Twenty-Nine

The silence lasted the length of a heartbeat.

The lights flickered back on.

Chaos erupted.

Passengers streamed up from the lower level like ants leaving a flooded nest. Others shoved and crawled to reach the exits, fighting against people coming in from each end. Parents called for children, men for women, women for men. Little kids (and some not-so-little ones) cried. I pulled Mrs. Berns toward the window in the hopes of waiting out the pandemonium.

Doghn squeezed in next to us. I wanted to elbow him, but in fairness, this wasn’t totally his fault. A stopped train and the momentary loss of power had as much to do with the panic as his ill-planned words. Still, I couldn’t let him off scot-free.

“You didn’t have to tell the whole car about the murder.”

He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a candy bar, which he ate as he watched two people fight over a bottle of water. “You might be right.”

I caught a flash of blue, AmeriTrain’s colors, toward the fore section of the car. I followed the color until Reed appeared in front of us.

“People as crazy as a soup sandwich,” he said. “You three okay?”

We all nodded.

“You know where Terry Downs is?”

“Haven’t seen him,” I said. “He wasn’t at dinner with us, and I didn’t spot him when I went to Coach Car Eight to bring dessert to a friend afterward, either.” It occurred to me that I didn’t know which car held Terry’s assigned seat.

“Then I’ve still got some work to do.” Reed pointed at Doghn and me. “The conductor wants to see you two in his office, front of the train, other side of the dining car. He wants Mr. Downs, too, so tell the conductor I’ll be back as soon as I locate him.”

“How’re we supposed to get through all this?” Mrs. Berns pointed at the clot of passengers.

“You’re not,” Reed said. “I’ll bring you back to your car while I look for Mr. Downs. This train may seem like a straight line, but there’s some ins and outs you learn if you work here long enough. You two will have to figure it out on your own,” he said, referring to Doghn and me. “I recommend you stick to the sides. It gets easier the farther forward on the train you go.”

Reed grabbed Mrs. Berns’s hand and started threading the crowd. I clutched his uniform before he got too far away.

“Why’re we stopped?”

“Too much snow ahead, gotta wait for the special snowplows. Trains like this one aren’t much for going backward. We’re snowed in until we hear otherwise.”