  We give a topological model for a polynomial map from $\C^n$ to $\C$ in the
neighborhood of a fiber with isolated singularities. This is motivated out of
the ``unfolding of links'' described earlier by the first author and Lee
Rudolph. The topological model gives a useful encoding of the local and global
monodromy for the map. The new ingredients --- the topology of the
singularities at infinity of an irregular fiber, as encoded by the Milnor
fibers at infinity and the monodromy maps on these Milnor fibers --- are
recoverable for n=2 in full from the link at infinity of the irregular fiber.
They can thus be computed completely in terms of splice diagrams. We illustrate
our results by computing the global monodromy of the Briancon polynomial.
