Tom sat by the fire and watched as the others came back with the wood they’d collected. When darkness fell and the last of the stragglers emerged from the shadows, he tried to do a mental count, making sure everyone had come back. That in turn reminded him of Miss Graham, dead, probably still strapped in her seat in the burned wreckage of the plane on the other side of that hill.

There was another distraction then as Alice and Shen and Barney emerged from the plane and the business of preparing food got under way, set against a backdrop of bustling conversation and lame jokes and “helpful” advice to the cooks.

The volume only decreased slightly once they were all eating, but there was still an odd excitability about the entire group, as if they thought this was exactly the trip they’d all signed up for. Although, now that he looked around, Tom saw there was a divide in the mood too—the people who wanted to leave with him were quieter, more subdued, George and Alice in particular, Lara and…

His thoughts stumbled and fell away from him. He looked around the circle of people, their faces glowing and only half-shown by the firelight. He shook his head, angry with himself for not noticing before, even angrier at Joel.

“Where’s Naomi?”

Joel said, “Naomi?” He sounded confident, though it was clear he wasn’t sure who Naomi was. “Has anyone seen her?”

Chloe said, “We saw her, didn’t we, Chris? She was in the same area as us.”

“Yeah, but she walked farther. Maybe she got lost.”

There was a sudden flurry of talking before Joel said, “Okay, we need to organize a search.”

“No,” said Tom, and everyone stopped talking and stared at him. He stood and said, “I’ll go.”

Joel stood too, his face half-lost in shadow, the other half dancing with the firelight, and he looked queasily paternal as he said, “Tom, bro, this isn’t your fault.”

Once again, Tom felt like hitting him. “No, it’s yours, but I’m still going.”

Nick said, “What’s he talking about?”

But before Joel could respond, George stood up. “I’ll come with you.”

Then a girl’s voice came from the other side of the fire. “So will I.” She stood and Tom saw it was Kate, stepping up again. This time she didn’t give Joel the chance to overrule her. “She might want a girl in the group that finds her, and we used to play tennis together years ago.”

“Sure,” said Tom, and the three of them got flashlights and each selected a branch from the woodpile, with Joel all the while talking in the background, giving instructions as though they were going on his behalf.