5

No one noticed that Luther was missing until they were in the elevator on the way back up to lobby level. Kim was thinking how strangely ordinary the tunnel had seemed, like somebody’s wine cellar, only longer, or the basement under a very old house, and then she found herself thinking about poor Luther, how remote he seemed these days, how he didn’t seem to react to or even much notice anything around him. And then she realized he wasn’t there. “Luther!” she said.

Everybody looked at her, not knowing what she meant, and then they all made the same discovery. Mr. Hang, the building manager, gave them a look more exasperated than accusing, and said, “There was one more of you!”

“Luther,” George said. “We left him behind.”

Captain Sahling, the rather impatient chief of the building’s security, snapped, “The man didn’t stay with us? Why did no one keep an eye on him?”

Mr. Hang said, “We’ll have to send someone down for him.”

Kim said, “Can’t he just get the elevator?”

“The door to the tunnel,” Captain Sahling said, in the iciest of tones, “is kept locked. In fact, both doors, at the head and the foot of the staircase, are kept locked. Someone will have to go down to release him.”

The elevator took them up to the lobby, a high echoing place of glass and chrome, with a marble floor that made footsteps ring out as though everybody were suddenly more important. Captain Sahling spoke in irritable Chinese into his walkie-talkie, then the six of them stood around waiting, to one side, away from the traffic to and from the elevators. George and Tony Fairchild took turns trying to placate the captain, assuring him that Luther had been under a strain lately, that they all appreciated that this was taking up more of the captain’s time than he’d bargained for, and they were certain Luther would be completely chagrined when he came up. The captain reacted to all this with stiff impatience, and Kim noticed that Inspector Ha and Mr. Hang didn’t bother trying to soothe the captain’s ruffled feelings at all.

Two slim young security men in tan uniforms hurried into view, saluted their captain, and took an elevator down. Captain Sahling assured them all once more that he was a busy man. Mr. Hang said he was sorry Luther hadn’t managed to call out to them or knock on the door to attract their attention, because he would be in darkness down there. “Poor Luther,” Kim said.

Captain Sahling’s walkie-talkie made its sputter. The reactions of Inspector Ha and Mr. Hang to the transmission in rapid Chinese suggested some sort of bad news.

Captain Sahling, more irritable than ever, snapped something angry into his walkie-talkie, and it rasped a response. One more exchange, and he glared at them with fury compounded by doubt. “They say,” he reported, “he isn’t there.”

George said, “That’s impossible.”

“Nevertheless.”

Mr. Hang said, “We must go back down.”

“I will go,” Captain Sahling said.

George said, “We’ll all go, Captain.”

The captain was going to argue, but then decided not to, and they all rode the elevator back down to the lowest basement and the small bare concrete room where the two young security men stood, looking awkward and embarrassed, afraid they were about to be blamed for something.

In addition to the door to the stairwell, there was one metal door from this room to the rest of the sub-basement, but it was locked and had not been disturbed. Captain Sahling spoke with the security men and then, more calmly, Inspector Ha spoke with them, and then everybody trooped down the stairs again and into the tunnel.

There was no one there. Luther was gone. They spent ten minutes searching the place, and there was no sign of Luther, no sign of any other way in or out. At last they gathered again at the door to the stairwell, not knowing what to do next. Their flashlights bobbed uncertainly, pointing this way and that. Captain Sahling, who clearly resented situations he couldn’t control, said, “I don’t know what your friend has done.”

George said, “Our friend? Captain, it’s your tunnel.”

Sahling stared at him, then looked away, down the length of the tunnel. “Is it?” he asked.