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taken aback, unprepared for this sudden display of affection. Slowly, he raised his arms and hugged Holly back.

'Take care of yourself,' he said, closing his eyes. 'And look after your father, the same way he looks after you. Goodbye, Holly.'

She released him and Selexin turned to Swain and extended his hand.

'You are a little too tall for me to hug,' Selexin said, smiling.

Status Check: 0:00:15 to De-electrification.

Swain took the little man's hand and shook it. 'Thank you, again,' he said seriously.

Selexin bowed. 'I did nothing that you yourself would not have done for her. Or for me. I was only there in your absence. And besides, thank you, for making me change my mind about you.'

He reached for the door to the teleporter. It opened with a soft, pneumatic hiss.

Swain put an arm on Holly's shoulder. 'Goodbye, Selexin,' he said. 'You'll be a hard memory to forget.'

'That is just as well, Mr Swain. Considering you have forgotten just about everything else I have told you tonight.'

Swain smiled sadly as Selexin stepped inside the teleporter.

'Don't forget to teleport this thing back once you get there,' he said, pointing at the teleporter.

'Do not worry. I will not,' Selexin said, closing the glass door behind him.

Swain stepped away from the teleporter and looked down at his wristband.

STATUS CHECK: 0:00:04 TO DE-ELECTRIFICATION.

'Oh, damn...' Swain said, realising. 'Oh, damn!'

Inside the teleporter, Selexin punched some buttons on the wall and then stepped up to the glass door.

A brilliant white light glowed to life behind him and the little man pressed his finger up against the glass.

'Goodbye,' he mouthed silently.

The dazzling white light inside the teleporter consumed Selexin and then, abruptly, there was a bright, instantaneous flash, and the inside of the teleporter was dark again.

And Selexin was gone.

Holly was wiping tears from her eyes as Swain looked at the wristband again.

STATUS CHECK: 0:00:01 TO DE-ELECTRIFICATION.

STANDBY.

DE-ELECTRIFICATION INITIALISED--

Swain grabbed Holly by the hand and immediately began to run desperately down the narrow aisle, toward the central stairwell. Holly didn't know what was happening, just ran with him anyway.

A loud beeping filled the air.

Swain knew exactly what was going on now -- it was what Selexin had been trying to tell him before. He didn't even need to look at his wristband to confirm it.

The damn thing was beeping insistently again and as he heard it ringing in his ears, he realised what aborting the Presidian really meant.

The electrified field was down.

His wristband was no longer surrounded by the field.

It had reset itself to self-destruct.

And nothing could stop it. There was no other electric field on Earth to surround it with.

Swain looked down at the wristband as he hit the stairs on the fly. It read:

PRESIDIAN ABORTED.

DETONATION SEQUENCE INITIALISED.

* 14:54 *

AND COUNTING.

Jesus.

SIXTH MOVEMENT

30 November, 10:47 p.m.

----ooo0ooo------

Outside the library, Marshall was barking orders.

'Move! Move! Move! Get in there!' he yelled, oblivious to the falling rain all around him.

Moments earlier, the grid of crackling blue electricity had vanished to nothing and Marshall had been faced with a gaping hole in the metal grille of the parking lot. Now he had Sigma's SWAT team racing past him, charging into the car park.

'Higgs!' he called.

'Yes, sir!'

'I want a total media blackout on this matter from now on. You go straight to Levine and you tell him to call the networks and pull some strings. Get those cameras out of here. And get me a No-Fly Zone over this whole area. I don't want any choppers within a five-mile radius of this building. Now go!'

Higgs ran off, up the ramp.

Marshall put his hands on his hips and smiled in the rain.

They were in.

Swain and Holly climbed the stairs two at a time, rounding the banisters, hauling themselves up, breathing hard.

They stopped at the Ground Floor. Swain peered out through the fire door.

The Ground Floor lay before him -- wide and dark and bare.

Empty.

Swain could just make out the First Floor mezzanine above. It was still dark there, too. No fires here. Not yet.

There was no-one here.

Wristband.

14:23

14:22

14:21

There was a light over by the Information Desk. Swain stepped cautiously out among the bookshelves, heading toward it. Holly followed nervously.

When he was ten yards away from the Information Desk, he said to her, 'Stay here.'

Swain edged closer to the desk. He peered over the desktop and suddenly turned away, wincing.

'What is it?' Holly whispered.

'Nothing,' he said, then added quickly, 'Don't come over here.'

He glanced over the desktop again and saw the grisly sight again. It was the bloodied and mangled body of a policewoman.

Hawkins' partner.

She had literally been torn limb from limb -- her arms were simply gone, each one ending at the bicep as a ragged bony stump. Her uniform was covered in blood. Swain could just make out the long jagged tear in her shirt where Bellos had ripped off her badge.

And then he saw her Glock pistol on the floor -- lying inches away from her desperately outstretched