53. Zurich.

Sid and Nan disembarked from the plane in Zurich for their stopover. Morning light streamed through the tall glass walls of the terminal, confusingly, since it didn't feel like morning. Nan gave up on trying to figure out what time it was supposed to be as far as her body was concerned. She normally used her cell phone to tell time, and at the moment it was just as confused as she was.

Sid walked automatically toward a coffee bar. Nan examined the place, trying to make sense of it through the dissociated haze that accompanied such airport stopovers on long flights. The bar was curved, black marble, with tall, uncomfortable chrome and leather seats that looked engineered to make sure no one lingered in them.

Several businessmen and a glamorous Italian couple were smoking, and two rough-looking young men were drinking beer. Sid sat in a section of the bar that was relatively empty. Nan ordered two coffees and started to reach for money to pay for them, then stopped. Sid watched her with his blank-but-mildly-amused expression. The bartender brought them their coffees, served steaming in double paper cups with square napkins under them. Then he wandered off, not looking at either Sid or Nan. He hadn't left a bill.

Nan blew the steam off her coffee and sipped it pensively. Not knowing what time it was in New York, she had no idea whether her parents would be worried about her. Probably not. They tended not to notice her presence when she was there, and an absence would take a full week to register. On the other hand, they knew Sid had been staying at the brownstone recently, and might worry if she didn't turn up for a couple of days.

Sid, carefully holding the square napkin underneath his paper cup full of coffee, descended from the bar stool and gestured toward a business center. "So you can call home," he explained.