Ridgeway made good time as he walked directly east from the train station toward the Amsterdamse Bos. As he walked, he remembered the summer day he and Zoe had picnicked in a green meadow beside a sky-blue pond in the Amsterdamse Bos. She had still been a student and had come to study paintings in the non-public collection of the Van Gogh Museum. He had pried her away from her work and she had thanked him for it.

They had rented bicycles and ridden them around the park until it was nearly dark. The terrain they had covered, and the day, were still etched in his memory.

Seth made his way into the eastern boundary of the park. The ground was soft from the winter rains and carpeted with wet, pliant leaves. Among the pale gray skeletons of deciduous trees waiting for spring were stands of conifers that painted deep green smears across the winter drabness. Seth walked quickly deep into the woods.

He crossed a narrow tarmac road, then down a short embankment into a copse of young cedar trees. He could see the road clearly from within the cedars. It was a good place to wait.

Time seemed to drag by. Seth gazed at the second hand of his watch. Once, twice around, and still no one crossed the road. Had he lost his man after all?

He waited, his warm breath hanging for an instant in the cold, damp air. In the distance he heard the urgent whines of jet engines, and moments later, the exultant roar of an aircraft breaking free of the earth. There were no sounds of traffic, no signs of cars on the road, and more important, no signs of the man with the insane eyes.

Then, just when Seth had nearly decided to backtrack to see if he could find his tracker, the man emerged from the trees on the far side of the road. He stood on the edge of the woods like a small wild animal afraid of the dangas of open spaces. Then he scurried across the road and plunged into the woods again, his head bent low. Seth realized the man was following the soft clear impressions his shoes had made in the earth.

The man seemed oblivious to all but the footprints before him, and he was almost to the small grove of cedars before he looked up. He stopped and looked at Seth with wide startled eyes. Seth trained his Magnum on the man’s chest, watching with interest as fear flooded his face.

“Don’t, please!” the man said raising his hands. “I mean you no harm.”

“Why have you been following me, then?”

“To find out… find out what you are after,” the man answered.

“Who wants to know?”

“Many people. Surely you know that?”

Seth nodded. “I know that, and I have a pretty good idea of who’s on which side. I’ve talked to the people on my side and they don’t know you.”

“Perhaps they are on the wrong side,” the man said gently.