Before Travis could respond, he turned to Nicole. “I want you to work on Lloyd directly with me. He’s too important to me to botch up. We’ll begin Friday.”

CHAPTER 5

With a groan, Eric pulled himself up into a sitting position and grabbed his head to keep it from rolling onto the floor. Then he stared at the blue expanse of sky in front of him. Why was a white washbowl hanging in midair? And a mirror? Somewhere in the dim recesses of his mind, he recognized the bloodshot eyes and stubble-strewn face staring back at him. But why a mirror in the middle of the sky?

With a sigh he decided it was a problem of infinite complexity and limited interest. He collapsed back onto the bed, noting with fuzzy satisfaction that the sink and mirror rolled out of sight. Now he saw only the sun. He blinked. It was a tiny sun, shaped like a light bulb. The thought wrenched his eyes into focus, and he jerked to a sitting position again. It was a light bulb, protruding from a ceiling of the same sky-blue color as the walls.

He shook his head to clear the fog smothering his mind and began to reexamine his surroundings, this time more slowly. A small bar on the side of the washbowl held a set of dark blue towels. Above the basin on a small wooden shelf sat a shaving mug, a hairbrush, a safety razor, a bar of hand soap, a toothbrush.

He looked down, his mind clearing slowly. He was sitting on a cot built into the wall. A navy blue blanket was tucked neatly under the mattress, and near the top was a gleaming white pillow, slightly rumpled. A simple wooden stool sat near the head of the bed. To his right, a bright blue metal door stood slightly ajar. He leaned over to see through it and noted a small room with a shower stall and toilet. Just beyond the door, a rod below a shelf held several hangers with clothing that looked vaguely familiar to him. Suddenly he realized they were his own clothes. He glanced down and saw that he was still clad in his dark brown shirt and trousers. Somehow that comforted him, yet it puzzled him too.