Contest

Bellos' hoods had done this.

It was time to get out of here.

Hawkins immediately turned back for the stairwell--

--only to see a big black hand rush toward his face. And then he saw nothing.

Stephen Swain stepped cautiously out from the ladies' room and saw the familiar glass-walled offices of Sub-Level One.

He checked his wristband and found that the screen had changed again.

INITIALISED--4

Another contestant was dead. Only four were left now.

Swain wondered which contestants were still alive. He shrugged off the thought. Hell, he only really knew of three others -- Balthazar, Bellos and Reese. Including himself, maybe they were the only four left.

Got to find Holly, he told himself. Holly.

He stepped out among the offices. Across the floor, through the glass partitions, he saw the elevator bay. He also saw the heavy blue door that led out to the parking lot. It was open.

Swain hastened over to the door and examined it. It had been torn from its hinges, presumably by Reese when she had been chasing them before.

He remembered the chase into the parking lot, remembered Balthazar coming up the concrete ramp from the floor below...

The floor below.

Sub-Level Two, the Stack.

That was where he had been separated from Holly and Selexin, so it was the obvious place to start looking for them.

He had to get down there.

Go down the stairwell?

No. There was another way. A better way.

He remembered Balthazar again, coming up the ramp in the parking lot. That was the way in. Balthazar had come from another, lower, parking level. And that level had to have an entrance of some sort, a door that would open onto Sub-Level Two.

With that Swain ran through the big blue door and out toward the parking lot.

----ooo0ooo------

From the outside it looked like a scene from The Towering Inferno. The State Library of New York -- standing proudly in the centre of a beautiful inner city park -- with long flaming tentacles spraying out from two flat rectangular windows up near its roof, while rows of windows on the third and second floors were illuminated by a glowing golden haze.

John Levine was back at the front of the library, watching as the building before him burned.

Behind him, the big blue NSA van pulled out from the kerb and headed for the western side of the library building.

Levine watched as the van jumped the kerb and drove straight onto the grass lawn surrounding the library. Then it disappeared around the corner.

He turned back to see headlights -- lots of headlights -- and he knew what that meant. The fire department was arriving -- closely followed by the media.

Multi-coloured vans screeched to a halt just outside the perimeter of yellow tape. Sliding doors were flung open and cameramen charged out. Behind them, pretty reporters emerged from their vans, fluffing and primping.

One bold young reporter hustled straight over from her van, ducked under the yellow police tape and walked straight up to Levine and thrust a microphone into his face.

'Sir,' she said, in her best, most serious voice, 'can you tell us exactly what is happening here? How did the fire start?'

Levine didn't answer. He just stared at the young woman, silent.

'Sir,' she repeated, 'I said, can you tell us--'

Levine cut her off, speaking softly and politely, facing the young reporter, but clearly addressing the three NSA agents standing nearby.

'Gentlemen, please escort this young lady outside the perimeter and inform her that if she or anyone else crosses that line again they will be arrested on the spot and charged with Federal offences relating to interference with matters of national security, sentences for which range between ten and twenty years, depending on what sort of mood I'm in.'

The three agents stepped forward and the reporter, mouth agape, was led ignominiously back to the perimeter.

Levine was watching her legs as she walked off when his radio came to life. It was Marshall.

'Yes, sir?'

'Quaid and I are at the entrance to the parking lot,' Marshall said. 'TV there yet?'

'They're here all right,' Levine said.

'Any trouble?'

'Not yet.'

'Good. We'll be down here from now on. This fire has raised the stakes. Now we have to get inside before the whole place burns down. Is the truck on the way?'

'It just left,' Levine said. 'You'll be seeing it any second now.'

The ramp leading down from the street to the underground parking lot was on the western side of the library building.

Marshall was standing at the base of the ramp, not far from the metal grille that closed off the parking lot. In the centre of the grille, just touching the ground, was the large circle of criss-crossing blue electricity.

Behind him, the big NSA van reversed around the corner and backed slowly down the ramp.

'Okay,' Marshall said into his radio, seeing the van, 'it's here. I'll call you back soon. For now, you just keep those firemen and reporters behind the tape. Okay?'

'Okay,' Levine's voice said as Marshall hung up.

The van stopped and the back doors burst open and four men dressed in SWAT gear jumped down onto the ramp. The first of them -- a young technician -- came straight up to Quaid and they spoke quietly. Then the technician nodded vigorously and disappeared inside the van. He re-emerged several seconds later carrying a large silver box.

Quaid walked over to Marshall, standing in front of the electrified metal grille.

Marshall said, 'How long will it--?'

'We'll be in there soon,' Quaid said calmly. 'We just have to do the math first.'

'Who are you going to get to do it?'

'Me,' Quaid said.

The technician placed the heavy box down on the concrete next to Quaid, then bent down and flipped open its silver lid to reveal three digital counters. Each counter displayed red numbers, which at the moment read: 00000.00.

Quaid then pulled a long green cord out from the box and led it over to the metal grille. The cord had a shiny steel bulb at the tip.

Another heavily armed agent came over and handed him some insulated black gloves and a long pole with a loop of rope attached to its end. Quaid put the gloves on and inserted the steel bulb into the loop at the end of the pole.