would have to sift through ought to make this as quick and clean as possible. Getting my bearings toward the nearestspurof the tram lines Nicabar had mentioned, I headed down the ladder and elbowed myway into the river of pedestrians.

My first thought had been to try to corral one of the cars for myself. Butthere weren't any unused ones in sight, so I set off on foot. Which was just aswell, I quickly realized, as I saw how easily the cars were getting snarled up inthe traffic flow. The tram spur wasn't that far away, and I could use theexercise.

And the time to do some hard thinking.

But not about how I was going to acquire Shawn's borandis. Despite my somewhatmelodramatic pronouncement to Tera about doing whatever I had to, that partwas actually going to be the least of my worries. With borandis a perfectly legalsubstance for at least a dozen of the species jostling against me, everypharmacy on the planet would have the stuff in stock, with few if anyquestionsasked. No, the immediate and burning question right now was the same one thathad been gnawing at me for quite a while: how to get the Icarus to Earth aheadof the Patth.

Along with the subsidiary question of whether that was even the smart thingfor me to do.

Because lurking in the back of my mind was my most recent conversation withIxil, and his half-joking question of whether I would be offering the Icarusto Brother John instead. Then, I'd assured him I had no intention of doing so; now, though, I wasn't nearly so sure it wasn't the best solution we had. It wouldkeep the stargate in human hands—bloody hands, certainly, but humannevertheless—as well as giving me the kind of career boost someone in myposition could usually only dream of. I might even get to meet the elusive Mr.

Antoniewicz, which would put me in exalted company indeed.

Cameron wouldn't be pleased by such a move, of course. Neither would Tera; andif Tera wasn't happy, Nicabar probably wouldn't be happy, either. The two ofthem seemed to have become quite chummy since that confrontation on the bridgeregarding my shadier business associations. Still, at this point, otherpeople'shappiness or lack thereof wasn't particularly high on my priority list. We'dcovered barely a fifth of the distance from Meima to Earth, and already we'dhad far too many close calls than I cared to think about. The others, believingthat the Icarus was a superfast alien stardrive, undoubtedly still had their hopespinned on using it to beat out the Patth net; Ixil and I, on the other hand, knew that hope was nonexistent.

On almost every level I could think of, the idea made sense. And Cameron andTera would surely get over their pique eventually. Still, I reluctantlyconcluded, I wasn't quite ready to make such a decision. Not yet. Maybe oncewe were off Palmary.

The tram line, for all its obviously quick assembly, was still morecomfortable and professional than transports I'd used on a lot of supposedly more advancedworlds. I arrived at the platform to find a pair of trams already waiting, oneeach heading in to the cities of Drobney and k'Barch. I picked the k'Barchone, reasoning that the place with a k'Tra name would probably have a more freneticcelebration level, and hence more cover for a man on the run.

Most of my fellow travelers had apparently come to a similar conclusion, thoughundoubtedly with different motivations. I let the traffic flow carry me inthrough the doors and to a standing point midway down one of the cars, jammedbetween a group of sweaty Narchners and a group of clean but equally aromaticSaffi.

We headed out. I had enough of a view out one of the side windows to see thatNicabar's assumption had been correct: Not only was there a good-sizedoutfitters' store at the junction of the two tram lines, but also a collectionof restaurants, tavernos, and gawk-shops. Even StarrComm had gotten into theact, setting up a prefab satellite station so that spacers who felt the needto get in touch with the outside universe wouldn't have to go to wherever theirmain building was in the twin-city area. Once again, I raised my estimate ofhow much money this Grand Feast must pour into the Palmary economy.

We rumbled our way to the end of the line, which from the look of things wasrelatively close to the middle of k'Barch and perilously near the epicenter ofthe upcoming celebrations. The earlier flow through the tram doors reverseditself, and a few chaotic minutes later I was maneuvering my way down asidewalk that was only marginally less crowded than the inside of the tram had been.

About a block ahead, I could see the rustling display flag of a pharmacy, andI concentrated on making my way toward it.

I had reached the shop and was working my way sideways through the crowdtoward the door, when something exploded against the back of my neck, plunging meinto darkness.