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After they went inside, I moved quietly down the corridor They’d left the door ajar, and I could see rows of cots inside, twenty of theirls rean to undress

I retracedinto two other rooms whose doors were open One was too dark to see inside, but in the other, five teenage boys were lying on cots They were awake, but no one was talking

The building was soht I walked down the stairs The lighting was too dim to see many details of the artwork on the walls, but one appeared to be a print of the painting that had hung on a wall of our house in Saratoga Springs: a still life featuring a tulip, an hourglass, and a human skull, called Mee unit, Mãe had given it away, saying she found it depressing

As I h the downstairs corridor, Itables and scores of chairs, and a room alls of bookshelves On iht in the roohts outside, filtered by heavy drapes I lifted one a few inches, and in the brighter light I saw a map of the continental United States on one wall, with circles drawn on it and pins stuck in clusters One cluster, I noticed, was around Hoia Savannah was ton, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and dozens of other cities

Papers and s cabinet I folded back the drape and tucked it behind a hook attached to theframe, then went to the table The cards were blank Next to theht before

I was pulling open a drawer of the filing cabinet when I sensed movement behind me I turned, and froze

Malcolm shut the door behind him and locked it with a key he slid into a pocket "Co the words

He linted on his blond hair He walked slowly, but with assurance, as if he could see ht

Malcolm altered his course a few steps to his left "What’s theover a set of library steps With each move I made, he moved directly in front of me I stepped backward, toward the bookshelf

"You know the old saying" He was less than two feet away now Then he lunged forward "Curiosity killed"--his right hand grabbed my amulet and pulled hard--"the cat"

I strained to pull away, but he wasain

Malcolm looked down at the replica of Bastet, then at me There was no surprise in his face "How nice of you to drop by," he said He let go of my amulet

I rubbed the back of my neck

"Shall we have our little talk?" he said

Two sofas faced each other in the rooht how stupid I’d been not to realize the amulet would be visible It had become part of me, so familiar I rarely noticed it

"Don’t berate yourself unnecessarily" Malcolm leaned back, utterly relaxed "The house has an extensive security system Even if you’d been entirely invisible, the infrared sensors would have detected your presence"

Ihts

"That’s more like it" He folded his arms across his chest "We seem to do better as enemies than as friends, don’t we? A pity, really" His voice had a slight English accent that he’d probably acquired when he and e University "But I aht And you’re my father’s friend, too That’s why you tried to kill us"

"Kill you?" He sighed "Quite the opposite I’ve saved both your lives, more than once"

When we’de when the house in Saratoga Springs caught fire My first memory was of that fire, but not ofof a different fire, and he let ht in Sarasota, as the hurricane spiraled toward us, he ca called, preposterously, Xanadu) He intended to try to talk business withup on their research collaboration In the parking lot he saw Dennis,a canister--soht But Dennis’s thoughts were full of guilt and confusion

Dennis carried the canister into the elevator and Malcol himself invisible When Dennis entered the condo unit, Malcol a seat in the kitchen

"Raphael was asleep, and so were you," he said "I checked But when I came back to the kitchen, I snited the vapors I asked hi he had no choice Froht I was God; since he couldn’t seehad come to reckon with him I hit him, mostly to rew thick It s out the fire There was no extinguisher I filled a pot at the kitchen sink and poured it on the canister, to keep it fro That’s when your father ca I don’t think he even sawon the sofa, opposite him He paused to take a breath Every word he spoke sounded sincere, unrehearsed

"And then?" I asked