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“No,” Laura said.

“Never. It would never happen and if it did, it would never get this far. Those men would be dead.”

“What about the people on the boat?”

“This is going to sound harsh, honey, but the people on that boat are less important than giving the people who are holding them worldwide attention. In the overall scheme of things, if you stop this in its tracks—if people who are prone to this behavior know that not only will they never survive, but they won’t even get an audience—this kind of thing will go away. Nobody will do this if they can’t find the reward in it.”

Laura smiled. “You know, it’s funny, the way you say that. It’s almost exactly what my father says. He believes in tolerance, only up to a point.”

“That’s because he’s brilliant, and I’m lucky that I fell in love with his brilliant daughter.”

They turned off the crisis footage and put on Niagara Falls. Shen loved this video, too. Niagara Falls was one of the few places on earth where the water showed no indication of drying up. Glaciers were dying, the Himalayas looked bare, but Niagara was still as forceful as ever. And they could almost feel the water as they watched the falls pour down from the ceiling. “We have to go there one day and see it for real,” Shen said.

“I’ve been there, darling. Believe me, this is better.”

* * *

The twenty-five hundred residents of The Sunset were fed, which helped them calm down somewhat. One of the advantages of old age was that the threat of dying was a bit less scary to them than to those who had not experienced a long life. But also the vibe in the dining room did not feel as if they were about to be killed. They believed that if Max Leonard could talk to the President, this would work out. “I wonder what he wants?” one of the older women asked her friend.

“Money. Everyone wants money.”

“How much would they pay for us?”

“Nothing. Who would pay for us? What are we worth?”

Someone else said, “But they don’t want the ship ruined. How much do you think the ship cost? Wouldn’t the ship company pay a lot of money so they don’t blow it up?”

That made sense and many of the people who heard it suddenly felt encouraged. They knew they were not worth a lot, but the ship certainly was.

And conversations continued like that all throughout the dining room. Some people weren’t that concerned; they were just uncomfortable and didn’t want to wait in the line for the bathrooms, a line that was now stretching around the corner and into one of the kitchens. And to make matters worse, one of the toilets had stopped up, so not only was there a long line, but the smell was horrible. People weren’t used to that here.

Brad Miller made his way over to Walter Masters. He noticed an empty seat next to him and asked if he could sit down. “It’s fine with me,” Walter said. “The guy went to the bathroom, but he hasn’t been back for an hour.”

Brad really liked Walter. They had played cards often and he liked Walter’s sense of humor, which he considered to be a mixture of playful and dark. He could never get over the fascination of what Walter did to allow people a dignified death. He thought it was so noble. “Are you worried?”

“I’m not unworried,” Walter said. “I could think of better ways to spend the afternoon, but there is a bit of adventure in this and that is always somewhat exciting.”

“I agree. As long as it ends okay, then the experience isn’t that bad. It’s going to make for a lot of good stories. How much money do you think they want?”

“I don’t think this is about money.”

“What’s it about?”

Walter smiled. “Well, we’ll see, but I think this young man’s demands are going to be different than what they think.”

“Will they be able to meet them? These demands?”

Walter thought about that for a moment. He wasn’t a man to bullshit and he thought such a good question deserved an honest answer, at least an honest opinion. “No. I don’t think so.”

Now Brad’s mood changed. If the demands were not going to be met, what was the answer? “So what do you think will happen? Will