Halden Airfield, at sunset. Eleven years after Halvorsen Flight 1126 fell into the sea, Martin Kessler, a burned-out former aircraft engineer, has received an anonymous ticket for the maiden flight of the Meridian, the largest aircraft ever built: a flying resort with a pool and a fairground. His seat is 11A. The strangers boarding beside him wear gull pins, and one turns pale at that number. A quiet thriller of guilt and dread, high above the sea.