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“I think I had a little to do with that, too”

She hts and told him to turn east

“You had no idea about the oil in the la blind” She paused “Sokolov’s wife is destroyed That boy was her world Ihe’s gone forever”

“We’re not done yet,” he said

She turned her head and looked at hiht of her face She looked tired, frustrated, angry

And beautiful

“How’s your hip?” she asked

Not exactly what he wanted her to ask, but he knew she was as skittish as he was about emotions

“I’ll live”

She reached across and laid a hand on his arm He recalled another time they’d touched, just after Henrik’s funeral, on the walk back froround dusted with snow, holding hands in silence No need to speak The touch had said it all

Like now

A phone rang His Lying on the console between them

She withdrew her hand and answered “It’s Stephanie She has the info on Pau Wen”

“Put it on speaker”

CASSIOPEIA DIGESTED THE INFORMATION STEPHANIE RELATED on Pau Wen Her ht she was about to die She’d regretted things, laht his irritation when she’d defended Viktor, though it really wasn’t a defense since she still believed that Viktor knew farto adaainst them both

Not an easy thing

Stephanie continued with her information

Cotton was listening, his eideticthat could be, but also a curse There was so much she’d prefer not to recall

One thing, though, she clearly remembered

In the face of death, staring at the archer, his arrow aiun had pointed her way, she’d desperately wished for one more opportunity with Cotton

And received it

THIRTY-SEVEN

BELGIUM

MALONE STARED AT THE MAN THOUGH IT WAS AFTER MIDNIGHT, black as soot outside, and the entrance bore evidence of gunfire, the older ed, thin-chested, with red-rimmed eyes, bleary but alert—seemed unfazed

A faint snized the face

From the museum, with two others, one of whom had carried a bow and arrows

Cassiopeia was right Pau Wen did indeed have the lamp

Cassiopeia did not give Pau tiun, the same one Viktor had used to track her, and jammed the barrel into the ainst a stone wall, pinning a few artificial stalks of bamboo between his silk robe and the wall

“You sent that bowman to kill me,” she said

Two younger Chinese appeared at the top of a short flight of wide stairs that led up into the house Malone withdrew his Beretta and ai them not to interfere The two halted their advance, as if they knew Cassiopeia would not pull the trigger

Glad they thought so He wasn’t so sure

“You caunpoint Did I not have the right to retrieve my property?”

She cocked the gun’s ha above them reacted to the increased threat, but Malone kept them in place with his weapon

“You didn’t send that man to kill me because of the la”

“It was Minister Tang, not I, who changed this situation”

“Perhaps we ought to let hiht feel un away from his throat”

“AndYou see evidence of that in the doors Sadly, for the”