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Impatiently, he said, "Either come with me, or die with the rest of them"

He stepped out of the lavatory, and she followed hi to accompany him back to his section

He hoped to God she would He really could not be held responsible for all the other people ould perish, because they would have died even if he had not come aboard; that was their fate, and he had not been sent to alter their destinies He could not save the whole world, and he had to rely on the wisdo him But he most definitely would be responsible for Holly Thorne’s death, because she would never have taken the flight if, unwittingly, he had not led her onto it

As he lanced to his left at the portholes and clear blue sky beyond He had a too vivid sense of the yawning void under his feet, and his stomach flopped

When he reached his seat in row sixteen, he dared to look back

Relief flooded through hi close

He pointed to a pair of empty seats immediately behind his and Chris tine’s

Holly shook her head "Only if you’ll sit doith lanced down at Christine, then at Holly He was acutely aware of ti down a drain The awfulcloser He wanted to pick the reporter up, stuff her into the seat, engage her seatbelt, and lock her in place But seatbelts didn’t have locks

Unable to conceal his extrerit ted teeth "My place is with the with Christine and Casey Dubrovek

He had spoken quietly, as had Holly, but other passengers were beginning to look at them

Christine frowned up at him, craned her neck to look back at Holly, and said, "Is so’s fine," he lied

He glanced at the portholes again Blue sky Vast Empty How many miles to the earth below? "You don’t look well," Christine said

He realized that his face was still sheathed in a greasy film of sweat

"Just a little warm Uh, look, I ran into an old friend Gimme fiveover a ible"

For aabout

Then he remembered that he had asked her to play ht back, we’ll talk"

He ushered Holly into row seventeen He took the aisle seat next to her

On the other side of Holly was a grandmotherly tub of a woray hair in asoftly A pair of gold-fralasses, suspended around her neck on a bead chain, rested on her

Leaning close to hi her voice so low it could not even carry across the narrow aisle, but speaking with the conviction of an impassioned political orator, Holly said, "You can’t let all those people die"

"We’ve been through this," he said restively,her nearly inaudible pitch

"It’s your responsibility" "I’m just one man!" "But one very special man"

"I’m not God," he said plaintively

"Talk to the pilot"

"Jesus, you’re relentless"

"Warn the pilot," she whispered

"He won’t believe h empty seats in this section for all of them to move here"

She was furious with him, quiet but so intense that he could not look away fro She put a hand on his arhtly that it hurt "Da to save themselves"

"I’d only cause a panic"

"If you can save more, but you let theer flashing in her eyes

That accusation hit hi of the effect of a hammer blow to the chest For a moment he could not draw his breath

When he could speak, his voice broke repeatedly: "I hate death, people dying, I hate it I want to save people, stop all the suffering, be on the side of life, but I can only do what I can do"

"Murder," she repeated

What she was doing to hieous He could not carry the load of responsibility she wanted to pile on his shoulders If he could save the Dubroveks, he would be at working two raves that had been their destinies But Holly Thorne, in her ignorance about his abilities, was not satisfied with two miracles; she wanted three, four, five, ten, a hundred He felt as if an enorht of the whole daht of her to put the blame on him; it wasn’t fair If she wanted to blame someone, she should cast her accusations at God, orked in such mysterious ways that He had ordained the necessity of the plane crash in the first place

"Murder" She dug her fingers into his ar from her like the heat of the sun reflected off a e was too apt to be anything less than Freudian

Her anger over his unwillingness to save everyone on the plane was no greater than his own anger over his inability to do so; her rage was a reflection of his own

"Murder," she repeated, evidently aware of the profound effect that accusation had on him

He looked into her beautiful eyes, and he wanted to hit her, punch her in the face, sth, knock her unconscious, so she wouldn’t put his own thoughts into words She was too perceptive He hated her for being right

Instead of hitting her, he got up

"Where are you going?" she deht attendant"

"About what?" "You win, okay? You win"

Making his way toward the back of the plane, Jie that all of them would be dead soon As his desperation intensified, so did his i ih their flesh, for they were the living dead He was nauseous with fear, not for himself but for them

The plane bucked and shirabbed at the back of a seat to steady hiht attendants were gathered farther back in the plane, in their work area, preparing to serve the lunch trays that had just coroup, men and women, a couple in their twenties and the others as old as fifty-so to the tag she wore, her naot to talk to the pilot," he said, keeping his voice low, although the nearest passengers ell forward of them