"I don't know. Shh!" said Amanda.

"Okay," said Peter as he stomped his feet in the powder.

"The store is on the other side," Cindy whispered.

"Okay, we need to run across the hall. Go as fast as you can and don't stop for anything."

The children started running across the hall past the clock tower on their way to the west side of Grand Central.

"Hey, there are some kids here." A man's voice called from the top of the stairway behind them. Amanda grabbed Peter and Cindy's hands and pulled them across the hall until they were on the other side. They stopped and looked back up into the hall and could see two tall men wearing all black moving down the stairs with a flashlight. The man started to run across the floor of the Great Hall which looked like someone had used a gigantic flour sifter.

Cindy grabbed their hands and pulled them quickly down the hall and into the empty flashlight store. They lay flat on the floor behind the counter and tried not to breath. They could hear two men walking down the hall and talking.

"They are gone. They were probably just some looters anyway," one of the men said.

The children stayed where they were for a few seconds, and then Cindy said, "We have to find the flashlights. They have some little ones at the counter where you check out."

"I hope they don't need batteries," said Peter.

"No, they have solar batteries; they are pretty cool; they are French. All the kids in my school love this store. It has the best stuff." Cindy walked around to the front of the counter and started feeling through the articles in the front of the counter. It was almost pitch dark in the store.

"This one is a key chain." Cindy turned on a flashlight that was attached to a key chain.

"Hold it down behind the counter. We don't want anyone to see us. We need to take all of them. Put one in your pocket and the rest in my backpack." Amanda started scooping up the flashlights.

"Hey, that's stealing," Peter said.

"Stealing? We are being chased by thieves and you are worried about stealing?" said Cindy. "Oh, I see. We would be thieves too..."

"I will leave a note saying we took (Amanda quickly counted) ten flashlights and then we will tell our mothers to pay for them when we find our mothers." Amanda quickly grabbed a note pad and a pen and wrote out a quick note: "I owe you for ten flashlights. Amanda Wolinski."

"I am hungry." Peter had just about had all he could take.

"There is a food court downstairs. And there is an escalator over there. I am hungry too." Cindy started walking toward the door.

"Take that note pad if you are going to steal the food." Peter was so tired he could barely make sense.

"Okay, okay. I will write another note saying I took the note pad and pen and then we need to go downstairs and see if we can find some food." Amanda wrote the note, grabbed both Cindy and Peter and headed out into the hall. "Don't turn on your flashlights. We can just use mine."

Amanda held her flashlight close to her leg creating a small circle of light on the floor.

The children walked to the escalator and started creeping down the escalator stairs. The basement of the station was totally dark and there was no sound. Amanda remembered that all around the center of the room were food stands. Amanda pulled Cindy and Peter to one of the stands and then motioning to them to be quiet, she used her flashlight to see what kind of food there was. They were in luck. The counter was filled with wrapped sandwiches, chips, cookies and cans of soda. Amanda quickly grabbed three sandwiches, three bags of chips, six cookies and three cans of soda and handed them to Cindy and Peter.

Cindy looked at her beef sandwich. "I am a vegetarian."

"You ate a steak last week," Peter snapped.

"That was before I was a vegetarian. But I guess I can wait a few more days." Cindy started eating.

"I want to be a vegetarian too," Amanda whispered through a mouthful of sandwich.

"You do? I didn't think they had vegetarians in Connecticut."

"Well, they are going to have one," Amanda murmured through a mouthful of chips.

"Just one! I don't ever want to be a vegetarian. I hate vegetables." Peter was feeling very superior.

"I'm just glad to have food," said Amanda.

"Me, too," Cindy sighed.

The children finished eating and then Amanda grabbed some more food and put it in their backpacks. "We don't know when we will see food again."

"Remember, the note. I don't want to get arrested." Peter grabbed Amanda as she was about to get up.

"I would love to see a cop and get arrested." Amanda wrote the note anyway.

"I need to go to the bathroom." Peter started to get up.

"There are bathrooms over there." Cindy had spent a lot of time at Grand Central, taking trips to Connecticut to see her cousins.

"Okay, pick up everything and follow Cindy, but be very quiet." Amanda pulled Cindy up from the floor and gave Cindy and Peter their backpacks.

"That's heavy," Peter said.

"You'll be glad it is heavy in about four hours. We need to go." Amanda was sounding more and more like her mother.

The children traveled through the dark basement of the station by the light of Amanda's flashlight. When they got to the bathrooms, Peter tried to go to the left and go into the men's room.

Amanda grabbed Peter's arm. "You are staying with us. We need to stay together."

"Okay." Peter was too tired to argue. They went into the ladies room together and using their flashlights used the bathroom.

"Don't flush. Someone could hear us," Amanda barked.

"Yuk. Being a fugitive sure is nasty work," Peter said.

"Can I turn on the water in the sink? I am so dirty." Cindy had her hand on the faucet.

"Turn on one faucet really slow and clean up with wet paper towels." Amanda turned a faucet on to a trickle and thought to herself that so far she had done a pretty good job. They were safe, they were fed and right now, they were going to be clean, well, a little clean.

"What do we do now?" Cindy asked Amanda.

"Well, we have not found anyone to help us here so we better leave and see if we find someone outside." Amanda was just about to hand Peter and Cindy's their backpacks when suddenly they heard the voices of the two men from before right outside the bathroom door. Amanda froze, put out the flashlight and pulled everyone to the back row of toilets.

The door slammed open. "Hey, this is the ladies room."

"Who cares?"

"Well, I like a urinal."

"Okay. But look, aren't those the backpacks those kids had?"

"Yes, let's look!" Amanda could see the edge of a lantern shining from the front of the ladies room.

"Not now. We don't have time to fool around with any kids. We've got a lot more stuff to move." The men left.

Amanda pulled everyone into a stall. They stood there and shook.

"Who are they?" Cindy was whimpering.

"Just more looters," said Amanda.

"I'm glad I didn't go in the men's room," Peter said.

"What are we going to do?" Cindy was shaking.

"I don't know," said Amanda.

"You don't know. You have to know. We don't have our mothers. Something awful has happened. It's dark. I'm cold." Cindy was really sobbing.

"Okay. I do know. I am going to take care of you. Please don't be scared. I will get us out of this mess. I promise."

"You're just twelve years old. What can you do?" Peter asked.

"We will all get out of here. Here hold my hands." Amanda grabbed Cindy and Peter's hands and made a circle. "From now on, we are a team and I promise we will be okay - we will do it together." Amanda was horribly scared. She was just as cold and tired as Peter and Cindy, but somehow telling them she would take care of them made her feel better.

"I am really tired," Peter said.

"You are cold and that is why you are tired. Let's go upstairs and see if we can find some tablecloths to keep us warm."

"Tablecloths?" asked Peter.

"There are some fancy restaurants upstairs and if we can get up there, maybe we can wrap up and go to sleep. And maybe tomorrow there will be someone in the station to help us," said Amanda.

"We are going to sleep in a restaurant?" asked Cindy.

"We need to improvise like they do on the Survivor shows. We have food, we have flashlights and now we just need to make a plan to stay warm. Or like that guy on Mission Impossible: 'Our mission, if we choose to accept it, is to get to the Grand Central balcony and find some tablecloths.' So what is it, are you in?" Amanda was trying to be cheerful and not allow herself to be scared. Whatever had happened, it was not going to be over quickly and they needed to survive until they could find someone nice to help them.

"Come, we need to." The children quietly moved to the front of the restroom, stopping to pick up the backpacks. Amanda motioned for them to be very quiet while she slowly opened the door and listened. Not hearing anyone outside, they walked through the dark by the light of one low flashlight. Amanda thought it was colder and darker than before. There was no light filtering through the stairs and she could hear scurrying sounds from the train tracks below. The rats must really be afraid.

They traveled back the way they had come, climbing back up the escalator into the darkened alcove below the Grand Central Balcony. The Great Hall was completely dark now.

"I am going to turn off the flashlight. We need to move in the dark. We can feel our way along until we get to the balcony steps and then we will climb up," Amanda whispered.

"Why can't we have a light?" whispered Cindy.

"Because I don't want anyone to see us. Come on, we need to tiptoe."

Peter grabbed Amanda's arm, "Maybe they have night vision goggles!"

"And maybe they don't. Come on! There is a door up there too. If they chase us, we can run out onto the street."

They moved down the hall, staying totally flat against the wall until they found the end. Amanda turned and still holding Cindy's hand (Cindy was holding onto Peter), they climbed up the stairs. When they got to the top of the stairs, Amanda pulled them to the right into the restaurant, moving slowly so as not to knock over a table in the dark.

The tables and bar for the restaurant were outside on the balcony of the Great Hall, but the kitchen was behind a door. They walked through the open door of the kitchen and went inside. Once they were inside, Amanda turned on her flashlight. They were in the kitchen and the ovens were still warm. Amanda quickly found a shelf filled with tablecloths and grabbed them and wrapped them around herself and Peter and Cindy. The children sat on the ground huddled next to the gas oven and shivered until they were warm again.

Cindy started to speak, but Amanda hushed her. There was no way to know if they were safe. They could only sit and hope.

Chapter IV.

Amanda woke up suddenly. She was lying on the floor at the back of the kitchen, hidden behind a work counter. Cindy and Peter were asleep next to her. She could hear two men talking through the open door of the kitchen. Amanda quickly put her hands over Peter and Cindy's mouths and told them to be quiet. They looked at her, nodded and incredibly went back to sleep.

Amanda crawled to the door and stopped just to the side of the opening. The men who had chased them across the floor of Grand Central were seated at the bar of the restaurant. She could see their faces through the light of the flashlight lantern they had placed on the table. Even though they were seated, Amanda could tell they were very tall and very blonde. They spoke with a faint accent that Amanda did not recognize.

"Hey, look. The top shelf is unlocked. Ah! Twenty-year-old scotch." One of the men was rummaging around the bar.

"No ice," said the second man.

"Hey, it's free."

Amanda heard two glasses hit the bar top.

"So, how much longer do you think we will have to stay in this dump?" asked Man Two.

"Hey, that's funny. It is a dump. Just look at all that powder," said Man One.

"But how long?" asked Man Two.

"How'd I know? You heard Kilgairn same as I, he said they'd be done around here by late tomorrow and we can move north toward Tiffany's the next day. I don't know why we had to stay in Grand Central. I haven't seen any cops, nothing except some thrill-seeking little kids and they've probably gone back home, that is if their parents will let them in after they have been rolling around in that white powder," said Man One.

Man Two laughed. "Yeah, that scary white powder. Man that Kilgairn is a genius, thinking that up, plus hacking all those computers and setting up the sales in the Caymans." He laughed again.

"But I don't know why we can't leave. There won't be any trains leaving this station for days, maybe weeks," said Man One.

"You don't really think he is planning to move the jewels by train?" replied Man Two.

"That's just one of his plans. He has about a dozen different plans for how to get the loot out of the city and to the Caymans," said Man One. "He's covered all the contingencies."

Amanda reached into her pocket and took out her minicam. She turned it on and placed it on the floor. She would not be able to film the men in the dark, but she could record what they said. Amanda was tired and scared, but somehow she knew she had to know what those men were saying. Their feet were covered in white powder. She remembered hearing that Rockefeller Center had been evacuated a few years ago when someone mailed white powder to some news anchors. Were they going to die? But if they were, why were those guys laughing and drinking? They had been walking in the white powder too.