"They want two children," he said. Francine clenched her fists.

"I don't want Martin to experience that," she said. "It's bad enough if we have to."

"They want kids for what?" Marty asked, looking between them, wide-eyed.

"It's the Law. Their law," Arthur said. "They need some of us to watch the Earth when it's destroyed, and two of them must be kids."

Marty thought that over for a moment. "All the other kids are younger than me," he said, "except one. That girl. I don't know her name."

Francine turned Marty to face her and gripped his arms. "Do you know what's going to happen?" she asked.

"The Earth is going to blow up," Marty said. "They want us to see it so we know what it's like."

"Do you know who they are?" Francine asked.

"The people that talk to Dad," Marty said.

"He understands pretty well," Arthur said.

"I'll say," Clara agreed.

Francine gave her an angry glance, then focused again on Marty. "Do you want to see?" she asked.

Marty shook his head no. "It would give me nightmares," he said.

"Then it's decided," Francine said. "He—"

"But Mom, if I don't see, I won't know."

"Know what?"

"How mad I'm supposed to be."

Francine searched her son's face slowly, and then let him go, wrapping her arms around herself. "Only four?" she asked softly.

"At least four," he said. "All who wish to see."

"Marty," Francine said, "we'll share nightmares, okay?"

"Okay."

"You're a very brave boy," Clara said.

"Are you going to watch?" Arthur asked Francine.

She nodded slowly. "If you and Marty watch, I can't chicken out, can I?"

How much longer? he asked.

There will be a gathering in the common viewing cabin in an hour and ten minutes.

He sat on the narrow lower bed beside Francine and Marty. "We'll be leaving the Earth soon," he said. "In a few minutes, probably."

"Can we feel it when we take off, Dad?" Marty asked.

"No," he said. "We won't feel it."

Grant had followed the Gordons' station wagon to the bay, and waited a hundred yards away, engine idling, as they parked and walked to the pier. Then he had parked his BMW beside the wagon, slung a pair of binoculars around his neck, and followed at a discreet distance, feeling like a fool, asking himself—as Danielle had asked when he left—why he didn't simply confront them and demand answers.

He knew he wouldn't do that. First, he could not really believe that Arthur would be part of a government escape into space. Grant couldn't believe such an escape was contemplated, or even possible. Nobody could travel far enough away to survive the Earth's destruction—not if such destruction was as spectacular as what he had seen in the movies. And even if they could—traveling out beyond the moon, for example—he didn't think they would be able to live very long in space.