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“For Christ’s sake,” Quentin said “You realize we’re nowhere near ready!”

“Then get ready We’re out of tiht?”

The answer to that was a rousing chorus of silence

“Look, just do your jobs”

He disappeared, leaving behind a limo full of shocked silence Plum turned to Quentin

“What do you think?”

“I don’t know,” Quentin said “We could walk away”

Giving up noould be hard He’d be set back months, and that would hurt But this was ned on for

“Oh come on,” Betsy said “It’s just a job”

“That’skilled over”

“Just breaking the bond alone, I’ us at about a fifty-fifty shot,” Plum said “Let’s think about that for a second”

“Let’s think about this” Betsy leaned across fro a wonderful, intimate secret “If you leave noill hunt you down and kill you I will never stop till I find you I’ve given up too much, and I am too close Do you understand?”

She stared at Quentin, not blinking

“Not even re bullied “Why do you care? What are you close to? It’s only money”

“Do you knohat’s in the case?”

“No Not even the bird knohat’s in the case”

“I knohat’s in the case,” Betsy said “And I’ll give you a fucking hint: this isn’t about money”

“Maybe you could be a little more specific”

“You want to knohat’s in the case? Freedo second, then sat back against the banquette Quentin looked over at Plu at the insides of the watch The prospect of starting over again at the beginning, finding soet it right and get it over with he could move on with his life

And there was the Chatwin connection, he couldn’t let that go And there was Alice Who was he trying to fool? He wasn’t going to walk away He was in this much too deep already He opened his eyes Betsy was still watching him

“You’d better believe,” he said, “that if this starts getting ugly, I’ to be the first one to bolt Then maybe I’ll hunt you down Think about that” Quentin put a hand on Stoppard’s shoulder, who looked up at hiive me that back for now You can look at it later”

Stoppard nodded and closed up the watch and h his eyes followed it until Quentin tucked it back into his jacket

They climbed out of the limo It was late March, around four in the afternoon, and the te They were on a back road, really just a gravel track, so along one side and dead-looking blackberry bushes on the other Hayfields were all around theht

Pluot out they were all inblack Quentin wore his overcoat instead of a parka, because it looked icianly, and it was black anyway, and he had no idea when if ever he’d see the lie fro with the watch

“Well,” Plum said “This doesn’t look suspicious”

The breeze was icy, and even though they weren’t supposed to use ic Quentin quietly added a couple of charms to keep hi at therass Lionel stood behind hiing over fro trees to settle on his shoulder It looked much more like a wild animal out here in the country Quentin wondered what the other birds made of it

Pushkar had an enoreous thing with a knotted floral pattern on it in crea it and nodding slowly, so ses and to the pattern itself—it looked woven into the material, but it altered at his touch

A flying carpet He’d never actually seen one Pushkar wore a ame-day sweater under his parka

“Nice rug,” Quentin said, since it was

“Guess how uess “Seventy thousand dollars The bird paid cash, I saw it”

They stood around the edges The gathering looked like a cold, formal, badly planned picnic The bird addressed them from the top of Lionel’s head

“We found the Couple a week ago They are in a house twoelse near it We have been watching it, learning their routines This itated the—rade security, we don’t know But there is no ht Questions?”

Quentin couldn’t think of any Plum sniffled in the cold Stoppard picked up his cases

“Is it OK if I—?”

“Sure” Pushkar nodded, and Stoppard stepped gingerly onto the carpet, as if he orried it would scoot out from under him, or roll up with him in it

He kneeled down and opened both suitcases; one was full of tools, the other one, the heavy one, contained a stumpy, silvery steel cylinder about a foot in dia on in his rooether It had a white enamel clock face on one end and a cluster of small wheels and dials on the other Stoppard unfolded a spindly stand and placed the cylinder on it, then opened the steel case and started fiddling

Lionel wandered off; he earing only a black sweatshirt, the saht in the bookstore, but he didn’t see bastard on their side Betsy began a stretching routine

“I feel like we should be doing so,” Plum said

“I wish I sain?”

“Not really You?”

“I would but I think my head would fall off”

So they sat down cross-legged on the carpet in the cold and waited Quentin could feel Mayakovsky’s coins in his pants pocket They felt good They felt like confidence Stoppard took out a small metal crank, fitted one end into a socket on the back of theit

“Mainspring,” he said happily, over the ratcheting sound His breath puffed out white “White alloy Constant even source of kinetic energy Tough to ically”