Hackworth wondered if he was somehow obligated to read this line. But soon 
the torches turned away from him, as more audience members began to rain down 
through the astral plane of the chandeliers. Watching them fall, Hackworth 
realized
that he'd seen something like it before at amusement parks: This was nothing 
more than bungee-jumping. It's just that the spectacles had declined to show 
Hackworth his own bungee cord, just to add an extra frisson to the 
whole experience.