Helen surmised that by now the machines would have returned to their route around Tarclaver. She would not be expected to leave in the first quarter of the game. But that was exactly what she planned to do.

As she shouldered her sketch bag at the stadium door, the young man who had smiled at her in the stands emerged from inside the stadium. "I saw that you were leaving," he said. On his uniform his name, Ned, was embroidered in blue..