Book One: The Thing Was, Chapter 11-Chapter 12 Summary

Computer genius Zenji Hiroguchi and his wife Hisako, who teaches Japanese flower arranging, have the room on one side of Mary's. On the other side are wealthy financier Andrew MacIntosh's blind teenage daughter Selena and her seeing-eye dog Kazakh. MacIntosh is in the next room. He and Mary will never meet, because he and Zenji will die soon of gunshot wounds.

The hotel manager, Siegfried von Kleist, is a member of the wealthy family that owns both the hotel and the Bahía de Darwin. Siegfried will also die, drowned in a tidal wave three hours after sunset. Siegfried's brother Adolf von Kleist is the captain of the Bahía de Darwin, and he will be the common ancestor of all future humans, with the help of Mary Hepburn.

Zenji and...