"I"m asking what the problem is down there."

"We haven"t pinned it down exactly. Water"s got into some of the children"s books somehow. Best if you take a look for yourself."

"You bet I will. What"s the delay now? Give the G.o.dd.a.m.n door a push."

When Ray grips the handle it feels rough with grit or rust. He twists it as near as it will turn to vertical and shoves hard. Even when he throws his weight against the door, it stands its ground. He grabs his fist with his other hand and leans on the handle while he braces his feet wide apart and thumps the door with his shoulder to as little effect. "What"s happened, do you know?" he feels foolish for asking.

"You tell me. When I tried to get out it was stuck."

Ray is bruising his fingers on the handle and his shoulder against the door when Nigel emerges from the stockroom. "Struggling?" he says. "Fear not, here comes the solution."

"Can"t wait. Let"s see how Scousers use their head."

Nigel ducks so violently that Ray wonders if he"s thinking of using it on him. He"ll find Ray"s forehead waiting for his eyebrows if he does--Ray learned that trick at school. What is he imagining? Nigel"s only trying to pretend he didn"t hear the remark, and that makes him a weakling, not a fighter. Ray watches him drag the handle almost ninety degrees and incline his body away from it so as to slam himself against the door. When he has failed 257 three times to stir it, he stops to wipe his brow hard enough to be backhanding it. "I already tried that," Ray tells him.

"It wasn"t much use then, was it?" Nigel retorts and raises his voice. "Woody?"

"You know what, I haven"t gone anywhere."

"The obstruction must be on your side. Can"t you identify it?"

"Don"t you think I"d have fixed it if I could?"

Ray is feeling amused that it was Nigel who attracted the surge of irritation when Woody adds "Are both of you trying at once? I didn"t bring you up here for a contest."

Nigel keeps hold of the handle as if he"s claiming ownership and performs another b.u.t.t, this time in the direction of the door. "Whenever you"re ready," he tells Ray.

"That"s always," Ray a.s.sures him and runs at the door.

His shoulder a.s.saults it and so does Ray"s, not quite in unison. That"s why it feels as though Ray has budged the door; it"s quivering from Nigel"s lesser effort. "Try again," says Nigel.

He seems to think it"s Ray"s fault at least as much as his. A wave of heat leaves Ray close to shivering. He steps back and launches himself at the door, but again Nigel"s impact is a fraction later than his. "It isn"t working, is it?" Nigel admits. "It must have warped, that"s all I can suggest."

"Something"s warped around here right enough."

Why did he say that? It must have promised to sound clever, but it"s so meaningless as to be worse than stupid, Which only makes Ray angrier for letting it into his head.

We aren"t doing it right," he restrains himself to saying.

We need to be together."

Nigel gives him a look not unlike the ones Greg turns on Jake. "Together how?"

How do you reckon? On second thoughts, keep it to yourself. Hit the b.u.g.g.e.r at the same time, that"s what I"m 258 "Nothing simpler. On three, then. One, two, three."

Ray is still running at the door when Nigel deals it what Ray would describe as a b.u.mp with his shoulder. Ray"s throbs as he staggers back, and another rush of clammy heat draws a chill in its wake. He"s glaring at the door and Nigel as Woody enquires "Everybody busy?"

"Can"t you tell?" Ray bellows.

"That"s for the team downstairs. Do I see someone that"s finished shelving, Agnes?"

Ray feels stupider and more enraged than ever for not understanding that Woody"s amplified voice was directed at the sales floor. Presumably Agnes responds in some fashion, since Woody says "Why don"t you award yourself a trolleyful of Gavin"s." A sigh that sounds thinned by his teeth finds its way into corners stained by dimness under the ceiling, and then he says "I don"t hear anything out there. What"s holding up the release team?"

Ray is infuriated that Woody"s broadcasting the situation. "Some of us haven"t worked out how to do it," he yells so loud he hopes the phone transmits it. He"s almost sure he hears something like his voice imitating him more or less in chorus.

"Some? I guess that has to be both."

Ray swallows a sour harsh stale taste and waits for the latest clammy wave to finish with him, and then he faces Nigel. "Let"s swap. I"ll be the man with the handle."

"Of course, if it keeps you happy."

"Don"t know about keeps. I"ll count as well."

"I wouldn"t want to be the chap who stops you."

As soon as Nigel moves aside Ray clutches the handle, which feels grubbier than ever. "Ready?" he barely asks.

"No less than you are."

"One," Ray announces, and an echo does. He thinks it"s returning to him through the speakers until he realises Nigel is chanting just not low enough. "What are you playing at now?" Ray growls. "I said I"d count." 259 "You said as well. I thought you meant we"d what"s the word, from clocks, it"s Greek, at least it comes from there."

"No idea what you"re on about."

"Synchronise," Nigel says more irritably still. "From time, isn"t it, not clocks. I thought you meant we"d count and synchronise ourselves."

"Just me. It wasn"t much help when you did, was it?"

"Fine, just me. Just you, I mean, that"s what I"m saying. Just one of us. You"ve got your way, Ray."

Ray is sucking in a breath while he vows to utter nothing but the count when Woody asks the whole shop "Why aren"t I seeing any movement here? Do you need reinforcements out there?"

"Someone else might be welcome," Nigel shouts.

The slam of a door sends footsteps hurrying upstairs and into the office. "I"ll do, will I?" Agnes makes sure Woody hears.

"No offence, Agnes, but I believe we"re talking men here."

She"s clearly even less pleased by his transmitting this to the entire shop. "What do you two say?" she halves her volume to ask. "You ought to know more about it than him."

"I don"t think I"d take issue with him," says Nigel.

"That isn"t you though, is it, Ray? Don"t say you never disagree with anything you"re told."

He might admit to that if he didn"t feel she"s as determined to cause an argument as to justify her presence, although it"s beyond him what would put her in such a mood. "Not this time," he says.

"Agnes isn"t still with the rescue party, is she? Shouldn"t be. Seems to me I sent her to fetch books from the stockroom."

Agnes confronts the enormous voice with a scowl she lowers to include Ray and Nigel. "Are you being managers or just men? You"d think there wasn"t any difference round 260 "Oh, we have our differences all right," says Nigel, but perhaps she doesn"t catch it as she stalks out of the office.

"Well, that took time and got us no place," Woody says, and even louder "Angus, why don"t you join the team at my door. You look like you"re closest to finished down there."

His call seems to render Agnes" footfalls yet more vigorously discontented as they stomp downstairs. The rumble of a trolley grows hollow as it"s wheeled into the lift, at which point Nigel says "Do you want to have another bash while we"re waiting?"

"I don"t. You can if you like."

When Ray keeps hold of the handle Nigel steps back, only to stare at him as if that may compel him to let go. Ray turns to watch the doorway to the staffroom but feels the stare clinging like stagnant moisture to his face. By the time the downstairs door shuts with a clank, words he would like to spit out are growing stale in his mouth. He forces his gaze to stay fixed on the view of plates and mugs heaped in the sink on the far side of a length of table attended by a third of one chair and two-thirds of another. As an escalation of footsteps produces Angus, Woody demands "Is he there yet?"

Ray is disconcerted by a m.u.f.fled echo of at least some of this. Of course he must be hearing Woody through the door as well as overhead, though the lower voice sounds oddly unlike Woody"s and a shade belated. Before Ray can answer, Nigel calls "He is now."

"Gee, I wish I knew what"s happening to time around here. He"s what you need, right?"

"Should be."

Ray is less gratified to have beaten Nigel to that answer when he hears an outburst of angry clattering from the stockroom. Agnes is hurling books onto a trolley as a retort to what she has just overheard. He wonders if he ought to intervene on their behalf but decides that damaged 261 books are Nigel"s job as Woody says "Maybe I should solve your other problem too."

"Which one"s that?"

Ray is about to add his question to Nigel"s when Woody says "As long as you can"t agree who"s counting, why don"t you leave it to me."

"Or I could if you like," Angus ventures to offer.

"We don"t," at least three voices chorus.

A grin jerks at Ray"s lips, but he tries to keep it down so that Angus won"t feel any more rebuffed than he already looks. "Hey, that doesn"t mean we don"t need your body, am I right, guys?" Woody adds.

"Absolutely," Nigel says, and Ray mutters most of a yes.

"No call to look that way, Greg. We aren"t doing anything up here you wouldn"t do. Okay, are you all on your marks?"

"I am," Ray declares as he puts the handle at arm"s length, and Nigel shouts his readiness while Angus says his.

"One," Woody warns them, and then his voice falls out of the air and hides beyond the door. "Say, it wouldn"t hurt someone to remind me what I"m doing here."

As Ray wonders whether the intercom system has failed, Nigel asks "Sorry, what are you?"

"I"m only meant to be counting for you three. All of them down there looked like they were waiting for the signal too. You can all still hear me, right? Then let"s do it. One. Two. Three."

Angus and Nigel hurl themselves at the door. As Ray drubs it with his shoulder Nigel knocks Angus against him and collides at least partly with the wall. "Oh, blast it. d.a.m.ned stupidity," he cries.

"Whose are we talking about?" Ray wouldn"t mind knowing.

"The whole idea. There isn"t room for all of us." "Just say the word and I"ll leave you two together." "That didn"t do s.h.i.t, did it?" Woody complains. "What went wrong this time?" 262 "Too many people getting in each other"s way," says Nigel.

"How many stooges do we have out there? Three sounds like it ought to work."

A chill shiver travels through Ray before anger heats him up again. He feels as if their antics have attracted an eavesdropper. He must be mistaken; Agnes and her trolley have reached the lift, which informs her that it"s closing. He even thinks he hears her give it a startled reply that the doors enclose as Woody calls "Okay, this is it. This is when it opens up. Let"s make sure it happens this time. Are you all ready for it?"

Ray barely hears his own mutter, never mind anyone else"s. "I didn"t catch that," Woody shouts. "Let"s try it again. Are you ready?"

Ray imagines Woody smiling wildly as if he"s urging reluctant children to join in a Christmas game. "Yes," he responds with a good deal more enthusiasm than he"s feeling, and can tell the same is true of Angus and Nigel.

"Here it comes, then. One Fenny Meadows ... Two Fenny Meadows ... Wait for x... Three!"

Ray a.s.sumes Woody means to build up everybody"s tension and ensure they attack the door with all their strength, but the pauses are so extended that he starts to feel they"re rendering time stagnant, just as lying awake in the worst of the dark can. As the final number arrives at last he tries to stay clear of Angus while shoving the handle down and heaving himself at the door. This time he"s aware of a concerted impact that shudders through his entire body. At once he is utterly blind.

He"s terrified his effort has severed some connection inside him until Angus stammers "What did we do?"

"You didn"t get me out of here," Woody calls, "that"s for sure."

"I mean the lights have gone out."

"Yeah, I did notice that. Can"t you guys see at all?"

"No, not at all," Nigel says in a stiff pinched voice. 263 "Then I guess it"s easier for someone downstairs to fix it." Out of the absolute blackness overhead Woody says "Connie, can you check the fuses? They"re under the stairs."

At least the phones are functioning, then. Ray hopes they won"t be a.s.sailed by too much of Woody"s distended commentary, since it adds to the oppressive weight of the dark. He senses that Angus is trying to stand completely still beside him, perhaps so as not to risk brushing against him. He doesn"t know if the waves of heat that keep coming into conflict with the chill that has gathered in the dark have anything to do with Angus. Somewhere past Angus he can hear Nigel"s breathing, his lips parting with each breath, some of which sound like groans he"s increasingly less concerned to stifle. Ray is about to warn him to take control of himself and stop bothering the rest of them when Woody"s immense voice and its accompanying mutter say "Keep trying, Connie. Your badge still ought to work."

Ray imagines her groping blindly for the plaque, and then he realises that the sales floor must be floodlit from outside the shop, a notion that feels like a promise of regaining his sight. He a.s.sumes the unhappy distant female voice he hears is Connie"s, or is he hearing Agnes in the lift? Has its power failed too? Before he can ask his companions whether they"ve recognised who is in distress, Nigel blurts "You"ve got a mobile, haven"t you, Ray?"

"Did have."

"You aren"t saying you"ve left it downstairs. What"s the point of having one if you don"t keep it with you?"

"It"s in my pocket, but it"s useless. Agnes took it in the fog and did for it."

"Have you tried it since?" Nigel"s voice sounds rigid with struggling not to grow shrill. "Couldn"t you now?"

Who do you think I should call, Nigel? The leccy company to come and mend the fuses?"

"n.o.body."

"Tell you what then, Nigel. That"s exactly what I"ll do." 264 "I think I know what Nigel means," Angus admits.

It isn"t only his hot moist breath too close to Ray"s face that provokes Ray to demand "So who"s going to let me into your little secret?"

"Won"t it light up if it"s working?" says Nigel.

His insistent tone makes Ray want to lash out at him. Ray feels so stupid for not realising the phone could provide them with illumination that as he fumbles it out of his pocket he wants it to prove Nigel wrong, which is even stupider. As he feels for the On key, Woody says hugely "Connie isn"t getting in. One of you in the office will have to go down."

Ray presses the key, and the keypad lights up green. He sees Angus begin to smile as the glow pastes his distorted greyish shadow to the door beyond his glaucous face. Nigel leans around him, his panicky expression starting to relax from the mask it must have become in the dark. The next moment the light flickers and dies, and no amount of poking at the keypad will revive it. Ray hears Nigel moaning under his breath like someone unable to waken from a nightmare, and this time he has to fend off Nigel"s despair. He knows it"s irrational, which ought to save him from being infected, but even once he has stuffed the lump of lifeless plastic into his pocket he feels cut off from Sandra and their baby in a way he has never felt before. Until he drives the notion out of his head he starts to believe that the blind dark means he will never see them again--that the spark of energy remaining in the mobile was his last chance to reach them. 265

NIGEL.

It "so only dark. It Isn"t solid, however heavily It presses on his eyes. It can"t stop him breathing; there are yards and yards of air all the way across the office and the other rooms, even if no more can replace the air through the windowless walls once it"s used up. There"s enough for him and Ray and Angus and Woody. He ought to be glad he"s not alone as well as sightless; he oughtn"t to be wishing that he could have chosen his companions. Woody is hardly one, given the immovable door, and Ray seems even less of one after having offered Nigel the flare of the mobile phone, the mocking light Nigel"s eyes tried to cling to until it and they were swallowed by the redoubled blackness. As for Angus, he seems to be doing his best to stay unnoticed, surely not by the dark--Nigel mustn"t let such fancies stray into his mind. All the same, it takes him a while to recognise that the insect clicking somewhere close is Ray"s attempt to regain some light. Then it stops, and Nigel is grinding his lips together so as not to plead with him to give it just another try when Ray says "Looks like it"s you or me, Nigel. Which?" 266 "so only dark. It Isn"t solid, however heavily It presses on his eyes. It can"t stop him breathing; there are yards and yards of air all the way across the office and the other rooms, even if no more can replace the air through the windowless walls once it"s used up. There"s enough for him and Ray and Angus and Woody. He ought to be glad he"s not alone as well as sightless; he oughtn"t to be wishing that he could have chosen his companions. Woody is hardly one, given the immovable door, and Ray seems even less of one after having offered Nigel the flare of the mobile phone, the mocking light Nigel"s eyes tried to cling to until it and they were swallowed by the redoubled blackness. As for Angus, he seems to be doing his best to stay unnoticed, surely not by the dark--Nigel mustn"t let such fancies stray into his mind. All the same, it takes him a while to recognise that the insect clicking somewhere close is Ray"s attempt to regain some light. Then it stops, and Nigel is grinding his lips together so as not to plead with him to give it just another try when Ray says "Looks like it"s you or me, Nigel. Which?" 266 The dark appears to respond to the question with a sluggish flurry of greyness, but it"s surely only in Nigel"s eyes. "What are you talking about?" he has to ask.