"We were lucky to get the last flight out."

"I mean, the country could be on its knees in days! How will business survive?" His startled expression suggested he had only just grasped the implications of his train of thought. "Never mind your bog-standard business traveller who has to get around for meetings-they can muddle through with a few netcasts and conference calls in the short term. But what about import-export? The whole of the global economy relies on-"

"You don't have to tell me, Justin."

"You can sit there being sniffy about it, but have you thought about what it means-?"

"It means we won't be able to get any bananas in the shops for a while and international mail will be a bastard. Thank God for the Internet."

"I still think there's more to it than you think. To take such a drastic step… Trouble is, you can't trust those bastards in the Government to tell you anything important, whatever political stripe they are. Look at the mad cow thing. It's a wonder we're not all running around goggle-eyed, slavering at the mouth."

"You obviously didn't look in the mirror last night-"

"This isn't funny. Go on, tell me why you're so calm. What could cause something like this?"

"Let me see, Justin." Irvine began counting off his fingers. "An impending strike by all international air traffic control which we haven't been told about for fear it causes a panic. You know how much pressure they've been under recently with the increase in the volume of flights. Or some virus has been loaded into the ATC system software. Or the Global Positioning Satellite has been hit by a meteorite so all the pilots are flying blind. Or all those intermittent power failures we've had recently have made it too risky until they find the cause. Or they've finally discovered that design glitch that's had planes dropping out of the skies like flies over the last few years."