Page 13 (1/2)

8 Days Until Deadline

Chapter 14

Abira on his doorstep Most were students, they’d tell hi his rows of files and stacks of books A feere treasure seekers, convinced that they had seen a randmother’s attic and were curious to knohat--if any--finder’s feetheir way

But when he woke to the sound of knocking that Monday h the dark house, coht find

"Wer ist da?" he said, throwing open the door, expecting to have to squint against the light, but he had ed the time The sun was still too low to shine over the bookstore across the road "Was wollen Sie? Es ist mal smach ehr früh," Mr Stein snapped in his native Ger on his stoop wore backpacks like the students, and had nervous, hopeful eyes like the treasure hunters But Mr Stein could not detered He only knew that his bed upstairs arm and soft while that stoop was cold and hard, and he was quite certain which one he preferred to see before the sun

"Ich entschuldige irl spoke German with the faintest hint of an American accent The boy didn’t speak at all

More than anything, Mr Stein wanted to close the door and go back upstairs, but soirl And the boy, too, he supposed Because, of all the backpacks and wide eyes he had seen on his small stoop, none had ever colish, would you not?" he asked

Kat had thought she was using her best Geran, she feared, ht have taken more froirl said, but Mr Stein nodded at the boy beside her

"I believe your coree"

Hale yawned His expression was vacant And Kat remembered that despite the chauffeurs and private jets, there were soht’s sleep was one of them

"We’re sorry for the hour, Mr Stein," Kat said, her (apparently rusty) German abandoned "I’m afraid we’ve just arrived in Warsaw We would have waited--"

"Then wait!" theto close the door

He may have been sleepy, but Hale was still quick, and he silently leaned against the red door as if he siht

"I’m afraid we don’t have the time to wait, sir," Kat said

"My time is valuable too, fräulein Almost as valuable asdown Despite the freezing wind, she pulled her black ski cap frolass of the door’s s on end, felt the static coursing through her--a charge that had been building for days She kneers lay behind that red door Not all But soripped the ht stop her heart

"We have so, but the man merely stared at her with sleepy eyes Behind hi cabinets lined the wall in front of several s, blocking out the early h the space like a irl," he said with a faint smile "I’m just a crazy old man with too much time and too few friends"

"Sir, I was told that you could help me"

"By whom?" he snapped

Hale looked at Kat as if he had the same question Mr Stein stepped closer The first rays of the sun were just peeking over the buildings across the street They illuirl with a mane of dark hair, and before she even spoke, he knehat her ansould be

"My mother"

"You look like her," Abira Kat a cup of coffee "You have been told this before, I suspect"

Kat had often wondered as more cruel: to so closely rese you equal parts daughter and ghost, or to have nothing of your parent in your features--to be, aesthetically speaking, eneration re at her It was different froainst herlike the moments when her father seemed startled by her, as if his eyes had -lost wife

But when Mr Stein sipped his hot coffee and watched Kat drink hers, he sht if he saw a replica of his favorite childhood toy in a shop --happy that soone froht co silence

Beside her, Hale was co in every aspect of Abiram Stein’s cluttered existence "Don’t you have a computer?"

Mr Stein scoffed Kat answered for hiain and nodded appreciatively

"I ood deal of my research"--the older man tapped his head--"in safe places" He leaned on his cluttered desk "But I have a feeling that anizational syste and we had some questions--"

"About art," Mr Stein said with a roll of his hands, gesturing for Kat to get to the good stuff

"And hly of you"

"You remember your visit here?" he asked