The second puzzle piece: on his own, Claude Siamese controlled major portions of the organized crime in north Tourquai. Prost.i.tution, drugs, gambling-all were within reach of his sharp claws. It could of course be a coincidence that the tipster used the phone booth outside Siamese's entry, but that was hard to believe.

And the final piece that Anna had in her head: Superintendent Larry Bloodhound. It was Bloodhound who took the call from the phone booth, and who was unquestionably the one the tipster intended to contact so that he would lead the investigation. Larry Bloodhound, her boss and friend, had some type of relationship with Siamese.

Behind her a mauve Volga Sport was honking, and Anna let out the clutch. The light must have been green for a long time.

Larry, she thought unhappily. What are you up to?

Larry Bloodhound was mixing an egg toddy. He whisked four egg yolks in a small gla.s.s and then poured in sugar corresponding to the quant.i.ty of egg yolk. Some of the sugar ended up on the floor below the stove, settling like a spa.r.s.e garnish over the remnants of leeks already lying there. Where did the leeks come from? Larry didn't recall. While he stirred the egg toddy, he thought about how life had to be balanced, at whatever price. If he left the drugs alone for an evening, he simply had to compensate with sugar and carbohydrates. Probably chemical, he thought, sipping his egg drink. an egg toddy. He whisked four egg yolks in a small gla.s.s and then poured in sugar corresponding to the quant.i.ty of egg yolk. Some of the sugar ended up on the floor below the stove, settling like a spa.r.s.e garnish over the remnants of leeks already lying there. Where did the leeks come from? Larry didn't recall. While he stirred the egg toddy, he thought about how life had to be balanced, at whatever price. If he left the drugs alone for an evening, he simply had to compensate with sugar and carbohydrates. Probably chemical, he thought, sipping his egg drink.

With the gla.s.s in hand, Larry went over to Cordelia's cage. He had propped open the little door, which he sometimes did, but Cordelia still chose to remain on her perch. Larry took this as a clear sign that she was happy.

"Do you want a taste, little friend?" he asked, holding the gla.s.s with the cream-colored foam up meaningfully.

But Cordelia preferred water and seeds.

Larry made room for himself on the couch by shoving aside a year's worth of level-seven crossword magazines, which had taken him only an evening to solve.

He had found Cordelia almost three years ago, and there was something about the circ.u.mstances of their meeting that caused him to return often to the event in his memory. Perhaps, he thought, it was because for once something had happened to him that was beyond the antic.i.p.ated. Something outside the framework, and thus he, too, reacted in a way that was different for him. It was a quirk of fate that his and Cordelia's paths crossed.

Harbor Seal Fl.u.s.trup had been semireclined in the backseat of the police car and Pedersen had been sitting alongside, holding him down. The weather was long past midnight, the moon was shining cold and hateful from the black sky, and inside the car it reeked of terror. But it would get worse.

Bloodhound and Pedersen had a place where they would take the hooligans; you drove up North Avenue until it ended and turned onto the little gravel path by the side of the bus stop. The gravel path soon turned into a couple of wheel tracks, but because they always drove up there around midnight, Bloodhound still didn't know how it looked on the sides of the road.

The superintendent stopped the car suddenly. Fl.u.s.trup flew against the front seat. The engine was on, the headlight beams shining like two white pipes through the night. Pedersen opened up the back door and shoved the harbor seal out.

"I have no idea!" the seal screamed. "I'm telling you, I have no idea!"

But that's what they all said, and Bloodhound had scared the truth out of one or two animals before. Pedersen kicked Fl.u.s.trup so that he ended up in the beam of the headlight, while Bloodhound leisurely got out on the other side of the car. He took care of the customary preparations, and when he was ready he let Harbor Seal Fl.u.s.trup in on his doings.

"This," said the superintendent, "is a tin can with a little fire burning in it. Do you see?"

He held out the tin can under the face of the terrified stuffed animal on the ground. A blue flame was burning inside the can, and the harbor seal could feel its heat.

"And this," said the superintendent, "is a can of water."

He showed that, too.

"This is a little game. I intend to set you on fire, a little at a time, Fl.u.s.trup. And when you tell us what we want to hear, I'll put it out. Do you think that might be fun?"

The harbor seal had listened in silence, but there was no mistaking the terror in his eyes.

"But ... Holy Magnus ... I've told you I don't know anything!" he screamed. "I know nothing! I know nothing!"

The superintendent sighed. There was no point in dragging this out. When Pedersen picked up Fl.u.s.trup from jail, Larry had gone down to the garage and done a line in the restroom. Good thing, too, he thought now. Otherwise he wouldn't have been able to cope tonight.

"Oh well, time to get started ..."

That was when it happened.

Just as Superintendent Larry Bloodhound was bringing the can with the blue flame toward one of the harbor seal's whiskers, a chirping was heard up in the air, and the next moment Cordelia flew down from the sky and sat on Bloodhound's shoulder. It was a shock. He had heard about flying creatures, but he thought they only existed by the sea and that they were much bigger. It wasn't until later, at the library, that he figured out that Cordelia was a budgie. Startled, he could only stand and stare. She chirped, the harbor seal was lying on the ground, crying, and Field Mouse Pedersen was sitting in the car, because he despised watching when the superintendent burned the thugs.

What is love? Is it what Superintendent Larry Bloodhound experienced at that moment? For it was more than the feeling of being chosen by fate. It was finding a place of one's own in an infinite universe. An end to loneliness.

Ever since that night, Cordelia had been Larry's life companion, the one to whom he showed his weaknesses and from whom he gathered strength.

Bloodhound took another sip of the egg toddy.

"It's going to be an early one this evening, Cordelia," he said.

There was something on TV he wanted to watch, but he couldn't remember what, and when he reached for the remote control the doorbell rang. This happened very seldom, and, startled, the superintendent went out in the hall and opened the door. Outside stood Anna Lynx.

"Larry, may I come in?" she asked.

Never before had Inspector Lynx come to see him at home, and, as curious as he was surprised, he took a step to one side so that she could come in.

"I don't know how I should say this, Larry," Anna began. "But I know I have to say it." I should say this, Larry," Anna began. "But I know I have to say it."

The Crisis Center and the lecture felt infinitely distant, as if she had given it in another dimension rather than in another part of the city. But she knew she had to do this, however painful it might feel.

"I saw you coming out of Claude Siamese's last night, Larry," she said.

They sat next to one another on the couch and Larry said nothing. He stared at her for a long time, and then growled quietly.

"How do you know that?"

"I saw you. I was out with my Night Patrol and saw you by chance."

"You must never tell that to anyone, Anna," said Larry, looking her deep in the eyes. "Siamese is my best informer."

"Siamese?"

Anna was taken completely by surprise. Whatever she had thought and feared, the possibility that Siamese was a police informer had not even occurred to her.

"No one knows," Bloodhound continued. "And no one can ever know it, either. You have to promise that."

"I ... promise," said Anna.

"I'm a fool not to be more careful," Larry continued. "If you saw me, that means that anyone at all might have seen me."

"Well, I-"

"Maybe it was luck," Larry Bloodhound continued, casually lying to his friend. "After this I'll just have to be more careful."

And while Larry Bloodhound followed Anna Lynx out to the stairwell, he thought that it was true, anyway. He had to be more careful. But not just that. He would quit. Sooner or later it would have to happen, and today was just as good a day as tomorrow. Stop the lies, and stop the cocaine.

As he closed the door he felt strong and self-confident.

Igor Panda 5 Igor Panda was running for his life. That's how he experienced it. He tried to keep in the shadows, but some of the streetlights along Avinguda de Pedrables were functioning, and the unrelenting light sought out the fleeing panda. He heard the car at a distance, and he realized they could see him.

The street was empty; the streets were always empty in Yok. Panda was running as fast as he could, feeling the lactic acid on its way up through his legs. He was no athlete; he never had been. But the fear of what was about to happen gave him energy and strength beyond the usual.

Without slowing down, he twisted his head to see how far away the car was. Much too close. He ran, looking backward, and the impact was as unexpected as it was hard.

A mouse had come out from a small alley.

The two stuffed animals collided, falling in either direction on the sidewalk. Panda got to his feet and realized that the alley from which the mouse had come was too narrow for cars. He fled down it, hearing the sound of tires braking hard, hearing doors being opened and slammed again, and then a kind of whining sound, and he knew what that meant: the adders had roller skates on the tips of their tails.

The narrow Burbage Close ended in a large cul-de-sac. It was as paradoxical as it was typical for Yok: cars couldn't drive in the alley, and yet there was a place to turn around. The darkness was dense, and it took a few seconds before Igor Panda realized he had chosen the wrong way.

There was nowhere to flee.

Right in front of him stood a wall that might be the back of a garage. To the left a windowless exterior that vanished up into the night, and to the right a fifteen-foot-high metal fence, crowned by coiled barbed wire.

Nonetheless Panda continued running. When he saw the boards piled next to the fence he realized that they were his only chance. He threw himself headlong behind the lumber, and a few seconds later came the adders.

Igor Panda held his breath. It was almost impossible for him not to pant. Yet he forced himself not to.

The adders were six in number. They rode slowly into the cul-de-sac on their roller skates, letting the flashlight beams dance across the building facades, high above Igor. These were adders with black hoods and the customary overalls. Three of them were Holders, the other three Shooters. They always worked in pairs, one holding the weapon and the other firing it, one holding the victim tight and the other biting.

When they realized they were in a cul-de-sac, the snakes skated around and around in circles as they shone their flashlights and investigated every nook and cranny. Panda pulled back farther and farther into the darkness behind the planks. The hiding place was better than he'd thought at first; there was considerably more trash around the cul-de-sac than he'd seen initially, and more hiding places to investigate.

The snakes worked systematically. Panda pressed against the metal fence and closed his eyes. The sound of the hissing snakes and their whining skates became more and more hesitant, he thought, and without wanting to admit it this aroused hope in his chest.

Could he have fooled them?

The next moment through his closed eyes he felt a flashlight aimed right toward his face, and even though he was lying completely still it was too late. One of them pulled him out, and they got him up on his feet.

One of the snakes wound itself around his wrists, binding them behind his back. Another crawled around his right ankle to keep him from running away. A third coiled around his neck, and a fourth closed its mouth around Igor's right paw so that he could feel the razor-sharp fangs against his thin cloth. The fifth and sixth snakes positioned themselves in front of him, smiling venomously.

"Igor," said one of them, shaking his head. "Igor."

He looked up. They were still aiming the flashlight right at his eyes. He was forced to squint.

"You ought to know better," the snake that spoke for them continued, hissing and whispering. "We do know one another, Igor. You know we'll always find you. Don't you?"

Igor did not reply. The light was blinding him, and he closed his eyes.

"But you almost get the feeling you were trying to fool us, Igor," the snake continued. "It hasn't been easy to find you. Not at home, not at work. But you must work, my friend. Otherwise how are you going to pay us?"

Igor still did not reply.

"How?" repeated the snake.

And the snake that was around the panda's neck tensed the muscles in its narrow, long body, curling itself up. This happened slowly, so that Igor felt how the initial unpleasantness of something pressing against his throat slowly changed to panic as it became harder and harder to breathe.

"How?" repeated the snake.

"I don't know," Igor forced out.

"That was not a good answer," the adder hissed.

The snake around his neck let up on the pressure and Igor coughed. He relaxed somewhat and was completely unprepared when the snake around his foot tugged on it. He fell like a pine tree. When he opened his eyes again the snake who was talking was only an inch from his face.

"The money has to be paid back tomorrow, Sat.u.r.day," he hissed.

"But-"

"No explanations. If you can't settle it by tomorrow, you're never going to settle it. Better to write you off completely than wait and hope. We have our orders. You're history, Panda."

"But-"

"Tomorrow," said the adder. "You have until evening. Not a day longer. And go ahead and try to hide. We're going to find you. We always find you."

The snake spit in Igor's face.

Then they were gone.

Tomorrow?

It was impossible.

Day Six

6.1.

They gathered in the small conference room where the rotting geraniums still remained. Falcon ecu brought everyone coffee and Anna Lynx picked up Danish pastry on her way from the day care.

Superintendent Larry Bloodhound grunted with irritation at the Danish pastry, but quickly decided to have one right away instead of agonizing for twenty minutes and then giving in. Crumbs fell in flakes over the white laminated table where there were already brown, half-moon-shaped rings from yesterday's coffee cups and the remnants of blueberry m.u.f.fins from the day before that.

"Well," he growled, "let's hear it."

Pedersen cleared his throat. But just as he was about to begin his report, the door opened and Captain Jan Buck came in.

"Good morning, colleagues," Buck said quickly. "If you don't mind, Superintendent Bloodhound, I thought I'd sit in on your morning meeting."

Without waiting for a reply, Buck sat down on one of the uncomfortable, rickety chairs around the conference table. He smiled encouragingly at all those present.

"But the way it looks in here ..." he commented. "Larry, don't you ever have it cleaned?"

Bloodhound growled.