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That was an extreotiated conditions That’s how these things worked, but he was desperate The French fixer knew he had Bell over a barrel Bell closed his eyes and nodded “Done”

16

At ten , Isaac Bell stepped froh the door to the offices of A C Bourgault They occupied the sixth floor of a building on the edge of an area called La Villette, where hterhouses were located The air on the street carried the coppery scent of blood

He’d bought an appropriately tweedy suit from the Le Bon Marché department store a block down the Rue de Sèvres frolasses he kept as part of a regular disguise kit in his luggage He carried his body in a round-shouldered slouch that effectively nificantly when it hat Gly ht have espied back in the foothills of the Rockies—he let his naturally blond shine brightly on another dreary Parisian day

A reception desk guarded a large room furnished with two dozen identical desks at which sat two dozen nearly identical clerks shuffling papers, typing, or fielding fro telephones Behind were individual offices with closed doors There were no s, so all lighting ca In all, the place had a rather di atmosphere

A heavyset receptionist with poorly bleached hair asked him his name and business in French Bell replied in a coovic I have appointment with Herr Duchamp at eleven Please do not disturb, because I a”

She azine she’d been thuh

A minute before eleven, Bell heard the elevator chime in the lobby behind the office door and seconds later four men strode into the reception area Bell kept his face neutral, with a hint of a sood cheer Foster Gly eyed hi hiet such a thick neck into a shirt and e to wrap it with a tie With him was the twin brother of the man Bell had seen Gly shoot dead

For a fleeting moment he wondered if there was a way to sow some sort of discord between these two, reveal to Yves Massard that Gly had murdered his brother Since there was no proof, it was a tihts following Marc’s death and locked in that loyalty or an Athe truth? The mere idea of it was so ridiculous that Bell banished it before it could even fully form in his mind

The other two ers One was tall and broad-shouldered, and he was ers from his left hand He had dark hair and a far and no one ever riled By sheer size alone, Bell was certain he was Joshua Hayes Brewster The second was a bantam of a nacious thrust to his chin and swagger to his walk

It wasn’t until the saze swept past Bell that he saw the spark of littered with an inner fire that looked like it was about to burn out of control Bell ied his mind The shorter miner was Brewster Only soht otheras audacious as what they were atte

Gly informed the secretary of his appointment His French was accented with a Scottish burr thatBell in the waiting area, but she rightly decided thatthe newcomer wait for even a second was not in her best interest

She begged her leave and lurched froned to his account

“Madame,” Bell called as she rushed by “Please, I am to see Herr Duchamp You tell him I am here Da?”

She esture with her hand, like a bird fluttering its wing, but she also nodded She worked her way through the bull pen and went first to one office, where she knocked and poked her head inside, and then on to an adjacent office The sa open the door, announcing the client, closing the door again She moved with the rote efficiency of an auto at Gly, Yves, or the two miners, who stood uneasily in a cluster between her and the sofa Bell occupied Very soon two ed froand spread-waisted, but with a haughtiness that they could lord over the ranks of drones they theed from a year or two previously