At the London airport his package of knives was returned by a stewardess who had, according to anti-hi-jack precautions, held them until the flight had terminated. She remarked on how beautiful they were and asked where Thorn had purchased them. He answered in monosyllables, stuffing the package inside his jacket, and entered the near-empty terminal. It was after midnight and the airport had closed down; his was the last flight allowed in due to substandard visibility on the runways. The city was buried in fog, even the cabdrivers balking at his request to take him all the way to Pereford. It was disorienting to return to London this way, with no one to meet him, no one to drive him, and he was stung by the recollection of how it used to be. There was always Horton waiting with news of the weather; Katherine at home, with a welcoming smile.

Now, as he stood in the cold night air waiting for a private limousine service to pick him up, loneliness swept over him and chilled him to the bone.

When the car finally came, they moved out at a snail's pace, the inability to see anything passing by creating the sensation that they were not moving at all. It was as though the car were merely hanging in space, and it helped Thorn to resist the temptation to think about anything that lay ahead. The past was gone, the future unforseeable. There was only this moment, lasting an eternity until Pereford finally came into view.

It too was smothered in haze; fog swirled about the car as it came to a stop, depositing Thorn and his luggage in the driveway in front of the house, which was quiet and dark. Thorn remained for a few minutes after the car had left, staring up in silence at the house that once contained the people he loved. There was not a single light within, not a sound, and Thorn's mind tortured him with fleeting images of the events that had once gone on here. He saw Katherine in the garden, playing with her child, Chessa laughing as she watched. He saw the veranda filled with people and the sound of laughter, the driveway packed with chauffeured limousines belonging to the most important people in the Commonwealth. Mercifully, the visions faded and he became aware only of his own heartbeat, the sensation of blood coursing through his veins.