Sill feigned fear. “Oh, my. Is it Clinton and Mitchell who are on our proverbial and, dare I say, notorious tails?”

“Yes.”

“This should be fun.”

“Fun?” I asked.

“They’re stupid,” he said. “They’ll no doubt resort to gunplay because they don’t know what we’re doing and, well, that’s always fun.”

“Most of our men are in place,” Takitall said.

“Very good,” Sill said.

“I want nothing to do with nothing,” I said.

“Really?”

“Yes.”

“You can have your money back,” I said.

“Don’t want it. But I still want and expect nothing from you.”

“Is he going to be a problem?” the general asked.

Sill shook his head. “But he won’t be having pizza. Gloria?”

Gloria showed me the muzzle of a small pistol under the table.

“Professor Wala, you’ll go with Gloria now. You’ve sort of changed your status in the firm. Not much skin off my ass, but less comfortable for you.” Then to Gloria, “Take him upstairs to his room. Let him sit in there and reconsider his position in all of this. Watch a movie or something.”

Gloria waved the pistol and I understood her to be telling me to move and so I did. I got up and walked with her out of the restaurant to the elevators, the weapon now out of sight. “What’s the plan?” I asked.

She said nothing. The elevator opened and she motioned for me to get in.

“I guess our relationship has changed,” I said.

“You might say that,” she said, surprising me.

Instead of the sixth floor we went up to the eighth. “My dog is on six,” I said.

She did not respond. On the eighth floor she opened a door and stepped aside.

“What’s to stop me from leaving?” I asked.

“I’ll be standing right here.” She positioned herself beside the door.

“My dog is on six,” I repeated as the door shut. I leaned against the door, looked through the peephole at her, worried about Trigo. I pounded on the door and said, “I’m ready to have sex now.”

6

The room was just like my room, except higher and, of course, guarded. I made a decision as I stood out on the balcony looking at the canal. I would escape. I needed to get to Trigo and I needed to get Eigen away from Sill. Another check at the peephole verified that Gloria was still standing watch. I looked over the rail on the balcony and saw that, predictably, there was a balcony below me. I had to make a decision, that much was clear, especially as I reasoned that doing nothing was in fact a decision, an active decision, not just one by default. If I tried to force my way past Gloria, she would beat me up, perhaps to death, or shoot me, very likely, to death. My remaining option was the window. The balcony below me was my target of course. I climbed over the rail and lowered my body. I did so rather quickly, either because of a disregard or lack of comprehension about the danger of my undertaking or because of an undeniable lack of physical prowess. Whatever, I found myself hanging by my fingernails some eight floors above a sidewalk and fence. One thing was certain. There was no turning back. The suspense here is strange, as of course one would know that I did not fall to my death, though I suppose it is possible that I could have survived to write this from my wheelchair or that life as we understand it is wrong, like in a cartoon world where characters bounce and then reassemble. But forget that. I swung there. I might have peed a little. I peed a little. I put some effort into my swinging and let go. I landed on the balcony of a woman and a man who were engaged in sex in the bed. I stepped into the room and put a finger to my pursed lips.