Berman took heart from all the comforting words, but still he was unable to relax. So for the umpteenth time, he visited the Web page for the Chinese athletics team. It was the biggest team of any coming to London, and it was stacked with medal prospects. He found the marathon team, and there was the familiar face of Yao Hong-Xiau, a late entrant who had missed the trials in March but who had put up a stunning time in a private race in June. Berman knew strings had been pulled to get Yao in the race, but his name was still there. Yao would be running in London.

Berman’s concentration was gradually interrupted by a strange sound. It was a distant noise that had seemingly taken some time to penetrate the thick walls of his post-and-beam and stone house with its triple-glassed windows. Looking away from the computer screen so that he could concentrate, he strained to listen. The sound was just beyond his hearing threshold, but it was definitely there.

“It’s a goddamn car horn!” Berman said out loud. “Where the hell is that coming from: the East Coast?” He scraped back his chair. Leaving the den, he passed through the foyer and entered the monitoring room.

“Well, well, what do we have here?” One of the monitors had halted its sweeps to stop at the view of the driveway gate. The system was programmed to zero in on any significant movement beyond the swaying of tree branches in the wind. There in full view was Pia Grazdani, looking directly up into the camera, eyebrows raised expectantly. She was sitting in the driver’s seat of a sedan with the driver’s-side window down. Berman could see that she was leaning on the car horn.

“Looks like manna from heaven,” Berman said, answering his own question. His heart beat a little faster and a sense of excitement quickened in the reptilian centers of his brain. Pia had come to see him, and it seemed her timing was immaculate. He was in the mood to celebrate, and he couldn’t think of anyone he’d rather celebrate with than Pia Grazdani. He was going to make up for having passed out on the occasion of her previous visit.

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