But she couldn't finish, couldn't find the words for the sudden awareness of exactly how much of life as she had known it was slipping away under the wheels of the bus.

* * * * *

By the time the bus reached a depot near Arundji's airport Turk had stopped gnashing his teeth and had begun to look a little sheepish. He gave Lise an apologetic sidelong glance, which she ignored.

"It's a good half mile to Arundji's," he said. "You two up for the walk?"

"Yes," Diane said. Lise just nodded.

The road from the depot was rural and sparsely lit. As they walked Lise listened to the crackle of her footsteps on the barely-paved verge of the road, the rush of wind raking scrubby, treeless lots. Off in the high grass some insect buzzed—she could have mistaken it for a cricket except for the mournful tone of its creaking, like a disconsolate man running his thumbnail over the teeth of a comb.

They approached the fenced territory of Arundji's at a back entrance, away from the main gate. Turk fished a key out of his pocket and swung open a chain-link gate, saying, "You might want to stay inconspicuous from here on in. The terminal shuts down after ten o'clock, but we've got a maintenance crew on site and security guards out where they're grading the new runway."

Lise said, "Don't you have a right to be here?"

"Sort of. But it would be best not to attract too much attention."

She followed Turk and Diane to an aluminum-sheet hangar, one of dozens lined up at the rear of the terminal. Its huge doors were chained shut and Turk said, "I wasn't kidding about that crowbar. I'll need something to spring this."

"You're locked out of your own hangar?"

"Kind of a funny story." He walked off, apparently looking for a tool.

Use was sweaty and her calves ached from the walk and she needed to pee. She no longer owned a change of clothes.

"Forgive Turk," Diane said. "It isn't that he distrusts you. He's afraid for you. He—"

"Are you going to do this from now on? Make these guru-like pronouncements? Because it's getting kind of tiresome."

Diane stared, wide-eyed. Then, somewhat to Lise's relief, she laughed. Lise said, "I mean, I'm sorry, but—"

"No! Don't apologize. You're absolutely right. Its one of the hazards of great age, the temptation to pronounce judgments."

"I know what Turk is afraid of. Turk is burning his bridges behind him. My bridges are still there. I have a life I can go back to."

"Nevertheless," Diane said, "here you are." She smiled again. "Speaks the guru."

* * * * *

Turk came back with a piece of rebar from the construction site and used it to lever off the latch, which was flimsier than the padlock attached to it and came away from the door with a concussive twang. He rolled open the big steel doors and switched on the interior light.