Bose was about to suggest that they attempt to head back the way they had come—dangerous though that might be—when a fourth car pulled up by the van. The driver got out and climbed onto the concrete loading bay and approached Findley, who gave him a what now? look. The driver said something inaudible, pointing back down the alley. Suddenly Findley clapped his hands and began to shout loud enough to be heard over the rattle of the rain, telling the loading crew to finish up and pull in the security perimeter.

Bose checked his watch. The next bus was past due: it would have arrived minutes ago. Orrin, he thought. His best guess was that one of Findley’s security men had spotted Orrin Mather and brought the matter to the boss’s attention.

The elder Findley climbed into a car with one of his security guys. The car rolled down the laneway, its wheels splashing Bose and Turk where they crouched in the shadows. Bose saw Turk blinking at the ripples left by the car in the pavement’s skin of rainwater, aware that his father had passed within a few feet of him. Much of the rage that had carried him here seemed to have collapsed into confusion.

More footsteps down the alley behind them: the lookouts had been called in.

“We need to get out of here,” Bose said. He added, “We might need a distraction.”

The kid turned up a near-tearful face. “What are you talking about? What distraction?”

Bose said, “You happen to be carrying anything flammable?”

Chapter Twenty-Nine. Sandra and Bose

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

ALLISON’S STORY

Our aircraft could have flown days more without exhausting its supply of fuel, but there was no point in circling aimlessly. Turk found a small, steep island off the southern flank of what had once been the Indonesian archipelago and landed us there. The island was far enough south to be out of range of the falling fragments of the Arch and high enough to protect us from any resulting tsunami. The aircraft came to ground on a fairly gentle slope. The land around us was as blank and poisoned as any other part of the planet, but we could see the ocean to the southwest of us. We could have left the ship and gone outside—there were masks and protective gear in the storage lockers—but there was no reason to do so and it might have been dangerous to attempt it: gale-force winds were blowing steadily, maybe as a result of the monstrous impacts farther north.