This Perfect Day

Another member came to the door. "We've got it, Peace," he said. "Li had it."

"I asked him and he said he didn't," the first member said. "Well he did," the second member said, and went away. The first member went after him. "He was the first one I asked," she said.

Chip stood and watched the door as it slowly closed. Dover, behind it, looked at him and closed it all the way, softly. Chip looked back at Dover, and then at his hand holding the tools. It was shaking. He put the tools down, let his breath out, and showed his hand to Dover, who smiled and said, "Very un-memberlike."

Chip drew a breath and got the watch from his pocket. "Less than a minute," he said, and went to the drums and crouched. He pulled the tape from the bomb's handle.

Dover put his gun into his pocket—poked it into the inner one—and stood with his hand on the doorknob. Chip, looking at the watch and holding the fuse handle, said, "Ten seconds." He waited, waited, waited—and then pulled the handle up and stood as Dover opened the door. They picked up the carton and carried it from the room and pulled the door closed.

They walked with the carton through the hangar—"Easy, easy," Chip said—and across the field toward the plane opposite lane six. Members were filing onto the escalators, riding up-"What's that?" a member in orange with a clipboard asked, walking along with them. "We were told to bring it over there," Chip said.

"Karl?" another member said at the other side of the one with the clipboard. He stopped and turned, saying "Yes?" and Chip and Dover kept walking.

They brought the carton to the plane's rear escalator and put it down. Chip stayed opposite the scanner and looked at the escalator controls; Dover slipped through the line and stood at the scanner's back. Members passed between them, touching their bracelets to the green-winking scanner and stepping onto the escalator. A member in orange came to Chip and said, "I'm on this escalator."

"Karl just told me to take it," Chip said. "I was sent up from '765 to help."

"What's wrong?" the member with the clipboard asked, coming over. "Why are there three of you here?"

"I thought I was on this escalator," the other member said. The air shuddered and a loud roar clapped from the hangars. A black pillar, vast and growing, stood on the wing of hangars, and rolling orange fire was in the black. A black and orange rain fell on the roof and the field, and members in orange came running from the hangars, running and slowing and looking back up at the fiery pillar on the roof.

The member with the clipboard stared, and hurried forward. The other member hurried after him. The members on line stood motionless, looking upward toward the hangars. Chip and Dover caught at their arms and drew them forward. "Don't stop," they said. "Keep moving, please. There's no danger. The plane is waiting. Touch and step on. Keep moving, please." They herded the members past the scanner and onto the escalator and one was Jack—"Beautiful," he said, gazing past Chip as he false-touched; and Ria, who looked as excited as she had the first time Chip had seen her; and Karl, looking awed and somber; and Buzz, smiling. Dover moved to the escalator after Buzz; Chip thrust a wrapped kit to him and turned to the other members on line, the last seven or eight, who stood looking toward the hangars. "Keep moving, please," he said. "The plane is waiting for you. Sister!"

"There is no cause for alarm," a woman's voice loudspeak-ered. "There has been an accident in the hangars but everything is under control."

Chip urged the members to the escalator, "Touch and step on," he said. "The plane's waiting."

"Departing members, please resume your places in line," the voice said. "Members who are boarding planes, continue to do so. There will be no interruption of service."

Chip false-touched and stepped onto the escalator behind the last member. Riding upward with his wrapped kit under his arm, he glanced toward the hangars: the pillar was black and smudging; there was no more fire. He looked ahead again, at pale blue coveralls. "All personnel except forty-sevens and forty-nines, resume your assigned duties," the woman's voice said. "All personnel except forty-sevens and forty-nines, resume your assigned duties. Everything is under control." Chip stepped into the plane and the door slid down behind him. "There will be no interruption of—" Members stood confusedly, looking at filled seats.

"There are extra passengers because of the holiday," Chip said. "Go forward and ask members with children to double up. It can't be helped."

The members moved down the aisle, looking from one side of the plane to the other.

The five were sitting in the last row, next to the dispensers. Dover took his wrapped kit from the aisle seat and Chip sat down. Dover said, "Not bad."

"We're not up yet," Chip said.

Voices filled the plane: members telling members about the explosion, spreading the news from row to row. The clock said 20:06 but the plane wasn't moving.