Contest

Parker stood up from her seat behind the Information Desk. She gazed lazily around the atrium, squinting in the darkness.

'What're you doing?' she called.

'Just looking around.'

Status Check: 0:00:09 to Electrification.

Standby.

Parker walked over to Hawkins. He was standing at the doorway to the stairwell, his flashlight on, peering up into the darkness.

:06

She stopped next to him.

'Nice old place,' Hawkins said.

'Yeah,' Parker nodded. 'Nice.'

:04

:03

:02

:01

Standby...

--Electrification initialised.

At that moment, while Hawkins and Parker stood in the stairwell, bright blue sparks flashed out from the main entrance to the library. An electric blue current shot up between the large glass doors while sizzling claws of electricity lashed out around the edges of the door frame.

Every single window of the library shook as tiny forks of blue lightning shot out from their panes. At the small side entrances to the library, yellow police tape bubbled slowly, boiling under the intense heat of the electricity now flowing through the doors.

And then, in an instant, it stopped.

All the windows and doors giving access to the library were suddenly still.

Suddenly silent again.

The State Library, old and dark, stood sombrely in the darkness of New York City, its magnificent glass doors grey in the moonlight. To the casual observer a few feet away they looked regal and austere, just as they had looked the day before.

It was only when one came close that one would see the intermittent flash of tiny blue lightning that licked out from between the two huge doors every few seconds.

Just as it did at every other entrance to the library.

Status Check: Electrification complete.

Dispatch grid co-ordinates

of the labyrinth.

Commence teleportation.

----ooo0ooo------

Holly grabbed onto Swain's leg. Swain shook it playfully as he spoke into the phone.

'It won't be much of a surprise anyway. I already heard who won.'

'You did?'

Swain frowned down at Holly as she reached into his jeans pocket. 'Yes. Unfortunately I did.'

Holly pulled her hand out of his pocket and frowned at the object in her hand.

'Daddy, what's this?'

Swain glanced down at her and cocked his head in surprise. 'May I?' he said.

Holly gave him the small silver object.

'What's going on?' Wilson asked.

Swain turned it over in his hand. 'Well... Doctor Wilson, maybe you can tell me. Maybe you can tell me why my daughter has just pulled a Zippo out of my jeans. My jeans that you borrowed for your little cowboy thing on the weekend.'

Wilson hesitated. 'I have absolutely no idea how that got there.'

'Why don't I believe you?'

'All right, all right, don't start.' Wilson said. 'What are my chances of getting my lighter back?'

Swain put the cigarette lighter back into his pocket. 'I don't know. Sixty-forty.'

Status Check: Teleportation sequence initialised.

'Sixty-forty!'

Holly grabbed another drink from the refrigerator. Swain shifted the telephone to his shoulder and bent down to pick her up. He grunted under the weight.

'God, you're heavy.'

Initialise teleport: Earth.

'Dad... Come on, I'm eight now...'

'Too old to be picked up, huh? All ri--'

At that moment the room around Swain began to brighten. A mysterious white glow filled the kitchen.

'Daddy...' Holly gripped his shoulders tightly.

Swain turned around slowly, staring, mesmerised, at the soft white light glowing around him -- glowing around him -- growing around him.

Growing.

The kitchen was getting brighter. The light was gathering intensity.

Swain spun. All around him, the soft white glow had become a dazzling white light. Wherever he turned, his eyes reeled at the brilliant light. It seemed to come from every direction.

He lifted his forearm to shield his eyes.

'Daddy! What's happening?'

Swain held her closer, pushed her head into his chest, guarding her from the light. He squinted as his eyes tried to penetrate the blinding wall of white light surrounding them, searching for a source.

Recoiling from the light, he abruptly looked down at his feet -- and saw a perfect circle of white light ringing his sneakers.

And then Swain realised.

He was at the centre of the light.

He was the source!

Gusts of wind shot through the kitchen. Dust and paper swirled around Swain's head as he held Holly close to his chest. He shut his eyes, bracing himself against the screaming wind.

Then, strangely, above the howling of the wind, he heard a voice. A soft, taint, insistent voice saying, 'Steve? Stephen Swain, are you still with us?'

It took him a second to realise that it was the phone. Wilson was still on the line. Swain had forgotten that he was still holding onto the phone.

'Stephen, what's going on? Ste--'

The phone went dead.

A deafening thunderclap boomed and Swain was instantly plunged into complete darkness.