“You don’t look very well,” she observed.

“I feel better than I look, I think. But that’s probably down to what was in the needle I had for breakfast this morning.”

“Which is all very well, but what’s going to happen at dinnertime?”

“If I live that long, I’ll let you know. Like I said, my life means quite a bit to me. So I’m going to do you a favor. Relax. It’s not that kind of favor. Underneath this uniform I’m really not a bad fellow. How would you like to get some real hotel experience? I don’t mean making beds and cleaning toilets. I mean in hotel management. I can fix that for you. In Berlin. At the Adlon. There’s nothing wrong with this place, but it strikes me that Paris is going to be fine if you’re German and not so fine if you’re anything else.”

“You’d do that? For me?”

“All I need from you is a little information.”

She smiled a coy little smile. “You mean about the man who tried to kill you?”

“See what I mean? I knew you were too smart to be cleaning toilets.”

“Smart enough. But a little confused. Why would one German officer want to murder another? After all, Germany is everywhere victorious.”

I smiled. I liked her spirit. “That’s what I mean to find out, mademoiselle…?”

“Matter. Renata Matter.” She nodded. “All right, Major.”

“Captain. Captain Bernhard Gunther.”

“Maybe they’ll promote you. If they don’t kill you first.”

“There’s always that possibility. Unfortunately, I think I’m a lot harder to promote than I am to kill.” I started to cough again and kept it going for the sake of effect; at least that’s what I told myself.

“I can believe that.” Renata fetched me a glass of water. She moved gracefully, like a ballerina. Looked like one, too, being small and slim. Her hair was dark and quite short and a little boyish, but I liked that. What I previously saw as being homeliness now looked more like a very natural, girlish beauty.

I drank the water. Then I said, “So what makes you think someone tried to kill me?”

“Because there shouldn’t have been a fire extinguisher in your room.”

“Do you know where it is now?”

“The manager, Monsieur Schreider, he took it away.”

“Pity.”

“There’s one the same on the wall along the corridor. Would you like me to fetch it for you?”