And then the rabbit.” Emily held up two fingers half an inch apart.

“It’s the black one.

About the size of a stick of gum.”

“Good,” Sarah said.

“That’s good.

Now I’m going to write up what you just told me, and you’re going to read it and sign it, and after that you’re going to eat something besides ice.”

That morning the command center had been a storage room.

By five thirty it held six monitors, a radio rack, and a fan that didn’t quite reach the corner Richard was standing in.