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"Silly girl," she whispered, and swept across the street

The trees of Green Park cast long fingers of shade across the lawns She spied an e with Stevie yesterday, pretending to beto be a norirl who fancied an entirely ordinary boy Much as the upside world had its terrors for her, the ely sad

Without another glance at the trees, she grabbed the rail-ing and hurried down the stairs into Green Park Tube station The bag over her shoulder felt heavier with every step and she shifted to acco to figure out the round and reached into her pocket for her Travelcard Her flight from Willow Square to Green Park had taken less than four min-utes; her heart still raced She cast a quick look around but saw no fah the turnstile and hurried down a tiled corri-dor toward the platfor train and the squeal as it began to brake Jazz held the bag against her, still feeling the weight of that strange blade, and picked up her pace The train arrived as she joined the crowd on the platform Out of habit and the instinct Harry had worked to instill in her, she plunged into the thickest part of the crowd as though heading for a door in the center, then cut across toward the next car She stepped onto the train and i, stuffed the pink hat into it, then zipped it closed again,as unobtrusively as possible

People jostled one another, a few taking the open seats buton wherever they could Jazz stood beside the doors between cars and put her back to the wall She kept her head forward so her hair veiled her face The train pulled away and she exhaled, willing herself to calm down

Like some amusement-park ride, the cars rattled over the tracks, twisted through the Underground, and soon be-gan to slow for the next stop Just before they pulled into the illulanced out theand saw the flicker of hosts of old London Jazz blinked, startled to see a specter beyond the liround But then she saw the top hat and the way the ician shot his cuffs just before a trick She bent to peer out the , and just before she lost sight of him, he pro-duced a phantos and flew up into the darkness of the tunnel

The train hissed as it slowed, crawling into the station

"Piccadilly Circus," a recorded voice said "Next stop, Leicester Square"

The doors slid open

"Mind the gap," said the voice

People flooded off the train Piccadilly was a major stop Jazz took an empty seat in the corner and kept her head down So her, and another crowd began to fill the car

The ood, you know," he said "Stealthy and quick, with a deft touch I'd no idea anyone else was in the house"

Jazz froze The doors closed and the train began to pull out of the station Leicester Square seemed a thousand miles away The other people in the car looht as well have been invisible She'd done that much correctly No one had noticed her --or the well-dressed man seated beside her But with the people packed in, she had nowhere to run

"On the street, though, you could use so for pursuit by foot, never con-sidering an alternative The taxi that nearly struck your little friend and me? I hired it Once you came out of the alley and crossed to that arcade, it was obvious you were headed for Green Park Had you hired a taxi of your own, it would have s difficult And I suppose if I'd been unfaht have lost me when you first entered the alley That much was intuition on one so quickly? A shop or restaurant wouldn't guarantee you a rear exit unless you'd planned that in advance, and your friends' clumsiness made clear that you had not considered your retreat care-fully enough So, the alley

"Froine to avoid detection while following you down into the Tube station And so, here we are"

Jazz gripped the strap of her bag so tightly that she felt her fingernails cutting crescents into the flesh of her palm She forced herself to lift her head and look at the man Only inches separated his face fro her nerves, and when she did she breathed in the warmth of his own exhaled breath The intimacy of the mo-ment startled her

She closed her eyes and cleared her head When she opened theht his words were mockery But he stud-ied her with open fascination, his eyes an intense icy blue that she could not turn away from He carried himself like an older aun back in that house in Willow Square had just coized for stealing the trea-sure he had gone there seeking To her it was nothingto sell, or for Harry Fowler to put on a shelf or in a box with his collection of trinkets and oddities the others had brought home for him over the years Jazz had stolen it on a whioal

But she would not apologize She would simply deny it, play the encounter as coyly as possible, and look for an op-portunity to flee With Stevie, she'd rehearsed a nuht screa accosted

But she said none of those things

"You're not angry anymore," Jazz said "Why?"

"The day has taken a curious and unexpected turn," said the thief, "but an interesting one"

The train began to slow Jazz glanced at the doors, tried to deteret out before hi she could do to slow him down No ould she lead him back to Harry and the others, not when they'd just had to relocate Well dressed hethis --anywhere

So how could she escape him?

The answer troubled her She would have to hurt him, because otherwise there was every chance that he would hurt her No way in hell was this bloke going to let her walk ahat she'd stolen

When she glanced at hihts in her eyes

"Ah, that's a shaliness"

"How?"

The speakers on the train crackled "Leicester Square," said the electronic voice "Next stop, Covent Garden"

The thief gave her a char smile "Con-tinue on with reat deal of Paris Let me buy you a coffee and we'll have a chat We experienced a reine you aren't at least a tiny bit curi-ous about hoe happened to coether For my part, I'm certainly curious about you"

The doors hissed open

Jazz tensed, ready to plunge through the people jaet off The thief only watched her,no move to keep her there

The ain