The pattern, followed by the mantra. But still the headache intensified.
Only three people stood between Hyatt and Susan when she appeared. He was not yet aware of her presence.
His gaze raked the crowd, searching for her. He knew she would follow, but he didn't know when she would appear, or where. He was too short to see much, and suddenly Susan realized he was depending on her height to give her away.
She slouched as best she could in the press of the crowd. If she could blend in for just a few seconds more, until the commotion she heard beginning five hundred feet behind her had reached her new location-a commotion she herself had started when she vanished-and distracted him, she might stand a chance.
But she had to get near enough to reach out and jerk the pendant from around his neck, snapping him back to his own time before he could make another jump.
No, that's not right, Susan thought. He would not be snapped back to his own time. He would cease to exist, because his past self had been killed.
The noise behind her suddenly intensified, spreading out from the spot where she had disappeared. In only a few seconds that panic would be on her, and Hyatt would be too busy to notice that she was standing right beside him.
If she could only keep him from seeing her for a few seconds longer…
She slouched a bit more.
The roar of panic became louder, and yet louder. Someone pushed her from behind, toward Hyatt. She resisted, using her strength to stand her ground as best she could. She couldn't make her move yet. It would only fail now. He would only jump, and she would have to track him again. But if she could hold out for only a few seconds more, he would be so fully engulfed in the riot that he would not see her even if he looked straight at her. Not until it was too late.
Panic washed through the crowd like a wave through the ocean. Those in whose midst she slouched did not know what the panic was about. They were too far from the incident that had set it off-too far from the spot where Susan had vanished. They knew only that those behind were pushing, elbowing, driving them, and that if they did not do the same to those in front of them, they would be trampled.
Suddenly, Hyatt's eyes became wide with fear as he realized what was happening. He had not yet spotted Susan, but he knew she had caused the panic. And he knew why.
His gaze darted, his head snapping almost convulsively. He opened his mouth in a scream that was swallowed up in the crowd's growing roar.
Now! Susan thought.
She straightened, just as Hyatt's head snapped around. He saw her, and his eyes grew wider still, his mouth twisting in a silent cry of fear and rage.
Susan pushed past the three people between Hyatt and herself, somehow finding enough strength to throw them aside. She reached out, and the tips of her prosthetic fingers touched the pendant hanging from its chain around his neck.
Again he cried out, and this time Susan was near enough to hear him. But now it was not a cry of rage, nor of fear. This time the sound she heard was one of infinite despair.
He started to go down and her fingers wrapped around the pendant. The crowd pressed in around him, and Susan lost sight of him. Somehow, miraculously, she kept her own feet.
And pulled the pendant free.