"The washroom off the kitchen would likely do as well," he told her.  "You and Jin . . . well, yes, I expect it will be good for you and your brother to look after her."

Miles-san strolled past.  "All shipshape here, Jin?  Then I need Johannes back."  He added to Consul Vorlynkin, "We'll be in your tight-room for a time.  A lot of detail-work still to do."  At his gesture, Roic rose and took up what seemed his accustomed place at his shoulder.

"Is your scheme going to fly, then?" Vorlynkin asked.  Miles-san nodded.  Vorlynkin grimaced.

Miles-san returned a wry smile.  "Flexibility, Vorlynkin.  That's the key."  He trod indoors, swinging his cane.  Jin and Vorlynkin stared after him.

Vorlynkin voiced Jin's own half-formed thought:  "Was that supposed to be reassuring?"

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Eleven

Roic figured midnight would have been the right time for a body-snatching expedition, possibly in the middle of a thunderstorm.  Among other things, an electrical storm might help account for any power-flicker anomalies they left in their wake.  But there were no suitable cold fronts predicted any time soon, and so Roic found himself, Raven, and m'lord, with Johannes driving the lift van again, turning in at the impressive entrance of the NewEgypt facility at high noon.  It was only in Roic's imagination that the dog-headed statues flanking the main gate seemed to follow them with their painted eyes.

Johannes was armed with a couple of little floral arrangements in water tubes and a script, but he wasn't called upon to deploy either; the human gate guard waved them right through.

"What t' hell," said Roic.

"It's visiting hours," said m'lord mildly.  "They aren't going to harass their patrons' kin, nor their potential future customers coming in for their tour, at this time of day.  This isn't a military installation.  All NewEgypt security has to worry about is theft—which is more likely to come from an employee—vandalism, which isn't likely to occur in broad daylight, and maybe something like the N.H.L.L.—who would probably wait for that midnight thunderstorm you wanted.  Seems like their style, somehow."

Roic settled back with a disgruntled, "Huh."

He shifted uncomfortably in his somewhat-too-tight hospital uniform, XL, scavenged by Raven and Medtech Tanaka, possibly from the same source as some of their medical supplies now laid in and waiting back at Madame Suze's.  M'lord wore a similar set, XS, a bit too loose, with the sleeve and trouser ends rolled up.  Raven's set fit perfectly.  Johannes was dressed in what Roic had been assured were unexceptionable Kibou street clothes, tidy and middle-class.

The van slipped past both the pyramid-topped building's lobby, fronted by an inviting faux-Egyptian garden with stone sphinxes, and the sign pointing to the loading docks for pre-frozen patron intake, hidden on the more utilitarian backside, then on around to a discreet side entrance meant for employees.

"All right, this is where we unload," m'lord said.  "Don't look hurried, but don't waste time."