Justin-who had won the coin toss to see who would be the captain on this flight-turned to the seven pa.s.sengers in the cabin and, deepening his voice and developing a drawl, said: "Folks, welcome to Air Impact! Flight 2036 to ... "

"Flight 2038," whispered Frank.

"Right, Flight 2038, to, ah, Freeport," said Justin. "I'm Captain Justin Robert and this is my copilot, Frank Teeterman."

Frank waved a little salute.

"We're almost through our checklist," said Justin, "so in just a few minutes we'll be closing the door and giving you a safety briefing, then we'll be on our way." Justin had practiced this speech in front of his bathroom mirror. He thought it came out pretty good. He turned back to his checklist.

"Hey." It was Snake's voice, from the back. "How 'bout we go now."

"What?" said Justin, turning back around. The retirees also turned around to administer a group glare at Snake, who was sitting next to Jenny, who had her eyes closed and was leaning her head against the window. Eddie was across the aisle, looking glum.

"I said, let's go now," said Snake. He was thinking about the punk getting away. Snake figured the punk, being basically a lowlife like Snake, would not go to the cops. He was probably just saving his own a.s.s, which was what Snake would have done. But Snake still wanted to get out of there.

"Sir," said Justin, "we have to finish our preflight checklist, then we'll go. It's for your safety, sir."

Snake almost showed him the gun right then. He even thought of a good line: I got my safety right here, a.s.shole. But he decided to give it another minute or two.

27:16 "Officer!" shouted Matt, darting through the airport congestion and waving his arms at Monica, whom Matt had spotted near the American Airlines domestic counter. "Officer!"

"You found them?" asked Monica, running toward him.

"We found the little guy" said Matt. "With the beard. Back this way." They were running together now.

"Just him?" asked Monica. "Alone?"

"Yeah," said Matt.

"Did he say where the others are?" asked Monica. "I didn't talk to him," said Matt. "My dad said come get you."

"Good work," said Monica.

26:02 "The airport is laid out how?" asked Greer.

"The main concourse is a big semicircle," said Baker. "Gate concourses radiate off it."

"This about the middle?" asked Greer.

"Pretty close," said Baker.

"OK, then," said Greer. "We'll stop here."

Seitz pulled over and stopped next to a NO STOPPING ANYTIME sign. They got out of the car and headed for the terminal entrance.

Greer, talking to Baker, said, "My guess is, these morons already f.u.c.ked up somehow, attracted the attention of the cops here. Should be easy to find 'em. When we do, we need your help to get the suitcase, get custody of the perps, and get outta here quick and quiet as possible. OK?"

"OK," said Baker.

"But no matter what," said Greer, now talking to both Seitz and Baker, "we get the suitcase."

As they entered the terminal, they were almost knocked over by two men with walkie-talkies, running toward their left, the direction of the Delta counter. They could hear shouting corning from that direction, then a scream. "Bingo," said Greer.

25:41 Puggy could not believe it: his angel! Here! He held her hand and looked into her eyes, which were at exactly the level of his eyes. For a minute, he couldn't even hear what the other lady was saying to him.

"Please," Anna said, for the third time, "where is my daughter? Please."

"Puggy, you must help," said Nina. Pogey, you mus help.

Puggy got it now. The girl.

"They're down that way," he said, pointing back through the security checkpoint, down the flight concourse toward the Air Impact! gate. "They got on a plane."

"Oh my G.o.d!" said Anna. She grabbed Eliot's arm. "We have to get down there!"

"Right," said Eliot, looking around desperately. Where the h.e.l.l was Matt? Where was the lady ... there she was!

"Over here!" he yelled, waving to Monica and Matt, who were sprinting through the crowd.

"What's he say?" said Monica, reaching the group, panting.

"He says they're on a plane," said Eliot. "Down that way."

"Show me where," said Monica, grabbing Puggy's arm and striding toward the security checkpoint. Puggy, reluctantly letting go of Nina's hand, stumbled behind Monica.

"Police emergency!" shouted Monica, as she reached the head of the checkpoint line. "Out of the way, please!" Dragging Puggy, she went through the metal detector, which beeped because of her badge. Immediately, she found her path blocked by the rotund man.

"Listen," said Monica. "This is a police emergency. I need to go down that concourse with this man, and I need you to notify the airport police right now that ... "

"I have to scan him," said the rotund man, waving a handheld scanner toward Puggy.

"Did you hear me, for G.o.d's sake?" shouted Monica. "I said we have an emergency down there. We have a hostage sit-"

"AND I SAID I HAVE TO SCAN HIM," replied the rotund man, brandishing the scanner in Monica's face. Rules were rules.

"Scan this," said Monica, yanking the scanner from his grasp and flinging it over her shoulder. She shoved past the rotund man, dragging Puggy behind her.

"Hey!" said the rotund man. "Hold it! You can't ... HEY!"

"Excuse me," said Eliot, coming through the metal detector and pushing past the rotund man, followed closely by Anna, Matt, and Nina. "We're with them."

"STOP!" shouted the rotund man, trying unsuccessfully to block this renegade group. "SECURITY!"

"SECURITY!" chorused the X-ray woman, and the stern woman at the end of the conveyor belt, and the other checkpoint workers. "SECURITY! SECURITY!"

There was an officer a.s.signed to this checkpoint: His name was Ralph Pend.i.c.k, and he happened to be the older, but not a whole lot smarter, brother of Jack Pend.i.c.k, the man who earlier that evening had alertly foiled the attempted squirting of Jenny Herk by firing bullets randomly in a parking lot. Ralph Pend.i.c.k's orders were to remain at the security checkpoint at all times, and he had tried mightily to comply with these orders when he first heard, on his walkie-talkie, about the trouble down at the Delta counter. He had watched, with mounting envy, as other officers ran past, headed for the action; there was never any action, here at the checkpoint. Finally, unable to stand it any longer, Ralph had abandoned his post and headed for Delta, which meant there was n.o.body to heed the cries of the personnel at his a.s.signed checkpoint, who were still yelling "SECURITY!" at the rapidly receding figures of Monica, Puggy, Eliot, Matt, Anna, and Nina.

The rotund man waddled quickly over to a wall-mounted phone, grabbed the receiver, punched a code, and began shouting into it, nearly incoherent with excitement. Security had been breached! A police officer was involved! People had gotten through without being properly scanned! They could be carrying ... concealed laptops!

23:24 "You see what it is?" asked Leonard. They were at the edge of the now huge mob in front of the Delta counter.

"Nope," said Henry, craning his neck. "All's I see is people tryin' to see."

"Well, f.u.c.k it," said Leonard. "I say we go to the counter."

"Worth a try," said Henry. He led the way, pushing through the crowd, which was shouting in several languages. From what s.n.a.t.c.hes of English they picked up, they gathered that there were police ahead, and somebody hurt, and something crawling. As the crowd got denser, they struggled forward, Henry shoving people aside, each labored step strengthening their resolve to get ... out ... of ... this ... crazy ... f.u.c.king ... place.

As they approached the Delta counter, the crowd became almost impenetrably dense, squeezed from behind by people trying to see what was going on, and from in front by people pushing back, apparently trying to get away from something. There was a lot of shouting, the loudest coming from an area directly ahead of Henry and Leonard. Suddenly, the volume of the shouting intensified, accompanied by terrified shrieks; the crowd lunged backward violently just as Henry and Leonard pushed forward. They stumbled ahead and were suddenly in the clear, alone, surrounded by a vast ring of shouting and screaming faces. Henry caught his balance, but Leonard kept going, tripping over the pet transporter containing Pinky and Enid, who yipped and yelped in terror. Leonard pitched forward onto the floor. He groaned, then raised his head slightly and saw, on the floor two inches from his eyes ... a really long tongue.

22:58 Snake was going nuts. The minutes were ticking past, and the two zitface pilots were still up there farting around, talking into their headset microphones, and the plane was not moving. Snake kept glancing out the window toward the door to the terminal, expecting it to open. Finally, he couldn't stand it. He stood in the aisle of the plane.

"Hey!" he shouted. "Start the f.u.c.kin' motors!" Justin, Frank, and the retirees turned, all of them glaring, until they saw the gun pointed at the c.o.c.kpit.

The retirees gasped and pulled back in their seats, out of the line of fire. Justin and Frank stared at the hole in the end of the barrel, their brains frozen. Frank wet his new pilot pants.

"Start the f.u.c.kin' motors NOW," said Snake.

"We ... we ... " stammered Justin. "I mean, the door. We have to close the door."

"I'll close the f.u.c.kin' door, zitface," said Snake. He wasn't letting anybody else get away. "Now START THE f.u.c.kIN' MOTORS AND FLY TO THE f.u.c.kIN' BAHAMAS OR I BLOW BOTH YOUR f.u.c.kIN' HEADS OFF."

This caused three of the four retirees to wet their pants. Justin and Frank began working furiously on starting the motors. The propeller on the right side of the plane started to turn, very slowly.

"Snake," said Eddie. He was looking out the window.

"What?" said Snake. He bent down and looked where Eddie was looking, then said, "s.h.i.t. s.h.i.t."

The terminal door was open. The little punk-that motherfuther-was coming out of the building pointing the plane out to ... the lady cop. That f.u.c.king b.i.t.c.h.

Snake screamed at Justin and Frank, "GET THIS f.u.c.kIN' PLANE MOVING RIGHT NOW." He whirled and gimped back to the airplane doorway, aimed his gun toward the lady cop, and fired a shot.

Instantly, she ducked back into the building, yanking the punk with her and closing the door.

"WHY THE f.u.c.k AREN'T WE MOVING?" shouted Snake.

"We gotta start the other engine," Justin shouted back. The right-side engine, after a few coughs and sputters, was roaring. The left-hand propeller was starting to turn. Snake looked back toward the terminal door; it was open a crack now, but he couldn't see inside. He turned toward the front of the plane, where he saw Justin speaking into his headset microphone.

"WHO'RE YOU TALKIN' TO?" he screamed.

"n.o.bODY," said Justin, talking loud over the sound of the engines. "JUST HIM." He pointed at Frank.

"TAKE THOSE THINGS OFF," said Snake.

"WE NEED THEM TO TALK TO THE TOWER," said Justin.

"TAKE 'EM OFF, ZITFACE," said Snake, pointing the gun at the c.o.c.kpit. Justin and Frank removed their headsets.

"NOW," said Snake, "GET US THE f.u.c.k OUT OF HERE."

"WHAT ABOUT THE DOOR?" asked Justin.

"I'LL WORRY ABOUT THE DOOR," said Snake. He was going to leave it open, for now, in case he had to shoot again.

Justin, shaking his head, released the brake and gently advanced the throttles. Very slowly, the plane started to move.

20:40 She did not appear to be in any hurry, but it took Daphne only a few seconds to coil herself several times around Leonard. Leonard knew exactly what was happening, but found that there was nothing he could do to stop it: No matter how he moved his body, or where he put his arms, Daphne oozed effortlessly, casually, around him. Leonard sensed her astonishing strength, but only barely; she never seemed to need it. Leonard was terrified, but even with his terror, and the screaming around him, and the visceral revulsion he felt at being embraced by this thing, his brain found room and time to speculate on an unexpected phenomenon: He did not feel any great pressure; did not feel really squeezed. Instead, he noticed that, each time he exhaled, it became more difficult, and then impossible, to inhale, as Daphne calmly, relentlessly, took up the slack. Leonard was blacking out; he was dying, he could tell. Just like that, it's over, he thought. I'll never see New Jersey again.

And then, in his last moment of consciousness, he thought: f.u.c.king snakes.

20:31 The stairwell was empty except for Monica and Matt. After Snake had fired the wild shot, Monica had told Eliot and Anna to take Puggy back to the main concourse and do whatever they had to do-"set something on fire if you have to" was how she put it-to get police attention and tell them what was going on. Anna had wanted to stay near the plane, but Monica told her that the best thing she could do for her daughter was to get help.

"What about Matt?" Eliot had asked.

"I need him here, in case I need a messenger," Monica had answered. "He'll be OK."

Eliot and Anna raced back up the stairs, followed by Puggy and Nina, who were holding hands. Monica opened the door a crack and peered out at the Air Impact! plane. It was parked so that the plane's fuselage was parallel to the terminal building. To taxi toward the runway, it would have to turn perpendicular to the terminal, meaning that the plane's occupants would no longer be able to see the doorway. The plane's right engine was roaring, its propeller a blur; the left engine was almost there.

"You stay here," Monica told Matt. "You watch through this crack, but you don't go out there. When your dad gets back here with help, you tell them what happened."

The plane had started to move, making a slow turn toward the right. When its windows were no longer visible, Monica opened the door.

"What're you gonna do?" asked Matt.

"Try and stop the plane," said Monica.

"How?" asked Matt.

"I have no idea," said Monica. And then she was sprinting across the tarmac. She did not look back.

20:17 Agent Greer led the way through the crowd, shunting people to either side, like a V-bladed snow-plow. Those who didn't get out of his way quickly enough got picked up and tossed like hay bales. Still, it took Greer, Seitz, and Baker a good five minutes from the time they reached the edge of the mob until they could actually see the Delta counter. They heard shouts and screams; they saw uniformed officers, some trying to hold back the crowd, some yelling instructions to each other and pointing toward ... something going on down on the floor, out of sight.

"OK," said Greer, over his shoulder, as he drove his body forward, through the last few feet of crowd. "Remember, we get the suitcase."

19:58 The Air Impact! plane was starting to pick up speed, but it was still moving slowly enough that Monica-who, until sixth grade, when she developed b.r.e.a.s.t.s, had been the fastest runner of any gender in her school-was able to close on it. She angled to the left, where she could see the door at the rear of the plane, still open, with a little folding stairway hanging down. She tried not to think about the gun. She would worry about the gun when she caught the plane.

19:50 Henry had never killed a snake, large or small, in his life. But he was a professional, and he gave careful thought-quick, but careful-to how he would handle this situation. He had to shoot the snake's head, that much was obvious; the problem was that the bullet would keep going. Henry didn't want it to hit Leonard, of course, but he also didn't want it to go into the crowd. He didn't want to shoot down, because the bullet would ricochet off the floor, which would be concrete, under the carpeting. Henry decided his best bet was to shoot up, toward the ceiling.

Henry knelt and pulled his revolver from his ankle holster. Then he stood and circled Leonard, whose eyes were bulging sightlessly and whose face was turning maroon. Two brave cops had their hands on Daphne's neck and were pulling with all their strength, with no noticeable effect on Daphne. As Henry approached them, another cop ran toward him, yelling something that Henry couldn't make out in the general din; seeing the gun in Henry's hand, he backed off. Henry showed the gun to the two brave cops; they looked at each other, then let go of Daphne and stood. As they did, Henry dropped to his stomach, rolled onto his back directly next to Leonard. As Daphne, who was never in a hurry, gracefully turned her head to see what was happening, he stuck the barrel of the gun into the underside of her jaw, pulled the trigger, and blew out her brains, not that she had many.

One second later, Greer burst through the crowd, drawing his own gun as he heard the shot and the ensuing screams. He ran forward, and then stopped, gun in hand, staring down at the scene on the floor-first at the unconscious Leonard, then at the now headless Daphne, and finally at Henry, who was on his back, gun still pointing straight up.

The two men studied each other for a moment. Then Henry spoke.

"Agent Greer," he said. "What brings you to Miami?"

19:22 The plane was moving faster now. Monica, tiring fast, was not sure she'd catch it. She was not entirely sure she wanted to catch it. But she found some reserve energy somewhere and got to within a few feet of the hanging stairs. She reached her left hand out, and for a second, caught hold of the plastic-covered steel cable that served as the stair's railing, but the effort of reaching forward slowed her slightly, and the railing was yanked away. Straining, her lungs burning, she lunged forward again, and this time she had the railing, but she was starting to stumble and s.h.i.t she was going down and the plane was going to get away and ...

... and Matt, sprinting next to her now, pulled her upright and gave her a push forward, and she grabbed the other railing and swung on to the ladder. She moved up to the second step and turned and held out her hand to Matt, and he grabbed it and she pulled, and in a second Matt was on the lower step, and in the next second the plane suddenly accelerated, and the fastest runner on earth would not have caught it.