Code to Zero Page 0,4

wheels that run on wide-gauge rails. The entire service structure, bigger than a town house, will be rolled back three hundred feet before the launch.

Elspeth woke up worrying about Luke.

She lay in bed for a few moments, her heart heavy with concern for the man she loved. Then she switched on the bedside lamp and sat upright

Her motel room was decorated with a space-programme theme. The floor lamp was shaped like a rocket, and the pictures on the walls showed planets, crescent moons and orbital paths in a wildly unrealistic night sky. The Starlite was one of a cluster of new motels that had sprouted among the sand dunes in the area of Cocoa Beach, Florida, eight miles south of Cape Canaveral, to accommodate the influx of visitors. The decorator had obviously thought the outer-space theme appropriate, but it made Elspeth feel as if she were borrowing the bedroom of a ten-year-old boy.

She picked up the bedside phone and dialled Anthony Carroll's office in Washington, D.C. At the other end, the phone rang unanswered. She tried his home number with the same result. Had something gone wrong? She felt sick with fear. She told herself that Anthony must be on his way to the office. She would call again in half an hour. It could not take him longer than thirty minutes to drive to work.

As she showered, she thought about Luke and Anthony when she had first known them. They were at Harvard when she was at Radcliffe, before the war. The boys were in the Harvard dee Club: Luke had a nice baritone voice and Anthony a wonderful tenor. Elspeth had been the conductor of the Radcliffe Choral Society and had organized a joint concert with the Glee Club.

Best friends, Luke and Anthony had made an odd couple. Both were tall and athletic, but there the resemblance ended. The Radcliffe girls had called them Beauty and the Beast Luke was Beauty, with his wavy black hair and elegant clothes. Anthony was not handsome, with his big nose and long chin, and he always looked as if he were wearing someone else's suit, but girls were attracted to his energy and enthusiasm.

Elspeth showered quickly. In her bathrobe, she sat at the dressing table to do her make-up. She put her wristwatch beside the eyeliner so that she would know > when thirty minutes was up.

She had been sitting at a dressing table wearing a bathrobe the first time she ever spoke to Luke. It was during a panty raid. A group of Harvard boys, some drunk, had climbed into the dormitory building through; a ground-floor window late one evening. Now, almost twenty years later, it seemed incredible to her that she and the other girls had feared nothing worse than having their underwear stolen. Had the world been more innocent then?

By chance, Luke had come to her room. He was a math major, like her. Although he was wearing a mask, she recognized his clothes, a pale grey 'Irish tweed jacket with a red spotted cotton handkerchief in the breast pocket Once alone with her, Luke had seemed embarrassed, as if it had just occurred to him that what he was doing was foolish. She had smiled, pointed to the closet, and said: 'Top drawer.' He had taken a pair of pretty white panties with a lace edging, and Elspeth felt a pang of regret - they had been expensive. But the next day he asked her for a date.

She tried to concentrate on her make-up. The job was more difficult than usual this morning, because she had slept badly. Foundation smoothed her cheeks and salmon-pink lipstick brightened her mouth. She had a math degree from Radcliffe, but still she was expected to look like a mannequin at work.

She brushed her hair. It was reddish brown, and cut in the fashionable style: chin-length and turned under at the back. She dressed quickly in a sleeveless shirtwaist dress of green-and-tan striped cotton with a wide dark brown patent-leather belt

Twenty-nine minutes had elapsed since she had tried to call Anthony.

To pass the last minute, she thought about the number 29. It was a prime number - it could not be divided by any number except itself and 1 - but otherwise it was not very interesting. The only unusual thing about it was that 29 plus 2x2 was a prime number for every value of x up to 28. She calculated the series in her head: 29, 31, 37, 47, 61,