dart of panic

Darts of panic going nowhere, just exploding like firecrackers in your brain.

She felt a dart of panic.

'But - my interview for last Friday,' Fabia questioned on a sudden dart of panic, 'it was recorded in Mr Gajdusek's diary?'

'Only a small one,' she accepted and, her dart of panic gone, felt a return of her reluctance to ask probing questions about his work, and more particularly about his employer, so gave herself over to enjoying this lunchtime interlude.