, and it had four chairs in it.
Malone was sitting in one of the chairs and all the others were empty.

There was absolutely nothing else in the room.

With some regret, Malone abandoned the theory that he had gone mad. This
left him with no ideas at all. Because if he hadn't become insane, then
what _had_ happened?

After another second or two, some ideas began to filter through the
daze. Perhaps he'd just blacked out for a minute and the kid had gone
out the door. That was possible, wasn't it?

Sure it was. And maybe he had just not seen the kid go. His eyes had
failed for a second or two. That could certainly happen, after a blow on
the head. Malone tried to remember where the sight centers of the brain
were. Maybe whoever had hit him had disturbed them, and he'd had a
sudden blackout.

Come to think of it, that made pretty good sense. If he had blacked out,
then Mike would have seen it as he went groggy, and Mike had just walked
out the door. It had to be the door, of course--the windows were out of
the question, since there weren't any windows. And six-inch-wide
air-conditioner ducts do not provide reasonable space for an exit, not
if you happen to be a human being.

That, Malone told himself, was settled--and a good thing, too. He had
begun to worry about it. But now he knew just what had happened, and he
felt relieved. He got up from his chair, walked over to the door and
opened it.

Lieutenant Lynch nearly fell into the room. He'd obviously had his ear
pressed tightly to the door and hadn't expected it to open. The other
two cops stood behind him, just about filling the hallway with their
broad shoulders.

"Well, well," Malone said.

Lynch recovered his balance and glared at the FBI agent. He said
nothing.

"Where is he?" Malone said.

"Where is he?" Lynch repeated, and blinked. "Where's _who_?"

Malone shook his head impatiently. "Fueyo," he said.

Lynch's expression was the same as that on the faces of the other two
cops: complete and utter bafflement. Malone stopped and stared. It was
suddenly very obvious that the lovely theory he had worked out for
Mike's disappearance wasn't true in the least. If Mike Fueyo had come
out the door, then these cops would know about it. But they obviously
knew nothing at all about it.

Therefore, he hadn't come out through the door.

Malone took a deep breath.

"What are you talking about?" Lynch said. "Isn't the kid in there with
you? What's happened?"