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"Don’t act so surprised Thisthe swing of it Of course, I had to cut way down on the ree, and also, damn do reminders hurt" His smile is crooked "What did you think I was here for? Just to provide an excuse for you to get on that train?"

"Moral support, I guess"

It’s his turn to laugh "Immoral support, more like"

How can Theo rim? Somehow he always does

Then he adds, "Besides, like you said, while you’re nabbing Paul’s stuff--you’ll be close to him You’ll have your chance to rescue that splinter of his soul"

The thought of being close to Paul--both this world’s Paul and h me But I don’t lose focus If I act too early, Paul will catch on We have to complete our terrible mission here before I have my chance at Paul "Not until the very end"

"Two rooirl ith two hotel rooht face, Theo replies, "I’ll have you know I’entleman, sir"

The guy gives hiees froh here the past couple of weeks? You’re lucky I’ve even got one roo to have entleman on the floor"

As we silently ride up in the elevator, Theo holds our suitcases I hold the hotel key--old-fashioned,by a chain Finally Theo says, "The floor’s fine Really"

"We can take shifts Four hours bed, four hours floor"

"That works too"

The problem is, there’s not even a lot of floor in this hotel roouess this is technically a double bed, it’s narrower than th of the room We barely have room to slip inside, stash our suitcases in a closet almost too shallow to hold theer than the closet The carpet is beige industrial stuff, and the paint on the yelloalls is chipped

"Well, it ain’t the Ritz" Theo sits down heavily on the bed, then frowns "Wait Where’s the phone?"

Turns out this hotel has only one phone per floor If you want to make a call, you have to wait in line to step inside the "phone booth"--actually just a cubby with a little bench The guy in front of irlfriend, I can’t tell) who apparently feels like he doesn’t h of the conversation to agree with her, but nobody’s asking me

Finally he slams down the receiver and stalks off The phone isat the printout with Paul’s nuh with this

Then I read the title again: Lieutenant Markov And I dial

Three rings, and--"Markov"

Paul’s voice feels like rain after a drought Just hearing hie to say, "Lieutenant Markov? This is Marguerite Caine"

"Miss Caine?" He sounds like he thinks this ht be some kind of prank