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"Hello I’ve gotfor you And this is Roberts’s fore File it" Miria fro you asked for, Matthew"

The entire lab watched, openh the air Matthew caught it without da arm with nad admiration

"Thank you, Miriam," Matthew murmured "I trust you had an uneventful journey" His tone and choice of words were for her

"I’m here, aren’t I?" she said caustically Miriam pulled another piece of paper out of the back pocket on herit she looked up "Which one of you is Beaker?"

"Here" Beaker walked toward Miriam, her hand extended "Joy Connelly"

"Oh Sorry All I have is a ridiculous list of nickna with some acronyms" Miriam shook Beaker’s hand, drew a pen out of her boot, and crossed so next to it "Nice to meet you I like your RNA work Sound stuff Very helpful Let’s go get coffee and figure out what needs to be done to whip this place into compliance"

"The closest decent coffee is a bit of a hike," Beaker said apologetically

"Unacceptable" Miriam made another note on her paper "We need a café in the base on my way up here, and that space is wasted now"

"Should I co on his feet

"Not now," Miria more important to do I’ll be back at one o’clock That’s when I want to see"--she paused and scrutinized her list--"Sherlock, Gaun asked

"We’ll catch up later, Richard Nice to see a familiar face" She looked down at her list "What does Roberts call you?"

"Shotgun" Richard’s mouth twitched

"I trust it’s because of your speedy sequencing, not because you’ve taken to hunting like huoing to be a probleine why," Richard said with a sation and its concerns are way above rade"

"Good" Miriaes "Well? What are you waiting for? If you want soels Or unpack supply boxes There are plenty of them stacked up in the corridor"

Everyone in the lab scattered

"Thought so" She smiled at Chris He looked nervous "As for you, Roberts, I’ll see you at two o’clock We have your article to discuss And your protocols to review After that, you can take ood wine list"

Chris looked dazed but nodded

"Could you give us a minute?" I asked Chris and Beaker Theyfroe of his nose Matthew joined us

"You look surprisingly well for someone who’s been to the sixteenth century and back, Matthew

And Diana’s obviously enceinte, " Mirianant"

"Thanks Are you at Marcus’s place?" Matthew asked

"That e Street? No chance It’s a convenient location, but it gives any"

"You’re welcome to stay with us on Court Street," I offered "There’s a spare bedroom on the third floor You’d have privacy"

"Thanks, but I’lass’s condo," Miriaht on Wooster Square Some converted church It’s very nice--a bit too Danish in decor, but far preferable to Marcus’s dark-and-gloolass did tell you he was coers through his hair

I knew just how my husband felt: The de Clermonts had switched into overprotectivejustMattheell

16

"Bad news, I’rimace She was one of the Beinecke librarians, and she’d helped me for years, both with ht my students to the library to use the rare books there "If you want to look at Manuscript 408, you’ll have to go into a private room with a curator And there’s a li room with it"

"Thirty ulations, having spent the last ten months with Mattheho never paid any attention to such restrictions "I’m a Yale professor Why does a curator have to baby-sit me?"

"Those are the rules for everybody--even our own faculty The whole thing is online," Lucy reh the resolution, wasn’t going to give me the information I needed I’d last seen the Voynich manuscript--now Beinecke Library MS 408--in 1591, when Matthew had carried the book froue, hoping that we could swap it for the Book of Life Now I hoped it would shed light on what Edward Kelleyfor clues to their whereabouts since ent to Madison One -tailed creatures bleeding into a round vessel The other i an impossible combination of flowers, fruit, and leaves and its trunkthe two pages would be fairly straightforward in the age of Internet searches and digitized ies So far that had not been the case