They walked all through the fairgrounds. There were people everywhere, mostly workers. There was hammering, pounding, pushing, lifting, and every other kind of construction activity possible being done. The noise was incredible, but they could barely hear it. Somehow, as they were walking, Faith's hand found it's way into Taylor's. They walked on, their arms swinging slightly in unison.
They walked like this for hours, talking. They walked around most of the 3 sqare miles that the fair was held in - it was a big fair. Occasional soft peals of laughter were heard from them. Eventually, they found themselves back in front of faith's hotel. Taylor said goodbye softly, almost whispering. He then gave her a brilliant smile and walked away.
Faith entered the hotel floating on air. She walked up the ramp, which was used in the place of stairs, toward her room. She got to the third floor, and exited onto a hallway. After just a few steps she realized that her room was still a floor up. She felt a little silly, but wasn't too upset - she was still bubbling with the joy of her walk with Taylor. She turned back, but before she turned the corner back onto the ramp she stopped again at the sound of faint voices coming from one of the rooms.
"It's crazy! You're crazy!"
"If you don't want to help, if you want out, just remember that can easily be arranged. You were willing enough to be part of this a few weeks ago." This voice sounded slightly threatening.
"No. No, that's not what I meant. I just think the fair is the wrong place. Just as many Lornian's will be killed as Earthlings!"
Faith sucked her breath in at the word 'killed'. She strained her ears to try to hear the voices more clearly.
"So we should let scum like them to invade our planet? We should just let them go?" The voice was sarcastic.
"No, of course not." This voice sounded frightened. "But, maybe, we could just bomb the hotels. That way we won't kill as many of our people."
"All ten hotels? Look, leave the planning to me. I know what I'm doing. If we have to lose a few thousand Lornians, so be it. Sacrifices are sometimes necessary. Just do as I say."
"What about security? The place will be swarming with guards!"
"No, it will not be. I have arranged this. The security will not be a problem."
The voices became quieter suddenly, and she could no longer make out any words. Faith stumbled out onto the ramp, feeling sick. Her only thought was to get as far away from those men as possible, before one of them came out and saw her.
She got to her room, dropping her key twice as she unlocked the door with shaking hands. Going in, she both locked and pulled up the block, feeling paranoid. Then she sank onto the floor, trembling as the realization of what she had heard hit her. Those men back there were planning to shomehow attack the fair and kill the people inside. She tried to remember how. Bombs, wasn't it?
She took a deep breath to calm herself down. She had to tell someone, but who? Who would believe her? Who could she trust? She didn't, after all, know who those men had been. Or who they were in legue with, though they seemed to have at least some policemen on their side. The worst thing she could do was confide in one of them, whoever they were.
She had to talk to someone. Before she could make any decisions she had to discuss it, and get it clear in her own mind. Her mother was out of the question, since she would insist on Faith going to whatever authorities they had here, and she didn't know which ones to trust. The flight crew thathad flown them over was made up of humans, so they were probably innocent, but they would also want to talk to someone, someone who might not be. She know she was being paranoid, but she couldn't control her imagination, which insisted on dreaming up plots involving anyone she might think of to confide in.
She finally decided. It had to be Taylor. She know she could trust him. He was level headed, and would listen to her calmly.
With that decision made, she spent the next ten minutes working up enough nerve to leave the room. She felt exposed when she finally did step out, but tried to hide her fear. Walking down the ramp as quickly as possible, she arrived on the ground floor and exited the hotel.
Once outside, she wracked her brain to remember which hotel Taylor was staying in. The Jantz was the name, she thought. She set off in the direction that Taylor had gone, starting at every shadow and crumpled leaf in her path.
She finally arrived, after what felt like a lifetime. She walked up to his room, and knocked. Zac opened the door. He looked bored, but a glance at her distraut appearance got his attention.
"Are you ok?"
"I need to talk to Taylor. Please, is Taylor here?" She had started shaking slightly again, but she forced her voice to remain steady.
Taylor's voice came from deeper within the room.
"Who's at the door, Zac?"
"Tay!"
"Faith? What are you doing here?" He appeared in the doorway. Seeing her, he was slightly shocked at her appearance. She was paler than she even normally was, and looked frightened.
"What's wrong?" He took her arm and pulled her gently into the room. "What happened?"
Zac had by then gone through a doorway into another connecting room, sensing they wanted to be alone. Without pausing, Faith spilled out the whole story.
"Are you sure? Absolutely sure?"
She just nodded.
"Have you told anyone?"
"I told you."
"Which means, I guess, that you haven't told anyone else. So that's the first thing we have to do. We just have to decide who." His voice softened. "By the way. Thanks for trusting me."
She smiled slightly for the first time since this happened, and a single tear slipped down her face. She put her face in Taylor's shoulder, starting to feel a little safer. He patted her awkwardly on the back, wishing he knew the right words to say.
"It's ok. It will be ok," he said, feeling useless. What could he say to make her feel better?
She strighted up. "I'm sorry. I'm fine, really." Her eyes were slightly damp, but otherwise she looked to be back in control. "I can handle this. I'm fine."
Taylor nodded doubtfully, still worried about her. This would be tough for anyone.
"Do you have any suggestions as to who we talk to?"
"The only adults here that I really trust are my parents."
"They'll go to the police."
"Not all the police are corrupt. I don't know who else could possibly stop them, anyway. We sure can't. We don't even know who they are!"
"Not only that, but they might not believe us. They might think that we're just making it up."
"But they might not. And at least that way we'll know that we tried."
Faith and Taylor discussed this for another half hour, until Zac came to call Taylor to dinner.
"You're welcome to join us, he said to Grace, who gratefully accepted. Her mom would be busy that night, and she really didn't want to be alone.
"Hey Zac." He turned around and looked at her. "Sorry about ignoring you earlier."
"That's fine. I'm sure you had your reasons." He smiled at her, then turned back around and entered the second room.
By that time they had already decided to phone the police anonymously. Faith insisted apon anonymous, and even suggested paying someone else to drop off the letter. Taylor hadn't wanted to involve a third person, though, so a phone call it was.
After dinner they found themselves back in the boy's room. Ike was also in there now, but he had on headsets, and was scribbling in a notebook. Taylor assured her he wouldn't notice if the bomb went off in the room, since he kept the headphones very loud. Faith silently agreed with this, since she could hear the music faintly herself from across the room.
"I know you think I'm exagerating about the police thing," Faith said quietly to Taylor.
"No, not really." He hesitated. "I guess I would also be a little paranoid if I had been the one who heard it. Anyway, better safe that sorry, right?"
"I know going to the police is probably the smartest thing to do, but I don't know which ones I can trust, and which ones I can't. Who is safe?"
"I don't know. Anyway, as long as we do tell the police, and we are sort of, than we've done what we can there. We just have to figure out what we can do ourselves, and if there's anyway we can help."
"Ok. Well, the fair starts day after tomorrow, right?"
"Yeah."
"So we have a day."