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Crouching down at landing level, she peered around the doorja to see another corridor, narrower perhaps, with fur-ther doors heading off left and right What she was not expecting was one large room

Itand a front wall lined s

Close to the door-way, a s in the wall, and spaced around the room just above floor level she saw dozens of sensors Lasers, perhaps? That certainly was heavy-duty protection, but this man had dis-abled it with barely a pause

In the sloping ceiling was a skylight --the one she had seen fro an attic roohtest rooest

The floor was carpeted, and spaced irregularly around the roo display cases or racks of some kind Every case and rack carried an item, and many of them were unknown to Jazz In one case sat what looked like a human skull, but there were curious protrusions at either temple that could have been the roots of horns

Another pedestal held a water-filled tank, estion of movement inside She saw a stuffed duck-billed platypus with a head and beak at both ends, and an old Hessian sack, tied closed at the mouth, stained hat could have been dried blood One stand held a sihostly conjurer she had seen twice non in the Underground The hat had a s juot caution, and it was only when the intruder darted out froh, wide display of dried rushes that she ducked back froht she'd been seen, but he was dashing about the roo for so very particular

He tipped a suitcase from a timber stand, fiddled with the locks, and broke it open Soain, but not in panic, not in fear It si for

Jazz was petrified and fascinated Part of her almost wanted to rush into the roolowed fro bookmark But she could not be seen She did not knoho this man hy he was here, or what he was after And if his burglary of Mort's house was intentional, it could erous as the Uncles, if not asped He stood still, suddenly asHe was partly blocking what he was looking at from view, and Jazz resisted the temptation to lean farther into the doorway to see what it was

"And here it is," he whispered "At last, here it is" He leaned forward, reaching with both hands, then hesitated He wiped his hands on his trousers --his first sign of nerves, the first indication that he was anything other than coain Once more he paused "Blast"

He shook his head, looked around, and headed for the rear of the room

Jazz stretched around and saw that there were three doors there, all closed The man opened the middle one and disappeared inside

And at last she could see what had enraptured the e ser-rated, and close to its tip was a hole through the blade the width of her wrist Its handle was rip

Theto wrap it in, Jazz thought So to pick it up

Jazz didn't think about what she did next It was al her, and as she stood and walked into the room, she had a momentary whiff of herskin, of course She'd worn Beautiful every day since Cadge had pre-sented her with a bottle But still

Shearound display pedestals, careful not to nudge them as she passed but unable to tear her eyes away fro al As she reached out and grabbed it with both hands, she knehat that feeling was

Here was so to her like whatever lay behind that round There was intense s she could not possibly hope to un-derstand And there was also the promise of many revelations

It was as if there were a hundred ghosts crowding her, unseen and unheard yet struggling to communicate, and it was all she could to do to prevent herself froht, I want to hear you, but not here and not now

She lifted the sword froratefully, and she turned and hurried back across the room to the staircase

Jazz didn't stop to think about what she had done She had co with two greatnestled in her arlanced back at the door the h, and headed down

He's still in there, she thought / et aith this

Down the stairs, onto the landing, and then she heard a sound froasp perhaps, closely followed by one muttered word: "No"

She did not wait to see if he had anything else to say She ran, all pretense of secrecy thrown to the wind, holding the sword in both hands as she trotted down the curving stair-case Soon he would be there at the corner of her eye, eive him what he had come for

When she reached the hallway, she saw the paintings and vases, but any idea she'd had to smash and slash them now see that the loss of what she carried from this house would hurt Mort

"Stop," a voice said She froze in her tracks halfway across the hall to the base that she could do nothing else

Her heart thu in her ears

She turned around

"That's , leaning on the handrail and looking down at her with soft, ht Then she had a better idea Risky, but it would give her , lots of trouble, but she thought if she went out the front door, things o her way