Dear God! Coming here? No, she couldn’t! She’d see the boxed-up wine, she’d guess—

“I-I was just leaving. Can’t we—?”

“This isn’t going to wait.” Her voice grew more sharply edged. “Either I get answers from you or I have my new friends at the Eight-four do the asking.”

Luc dropped into a chair, his heart thudding, the living room spinning. Was this the way her dose of Loki was taking her? Whatever the case, he could not allow her up here.

“I don’t understand this. You sound so upset. I’ll meet you outside. We can talk while I wait for a cab.”

“All right,” she said, then cut the connection.

Luc was wearing a light sweater and slacks. He threw on a blue blazer and hurried to meet her. He reached the sidewalk just as Nadia arrived. She wore a shapeless beige raincoat and looked terrible—puffy face, red-rimmed eyes—but not deranged.

But just in case…

“Walk with me,” he said, taking her arm and guiding her up Eighty-seventh, away from his building. “What do you think I can tell you?”

“You can tell me if you had anything to do with Doug’s disappearance.”

Luc almost tripped. His first attempt at speech failed. On his second he managed, “What? How… how can you ask such a thing?”

“Because Doug knew things. He hacked into your company computers. He found out where your R and D funds were going.”

“I had no idea!” Did he look surprised enough? “Why on earth—?”

“And I know things too. I know that Loki is being sold on the street. And I know you’re involved with Milos Dragovic.”

He glanced around at the lunchtime crowds beginning to fill the streets. “Please, Nadia. Not so loud!”

“All right,” she said, lowering her voice a trifle. “But tell me… let me hear it straight from your lips: did you have anything to do with Doug’s disappearance?”

“No! Absolutely not!”

Panic sent his thoughts caroming through his brain. Oh, dear God, she knows about Dragovic, about Berzerk and all the rest! How can this be happening? Not now! Not when I am almost free!

“How about Dragovic?” she said.

Think! Think! Think!

“Nadia, one of the downsides of going public is that anyone can buy your company’s stock. Unfortunately, Mr. Dragovic owns a large block of ours and—”

“What’s his relationship with you?”

Luc felt as if he were on the witness stand, being grilled by a prosecutor.

“It is very complicated, and I will explain it in full to you someday if you like, but suffice it to say that Mr. Dragovic could not be involved in Douglas’s troubles because I doubt very much he even knows Douglas exists.”

A long pause. They’d reached the corner of Lexington; he guided her left… downtown… toward her home… away from his neighborhood.

Finally she said, “I think I’m going to have to go to the police about Dragovic.”

No!

Luc fought to keep the panic out of his voice. “Please don’t be precipitous, Nadia. You will cause much misery and embarrassment for many people, and none of it will bring back your Douglas one minute sooner.”