Stamping and stampeding.
“Where is everybody?”
“We’re all scattered out again.”
“He get away?” Barnes asked.
“Yeah.”
“Listen, Stubb—is that you, Stubb?”
“Yeah.”
“We could bust the door,” Barnes said.
“It’s metal.”
“I don’t care, I bet we could bust them. Come on, Little Ozzie, Daddy’s going to bust down a door.”
“I’ll help you.”
“Candy? Is that you, Candy?”
“Sure it’s me,” Candy said. “You probably think I can’t, but weight’s what it takes and weight’s what I’ve got.”
“Where’s the door, anyhow?”
“Next to the elevators.”
“Where’s Madame Serpentina? I was with her. And the tall guy—Reeder.”
“Reeder! Reeder was here?”
“He gave us a hand. You know him?”
“I owe him. I’m gonna knock his block off.”
“He’s pretty big, Ozzie.”
“He’s in for a susprize. I’ll deck ’at swab!”
“Big talk,” Stubb said. “Want to borrow my sap?”
“Jim, won’t you and Ozzie shut up for a minute. Listen. Listen outside.”
“All right, I’m listening. Sirens.”
“Lots of sirens. All the time. Everything the pigs and the firemen have must be out there, and every ambulance in the whole damn city.”
“You want to stay here, Candy?”
“No. No, I don’t. But if I wasn’t starving to death, I’d say yes. Have you thought about the people out there? I mean, a blackout like this in the dead of winter? The heat will be off in all the buildings. It’s been off here, but this is a big, solid old place, so it takes a while to notice it. Out there, they’ll have got cold in a hurry. They must have gone outside to start fires in the street. It would be garbage and stuff at first.”
“The hell with that—where’s the door?”
“Here’s one for you, Mr. Stubb. Why is—”
“Who’s that, Jim?”
“Nimo, I think. Where are you, Nimo?”
“—the door you’re looking for like Samson?”
“Okay, it’s a strong door. Nobody said it was going to be easy. Keep talking so we can find you.”
“Because they’re both unlocked!”
The Law Of The See
Behind them, the dark bulk of Belmont was soon lost among others equally dark. Moon and stars were hidden behind clouds heavy with snow, but leaping flames gave a distant, fitful light, and from time to time some wildly careening car swept by, its brights lancing the street. The air was still, and bitterly cold.
“Looks like hell, doesn’t it?” Candy said. “Just the same, I’d like to get closer to one of those fires.” She had no coat over her bulging nurse’s uniform.
Barnes, in slippers and thin hospital pajamas, was worse off still. He did not seem to know it, pegging along bravely with little Ozzie trotting beside him. Nimo was too active to suffer, turning flips and cartwheels on the ice.
“Sandy didn’t make it, I guess,” Stubb said. “We lost her.”
“She was with you?” Candy asked. “She’ll get out okay. She wasn’t a patient, after all.”
“I guess Doc Makee will too,” Barnes said. “What’s our course?”
“Back to the Consort.”
“Well, blow me down! I just remembered, I got a date wit Olive. What time is it?”
Stubb glanced at his wrist. “Six forty-five.”
